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WVUE

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WVUE "FOX 8" is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, serving southeastern Louisiana and parts of southern Mississippi. It is the area's Fox affiliate. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 8 and its digital signal on UHF channel 29. It is owned by Emmis Communications as the flagship station under Emmis' television division. Its transmitter is located in Chalmette, Louisiana.

Contents

History

WVUE began on September 1, 1953 as WJMR-TV, the second television station in New Orleans (behind WDSU) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and WAFB in Baton Rouge). Originally broadcasting on channel 61 it then moved to channel 20. 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.

In 1957, it moved from channel 20 to channel 12 due to interference with WAFB, which was also on channel 20 (WAFB has since moved to channel 9). It moved to Channel 13 in 1959, and returned to Channel 12 in 1964. 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 and WDSU, even as ABC topped the national ratings for awhile in the mid-70s. Gaylord Broadcasting bought WVUE in 1977, but was unable to improve the station's place in the ratings. The station was sold to Burnham Broadcasting in 1987. It continued to underperform into the 1990s.

Along with WVUE, Burnham also owned VHF stations in Mobile, Alabama (WALA); Green Bay, Wisconsin (WLUK); and Honolulu, Hawaii (KHON). These VHF stations (as well as others around the country) became sought after by the Fox network after it landed the rights to the NFL's National Conference football games in 1993. As a result, in late 1994, Fox arranged to have another company (Savvoy) purchase these four Burnham stations. Fox would own a minority voting stock in these stations and the company would be called "Savvoy Fox", or SF. (However, in 1995, Fox opted not to have voting stock in the company, although it would still hold an interest.) Meanwhile, another conglamerate called New World Communications wanted to affiliate most of its stations with the Fox network around this time, with more stations acquired from Argyle Television and Citicasters for the network swap for each to take place in late 1994 until mid-1995.

The transaction went ahead in the summer of 1995. The affiliation switch in New Orleans took place on January 1, 1996 with WVUE becoming the Fox affiliate. (WNOL/38, which had hitherto been the market's Fox affiliate, took the WB affiliation; the ABC affiliation went to WGNO/26.)

In the wake of the affiliation switch, WVUE initially ran children's programming and sitcoms from 6-9am, instead of adding a morning newscast. It also ran Fox Kids in the afternoon, which by 1997 would move to the 6-9am slot. (The station would not add a morning newscast until after Fox cancelled the weekday children's block in 2002.) Whereas, since WVUE was an Emmis station by then, it did not follow the example of the New World Fox affiliated stations that did not run Fox Kids at all, but passed on to another local counterpart.

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. Through all the ownership changes in the late 1990s, WVUE continued to underperform. However, since 2003, WVUE has often tied or beat WDSU for second place in the news ratings.

However, as of late, WVUE has been getting stronger shows on its lineup. It recently acquired the local rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! -- a rarity for a Fox station to carry King World produced programming that would more likely air on the longer-standing Big Three affiliates.

In 2005, Emmis Communications declared its intention to sell its television stations - as of September 2005, no buyer had been named for WVUE, although rumors that News Corp's Fox may buy the station from Emmis Communications, and become an Fox owned and operated station have floated around.

Following Katrina, WVUE's operations were temporarily moved to its former sister station, WALA in Mobile, Alabama. The damage to its Jefferson Davis Parkway studios, in one of New Orleans' lowest points, was so great that Emmis has told some of the on-air staff that they are free to seek new work elsewhere without penalty.

[http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050919/COLUMNISTS04/509190430/1006/NEWS01 Soon, WVUE's morning meteorologist Crystal Wicker went to Indianapolis' WRTV (Channel 6), where she began work October 3. Weekend Meteorologist Jeff Baskin went to Portland, Oregon's KOIN, and reporter Summer Jackson went to Chicago to work at CLTV

Following the storm, WVUE presented a rotating 15-minute newscast streaming through their website coming from WALA's facilities. 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 be completed by November 2006.

Image:Oldfox8logo.jpg|Fox 8 logo used from 1999-2002. Image:WVUE.gif|Alternate take of the current Fox 8 logo.

News Staff

Anchors Meteorologists Reporters

Newscasts

Weekdays only Every Night

Former Employees

External links


Broadcast television in the New Orleans market  [(Nielsen DMA #43)]
WWL 4 (CBS) - WDSU 6 (NBC) - WVUE 8 (Fox) - WYES 12 (PBS) - WHNO 20 (LeSEA) - WGNO 26 (ABC)  WLAE 32 (PBS) - WNOL 38 (WB/The CW) - WPXL 49 (i) - WUPL 54 (UPN/MNTV)
Local cable television channels
NewsWatch 15
See also broadcast television in market
Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Louisiana
WVUE 8 () - KARD 14 () - KADN 15 () - KVHP 29 () - KMSS 33 () - WGMB 44 ()
See also: , , , , , and Stations in Louisiana

 

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