John Roland

John Roland (born 1941) is an American former news presenter and reporter.

Roland, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native who graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1964, began his broadcasting career in the 1960s. His first major assignment was for NBC News in Los Angeles in 1966. From there, he was hired as a reporter by KTTV, where he covered the Robert F. Kennedy assassination and the Charles Manson trial, and then went to sister station WNEW-TV (now WNYW) in New York City beginning in December 1969. He remained with Channel 5 for the remainder of his broadcasting career.

In his early years with WNEW/WNYW, he was a political reporter and weekend presenter for The 10 O'Clock News, and even did a cooking segment that was shown frequently on the newscast. He took over as the main presenter for the weeknight edition in 1979 after Bill Jorgensen, who had presented the newscast from its start in 1967, left to join the rival station WPIX. Over the years, Roland's co-presenters included Bill McCreary, Cora-Ann Mihalik and Rosanna Scotto. He left the 10:00 newscast in 2003 in order to prepare for his role as presenter of the new 5:00 and 6:00 PM newscasts that WNYW was preparing, which were launched that fall. His long run with the station came to an end on his retirement on June 4, 2004.

In January 1988, Roland was suspended by WNYW-TV (Fox) after an on-air argument with Joyce Patricia Brown, a mentally-ill homeless woman whom the Koch Administration sought to have confined to a mental hospital for treatment. Brown, who was represented by the New York City chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union successfully challenged her incarceration in court. The interview quickly degenerated into an argument after Roland related his own personal experiences when encountering Brown on the street.

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