Television Coverage
Although the parade is broadcast by WPVI, it is also syndicated to television stations throughout the United States and can be seen worldwide on the station's website, 6abc.com. Good Morning America, ABC's national morning show, sends a reporter to the parade each year and covers pre-parade festivities. Recently, Good Morning America weather anchor Sam Champion has participated in the hosting of the parade, marking his 5th year of participation in 2012.
Channel 6 (WPVI) has broadcast the parade since 1966. The first person to host the parade was Jim O'Brien and Dave Roberts became a perennial host upon joining the network in 1978. After the sudden death of O'Brien in 1983, WPVI's Lisa Thomas-Laury "took the reins" as Roberts's co-host. They hosted the parade together for nearly 20 years until Thomas-Laury began to experience health problems in 2003. This led to WPVI weather anchor Cecily Tynan taking over for Thomas-Laury. In 2006, the parade was broadcast in high definition (HDTV) for the first time.
Since her return to Action News, Thomas-Laury helped host the final portion of the parade in 2005 and in 2006. In 2009, the station announced that Roberts would retire from broadcasting on December 11 of that year. Thomas-Laury made a special appearance in the 2009 parade to celebrate Roberts's years as host. The current hosting team is Tynan and WPVI news anchor Rick Williams, who replaced Roberts.
Along with Tynan and Williams, Action News weather anchor Karen Rogers reports from the sidelines during the parade and hosts the annual countdown to the parade from 8:30am to 9:00 am. This is usually shown exclusively in Philadelphia. Along with Rogers, fellow weather anchor Adam Joseph travels the parade route on a golf cart to give viewers a glimpse of the parade as it travels down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He also hosts the "Parade Fan Cam" where viewers can log on to the stations website and see all of the people who line the Parkway as well. Some of the people actually end up the actual broadcast of the Parade.
6ABC also broadcasts annual live coverage of Philadelphia's Pulaski, Columbus, Puerto Rican, and 4 July parades.
Read more about this topic: 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade
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