Happy 20th to TWC's Rochester News Operation

The Time Warner Cable (TWC) News operation in Rochester, N.Y., marks 20 years of round the clock news July 4. The news channel will be celebrating on air with 20 days of "Then and Now" reports, showing the ways the upstate New York region, and the local channel, have evolved over the decades. There's a peek at Eastman Kodak's diminished status in Rochester, and the University of Rochester's growing one, and the various political leaders who've come and gone.

"People will really be surprised by how the region has physically transformed," says Ed Buttaccio, news director.

Buttaccio has been there since 1990 and happily supplies the history of the channel, dating back to when its lone news output was a 10 p.m. newscast as WGRC TV5 in the early 1990s, then going all news in 1995. The channel has had various branding iterations over the years, including R News and YNN, before settling on Time Warner Cable News.

One constant has been Virginia Butler. The midday anchor joined the team way back in 1991.

As with any news channel, the current TWC News Rochester is a multiplatform presence, with mobile and social media extensions. "We've definitely become an established brand," says Buttaccio. "We've become part of the fabric of the community, though how customers use us has changed."

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.