WAFB

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WAFB is the CBS-affiliated television station for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter southwest of Arlington. Owned by Raycom Media, WAFB is sister to Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CA. The two share studios on Government Street in downtown Baton Rouge. Syndicated programming on WAFB includes: Access Hollywood, Friends, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and The Dr. Oz Show. The station is seen via satellite through DirecTV and Dish Network and on cable Cox Communications and AT&T U-verse.

History

The station began broadcasting on April 19, 1953 as the second television station in the state of Louisiana. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 28, WAFB moved to VHF channel 9 in 1960. WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Mississippi moved to channel 7 to accommodate this switch. The station has always been a CBS affiliate but carried some NBC programming until WBRZ-TV signed-on in 1955. WAFB also carried some ABC programming until WRBT (now WVLA) signed-on in 1971 and some programming from DuMont until that network folded. In 1988, the station dropped the -TV suffix from its call letters. They originally aired a digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter at their studios. After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion on June 12, 2009 , WAFB moved its digital broadcasts back to its former analog channel number.

Digital Television

The station's signal is multiplexed. WAFB-DT2 broadcasts a 24-hour local weather channel known as "WAFB 24/7 Weather" that can also be seen on Cox channel 9. On WAFB-DT4 is a full power standard definition digital signal of MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CA. Due to its Class A status, that station does not broadcast a digital signal of its own. Overnight, WBXH simulcasts WAFB-DT2.

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel	Name	Programming
9.1	WAFB-DT	Main WAFB Programming / CBS HD 1080i
9.2	WAFB-DT2	WAFB-DT2 "WAFB 24/7 Weather" 480i
9.4	WAFB-DT4	WBXH-CA "MyBRTV" 480i

HD Programming

WAFB currently airs all of CBS network programming in High Definition and most of its syndicated programming such as The Dr. Oz Show in HD.

Programming

WAFB is one of a handful of stations that shifts the air times of various CBS programming. The Price Is Right airs at 11 in the morning instead of 10 when Family Feud can bee seen and The Young and The Restless airs at 4 in the afternoon instead of 11. The station aired Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune until 1995 when the shows moved to WBRZ. Live with Regis and Kelly and The Oprah Winfrey Show was seen until the late-1990s. Oprah moved to WBRZ but since then has aired on WVLA while Regis & Kelly was the other way around. It used to also air The Phil Donahue Show, Hard Copy, and Sally Jesse Raphael among other syndicated fare. One locally produced show that brought years of enjoyment to children was hosted by Buckskin Bill Black ("William Black") that ran from 1955 until 1990. There were several characters that were regulars on the show including "Senor Puppet" (a marionette voiced by Sid Crocker) and "Whatsyourname" (another puppet voiced by Mary Hillen).

The show had a way of educating young children while making it fun to learn. Two games many adults can remember Buckskin playing were called "Hully Gully" which helped to teach counting numbers and the "Monday Morning March". The two shows he hosted were called Storyland (for younger children during A.M. broadcasting) and The Buckskin Bill Show (for older children during the afternoons). Buckskin was also one of the first shows in the United States to have a sign-language interpreter for hearing-impaired viewers prior to closed-captioning. Through two gracious campaigns from his show, Buckskin Bill helped to start the Baton Rouge Zoo. During this campaign, he asked children to bring in their pennies to buy an elephant. The penny campaign was successful enough to purchase two. He is now involved with the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools Board. WAFB also airs the Sunday services from the First United Methodist Church in the city.

Newscasts

Its newscasts have had the second-highest ratings at 10 P.M. in any of the country's biggest television markets according to The Des Moines Register in Iowa. Nielsen Media Research ratings showed that 16.2% of all households in the Baton Rouge area watched the show. The only station to get a bigger share of the local audience was KCCI, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines, which was watched by 17.9% of area households.

Currently, WAFB is the top-rated station in the Baton Rouge viewing area. In the recent ratings period, they beat the others ones combined weeknights at 5, 6, and 10. In total, the station's news department produces 25 hours of news programming each week. This includes two newscasts on sister station WBXH-CA (weeknights at 9, which began on January 8, 2007, and Saturday mornings). WAFB's weekday morning news is repeated on that station.

On March 3, 2008, WAFB became the first in Baton Rouge and the third in Louisiana to broadcast their local broadcasts in high definition. The WBXH broadcasts were included in the upgrade. Since 1986, the station has used many versions of Frank Gari's "Newschannel" music package, which their sister station WTOC in Savannah, GA picked up the theme a year later and continue to use the theme to this day. Previously, it used versions of Tuesday Productions "The News Image" theme.

News Staff

Current personalities

Anchors

• Jeanne Burns - weekday mornings
• Matt Williams - weekday mornings
• Greg Meriwether - weekdays at Noon and weekday morning "Street Beat" segment producer
• Paul Gates - weeknights at 5 and investigative reporter
  • "Stirring it Up" segment producer
• George Sells - weeknights at 6
• Donna Britt - weeknights at 6 and 10
• André Moreau - weeknights at 9 and 10
• Cheryl Mercedes - weekend evenings and reporter
• Keitha Nelson - weedend mornings and reporter

WAFB Storm Team Meteorologists

• Jay Grymes (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 6 and 10
• Steve Caparotta (AMS Seal of Approval) - weeknights at 5 and 9
• Diane Deaton - weekday mornings and Noon
• Jeff Morrow - weekends

Sports

• Steve Schneider - Director seen weeknights at 6, 9, and 10
• Jacques Doucet - weekend evenings
• Erin Cofiell - reporter

Reporters

• Sandy Breland - Vice President and General Manager seen in editorials
• Brandon Shackelford - weekday morning "Street Beat" segment videographer
• Johnny Ahysen - weekday morning and Noon traffic
• Graham Ulkins - weekday afternoon traffic & "What's Clickin'" segment producer
• Phil Rainier - "Healthline" segment producer
• Allen Tumey - "Tumey's Travels" segment producer
• Jim Shannon - Capitol Correspondent
• David Spunt
• Tyana Williams

Former staff

• Anna Adair (Anna Gordon Stuart)
• Andrew Michaels - reporter
• Caroline Moses
• James Verrett - now courtside reporter with Atlanta Hawks
• Julie Baxter - now practicing law at the Rhorer Law Firm in Baton Rouge, LA and adjunct media law professor at LSU's School of Mass Communication
• Glynn Boyd - now at WGNO-TV
• Tim Brando - sports
  • now broadcasts for various sports outlets including CBS Sports and Jefferson Pilot Sports
• Brenda Braxton - now weekday morning and Noon anchor at KGW-TV
• George Caldwell (Sells) - now at KTVI
  • George Sells, W5GQ (Amateur Radio callsign) is his father.
• Isiah Carey - now at KRIV
• Marie Centanni - former staff member of Governor Kathleen Blanco
• Matt Clough - now at KUSA-TV
• Avery Davidson - now at Louisiana Farm Bureau
• Jennifer Donelan - now at WJLA
• Jay Gormley - filmmaker
• Mike Graham - retired meteorologist
  • has since become active in performance arts
  • was a Baton Rouge City Police Officer while employed at WAFB
  • holds the Amateur Radio callsign of KK5DL
• Jennifer Hale - now at WVUE
• Victor Howell - now basketball analyst at Cox Sports Television also host of CST Tonight! and Saints Tonight!
• Cyndi Nguyen - now at WGNO
• Nancy Parker - now at WVUE
• Chuck Perrodin - KATC, KRIV - Sports, News, Talk Show Host - Now with Louisiana State Disaster Recovery Unit
• Vernon Roger - weekday Noon and 5 anchor
  • remembered for cajun cooking segments and "taste test"
  • committed suicide in 2002
• Pat Simon - now at KSLA
• Sylvia Weatherspoon - now at WBRZ-TV
  • Her husband, Donald works at the East Baton Rouge City Parish radio shop on Chippewa.
• Valentina Wilson - now at WVLA-TV
• Mike Ross - at WAFB (1982-1983), then WBRZ (1983-1986), followed by WWL-AM-TV (1986-2006), now anchor at KTUU-TV

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• Newsline 9 (1980s-1995)
• 9 News (1995-present)

Station Slogans

• Louisiana's News Channel (1986-present)

External links

• WAFB "9 News"
• WAFB mobile
• WBXH-CA "MyBRTV"
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