| Baton Rouge, Louisiana | |
|---|---|
| Branding | NBC 33 WVLA Baton Rouge (general) NBC 33 News (news) |
| Slogan | NBC 33, More Colorful. (general) We Tell Your Stories Every Day (news) We Are YOUR Weather Team (weather) |
| Channels | Digital: 34 (UHF) Virtual: 33 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 33.1 NBC-HD 33.2 This TV |
| Affiliations | National Broadcasting Company |
| Owner | White Knight Broadcasting (operated by Communications Corporation of America) (Knight Broadcasting of Baton Rouge License Corporation) |
| First air date | October 16, 1971 |
| Call letters' meaning | Vetter LouisianA (previous owner) |
| Sister station(s) | KZUP-CD, WGMB-TV, WBRL-CD |
| Former callsigns | WRBT (1971-1987) meaning Romac (and later Rush) Broadcasting Television, previous owners |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 33 (UHF, 1971-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1971-1977) Fox (secondary, 1990-1991) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 522 m |
| Facility ID | 70021 |
| Website | www.nbc33tv.com |
WVLA-TV, virtual channel 33, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It transmits its digital signal on UHF channel 34. It is owned by White Knight Broadcasting, but it is controlled by ComCorp. and is sister station to the area's Retro Television Network affiliate, KZUP-CD. WVLA also shares facilities and staff with WGMB-TV and WBRL-CD. WVLA's transmitter is located near Addis, Louisiana. The station is seen via satellite through DirecTV and Dish Network and on cable Cox Communications and AT&T U-verse.
Contents |
The station first signed on the air on October 16, 1971[1] as WRBT, an ABC affiliate. The station was originally founded by Richard O. Rush, Ramon V. Jarrell, and Southern Educators Life Insurance Company who made up Romac Baton Rouge Corporation, and the station temporarily operated from Florida Boulevard before moving to its Essen Lane studios, where it stayed until 2000. Before WRBT began, ABC programming was shared between WBRZ-TV and WAFB, each of which ran some ABC programs along with their own respective NBC and CBS affiliations. The station originally broadcasted from 10:30 AM until midnight on Mondays thru Fridays; 7 AM until midnight on Saturdays; and 9 AM until midnight on Sundays. In March 1976, Rush Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Jules B. LeBlanc and Cyril Vetter, purchased the station.[2] In the late 1970s, ABC became the most-watched network and was seeking out stronger stations in major markets to switch affiliations to, while NBC fell to third and last place in ratings.
With Baton Rouge being one of those markets, WRBT swapped affiliations with WBRZ on September 5, 1977, and became an NBC affiliate. In 1979, Vetter purchased LeBlanc's share of station ownership and owned it outright. In mid-September 1983, the station received national attention when it pulled Late Night with David Letterman and replaced it with All in the Family reruns due to poor ratings. 3,500 LSU students presented Vetter with a petition to bring the show back to television, and Vetter told them he would only reinstate Letterman if every student maintained a C average for the fall semester. Other Baton Rougeans, including then-Secretary of State Jim Brown, lobbied WRBT to keep Letterman on the air, and this compelled Vetter to reinstate the program by late September.[3] Eventually, many residents of New Orleans tuned to WRBT to watch Letterman when NBC affiliate WDSU preempted the show in favor of Thicke of the Night. In 1992, WVLA cancelled Letterman again, citing poor ratings, and replaced it with Rush Limbaugh's talk show. The station, however, did air Late Night with Conan O'Brien when it premiered the next year.
It changed its calls to WVLA in 1987 after building a higher tower boosting its power to five million watts. On May 2, 1986, the station was the first local station in Baton Rouge and the second station in Louisiana to broadcast in stereo, after KMSS in Shreveport.
Businessman Cyril Vetter owned this station until 1996, when he sold it to Sheldon Galloway and Lafayette-based White Knight Broadcasting. This move created a partnership, as Galloway's father, Thomas, owned Fox affiliate WGMB. Around this time, WVLA began branding itself as NBC 33, which, with the exception of a brief period in the early 2000s, is what the station calls itself today. Since then, WGMB, WVLA, WBRL, and KZUP have shared the same studios, moving to its current studios on Perkins Road in 1999.
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 33.1 | WVLA-DT | Main WVLA Programming / NBC |
| 33.2 | WVLA-DT2 | This TV |
WVLA had carried NBC Weather Plus as channel 33.2, a digital subchannel, before that network ceased national operation on December 1, 2008.
WVLA-TV shut down analog transmission on June 12, 2009.[4] The station remained on its current pre-transition channel 34.[5] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WVLA-TV's virtual channel as 33.
Baton Rouge Lagniappe is a Sunday morning public affairs program that airs at 6:30 a.m. and is hosted by Matt Kennedy. It features interviews with Baton Rouge community leaders about local issues and upcoming events. Topics include city development, education, career advice, arts and entertainment, and health and fitness. It also airs on WGMB, KZUP and WBRL.
WVLA currently airs all of NBC network programming in high definition and most of its syndicated programming such as Rachael Ray, Anderson, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Entertainment Tonight in HD. WVLA also airs first run syndicated programs, including, Family Feud, Maury and The Chris Matthews Show. Since 1973, the station has annually aired the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.[6]
WVLA used to air a 6 p.m. and a 10 p.m. newscast during the 1980s. In 1987, the 6 p.m. newscast moved to 5 p.m.; however, both newscasts were canceled in 1989, citing poor ratings. In late 1989, it premiered a morning news program called "Morning Edition" that aired before The Today Show, originally lasting 30 minutes before becoming a full hour. This newscast was cancelled in January 2005 in favor of Early Today. In the early 1990s, the station had an information hotline service for viewers to call for news updates.
The station's latest generation of newscasts debuted on January 8, 2007, with weeknight shows at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. The 6 p.m. shows began airing on January 29, 2007. On August 28, 2007, WVLA launched a 30-minute newscast titled NBC 33 News Morning Edition, which airs weekdays at 6 a.m. On August 11, 2008 NBC 33 News Morning Edition began airing for one hour.
WVLA began airing weekend edition newscasts on September 13, 2008. The shows were produced by KETK in Tyler, Texas. This has led to several errors when the show ultimately airs in Baton Rouge, including on November 16, 2008, when an entire newscast from the previous Sunday was shown.[7] On September 22, 2008, WVLA changed the format for its 10 p.m. weekday newscast with the "Ten at 10". It promised all the important local news and a full weather forecast in the first ten minutes.
On April 28, 2009, most of the news staff was let go, including the main anchors,[8] and WVLA NBC 33 announced that the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. weekday newscasts will originate from sister station KETK in Tyler, Texas.[9] NBC 33 News Morning Edition still originates from Baton Rouge.
WVLA's newscast has struggled since it launched. Numerous technical problems and inexperienced staff plagued its launch. WVLA achieved its highest ratings in March 2009 before most of its news staff was let go. It is consistently rated the worst in Baton Rouge in the Nielsen TV ratings, failing to register a full rating point as of July 2009.
In April 2010, BP Oil's Deepwater Horizon Rig exploded, then sank. Oil began leaking from a well and was threatening coastal Louisiana. WVLA began once again producing local newscasts entitled "Crisis on the Coast", although the sportscast was still anchored from Tyler, Texas, but now the anchor does their own sports news.
As of July 5, 2010 WVLA began broadcasting their newscasts in 16:9 standard definition widescreen.
In August 2011, WVLA expanded morning newscasts. NBC33 News Morning Edition airs from 5-7am.
On September 12, 2011, WVLA launched a 6:30pm addition NBC33 News.
Anchors
Storm Tracker 33 Weather Team
Reporters
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||