Lewis Dodley, longtime anchor for Spectrum News NY1, will retire at the end of May. He’s been on the air at the Charter Communications-owned local news channel since it launched as New York 1 News in 1992. 

Dodley got his start as a teen at WCOL Radio in Columbus, Ohio, then shifted to news anchor at WBNS Radio. Other radio stops included WING Dayton and WSAI Cincinnati before he shifted to TV, working at Financial News Network. 

Dodley then worked at WNET New York, anchoring a newscast called Bulldog Edition. 

He joined 24-hour news channel NY1 in 1992. 

“When I was offered this job in 1992, I saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime,” Dodley said on the air May 6. “I tried to treat it that way. New York 1 is a window to New York City, and to be a face you see here has truly been an honor.”

NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan said on X, “The ironman of @NY1 has set a retirement date. Congrats to Lewis Dodley on a remarkable run! He's the only evening anchor NY1 has had in almost 32 years on the air. His guidance to me and steady presence for viewers have set the standard.”

Annika Pergament anchors The Rush Hour, a two-hour newscast on Spectrum News NY1 that debuts January 16. Offering breaking news, weather, politics, mass transit, education, Broadway and other germane New York topics, The Rush Hour airs in the 4 p.m. slot. 

“The Rush Hour will be an opportunity for viewers to catch up on the day that’s winding down and get ready for the one that’s coming up,” said Michael Kurtz, senior director of news at Spectrum News NY1. “Annika knows New York City from the street to the C-suite, and she will bring all of that insight to the show.”

Pergament has spent 30 years at NY1. In 2022, she shifted from co-anchoring the morning newscast to a national news anchor role at Spectrum. 

NY1 said Pergament will focus on “the power players who move this city.”

"I've spent my career covering New York City and learned what matters most to our viewers: understanding what’s going on and who's making news in this city,” said Pergament. “We'll deliver the engaging stories and incisive interviews they need at the end of the day so they are ready to start the next. I'll see you at Rush Hour."

Pergament has played herself in a variety of films and TV series, including The Sopranos, Law & Order: SVU and Gossip Girl. 

Annika Pergament, Spectrum News NY1 morning anchor, is shifting to national news anchor at Spectrum. She will anchor breaking news and national content across Spectrum Networks’ linear TV networks and other platforms.

Spectrum is planning to build a team of journalists to cover national news across the group’s news footprint. Sam Singal, Spectrum Networks’ VP of editorial and content, will manage the team. 

“Grounded in the trust we have built by telling stories about the issues that affect our viewers’ daily lives, we are implementing a comprehensive news strategy that will allow us to continue to meet the growing needs of our audience,” said Alison Hellman, senior VP, content, strategy and marketing, Spectrum Networks. “Our audience looks to us as their definitive source of information, so it's essential for us to connect on all of the issues that matter to them.”

Pergament co-anchors Mornings on 1 with Pat Kiernan in New York. She joined NY1 in 1994. ■

“The network has grown to the point that there are local Spectrum channels now, like NY1, in more than 30 different cities and the company is now going to launch a national newsroom,” Kiernan said. “And in looking for our national news anchor, they came knocking on our door.”

Over the last few years, Spectrum Networks launched linear TV news networks in seven states, introduced the Spectrum News mobile app and debuted three digital-only local news networks. Spectrum news networks exist in Los Angeles, Austin, Orlando and Columbus, among many other markets. 

"I am excited and honored to take on this new role," Pergament said. "I've spent my career helping inform New Yorkers about the news that impacts their lives. Now I will have the opportunity to do that for audiences around the country, working with my colleagues across the Spectrum Networks footprint to bring our audience the day's top stories across all of our platforms. The news business is changing rapidly and I am eager to be at the forefront of that evolution." ■

Fox Business Network has signed New York based investigative reporter Lydia Hu as a correspondent, the network said Thursday.

Hu will begin her tenure as a New York based correspondent at the channel on Feb. 15, network executives said. 

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Hu formerly worked as a general assignment reporter for NY1 in New York, covering among other stories the plight of New York City hospitals throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to joining NY1, Hu served as an investigative reporter and weekend evening anchor at Fox affiliate WRBC-TV in Birmingham, Ala. She got her start in the industry as an intern in the investigative unit at New York NBC affiliate WNBC-TV.

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Charter Communications and Altice USA have agreed to carry their respective regional news networks, with Charter’s New York-centric Spectrum News NY1 channel available to Altice’s Optimum TV customers and Optimum’s i24NEWS Network debuting across Charter’s footprint today.

Spectrum News NY1 is available to Optimum TV customers in HD in Long Island, Westchester County and the Hudson Valley region in New York; Northern Bergen County and Morris County in New Jersey; and in Stamford and Bridgeport, Conn., as part of a multi-year agreement between the two providers. 

“We are excited about the partnership with Altice USA, and believe it is the perfect complement to NY1’s commitment to deliver news that is essential to the daily lives of all New Yorkers,” Spectrum Networks SVP of operations and integration Dan Ronayne said in a release. “By expanding our distribution, we are now able to deliver NY1’s hyper-local coverage of New York City news, politics and transit beyond the five boroughs.” 

With the deal NY1’s availability expands to more than 3 million Spectrum and Optimum TV households, on channel 98 in most areas. NY1 is also available in HD to Optimum TV customers in the Bronx and Brooklyn on channel 8.

As part of the agreement, Charter will launch Optimum’s i24NEWS across its footprint and News 12 Networks in its Western Connecticut systems. News 12 Networks is currently available to Spectrum TV customers in the New York area. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

MCN Flashback (2015): News12, NY1 Drive 70% of NY-Area News Tune-Ins

According to Altice USA, i24NEWS will initially be available to Charter’s Spectrum Silver customers and will expand across the footprint by Dec. 1.

“We are excited to bring our programming and in-depth news analysis from i24NEWS to Charter’s Spectrum customers,” said i24NEWS CEO Frank Melloul in a statement. “i24NEWS provides unique content that features localized news infused with global conversation and we look forward to becoming a go-to source for domestic and international news for Spectrum customers.”  

i24NEWS launched in the United States in January and is available on Altice USA’s Optimum and Suddenlink systems, Mediacom systems and now Charter’s Spectrum systems.

About 74% of tuning hours in Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable homes are done outside of primetime, and the average household tunes to 25 channels per month, with 90% of the tuning hours being consumed on 100 networks, the cable companies found in a new report that tabulates tuning data from the New York DMA.

Those findings, from the first quarterly New York Television Audience Insights Report, is based on census-level audience tuning data from more than 3.5 million homes across more than 300 common networks, representing nearly half of the New York DMA and data that can’t be gleaned from traditional measurement methods, the companiess said.

The New York Television Audience Insights Report is based on aggregated data from both service providers that have been analyzed using advanced analytic capabilities.

Among the findings -- with new, more granular insights for marketers that are targeting the influential DMA -- are that roughly 21% of local news tuning (Monday through Friday, 6-9 a.m.) across broadcast and local cable origination stations is exclusively on News 12 and NY1, the cable news channels owned and operated by Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, respectively.

“Since introducing our census-level audience data early last year, we have seen significant growth in demand for more granular audience measurement and analytics,” Ben Tatta, president of Cablevision Media Sales, said in a statement. “We are delighted to work with Time Warner Cable to provide the advertising community more comprehensive and actionable insights for TV audiences and viewership in the New York market.”

“TWC Media is proud to partner with Cablevision on this initiative. In addition to providing TV Tribes analysis of diverse viewing patterns, we can now offer our clients more precise data within the NY DMA,” added Joan Gillman, chief operating officer and executive vice president, Time Warner Cable Media. “As viewing habits continue to evolve, our clients need increasingly sophisticated data and analytics to inform their marketing decisions.”