WVUE
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| WVUE | |
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| New Orleans, Louisiana | |
| Branding | Fox 8 |
| Slogan | Your Weather Authority |
| Channels | Analog: 8 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox FOX8 News (DT2) |
| Owner | Emmis Communications (purchase by Louisiana Media Company pending) (Emmis Television License, LLC) |
| First air date | September 1, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | VUE, pronounced "view" |
| Former callsigns | WJMR-TV (1953-1965) |
| Former channel number(s) | 61 (1953-1958) 20 (1958-1959) 13 (1959-1964) 12 (1964-1970) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1953-1957) ABC (1953-1995, secondary until 1957) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 660 kW (digital) |
| Height | 302 m (analog) 274 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 4149 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.fox8tv.net |
- WVUE was also the callsign for Channel 12 in Wilmington, Delaware in the late 1950s. Please see WVUE (Delaware) for details.
WVUE "Fox 8" is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, serving southeastern Louisiana and parts of southern Mississippi as the area's Fox affiliate. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 8 and its digital signal on UHF channel 29. It's owned by Emmis Communications and is the sole television station the company owns after selling most of its television properties. Its transmitter is located in Chalmette, Louisiana.
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[edit] 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 1970's. 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.
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.)
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.
In recent years, WVUE acquired stronger shows on its lineup. It recently 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 8-2.
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 sale is pending FCC approval. [1]
[edit] 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.[2] 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.
[edit] 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
Reporters
- Blaire Arvin
- Val Bracy
- Allison Braxton
- Patrick Evans - currently on leave while serving in Iraq [3]
- Sandra Gonzalez
- Rob Masson
- Natasha Robin
- Elizabeth Willis
- Sabrina Wilson
[edit] Former Employees
- Al Duckworth - former weekend weather anchor. 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 - meteorologist Fill in Meteorlogist at a Miami TV Station
- Jim Gallagher
- Jack Long Former General Manager of WVUE
- Joe Cook Former 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
- Dionne Floyd (Anglin) - now at KDFW Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Keith Esparros - now at KNBC-TV Los Angeles, California.
- 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. Currently does voiceovers for WVUE. Now (2008)on staff at WWL-TV.
- Ron Hunter
- 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
- 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, now at WRTV Indianapolis, Indiana
- Al Wester
- Louis de la Foret (AKA Lou Forrest)
- Ross Yockey
- Sam DePino Exec News Producer-writer-reporter-anchor, 1964-67,reporter, first "Action Reporter, 1967-68 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)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- WVUE Website
- Mod Squad Pictures (includes ident slide for WVUE)
- Bob Breck.com - official website of the WVUE meteorologist.
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WVUE
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVUE-TV
- WVUE Alumni
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