The network, known as NWCN to many in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, is "going dark" as they say in broadcasting, in January 2017. Going dark is the industry lingo when a station (TV, Radio) or a network goes off the air or ceases operations.

Northwest Cable News, which was launched in December of 1995 to take advantage of the cable news explosion on a Northwest regional level, will cease operations but a specific shutdown date was not released.

According to AdWeek online, the demise is due to dwindling viewership, as people have migrated to other channels and especially online digital sources for news and information. According to AdWeek and other sources, the announcement to workers on Monday was not a total surprise, as ratings at the network have been dropping for a number of years.

The network was a conglomerate of news, stories and coverage from KING-TV Seattle, KGW-TV Portland, KREM-TV Spokane, and KTVB-TV Boise, Idaho, plus a number of NWCN free-lance reporters and news gatherers.

While the network was known for very thorough coverage of news events and sports, some criticized it for it's lack of coverage in Eastern Washington, Oregon, and more rural areas of Idaho. Very few news stories ever appeared on the network from our side of the state, outside of Spokane. Others said people in many markets could find out just as much information from their own local sources.

The demise is also a reflection of the plunging numbers of national cable news outlets. Aside from Fox News, which still has strong ratings, those at CNN, MSNBC have plummeted, and CNN's former companion channel, Headline News (HLN) has all but disappeared with fewer than 220,000 viewers in prime time.

The afore-mentioned TV stations will stop supplying stories to the network, and the workers employed directly by NWCN will be looking for other media jobs come January, as the network will be completely dissolved.

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