WNBC In NYC To Cover PR Parade.

WNBC is returning for the fifth consecutive year as the broadcast television station for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Coverage of the parade will air on Channel 4 on Sunday, June 10, from noon to 3 p.m., according to Dennis Swanson, president and general manager of WNBC.

Wanting so much to participate in the celebration that is the Puerto Rican Day Parade, NewsChannel 4 Reporter Darlene Rodriguez told NBC4 management that as a Puerto Rican woman and reporter she will interrupt her duties as a new mom and make a ONE DAY ONLY APPEARANCE at the parade for the opportunity to again cover one of the most colorful and largest parade in the nation. Members of the Puerto Rican Day Parade Committee were delighted to welcome Rodriguez back for this special day in the lives of the Puerto Rican community.

Rodriguez, who became a first-time mom on February 19, 2001 (to David Jake Rodriguez), returns to NewsChannel 4 on a full time basis in late June.

To accommodate this last minute change, Audrey Puente will join with Lynda Baquero and Chuck Scarborough to host the 2001 National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Rodriguez will broadcast from 68th Street together with NewsChannel 4 correspondent Walter Perez.

WNBC will have multiple cameras stationed along the Fifth Avenue parade route to capture the parade festivities, participants and spectators. WNBC’s coverage will also include special reports on the music and dance of Puerto Rico, as well as profiles of leading Puerto Rican community leaders and role models. Once again, the parade will be translated into Spanish via a second audio program (SAP) and transmitted to Puerto Rico via satellite for broadcast on Televicentro, Channel 4.