statewide New Jersey United States |
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Branding | NJN |
Slogan | New Jersey Public Television and Radio |
Founded | April 5, 1971 (television) May 20, 1991 (radio) |
Last air date | June 30, 2011 |
Former affiliations | PBS, NPR |
The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, broadcasting their programming as well as producing and broadcasting their own programming, mostly relating to issues in New Jersey. With studios in both Trenton and Newark, NJN's television network covered all of New Jersey, plus parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Delaware; the radio network primarily served several areas of New Jersey that were not covered by Philadelphia and New York City public radio stations.
New Jersey Network ended operations on June 30, 2011. The television network was succeeded by NJTV, and the radio stations were split through two separate outright sales to different public broadcasting entities.
The system was founded in 1968 by an act of the New Jersey Legislature establishing the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority (NJPBA). New Jersey already had a public television station licensed within the state—WNET, licensed to Newark. However, for all practical purposes, WNET was a New York City station, effectively leaving New Jersey without a public station of its own. With state funding and four UHF licenses assigned years earlier by the Federal Communications Commission, the NJPBA went to work building the state's public television stations. The first station, WNJT in Trenton, went on the air on April 5, 1971, with the other three stations signing on over the next two years. The system was known on-air as New Jersey Public Television (NJPTV) until 1981, when it adopted the New Jersey Network identity.