WVUE-DT - History

History

WVUE began broadcasting on November 1, 1953 as WJMR-TV, the second TV station in New Orleans (behind WDSU-TV, channel 6) and the third in Louisiana (behind WDSU and WAFB in Baton Rouge). Originally broadcasting on channel 61, it then moved to channel 20 on July 20, 1955 . It was originally a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. During 1957 and 1958 WJMR-TV simulcasted its signal on Channel 12 using the call sign KK2XFW-TV . When WWL-TV (channel 4) signed on in 1957, WWL 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 on January 13, 1959 and changed call letters to WVUE. The station moved to channel 12 on September 6, 1962 due to interference with WLOX in Biloxi, Mississippi, which also broadcasts on channel 13. Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures, bought the station in 1965. On June 8, 1970 at 8 p.m., it made a highly-publicized switch of dial positions with the city's PBS station, WYES-TV, and moved to its current location on channel 8. This was done to give WVUE a larger broadcast range it could not have on channel 12, as WJTV of Jackson, MS broadcast on that channel. The channel 61 allocation was assigned to the now defunct WLPN-LP and the channel 20 allocation was assigned to station WHNO.

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-1970s. One of the primary reasons for WVUE's third-place position was the station's heavy preemptions of network programs. For example, during much of the 1970s, WVUE preempted portions of ABC's daytime soap opera schedule and aired westerns, cartoons and off-network sitcoms in their place. Additionally, WVUE preempted many of the network's Saturday morning cartoons as well as American Bandstand. WVUE also preempted ABC's late night programming, which prior to the debut of Nightline consisted of movies and reruns of prime-time shows. Viewers in the New Orleans area who wanted to see most of ABC's programming in full could turn their sets to the network's other affiliates in surrounding markets: WRBT (now WVLA, channel 33) and later WBRZ (Channel 2) from Baton Rouge, west of New Orleans, or to WLOX from Biloxi, to the east. WVUE started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June 1986, being the last commercial station in New Orleans to cease signing off.

Columbia Pictures sold WVUE to Oklahoma City-based Gaylord Broadcasting Company in 1977. Under the new ownership, WVUE reinstated ABC's full daytime drama lineup to its schedule in the fall of 1978. In spite of ownership changes and programming modifications, WVUE was still unable to improve its place in the ratings. When Gaylord Broadcasting began a gradual paring down of its station group in 1987, WVUE was sold to Burnham Broadcasting. The station continued to under-perform in the ratings into the 1990s.

In early 1994, after the Fox Broadcasting Company 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 (channel 10) in Mobile, Alabama; WLUK-TV (channel 11) in Green Bay, Wisconsin and KHON-TV (channel 2) 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" (however, in 1995, Fox opted not to have voting stock in the company, although it would still hold an interest).

The transaction was completed in the summer of 1995. On January 1, 1996, WVUE became the area's new Fox affiliate. The ABC affiliation in New Orleans went to WGNO (channel 26), which had been an affiliate of the WB Television Network. WNOL-TV (channel 38), which had been the market's original Fox affiliate, took the WB affiliation. Unlike the New World Communications-owned stations which joined the network at around the same time, the Savoy stations, including WVUE, carried Fox's children's programming during weekdays. Fox's ratings increased slightly from when it was on WNOL, but WVUE's news ratings still stayed well behind WWL-TV and WDSU. Savoy 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 in 1999.

In recent years, WVUE has added stronger syndicated shows, including acquiring the New Orleans rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! as part of a group deal with Emmis' Fox stations group, a rarity for a Fox station (prior to airing on channel 8, they aired for about two decades on WWL-TV).

On May 5, 2008, Emmis Communications announced an agreement to sell the station to Louisiana Media Company, a new media group founded by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson (Saints games had already been airing on WVUE since the affiliation switch). Benson stated that he planned 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. Ownership of WVUE became evident when a fleur-de-lis emblem was superimposed in the "O" of the "Fox 8" logo after modifications were made.