WRC Washington To Debut Pandemic-Focused ‘News 4 Kids’

NBC O&O WRC Washington (DMA 7) is launching News 4 Kids, a 30-minute weekly newscast aimed at helping children through the coronavirus pandemic.

News 4 Kids will debut Saturday, April 11, at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5:30 a.m. and will run through April and most likely beyond.

The series, which will tell stories and providing the headlines in a kid-friendly way, is working with educators, pediatricians and mental health experts to strike the right tone and include the right information.

In addition, News 4 Kids will rely on the parental instincts of the station’s news staff, many of whom are spending a lot of time with their kids right now.

WRC’s meteorologists will also be involved with STEM stories. (Doug Kammerer, the chief meteorologist, has been conducting a science lesson online every day at 2 p.m. on our station’s Facebook page. He started this just as schools were postponing their semesters.)

Other News 4 Kids content will include questions asked by kids and answered by experts, examples of kids, parents and schools doing good things and explanations about why we have had to change the way we live.

Eun Yang, anchor of News4 Today and the mother of three teenagers, will lead the newscast with many of our reporters contributing, including investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane who pitched the idea.

MacFarlane and his wife, a teacher and former WRC News producer, have been using their professional talents to explain the news to their two sons.