by nbc news see msnbc . nbc news division of nbc key people steve burke president & ceo of nbcuniversal deborah turness president of nbc news 1 andrew lack chairman of nbcuniversal news group 2 founded february 21 1940 ; 76 years ago 1940 02 21 headquarters studio 3a b nbc news news room comcast building 30 rockefeller center midtown manhattan manhattan new york city new york u.s. major bureaus international headquarters studio 3a b nbc news news room 30 rockefeller center midtown manhattan manhattan new york new york west coast headquarters universal city california governmental affairs headquarters washington d.c. european headquarters london uk asia pacific headquarters singapore hong kong area served worldwide broadcast programs dateline nbc early today meet the press nbc nightly news today weekend today msnbc owner comcast parent nbcuniversal website www.nbcnews.com v t e 1959 72 logo nbc news is a division of the american broadcast network nbc . the division operates under nbcuniversal news group a subsidiary of nbcuniversal all owned by comcast . the group s various operations report to the president of nbc news deborah turness . 1 nbc news aired the first news program in american broadcast television history on february 21 1940 . the group s broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 rockefeller center nbc s headquarters in new york city . the division presides over america s number one rated newscast 3 nbc nightly news and the longest running television series in american history meet the press . nbc news also offers 70 years of rare historic footage 4 from the nbcuniversal archives online . nbc news operates a 24 hour cable news network known as msnbc which includes the organization s flagship daytime news operation msnbc live . the cable network shares staff and editorial control with nbc news . contents 1 history 1.1 caravan era 1.2 huntley brinkley era 1.3 nbc nightly news era 2 company news 3 controversies 3.1 virginia tech massacre 3.2 shooting of trayvon martin 3.3 nbc news team kidnapping 4 presidents 5 programming 5.1 former programming 5.2 syndicated productions 5.3 other productions 5.4 nbc news radio 5.5 nbc news overnight nightside 6 nbc news channel 7 noted coverage 8 notable personnel 8.1 former staff 9 international broadcasts 10 bureaus 10.1 major bureaus 10.2 minor bureaus within the united states 10.3 foreign bureaus nbc news cnbc msnbc 11 theme music 12 units 13 references 14 external links history edit caravan era edit the first american television newscast in history was made by nbc news on february 21 1940 anchored by lowell thomas and airing weeknights at 6 45 p.m. 5 in june 1940 nbc through its flagship station in new york city w2xbs renamed commercial wnbt in 1941 now wnbc operating on channel one televised 30 hours of coverage of the republican national convention live and direct from philadelphia . the station used a series of relays from philadelphia to new york and on to upper new york state for rebroadcast on w2xb in schenectady now wrgb making this among the first network programs of nbc television . due to wartime restrictions there were no live telecasts of the 1944 conventions although films of the events were reportedly shown over wnbt the next day . in 1948 nbc teamed up with life magazine to provide election night coverage of president harry s. truman s surprising victory over new york governor thomas e. dewey . the television audience was small but nbc s share in new york was double that of any other outlet . 6 the following year the camel news caravan anchored by john cameron swayze debuted on nbc . lacking the graphics and technology of later years it nonetheless contained many of the elements of modern newscasts . 7 nbc hired its own film crews and in the program s early years it dominated cbs s competing program which did not hire its own film crews until 1953 . 7 by contrast cbs spent lavishly on edward r. murrow s weekly series see it now 7 . in 1950 david brinkley began serving as the program s washington correspondent but attracted little attention outside the network until paired with chet huntley in 1956 . 8 in 1955 the camel news caravan fell behind cbs s douglas edwards with the news and swayze lost the already tepid support of nbc executives . 7 the following year nbc replaced the program with the huntley brinkley report . beginning in 1951 nbc news was managed by director of news bill mcandrew who reported to vice president of news and public affairs j. davidson taylor . 9 huntley brinkley era edit nbc news had close to 700 correspondents and cameramen in 1961 who were stationed throughout the world . film was received in the united states by plane or by the jointly operated nbc bbc transatlantic film cable . television assumed an increasingly prominent role in american family life in the late 1950s and nbc news was called television s champion of news coverage . 10 nbc president robert kintner provided the news division with ample amounts of both financial resources and air time . 7 in 1956 the network paired anchors chet huntley and david brinkley and the two became celebrities 8 supported by reporters including john chancellor frank mcgee edwin newman sander vanocur nancy dickerson tom pettit and ray scherer . created by producer reuven frank nbc s huntley brinkley report began in 1956 . during much of its 14 year run it exceeded the viewership levels of its cbs news competition anchored initially by douglas edwards and beginning in 1962 by walter cronkite . nbc s vice president of news and public affairs j. davidson taylor was a southerner who with producer reuven frank was determined that nbc would lead television s coverage of the civil rights movement . 11 in 1955 nbc provided national coverage of rev. martin luther king jr. s leadership of the bus boycott in montgomery alabama airing reports from frank mcgee then news director of nbc s montgomery affiliate wsfa tv who would later join the network . 12 a year later john chancellor s coverage of the admission of black students to central high school in little rock arkansas was the first occasion when the key news story came from television rather than print 12 and prompted a prominent u.s. senator to observe later when i think of little rock i think of john chancellor . 9 other reporters who covered the movement for the network included sander vanocur herbert kaplow charles quinn and richard valeriani 11 who was hit with an ax handle at a demonstration in marion alabama in 1965 . 13 while cbs s walter cronkite s fascination with space eventually won the anchorman viewers nbc with the work of correspondents such as frank mcgee roy neal jay barbree and peter hackes also provided ample coverage of american manned space missions in the project mercury project gemini and project apollo programs . in an era when space missions rated continuous coverage nbc configured its largest studio studio 8h for space coverage . it utilized models and mockups of rockets and spacecraft maps of the earth and moon to show orbital trackage and stages on which animated figures created by puppeteer bil baird were used to depict movements of astronauts before on board spacecraft television cameras were feasible . studio 8h had been home to the nbc symphony orchestra and is now the home of saturday night live . nbc s coverage of the first moon landing in 1969 earned the network an emmy award . 14 in the late 1950s kintner reorganized the chain of command at the network making bill mcandrew president of nbc news reporting directly to kintner . 9 mcandrew served in that position until his death in 1968 . 9 mcandrew was succeeded by his executive vice president producer reuven frank who held the position until 1973 . 9 on november 22 1963 nbc interrupted various programs on its affiliate stations at 1 45 p.m. to announce that president john f. kennedy had been shot in dallas texas . eight minutes later at 1 53 12 p.m. nbc broke into programming with a network bumper slide and chet huntley bill ryan and frank mcgee informing the viewers what was going on as it happened ; but since a camera was not in service the reports were audio only . however nbc did not begin broadcasting over the air until 1 57 p.m. et . about 40 minutes later after word came that jfk was pronounced dead nbc suspended regular programming and carried 71 hours of uninterrupted news coverage of the assassination and the funeral of the president including the only live broadcast of the fatal shooting of kennedy s assassin lee harvey oswald by jack ruby as oswald was being led in handcuffs by law enforcement officials through the basement of dallas police headquarters . 15 nbc nightly news era edit nbc s ratings lead began to slip toward the end of the 1960s and fell sharply when chet huntley retired in 1970 huntley died of cancer in 1974 . the loss of huntley along with a reluctance by rca to fund nbc news at a similar level as cbs was funding its news division left nbc news in the doldrums . nbc s primary news show gained its present title nbc nightly news on august 3 1970 . the network tried a platoon of anchors brinkley mcgee and john chancellor during the early months of nightly news . despite the efforts of the network s eventual lead anchor the articulate even toned chancellor and an occasional first place finish in the nielsens nightly news in the 1970s was primarily a strong second . 7 by the end of the decade nbc had to contend not only with a powerful cbs but also a surging abc led by roone arledge . tom brokaw became sole anchor in 1983 after co anchoring with roger mudd for a year and began leading nbc s efforts . in 1986 and 1987 nbc won the top spot in the nielsens for the first time in years 16 only to fall back when nielsen s ratings methodology changed . in late 1996 nightly news again moved into first place 17 a spot it has held onto in most of the succeeding years . brian williams assumed primary anchor duties when brokaw retired in december 2004 . 18 in february 2015 nbc suspended williams for six months for telling an inaccurate story about his experience in the 2003 invasion of iraq . 19 he was replaced by lester holt on an interim basis . on june 18 2015 it was announced that holt would become the permanent anchor and williams would be moved to msnbc as an anchor of breaking news and special reports beginning in august . 20 in 1993 dateline nbc broadcast an investigative report about the safety of general motors gm trucks . gm discovered the actual footage utilized in the broadcast had been rigged by the inclusion of explosive incendiaries attached to the gas tanks and the use of improper sealants for those tanks . gm subsequently filed an anti defamation lawsuit against nbc which publicly admitted the results of the tests were rigged and settled the lawsuit with gm on the very same day . 21 company news edit on october 22 2007 nightly news moved into its new high definition studios at studio 3c at nbc studios in 30 rockefeller plaza in new york city . the network s 24 hour cable network msnbc joined the network in new york on that day as well . the new studios headquarters for nbc news and msnbc are now located in one area . citation needed during the financial crisis of 2007 2008 nbc news was urged to save 500 million by nbc universal . on that occasion nbc news laid off