WVUE-DT

For the defunct television station in Wilmington, Delaware, see WVUE (Delaware).

WVUE-TV

New Orleans, Louisiana
Branding	Fox 8 (general) Fox 8 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Louisiana's Home Team
Channels	Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP)
Subchannels	8.1 Fox 8.2 Bounce TV
Affiliations	Fox Bounce TV (DT2)
Owner	Louisiana Media Company, LLC
First air date	November 1, 1953
Call letters' meaning	VUE; French translation of the word "View"
Former callsigns	WJMR-TV (1953-1959)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 61 (UHF, 1953-1956) 20 (UHF, 1956-1959) 13 (VHF, 1959-1962) 12 (VHF, 1962-1970) 8 (VHF, 1970-2008) Digital: 8 (VHF, 2008-2010)
Former affiliations	Primary: CBS (1953-1957) ABC (1953-1995, secondary until 1957) Secondary: NTA Film Network (1957-1961) RTV (8.2, 2010-2011)
Transmitter power	850 kW
Height	292 m
Facility ID	4149
Transmitter coordinates	29°57′14.0″N 89°56′58.0″W
Website	www.fox8live.com

WVUE-DT is the Fox-affiliated television station in New Orleans, Louisiana. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 29 (virtual channel 8.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Chalmette. Owned by the Louisiana Media Company, WVUE maintains studios in New Orleans' Gert Town section.

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel	Video	Aspect	Name	Programming
8.1	720p	16:9	Fox8 HD	Main WVUE-DT programming / Fox
8.2	480i	4:3	Fox8 SD	Bounce TV

Digital subchannel 8.2 is available over the air and can also be found on Cox Communications in the New Orleans viewing area on channel 115 and Charter Communications in the surrounding parishes on channel 108 (Northshore), and on channel 137 (Southshore). AT&T has yet to offer this on their U-verse service for the area. WVUE announced the addition of a subchannel carrying the Retro Television Network on August 23, 2010. WVUE dropped the Fox 8 Newschannel format in favor of RTV weekdays, as well as similar general entertainment programming on weekends. On November 11, 2011 WVUE signed an affiliation agreement with Bounce TV, replacing RTV. It is available on digital subchannel 8.2 and Cox digital channel 115.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On December 15, 2008, WVUE became the first New Orleans television station to begin broadcasting a digital signal exclusively, shutting down the station's analog signal on VHF channel 8. On December 22, 2008, WVUE moved its digital broadcasts to its former analog channel allocation, on VHF 8. This made WVUE the second station in the New Orleans market, after Telemundo affiliate KGLA-DT (which was launched without an analog signal), to become a digital-only station prior to the analog television shutdown that occurred on June 12, 2009. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WVUE-TV's virtual channel as "8".

After the Louisiana Media Company acquired WVUE from Emmis, a high definition feed of the station's digital signal was finally added to Cox Communications's New Orleans system in August 2008, and to Charter Communications systems in the Northshore and Tri-Parish area in September of that year (both Charter and Cox carry WVUE-DT on channel 708). WVUE's high definition feed has since been added to other cable providers in southeastern Louisiana, and southern Mississippi, as well as in the New Orleans area on AT&T U-verse.

VHF digital transmission troubles

After WVUE switched to digital-only broadcasts, the station originally broadcast its digital signal on VHF channel 8. Due to reception problems reported by viewers following the transition, WVUE petitioned the FCC to have its digital broadcasts return to UHF channel 29. The station opted to do this instead of increasing its transmitter power, which would have caused interference with a Baton Rouge station. WVUE resumed digital operations on UHF channel 29 on November 30, 2010.

History

Early years with ABC and CBS

WVUE began broadcasting on November 1, 1953 as WJMR-TV; it was the second television station in New Orleans (behind WDSU-TV, channel 6) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and Baton Rouge's WAFB). Originally broadcasting on UHF channel 61, it then moved to channel 20 on July 20, 1955. It was originally a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. During 1957 and 1958, WJMR-TV had simulcast its signal on channel 12, using the call sign KK2XFW-TV. When WWL-TV (channel 4) signed on in 1957, WWL took over the CBS affiliation because of WWL radio's longtime affiliation with CBS radio, leaving WJMR with ABC.

The station moved to VHF channel 13 on January 13, 1959 and changed its call letters to WVUE on February 1. The station moved to channel 12 on September 6, 1962 due to interference with Biloxi, Mississippi station WLOX, which also broadcasts on channel 13. Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures, bought the station in 1965. On June 8, 1970 at 8 p.m., it made a highly-publicized switch of channel positions with the city's PBS member station, WYES-TV, and moved to its current frequency on channel 8. This was done to give WVUE a larger broadcast signal range that it could not have on channel 12, as Jackson, Mississippi's WJTV had also broadcast on that channel. The channel 61 allocation was assigned to the now defunct WLPN-LP and the channel 20 allocation was assigned to religious station WHNO.

WVUE logo in 1974.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the station would consistently rank at a distant third place in the ratings behind WWL-TV and WDSU-TV, even as ABC topped the national ratings for a time in the mid-1970s. One of the primary reasons for WVUE's third-place position was the station's heavy preemptions of network programs. For example, during much of the 1970s, WVUE preempted portions of ABC's daytime soap opera lineup and aired westerns, cartoons and off-network sitcoms in their place. Additionally, WVUE preempted many of the network's Saturday morning cartoons, as well as American Bandstand. WVUE also preempted ABC's late night programming, which prior to the debut of Nightline, consisted of movies and reruns of prime-time shows. Viewers in the New Orleans market that wanted to see most of ABC's programming in full could turn their sets to the network's other affiliates in surrounding markets: WRBT (now WVLA, channel 33) and later WBRZ (channel 2) from Baton Rouge, west of New Orleans, or to WLOX from Biloxi, to the east. WVUE started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June 1986, becoming the last commercial station in New Orleans to transition to a round-the-clock schedule.

Columbia Pictures sold WVUE to Oklahoma City-based Gaylord Broadcasting Company in 1977. Under the new ownership, WVUE reinstated ABC's full daytime drama lineup to its schedule in the fall of 1978. In spite of ownership changes and programming modifications, WVUE was still unable to improve its place in the ratings. When Gaylord Broadcasting began a gradual paring down of its station group in 1987, WVUE was sold to Burnham Broadcasting. The station continued to underperform in the ratings into the 1990s.

Fox affiliation

In early 1994, after the Fox Broadcasting Company won the television rights to the National Football Conference of the National Football League, it arranged to have Savoy Pictures purchase WVUE and Burnham's three other stations: WALA-TV (channel 10) in Mobile, Alabama; WLUK-TV (channel 11) in Green Bay, Wisconsin and KHON-TV (channel 2) in Honolulu, Hawaii. As part of the deal, the stations would all drop their affiliations with the "Big Three" networks (WVUE being the only one of the four stations that was not affiliated with NBC) to become Fox affiliates. Fox would own a minority voting stock in these stations and their holding company would be called "Savoy Fox" (however, in 1995, Fox opted not to have voting stock in the company, although it would still hold an interest).

The transaction was completed in the summer of 1995. On January 1, 1996, WVUE became the area's new Fox affiliate, with the ABC affiliation in New Orleans moving to WGNO (channel 26), which had been an affiliate of The WB for just shy of a year prior to the switch. WNOL-TV (channel 38), which had been the market's original Fox affiliate, took the WB affiliation. Unlike the New World Communications-owned stations that joined Fox at around the same time, the Savoy stations, including WVUE, carried Fox's children's programming on weekday mornings and afternoons. Fox's ratings increased slightly from when it was on WNOL, but WVUE's news ratings still stayed well behind WWL-TV and WDSU.

Savoy sold the station (along with the other three former Burnham stations) in 1997 to Silver King/USA Broadcasting. Emmis Communications became the owner of these stations in 1999. In recent years, WVUE has added stronger syndicated shows, including acquiring the local syndication rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! as part of a group deal with Emmis' Fox affiliates, a rarity for a Fox station (prior to airing on channel 8, they aired for about two decades on WWL-TV).

On May 5, 2008, Emmis Communications announced an agreement to sell the station to the Louisiana Media Company, a new media group founded by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson (Saints games had already been airing on WVUE since the affiliation switch), for a purchase price of $41 million. Benson stated that he planned for the new company to acquire several radio and television stations nationwide and to be involved in movie production. The FCC approved the sale on July 14, 2008. Louisiana Media Company took over operations of the station on July 18, 2008. Ownership of WVUE became evident when a fleur-de-lis emblem was superimposed in the "O" of the "Fox 8" logo after modifications were made.

Almost immediately following consummation, WVUE migrated its website to the Inergize Digital platform (which was operated by Newport Television at the time, before being acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group in conjunction with its 2012 purchase of several of Newport's stations). This lasted until 2012, when the WVUE website was migrated to the Worldnow platform. On January 31, 2012, WVUE was pulled from Dish Network in the New Orleans market when negotiations on a new carriage contract broke down; Dish and WVUE reached a new carriage agreement on February 17, 2012, restoring the station's programming on the satellite provider.

Hurricane Katrina

WVUE's Jefferson Davis Parkway studio, March 2007.

Hurricane Katrina struck Greater New Orleans on August 29, 2005. WVUE's operations were temporarily moved to the studios of then-sister station WALA in Mobile, Alabama. WVUE's studio on Jefferson Davis Parkway is located in a low-lying part of the city that was badly flooded due to the levee failures caused by Katrina. The damage was so severe that Emmis released much of the station's on-air staff from their non-compete clauses, allowing them to seek employment outside of the market without penalty. Soon, meteorologist Crystal Wicker left for Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV, where she began work on October 3. Weekend meteorologist Jeff Baskin went to Portland, Oregon's KOIN-TV. Reporter Summer Jackson went to Chicago to work at CLTV, while reporter Kerry Cavanaugh took a job at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland.

Following the storm, WVUE presented a rotating 15-minute newscast that were streamed on its website and produced out of WALA's studios, slowly restoring the regular station schedule as developments faded and reconstruction on WVUE's news operations continued. In mid-June 2006, construction of the station's permanent news set and weather center was completed. Before then, a temporary news set and newsroom were set up in the station's production room. Station manager Vanessa Oubre said that remodeling/reconstruction of the rest of the building was expected to be completed by November 2006. The sale of the station was also affected and was delayed for two years because of the rebuilding; Emmis had intended to divest all its television assets by the start of 2007, but retained ownership of WVUE until it was sold to Louisiana Media Company.

News operation

WVUE-DT presently broadcasts 39½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (7½ hours on weekdays, and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output of any television station in the New Orleans market (more than WWL-TV (channel 4) and WDSU-TV (channel 6), which both carry 27½ hours each week) and the state of Louisiana in general. WVUE is the only station in the market that airs a local newscast at 5:30 p.m., although it does not run a newscast at 6 p.m. on weeknights. Unlike most Fox stations that produce their newscasts in-house, WVUE's 9 p.m. newscast does not air for an hour seven nights a week, the weekend edition of the 9 p.m. news instead airs for a half-hour; WVUE is among the largest Fox affiliates in terms of market size to air its prime-time newscast in such a fashion.

Once an also-ran among the New Orleans market's television news outlets, WVUE's news ratings have slowly increased throughout the 2000s (particularly following the station's purchase by Louisiana Media Company). By the middle part of the decade, the station overtook WDSU for the #2 position in the local news ratings, placing behind WWL-TV in the 5 p.m. timeslot. The station had retained the #2 ranking through 2008 and a see-saw period followed. In May 2011, the station ranked third in the time period. The station is ranked third, but often takes the second place position in morning news and places first at 9 p.m. (WVUE's ratings for its primetime newscast have outperformed WNOL-TV and WUPL's newscasts in the same timeslots, with both stations eventually cancelling their 9 p.m. newscasts – which unlike WVUE, were produced through news share agreements with co-owned major network affiliates in the market – respectively in 2011 and 2013). At 10 p.m., WVUE has held second position in the market.

On May 31, 1982, WVUE launched a half-hour 5 p.m. newscast called Live At Five. After the Fox affiliation switch in 1996, WVUE initially kept its 6 p.m. newscast, in addition to the 5 p.m. newscast. The 10 p.m. newscast it had as an ABC affiliate was relocated to 9 p.m. newscast and expanded to one hour; ten months later, it was split into separate half-hour newscasts at 9 and 10 p.m., with the 9:30 p.m. timeslot being filled with syndicated sitcoms. The late evening newscasts continued in this format until 2001, when the weeknight 9 p.m. newscast reverted back to an hour-long broadcast, and the 10 p.m. newscast was dropped for a second time due to the lack of a strong program lead-in.

Even after becoming a Fox affiliate, the station did not carry a newscast on weekday mornings throughout the 1990s; this changed in 2002, when WVUE debuted what was originally a two-hour morning newscast, airing from 6-8 a.m. In 2005, WVUE cancelled its weeknight 6 p.m. newscast and expanded its 5 p.m. newscast to one hour, creating an hour-long block of news that competes against the local and national evening newscasts on WWL-TV, WDSU and WGNO. On April 29, 2007, WVUE became the first television station in New Orleans to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. In January 2010, WVUE underwent a major production upgrade that included the transition of field video to high definition, and the introduction of the first HD-based weather system in the New Orleans market. As of October 2010, WVUE remains the first station in the New Orleans market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition; this is in contrast to WWL-TV, WDSU and WGNO, all of which broadcast their newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition.

On February 1, 2010, WVUE expanded its weekday morning newscasts from three hours to four by adding a new weather-based newscast from 5-6 a.m. called Fox 8 Morning Call, the program was replaced in 2012 by a traditional newscast in the 5 a.m. timeslot. The 10 p.m. newscast returned for the third time in the station's history on that same date; initially only airing as a test run, the 10 p.m. newscast became a full-time program on May 5, 2010, after former WWL-TV anchor Lee Zurik joined channel 8. In July 2010, the station expanded the 10 p.m. newscast to weekend evenings, making WVUE one of the few Fox stations nationwide with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot that airs seven nights a week. On May 23, 2011, WVUE-TV debuted an hour-long midday newscast at noon on weekdays. This was followed on September 12 of that year, with the debut of an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Your Esso Reporter (1956–1958)
• WJMR-TV News (1958–1962)
• The New Orleans Report (1962–1965)
• The Evening News (6 p.m. newscast; 1965–1970)
• NewsVue (6:05 and 10 p.m. newscasts; 1966)
• Alec Gifford News (6 and 10 p.m. newscasts; 1967–1974)
• 24 Hours (10 p.m. newscast; 1965–1976)
• NewsScene 8 (1974–1984)
• Live at Five (5 p.m. newscast; 1982–1984?)
• Channel 8 News (1984–1986)
• News 8 New Orleans (1986–1988)
• News 8 (general) / News 8 Tonight (10 p.m. newscast; 1988–1995)
• Fox News Eight (1996–1998)
• Fox 8 News (1998–present)

Station slogans

• "Make the Switch to WVUE 8" (1970, when the station was changing its channel to 8 from 12)
• "This is the Place to Be!" (early 1970s)
• "There's More on NewsScene 8" (late 1970s)
• "On Your Side" (?)
• "Your Neighborhood Station" (mid-1980s-1987)
• "The Station That's Making Good Things Happen" (1987–1992)
• "The One to Watch" (1992–1995)
• "Your Weather Authority" (weather slogan, 2002–present; used as news slogan from 2002 to 2008)
• "Your Local News Channel" (2008–present; news slogan)
• "Louisiana's Home Team" (2008–present; general slogan)
• "Your First Choice For News" (2011–present)

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On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Shelley Brown - weekday mornings on Fox 8 Morning News (5-6 a.m.); also "Fox 8 Defenders" investigative reporter
• Meg Gatto - weekends at 9 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
• Kim Holden - weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 10 p.m.
• Nancy Parker - weekdays at 4, and weeknights at 5 p.m.
• Liz Reyes - weekday mornings on Fox 8 Morning News (6-9 a.m.) and weekdays at noon; also reporter
• John Snell - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Gerry Vaillancourt - weekday mornings on Fox 8 Morning News (5-9 a.m.) and weekdays at noon; also sports analyst
• Lee Zurik - weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also chief investigative reporter

Fox 8 Weather Authority

• Bob Breck (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 9 and 10 p.m.
• Chris Franklin (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Fox 8 Morning News (5-9 a.m.)
• Bruce Katz (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekdays at noon and 4 p.m.
• Nicondra Norwood - meteorologist; weekends at 9 and 10 p.m.
• Kim Vaughn (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; fill-in as needed on-air, mainly works behind the scenes presenting on-air graphics

Sports team

• Sean Fazende - sports anchor; weekends at 9 and 10 p.m., also sports reporter
• Garland Gillen - sports reporter
• Fred Hickman - sports director; weeknights at 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m.
• Jennifer Hale - sports anchor; weekdays at 4 p.m., also sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor; station's first female sportscaster.
• Jim Henderson - Saints analyst and commentator
• Chad Sabdie - sports reporter

Reporters

• Allison Braxton - weekend evening reporter
• Susan Isaacs - weekday morning traffic reporter
• Natasha Robin - general assignment reporter
• Rob Masson - general assignment reporter
• Carolyn Scofield - general assignment reporter and "Bayou Bureau" chief
• Sabrina Wilson - general assignment reporter

Contributors

• Angus Lind - Fox8Live.com writer and columnist; appears weekly on Fox 8 Morning News
• Dave McNamara - "The Heart of Louisiana" feature reporter, airing weekly on the 9 p.m. newscast; also runs his own production company which contributes to these reports [4]
• Chris Rose - provides an editorial weekly on-air and online (former long-time contributor to The Times-Picayune)

Notable former on-air staff

• Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto - sports director/anchor (1966–1981; later worked for WDSU and WWL AM/FM; died in 2005)
• Lynn Gansar - station's first female newscaster (1976-1983; later at WDSU-TV)
• Alec Gifford - news anchor (1967–1980, later with WDSU; died in 2013)
• Mike Herrera - meteorologist/announcer (1964–2007; later engineer at WWL-TV, died April 6, 2013 at age 66)
• Jim Kemp - anchor, reporter, managing editor, news director (later Senior Assignment Editor, CNN National Desk; retired)
• Arthel Neville - anchor/reporter (now with Fox News Channel)
• Bob Perrin - news photographer (Emmy winner and Oscar nominee)
• Nash Roberts - meteorologist (1973–1978; succeeded by Bob Breck, later at WWL-TV; deceased)
• Norman Robinson - anchor/reporter (1976–1978; later at WWL-TV, now at WDSU)
• Nancy Russo - first female meteorologist at the station (1980–1983)
• Ron Swoboda - sports anchor (now at Cox Sports Television)
• Leslie Sykes - anchor/reporter (now at KABC-TV/Los Angeles)
• Jim Turner - news reporter (1966-1968, later with CTV and CBC Television in Canada)

External links

• Fox8Live.com - Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVUE
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVUE-DT