It airs weeknights at 7:00 p.m. on WMUR and 7:30 p.m. on WCVB, offering an informative lifestyle, cultural and news-related magazine format, most often covering a single topic within each broadcast.
On October 25, 2006, the WCVB edition of Chronicle began broadcasting in high definition, converting all story segments to a letterboxed format.
In addition, WTAE-TV (channel 4) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also owned by Hearst, has produced a series of specials based on the Chronicle format since 2013.
Main Streets & Back Roads is Chronicle's longest-lasting regular segment; each installment profiles a different rural town from around the region.
In 1987, it started featuring correspondent Peter Mehegan's travels in a restored 1969 Chevrolet Impala coupe, which became the most recognizable aspect of the Main Streets episodes.
In addition to the program's regular segments, other general subjects discussed on Chronicle have included people diagnosed with rare forms of cancer, and other life-threatening diseases.
Similar stories even follow people, young or old, who had survived life-threatening accidents and now had to deal with permanent handicaps or altered appearances.
While these stories are in no way meant to depress the viewers, they often do not flinch from their subjects' grim realities; at the same time, they are intended to educate and inspire the audience.
Guest contributors, mostly on-air talent from WCVB's NewsCenter 5 broadcasts and other programs on the station, have included financial reporter/analyst Mark Mills, who contributed to stories involving the Massachusetts economy.
Liz Brunner, who was a member of Chronicle's regular reporting staff from 1993 to 2002, had returned to the program as a frequent contributor as well until her departure from WCVB in 2013.
Chronicle was conceived as the latest in a long line of original local programming produced by WCVB-TV, which, by the early 1980s, was considered by The New York Times to be "the best TV station in the country".
The new program, with proposed titles including OnLine, Prime Access, Tuning In, Close Up and 5 to You, was to follow the Evening Magazine format; a 30-minute newsmagazine covering a variety of different topics each night, ranging from arts and entertainment to human interest stories.
Hosted by WCVB chief news anchor Chet Curtis, with co-anchors Donna Downes and Jeanne Blake, the program covered four unrelated topics with local appeal.
Possibly due to marginal ratings, if not anything else, Chronicle began to evolve into its current form, a newsmagazine that tackles one single topic per night.
Another original regular, contributor Arnie Reisman, hosted an Andy Rooney-like closing segment that poked fun at life's little foibles.
As Chronicle flourished, it soon rose to the top of the ratings, beating out the array of competition (from off-network reruns, to Evening Magazine and Entertainment Tonight) at 7:30 weeknights.
Rather than have the car decay and get hidden by all the weeds growing in the garage, Mehegan set about to get it restored, hiring auto body specialists that spent months bringing "the old Chevy" back to life.
After a complete overhaul and the installation of a new engine, Mehegan decided to share the project in a Main Streets segment, and then took it out for a spin to the show's next destination.
While this Chronicle campaign lasted a couple of years, the instrumental version of "News You Can Use" (in a different arrangement than what was used in promos) became the new theme song, which remained unchanged from its debut in November 1995 until its retirement in March 2008.
She would not have a permanent replacement until 2002, when Karen Holmes Ward, host of WCVB's weekend public affairs show CityLine, assumed the position.
In the wake of these departures, Mike Barnicle, who was the only surviving member of the original Chronicle roster, decided he would look onto new opportunities, and left the regular staff by year's end.
After deciding that his replacement needed to be a veteran of WCVB with a strong viewer connection, management let Everett stay as full-time anchor alongside Mary Richardson.
In the time since Everett became a full-fledged member of the program's on-air team, it was station management's plan to phase him out of his demanding news duties and have him focus solely on Chronicle.
Everett had mutually agreed to switch his focus at the station from the daily demands of hard news to specialty stories on the newsmagazine.
On April 8, 2013, after three years as a solo anchor, it was announced that WCVB meteorologist JC Monahan would permanently join Chronicle as Everett's co-anchor later in the spring.
[2] In September 2001, following Hearst-Argyle's purchase of Manchester, New Hampshire ABC affiliate WMUR-TV (channel 9) the previous December, a second local edition of Chronicle premiered.
An expanded group of reporters were added to the show within the first few years, including veteran local producers Jennifer Crompton and Cindy Jones.
For the 25th anniversary of the flagship Chronicle program on January 25, 2007, the Brigham's Ice Cream Company (with facilities based in Arlington, Massachusetts) introduced a special new flavor in honor of the show.
Chronicle received a new in-studio set which debuted on May 14, 2007, as a part of WCVB's total conversion to high definition program production that took place on all NewsCenter 5 broadcasts that day as well.