| Revision as of 20:41, 19 July 2008 edit66.102.80.212 (talk) →History← Previous edit | Revision as of 04:36, 20 July 2008 edit undoBlack Waves (talk | contribs)7 edits if the sale has been completed, there needs to be a source, and confusing DTV information has been removedNext edit → | ||
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| station_branding = Fox 8| | station_branding = Fox 8| | ||
| analog = 8 (])| | analog = 8 (])| | ||
| digital = 29 (]) |
digital = 29 (])| | ||
| other_chs = | | other_chs = | | ||
| subchannels = 8.1 ]<br>8.2 Fox 8 News| | subchannels = 8.1 ]<br>8.2 Fox 8 News| | ||
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| '''WVUE''', channel 8, is a television station in ], affiliated with the ]. WVUE is owned by ], with studios in the ] section of New Orleans and transmitter in ]. | '''WVUE''', channel 8, is a television station in ], affiliated with the ]. WVUE is owned by ], with studios in the ] section of New Orleans and transmitter in ]. | ||
| On ], ], Emmis announced its intention to sell WVUE to Louisiana Media Company, a concern which is controlled by ] owner ]. The sale was completed on July 18, 2008. | On ], ], Emmis announced its intention to sell WVUE to Louisiana Media Company, a concern which is controlled by ] owner ]. The sale was completed on July 18, 2008. {{fact}} | ||
| ==History== | ==History== | ||
| WVUE began on ], ] as '''WJMR-TV''', the second television station in New Orleans (behind ]) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and ] in ]). Originally broadcasting on channel 61, it then moved to channel 20 in 1958. It was originally a ] affiliate with a secondary ] affiliation. When ] signed on in 1957, it took over the CBS affiliation because of ]'s longtime affiliation with CBS radio. WJMR was left with ABC. | WVUE began on ], ] as '''WJMR-TV''', the second television station in New Orleans (behind ]) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and ] in ]). Originally broadcasting on channel 61, it then moved to channel 20 in 1958. It was originally a ] affiliate with a secondary ] affiliation. When ] signed on in 1957, it took over the CBS affiliation because of ]'s longtime affiliation with CBS radio. WJMR was left with ABC. | ||
Revision as of 04:36, 20 July 2008
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- WVUE was also the callsign for Channel 12 in Wilmington, Delaware in the late 1950s. Please see WVUE (Delaware) for details.
WVUE, channel 8, is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company. WVUE is owned by Emmis Communications, with studios in the Gert Town section of New Orleans and transmitter in Chalmette, Louisiana.
On May 5, 2008, Emmis announced its intention to sell WVUE to Louisiana Media Company, a concern which is controlled by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson. The sale was completed on July 18, 2008.
History
WVUE began on September 1, 1953 as WJMR-TV, the second television station in New Orleans (behind WDSU-TV) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and WAFB in Baton Rouge). Originally broadcasting on channel 61, it then moved to channel 20 in 1958. It was originally a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. When WWL-TV signed on in 1957, it took over the CBS affiliation because of WWL radio's longtime affiliation with CBS radio. WJMR was left with ABC.
The station moved to channel 13 in 1959 and returned to channel 12 in 1964 due to interference with WLOX in Biloxi, also on channel 13. Screen Gems bought the station in 1965 and changed the call letters to WVUE. In 1970, it swapped dial positions with the city's PBS station, WYES and moved to its current location on channel 8.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the station would consistently rank as 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-70s. One unusual thing about WVUE was that they preempted a large amount of weekday daytime programming from ABC. They only ran All My Children from 1970 to 1975 and dropped it that year. They also did not run Ryan's Hope, One Life To Live or General Hospital either through most of the 1970s. In place of these soaps the station ran westerns as well as cartoons and off-network sitcoms. They did, however run Edge Of Night at some point during the mid 1970's. Additionally, WVUE preempted nearly half the Saturday morning cartoons from ABC as well as the Sunday Morning cartoon reruns from ABC. Like most affiliates, WVUE also preempted ABC late night movies and drama shows. One reason this was not a big problem was because WLOX Channel 13, located in Gulfport was only 60 miles away and had a grade B Signal in New Orleans and a grade A signal east and north of the city. WLOX carried nearly all of ABC's programming. Additionally, WVLA Channel 33 located 80 miles west in Baton Rouge brought in a grade B signal to the west and north-west of New Orleans. They preempted some ABC programs, but ran virtually all the major shows preempted from WVUE. In 1976 ABC moved in Baton Rouge to Channel 2 WBRZ and that station even had a grade B signal in New Orleans and a Grade A signal to the west. Both these stations were on most of the cable systems in the area. Gaylord Broadcasting bought WVUE in 1977. Finally, in the fall of 1978, WVUE reinstated All My Children to the lineup. At the same time, WVUE also added One Life To Live and General Hospital to the lineup. Still they continued to preempt moderate amounts of ABC programming over the years. On Monday, May 31, 1982, WVUE-TV became the latest New Orleans affiliate to launch a 5pm newscast, with Live At Five.
In spite of ownership changes and programming modifications, WVUE was still unable to improve their place in the ratings. Many think this was because of WWL-TV's and WDSU's dominance in programming and local news. Others think many viewers watched nieghboring ABC affiliates for network programming due to percieved preemptions. The station was then sold to Burnham Broadcasting in 1987. It continued to underperform into the 1990s.
In late 1994, after Fox won 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 in Mobile, Alabama; WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin and KHON-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii. As part of the deal, the stations would all convert to Fox affiliates. Fox would own a minority voting stock in these stations and the company would be called "Savoy Fox" or SF. (However, in 1995, Fox opted not to have voting stock in the company, although it would still hold an interest.)
The transaction went ahead in the summer of 1995. On January 1, 1996, WVUE became the area's new Fox affiliate. (WNOL, which had been the market's Fox affiliate, took the WB affiliation; the ABC affiliation went to WGNO.) Unlike the former New World Fox stations and like sister SF stations, WVUE took the Fox Kids Network. These shows initially ran from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and weekends in pattern. Eventually, the Fox Kids programs moved to the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot on weekdays. Despite becoming a Fox affiliate, WVUE still did not have a weekday morning newscast throughout the 1990s. Fox's ratings increased slightly from being on WNOL, but WVUE's ratings still stayed well behind WWL-TV and WDSU. Savvoy 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 by 1999.
Finally, in 2002, WVUE added a weekday morning newscast. In recent years, WVUE acquired stronger shows on its lineup. It acquired the local rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! -- a rarity for a FOX station (prior to airing on channel 8, they aired for about two decades on WWL-TV).
In 2005, Emmis declared its intention to sell its television stations.
On April 29, 2007, WVUE became the first television station in New Orleans to broadcast a newscast in high definition. WVUE has an around the clock re-broadcast of FOX 8 News on digital sub-channel 82.
On May 5, 2008 it was announced that Emmis Communications had agreed to sell the station to Louisiana Media Company, a new media group founded by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson. Benson stated that he plans 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 possession of the station on July 18, 2008.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina struck Greater New Orleans at the end of August 2005. WVUE's operations were temporarily moved to then-sister station WALA's studios 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 Katrina levee failures. It was so badly damaged that Emmis has told some of the on-air staff that they were free to seek work elsewhere without penalty.
Soon, WVUE's morning meteorologist Crystal Wicker went to Indianapolis' WRTV, where she began work October 3. Weekend Meteorologist Jeff Baskin went to Portland, Oregon's KOIN. 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 streaming on its website coming from WALA. It has since restored its full-length newscasts.
In mid-June 2006, construction of the station's permanent news set and weather center were completed. Before then, a temporary news set and newsroom were set up in the station's production room. Station manager Vanessa Oubre said remodeling/reconstruction of the rest of the building should have be completed by November 2006.
The hurricane may also have had an effect on Emmis' sale of WVUE. Emmis Communications put the station on the market several months before Katrina hit. It took until May of 2008 to find a buyer.
News/Station Presentation
Newscast Titles
- WJMR-TV News (1956-1965)
- The Evening News (1965-1970, 6 P.M. newscast)
- Alec Gifford News (1970-1976, 6 P.M. and 10 P.M. newscasts)
- 24 Hours (1965-1976, 10 P.M. newscast)
- NewsScene 8 (1976-1984)
- Live At Five (1982-1984?, 5 P.M. newscast)
- News 8 New Orleans (1984-1987)
- News 8 (1987-1995)
- Fox News Eight (1995-1998)
- Fox 8 News (1998-present)
Station Slogans
- There's More on NewsScene 8 (late 1970s)
- Your Neighborhood Station (mid 1980s)
- Your Weather Authority (2005-present)
News Staff
Anchors
- Jonathan Carter - weekday mornings
- Rob Ennis - weekend sports anchor
- Kim Holden - weekday mornings
- Nancy Parker - weekday evenings
- Eric Richey - sports director; weekdays
- John Snell - weekday evenings
- Jennifer Van Vrancken - weekends
Meteorologists
- Bob Breck - chief meteorologist; weekday evenings
- Chris Franklin - mornings
- Nicrondra Norwood - weekends
- Kim Vaughn - on air as needed
- Joe Cook General Manager of WVUE-FOX8
- Margaret Strawn News Director of WVUE-FOX8
Reporters
- Blaire Arvin
- Val Bracy
- Allison Braxton
- Patrick Evans - currently on leave while serving in Iraq
- Sandra Gonzalez
- Rob Masson
- Natasha Robin
- Elizabeth Willis
- Sabrina Wilson
Former Employees
- Al Duckworth - former weekend weather anchor (mid-1980s). Died 2001.
- Richard Anderson - former weeknight anchor; currently heads own communications company.
- Ken Aucoin - retired from WIS-TV Columbia, South Carolina
- Chip Barrere - meteorologist
- Darrelle Green - now at WRDQ Orlando
- Eric Clemons
- Jeff Baskin - weekend meteorologist; now fill-in meteorlogist at WFOR-TV, Miami, Florida.
- Jim Gallagher - reporter (1983-2000)
- Jack Long - General Manager of WVUE
- Vanessa Oubre - General Manager of WVUE
- Joe Giardina - investigative reporter (1985-1992); now Gulf Coast Region GM for Lindmark Outdoor Advertising
- Warren Bell - now on New Orleans radio and teaches at Xavier University of Louisiana
- Lionel Bienvenu - sports, now at KMGH-TV Denver, Colorado
- Howard Bernstein - now at WUSA Washington, D.C.
- Karen Boudrie
- Kerry Cavanaugh - now at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland
- Joe Cioffi - now at WNBC-TV New York City as a fill-in meteorlogist
- Robin Cohen
- Damon Darensburg - now at WGNO New Orleans
- Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto - WVUE sports director/anchor (1966-1980); later worked for WDSU. Died 2005.
- Margaret Dubuisson - anchor/reporter (1980s-1996); now host of local infomercials.
- Dionne Floyd (Anglin) - now at KDFW Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Keith Esparros - now at KNBC-TV Los Angeles, California.
- Lynn Ganser - anchor/reporter; later at WDSU-TV.
- Janet Gross - notable for her humorous "Gross Stuff" spots in the late 1990s. Married to WDSU's Heath Allen.
- Alec Gifford - Longtime anchor/reporter (1967-1980). Retired.
- Mike Herrera - meteorologist; also did voiceovers for WVUE. Now on staff at WWL-TV.
- Ron Hunter - anchor/reporter (1981-1985). Retired to Las Vegas in 1998; died June 23, 2008 at age 70.
- George Jones
- Lori Kilgore
- Mel Leavitt - reporter, also worked at WDSU, WGNO and WYES; died in August 1997.
- Mike Longman - arrested for child pornography in 2000 and sentenced to four years in prison. Shortly after arrest, he was put on a leave of absence by the station.
- Ed Martin
- Charles Mollineaux - now at WAGA-TV Atlanta, Georgia
- Arthel Neville KSWB TV-FOX5
- Adam Norris - now at WGNO
- Monica Pierre - now at WWL-AM/FM New Orleans
- Nash Roberts - meteorologist (1973-1978); succeeded by Bob Breck, later worked for WWL-TV. Retired.
- Steve Rosanovich
- Nancy Russo
- Laura Shelton - now at CBS News
- Ken Strahorn - sports
- Ron Swoboda - now at Cox Sports Television
- Leslie Sykes - now at KABC-TV Los Angeles
- Joe Trahan - sports, now at WFAA-TV Dallas/Fort Worth
- Nischelle Turner - now at KTTV Los Angeles
- Ron Turner
- Crystal Wicker - meteorologist (2003-2005); now at WRTV Indianapolis, Indiana
- Al Wester
- Louis de la Foret (AKA Lou Forrest)
- Ross Yockey
- Sam DePino - Executive News Producer-writer-reporter-anchor (1964-1967); reporter, first "Action Reporter" (1967-1968) also freelanced for ABC News and hired full time in 1968. Retired in Illinois.
- Fernel Chatman
- Lynn Faris
- Larry Regan
- Johnny Miller (Johnny's Follies)
References
External links
- WVUE Website
- Mod Squad Pictures (includes ident slide for WVUE)
- Bob Breck.com - official website of the WVUE meteorologist.
- Template:TVQ
- WVUE Alumni
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