NJ PBS
NJ PBS is a public television network serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. The network is owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, an agency of the New Jersey state government which owns the licenses for all but one of the PBS member stations licensed in the state. NJPBA outsources the network's operations to Public Media NJ, a wholly owned subsidiary of New York City–based The WNET Group, the parent company of Newark, New Jersey–licensed WNET and Garden City, New York–licensed WLIW. In addition to PBS programming, NJ PBS airs shows distributed by American Public Television ; the network also produces and broadcasts its own programs, mostly related to issues in New Jersey. NJ PBS' operations are based in Englewood, New Jersey. Its anchor studio is located at Gateway Center in Newark. Master control and some internal operations are based at WNET's studios in the Worldwide Plaza complex in Midtown Manhattan.
NJ PBS is the successor to New Jersey Network, the state-controlled public television and radio service. NJN ceased operations on June 30, 2011, and Public Media NJ took control of the former NJN television stations the following day.
In September 2025, WNET announced that it would not renew its contract to operate NJ PBS after July 2026, and the network is reported to be at risk of shutting down if there is no replacement to operate it when WNET's contract expires.
History
In 2008, officials with the New Jersey Network asked the New Jersey Legislature for permission to explore making NJN an independent nonprofit organization. Under this scenario, the NJN licenses would have been transferred to the network's fundraising arm, the NJN Foundation. However, on June 6, 2011, New Jersey's Governor during that time, Chris Christie, who vowed to end state-funded public broadcasting when he assumed office in 2010, announced an agreement to turn control of the NJN television network to WNET. As part of the deal, WNET.org created Public Media NJ as a separate New Jersey–based nonprofit to operate the stations. NJN was created in 1971, partly due to concerns that WNET and Philadelphia's main PBS outlet, WHYY-TV, were not adequately serving their New Jersey viewers.Under the terms of the deal, the NJPBA would retain the licenses, but outsource the stations' operations to Public Media NJ for five years with two additional five-year renewal options. Public Media NJ would receive funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all revenues related to the former NJN technical operations. The measure was defeated by the state assembly on June 23, 2011. The state senate, however, passed the resolution on June 27, allowing Public Media NJ to take over NJN's television operations as scheduled on July 1, 2011. The network was relaunched as NJTV; all members of NJN automatically became members of NJTV. The first program to be aired on NJTV was Charlie Rose.
On July 26, 2011, NJTV announced a partnership with the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting to jointly fund and create additional public affairs programming. NJTV and the NJN Foundation merged in September 2012.
On February 24, 2021, NJTV rebranded as "NJ PBS", adapting to the 2019 PBS rebrand recommended to its local stations.
Programming
The Caucus Educational Corporation, a non-profit producer of New Jersey-focused public affairs programs, is under contract with Public Media NJ and WNET to provide original programming for NJ PBS. CEC produces Caucus: New Jersey, State of Affairs, and One on One with Steve Adubato, which are hosted by Steve Adubato. CEC also produced the New Jersey Capitol Report, which ended after a seven-year run in March 2017. NJ PBS also broadcasts programming distributed by PBS, American Public Television, and additional local productions.Locally produced programming
- American Songbook at NJPAC
- Classroom Closeup NJ
- Driving Jersey
- Due Process
- On the Record
- Que Pasa NJ
- Reporters Roundtable
- State of the Arts
- ''This is South Jersey''
News programming
Michael Aron, NJN's news director at its closure and a former member of the foundation's board, revived his former NJN programs Reporters Roundtable and On the Record on NJTV. He also appears on NJTV News as its chief political correspondent.
NJ Spotlight News
On October 5, 2020, NJTV's newsroom merged with the New Jersey news site NJ Spotlight and the newscasts were rebranded as NJ Spotlight News. In May 2022, NJ Spotlight News released its first podcast series, Hazard NJ, hosted by journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré.Lottery drawings
Formerly broadcast on NJN, New Jersey Lottery drawings began airing on NJTV on September 8, 2011, on a tape delay. Before this happened, the New Jersey Lottery had no other outlet to showcase any of their live drawings after NJN's closure except via online live streaming services such Ustream and Livestream.com. NJTV continued hosting the tape-delayed drawings until January 1, 2013, when the drawings were moved to two CBS owned stations, WLNY-TV and WPSG. From 2014 to 2020, lottery drawings were aired live on WPIX and WPHL-TV. As of 2020, no drawings for the state lottery are televised; instead the Lottery's afternoon, evening and Cash4Life drawings are carried on the Lottery's website and social media platforms. Powerball and Mega Millions drawings were never aired on the network as WTXF-TV and WABC-TV air these drawings.Stations
NJ PBS' four full-power stations reach a potential audience of almost 28 million people in parts of six states, reaching all of New Jersey, along with parts of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and even Maryland. While this gives NJ PBS one of the largest potential audiences in the country, it also must compete directly against three of the most-watched PBS member stations in the country, sister stations WNET and WLIW, as well as WHYY-TV. Additionally, WLVT-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania, overlaps some of NJ PBS' broadcast area.In the FCC incentive auction concluded in 2017, WNJN and WNJT's spectrum was sold to the FCC for $138,059,363 and $193,892,273, respectively. NJ PBS announced that these stations would share spectrum with the two remaining stations, WNJS and WNJB respectively. On January 23, 2018, per FCC filings, WNJN began channel-sharing with WNJB and WNJT began channel-sharing with WNJS.
| Station | City of license | Facility ID | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates | First air date | Public license information | |
| WNJB | New Brunswick | 58 | 48457 | 40.82 kW | ||||
| WNJN | Montclair | 50 | 48477 | 40.82 kW | ||||
| WNJS | Camden | 23 | 48481 | 281 kW | ||||
| WNJT | Trenton | 52 | 48465 | 281 kW |
Translators
Cable and satellite availability
NJ PBS is available on all New Jersey cable providers, along with most cable, satellite and IPTV providers in the New York and Philadelphia television markets, into New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.Technical information
Subchannels
The signals of the NJ PBS stations are multiplexed:| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
| xx.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main NJ PBS programming / PBS | |
| xx.2 | 1080i | 16:9 | .2 | NHK World |