WWL-TV

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WWL-TV is the CBS affiliate serving New Orleans, Louisiana, southeast Louisiana and parts of southern and coastal Mississippi, and is the primary CBS station for South and Coastal Mississippi. It broadcasts on channel 4, with many area cable systems carrying the station on the same channel. Its main studios and offices are located on Rampart Street in the historic French Quarter, with a North Shore bureau located on North Causeway Boulevard in suburban Mandeville. Its transmitter is located at 4 Cooper Road in Gretna, Louisiana.

History

WWL-TV signed on the air on September 7, 1957 as the third television station in New Orleans, behind WDSU-TV and WJMR (now WVUE). It was owned by Loyola University of New Orleans along with WWL radio (AM 870 and FM 101.9, now WLMG). WWL-AM had been a CBS affiliate since 1935 so WWL-TV naturally joined CBS. It competed head to head with NBC affiliate WDSU in the 1960s and 70s. However, after WDSU was sold to out-of-town owners, it began deemphasizing local features in favor of its highly regarded news format. By comparison, WWL, as the only locally-owned station, heavily stressed its local roots. By the early 1980s, WWL had emerged as the market's ratings leader.

The station has been the strongest CBS affiliate in the country for more than 20 years, aided by a strong programming lineup (with popular syndicated shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune and Live with Regis and Kelly), and that is remained unaffected by the market's affiliation switch in the mid-1990s. When Viacom, which owned UPN affiliate WUPL, merged with CBS in 2000, CBS did not consider moving its affiliation from WWL to WUPL.

In 1988, WWL and Cox Communications, the cable company serving the Greater New Orleans area south of Lake Pontchartrain, began a joint venture called NewsWatch 15. It was one of the first regional cable news networks in the United States at the time. Viewed on cable channel 15, the network broadcasts recent editions of "Eyewitness News" around the clock as well as simulcasts live newscasts and breaking news.

In 1989, Loyola sold its media properties to different owners. WWL-TV's employees formed a group called Rampart Broadcasting (named after the station's studios on Rampart Street), led by general manager J. Michael Early and longtime news director and station editorialist Phil Johnson, and bought the station. It was the first (and thus far, only) time an employee-investor group acquired a local television station. Belo Corporation bought the station in 1994. To this day, WWL is a subsidiary of Belo, known as WWL TV, Inc.

WWL Building on Rampart Street

WWL-TV preempted moderate amounts of CBS programming throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. These included, most notably, the 9-10 a.m. weekday timeslot, and, prior to the debut of Late Show with David Letterman in 1993, CBS' late-night lineup. Also, WWL-TV preempted the last hour of Saturday children's programming, between Noon and 1 p.m., during the 1970s. In the late 1980s, WWL-TV dropped the weekday morning CBS news show in favor of an additional hour of local news and Regis at 8 a.m. Eventually the local news was expanded into the 8 a.m. hour.

In 1990, WWL began running one of the most successful station image campaigns in the United States with its "Spirit of Louisiana" promotions. The one minute spots feature the region's musical and cultural heritage as well as showcases life in southeastern Louisiana. Many of the ads feature well-known area musicians and singers. The campaigns continue today. [2]

In 2005, Viacom/CBS, which owned WUPL at the time, made an offer to buy WWL-TV. After Belo rejected Viacom's offer, Viacom instead made a deal to sell WUPL to Belo. This would have created a duopoly with WWL and WUPL. However, due to uncertainty created by Hurricane Katrina concerning the New Orleans market, Belo delayed the deal to purchase WUPL. As a result, CBS filed a lawsuit against Belo in February 2006 for breach of contract. The litigation has apparently been settled as Belo agreed to complete the purchase of WUPL in late February 2007. The deal has already received regulatory approval, and closed on February 26 2007. In April 2007, Belo moved WUPL's operations into the WWL facility.

Hurricane Katrina

WWL began 24-hour continuous coverage on Saturday, August 27, from its New Orleans studio. At 10:45 p.m. CDT Sunday operations moved to the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. LSU students and staff helped produce the telecast with WWL-TV staff in a 'bare bones' fashion.

The station briefly returned to its Rampart Street studios in New Orleans Monday, August 29, at 4 p.m. Flooding forced the station to again move operations back to LSU, as well as a makeshift studio at the transmitter site in Gretna. The station relayed its signal via fiber optics and the use of a satellite truck from sister station KHOU in Houston.

Beginning Thursday, September 1, 2005, the station again moved operations, this time to the studios of Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge. This provided WWL with a much larger facility and expanded their audience to include LPB's statewide network. This coverage was also aired by many PBS stations. WWL would finally return to New Orleans about six weeks later.

WWL's coverage of Hurricane Katrina earned the station its sixth Peabody Award in early April 2006.

WWL's coverage of Katrina was featured on an episode The Weather Channel's "Storm Stories."

Post-Katrina

After Hurricane Katrina, some of the station's most visible talent - including weekend anchor/reporter Josh McElveen and reporter Stephanie Riegel - left the station to pursue other opportunities. Fans were also shocked to hear that 10 p.m. anchor Karen Swensen was leaving the station to work at NECN in Boston. Meteorologists David Bernard and John Gumm also left (Bernard was already scheduled to leave before the storm.)

The station has also brought back an old WWL-TV tradition, the editorial. Modeled after the editorials of Phil Johnson (the station's long-time and very popular news director/station manager), today's editorials are in the form of a narrator reading from a virtual notepad, speaking about current issues related to the post-Katrina redevelopment of New Orleans.

The station and Belo announced plans to construct a new multi-million dollar broadcasting facility for WWL, WUPL and WWLTV.com at 700 Loyola Avenue in downtown New Orleans. It was originally scheduled to be completed in late 2007-early 2008 and is to be called the J. Michael Early Broadcast Center, after the former general manager. It's construction has been delayed, however.

Hurricane Gustav

The same agreement for the use of LPB studio facilities and the statewide LPB simulcast listed above was also utilized for coverage of Hurricane Gustav in early September 2008. WWL's coverage also aired on the digital subchannels of fellow Belo sister stations WFAA-TV 8.2 in Dallas and KHOU-TV 11.2 in Houston for the convenience of evacuees.

Programming

A primary factor in WWL's ascent to its number-one rating among other news stations in the area was its emphasis on local programming. In 1977, then-general manager J. Michael Early established a 45-minute local morning news show beginning at 6:15 am. Hosted by anchor Eric Paulsen, it later began airing at 7 am and instantly garnered higher ratings than Today and Good Morning America. In 1979, John Quaintance and Andre Trevigne took over anchoring the morning news. It would later evolve into the three-hour, very-popular "Eyewitness Morning News" and pre-empt all CBS morning programming through the years, including the CBS Morning News, CBS This Morning and The Early Show. Eventually the newscast expanded to four hours, moving Live with Regis & Kelly up to 9:00 a.m.

However, WWL carries all other CBS programming. (The Early Show was added to sister station WUPL's schedule in April 2005.)

Popeye and Pals, a children's program featuring classic Max Fleischer/Famous Studios Popeye theatrical shorts (the 1960 King Features Syndicate made-for-TV shorts were presented as well), was a major fixture on WWL-TV from its inception in 1957 until August 1991, starting at a Monday-Friday afternoon slot and graduating to Saturday morning and at some points Sunday morning status.

In 1979, the station was one of a handful nationwide to air a syndicated feature program called PM Magazine. Hosted locally by Paulsen and Lea Sinclair, the show became an instant hit and dominated the local TV scene for five years, becoming one of the best localized PM Magazine broadcasts in the country.

From 1989-1996, weekday anchor Angela Hill hosted the very popular talk show Angela, which aired right after The Oprah Winfrey Show. Its focus was on local and national matters and featured local and national talent in entertainment, academics and business.

The station has used the Eyewitness News format for many years, and according to local AC Nielsen ratings, has had the leading newscast in New Orleans for nearly 30 years. The November 2007 sweeps period - the first major ratings period in New Orleans reported to Nielsen since Hurricane Katrina - affirmed that WWL continues to lead its nearest competitors, WDSU and WVUE, by a wide margin.

As mentioned above, WWL-TV has a strong syndicated programming lineup. However, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! moved to WVUE once the contract with the station expired. Dr. Phil now airs at 3:00 p.m. followed by The Oprah Winfrey Show at 4:00 p.m. Originally, this schedule was inverted; its current arrangement reflects that favored nationally. Inside Edition now airs at 6:30 p.m. with The Insider at 11:40 p.m. delaying CBS's Late Late Show to 12:10 a.m. Effective Tuesday, January 6, Access Hollywood can also be seen WUPL at 9:30 pm, while still airing at 1:40 am on WWL-TV.

In March 2006, WWL began "I-News", a 30-minute newscast featuring more in-depth reporting on topics important to viewers. The newscast also features live interviews with local, state and national officials. The newscast aired weekday evenings on the station's Web site after the 6 pm newscast and rebroadcasted on Channel 4. The Webcast has since been canceled.

On June 4 2007, WWL-TV began airing a 30-minute weekday newscast called "Eyewitness News at 9" on WUPL-TV. It is anchored by Lucy Bustamante and Mike Hoss, the current "Eyewitness News Nightwatch" anchors.

WWL-TV celebrated a half a century of broadcasting on September 7, 2007. The station remains one of America's top-rated CBS affiliates.

Digital television

WWL-TV has elected to postpone the ceasing of analog broadcasts on channel 4 in accordance with the DTV Delay Act until June 12, 2009. When the station performs its digital conversion, it will stop analog broadcasting on VHF channel 4 and continue broadcasting on UHF channel 36. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WWL-TV's virtual channel as "4".

News staff

Anchors

• Lucy Bustamante: 9 and 10 pm weeknights
• Angela Hill: 5 and 6 pm weeknights
• Mike Hoss: 9 and 10 pm weeknights
• Rob Nelson: 5 am weekdays
• Eric Paulsen: weekday mornings (6-9 am) and at noon.
• Sally-Ann Roberts: weekday mornings (6-9 am) (sister of Good Morning America 's Robin Roberts)
• Dennis Woltering: 5 and 6 pm weekdays (also hosts Sunday Edition with Dennis Woltering; had a previous stint at WWL-TV as weekend anchor from 1977-84 as Dennis Wolter)
• Lee Zurik: Weekends/Investigator Reporter

Reporters

• Bill Capo: "Action Report"
• Frank Davis: "In The Kitchen" Tuesday mornings and "The Fishing Game" and "Naturally N'Awlins" at 6 pm Thursdays and Wednesdays, respectively.
• Susan Edwards
• Meg Farris: "Medical Watch"
• Jill Hezeau
• Katie Moore
• Doug Mouton: North Shore bureau chief
• Paul Murphy
• Maya Rodriguez
• Scott Satchfield
• Bigad Shaban

Meteorologists

• Carl Arredondo (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief meteorologist, 6, 9 and 10 pm weekdays
• Dawn Brown: Weekends
• Laura Buchtel: Morning
• Jonathan Myers (AMS Seal of Approval): Noon and 5:00 pm

Sports

• Jim Henderson: Sports Director, 5, 6 and 10 weekdays
• Scott Cody: weekends, host of "4th Down on Four"
• Juan Kincaid: on-site reporter, also subs for Cody and Henderson when needed

Former on-air staff

• Jason Allen (now at WGCL-TV in Atlanta)
• Dave Barnes - meteorologist (1984-1996)
• Jim Basquil - sports anchor/reporter (?-2007; now with ESPN Radio)
• David Bernard - meteorologist (1997-2005; now chief meteorologist at WFOR-TV in Miami)
• Krystal Boothe - Traffic, weekday mornings (left in 2008 to become teacher at Chalmette High School)
• Sandy Breland - (1997-2008; now at WAFB-TV Baton Rouge; married to Dave McNamara)
• Karen Carlson - anchor
• Len Cannon - anchor (now at KHOU-TV in Houston)
• Doug Darby - reporter
• Jean Doherty - station's first female weathercaster (1967)
• Albert "Al" Duckworth - meteorologist (1968-1984; also worked at WDSU, later went to WVUE, died August 17, 2001 at age 71)
• Henry Dupre (a.k.a. "Uncle Henry") - first host of Popeye and Pals (deceased)
• Jeremy Eisenzopf (now Jeremy Eisen) - meteorologist (2006-2007; now at WXYZ in Detroit)
• Bill Elder - anchor/investigative reporter, nicknamed the "Mike Wallace of Louisiana" (1965-2000; died September 17, 2003 at age 65 of complications from cancer treatment)
• Patrick Evans
• John Ferguson - weekend sportscaster (1970s; also broadcast LSU sports over WWL radio from 1946-1987, died December 16, 2005 at age 86)
• Tom Foreman - now at CNN
• Terry Jones - (1979-2006; now at Sat-Link of Arkansas)
• Lloyd "Hap" Glaudi - Sports anchor, dubbed "The Dean of New Orleans Sports" (1964-1978; succeeded by Jim Henderson, died December 31, 1989)
• Bob Greene - reporter (2005[?]-2006)
• John M. Gumm - weekend meteorologist (1999-2005; now at WKRC in Cincinnati)
• Taylor Henry - reporter (1981-1986; now at WGNO)
• Paul Hornung - sportscaster (1967)
• Ginny Hostetler - "Miss Ginny" on WWL's version of Romper Room
• Dana Howard - Reporter (1988-1992; now at KXTV in Sacramento)
• Jennifer Huntley - Eyewitness News Early Edition and Eyewitness Morning News anchor (2000-2006; now external relations coordinator at Washington State Department of Personnel)
• Ron Hunter - anchor/reporter (1967-1972; later at WGRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, WVUE, WTIX-AM and WSMB-AM; also hosted New Orleans' Most Wanted on WGNO-TV from 1988-89; retired to Las Vegas in 1998, died June 24, 2008 at age 70) [2]
• Rosemary James - station's first female anchor/reporter (1968-197?)
• Ken Johnson - reporter
• Phil Johnson - editorialist/news director/station manager (1960-1999)
• Bob Jones - anchor (1960s)
• Jim Kincaid - anchor (1960s)
• Hoda Kotb - anchor/reporter (1992-1998; now with NBC News as a co-host of The Today Show)
• Bob Krieger - anchor/reporter (also worked at WDSU and WVUE; Died August 13, 1996)
• Dr. Janet Lawhon - anchor/medical reporter (now a board certified psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas)
• Ben Lemoine - Reporter, also covered Hurricane Katrina (2005-2007; now at KTVK in Phoenix)
• Mike Longman - reporter (later at WVUE-TV; arrested for child pornography in 2000 and sentenced to four years in prison)
• Josh McElveen (now with New England Cable News)
• Dave McNamara - reporter (1982-2006; later at KTVK in Phoenix)
• Larry Matson - sports anchor (1979?-1985?; later at WGNO-TV; then play-by-play man for the Tulane ISP Sports Network, next WJBO in Baton Rouge, morning sportscaster for Z-100 (KLRZ) in LaRose, and after that St. Charles Parish Recreation Department)
• Jim Metcalf - Anchor/reporter; A Sunday Journal (1966-1977; died March 8, 1977 at age 49, the Jim Metcalf Memorial Award is named in his honor)
• Michelle Miller - anchor/reporter (1994-2003; now with CBS News)
• Miles Muzio - meteorologist (now at KBAK in Bakersfield, California)
• Chris Myers - sports anchor/featured reporter (1982-1988; now with Fox Sports)
• Brad Panovich - Meteorologist (now at WCNC-TV in Charlotte)
• John Pela - host of The John Pela Show, a dance show styled after American Bandstand (1961-1972; also the first replacement host of Popeye and Pals in the wake of Henry Dupre's retirement; provided voiceovers)
• John Quaintance - reporter (1976-1984), morning news anchor (1979-1984; now syndicated radio host)
• Larry Ray - weekend anchor (1976-1977)
• Stephanie Riegel - political/investigative reporter (1993-2005; now with 225BatonRouge.com)
• Susan E. Roberts - anchor/reporter (1995-1997; later at WDSU-TV, now with CBS News)
• Nash C. Roberts Jr. - meteorologist (1978-2001)
• Garland Robinette: Anchor/reporter (1970-1990; married to co-anchor Angela Hill from 1978-1987; now at WWL-AM/WWL-FM)
• Norman Robinson - reporter (1981-1992; now at WDSU)
• Mike Ross - reporter (1988-2006) now anchor at KTUU-TV, Anchorage, Alaska
• Nancy Russo - meteorologist (later at WVUE)
• Shauna Sanford - anchor/reporter (2003-2006; now a project advisor at the Louisiana Department of Education/Recovery School District)
• Dan Simon - (now with CNN)
• Lea Sinclair - hosted local version of PM Magazine with Eric Paulsen; now director of communications for the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation)
• John Snell - anchor (succeeded Garland Robinette, 1990-1994; now at WVUE)
• Judy Storch
• Karen Swensen - anchor/reporter (1992-2005; now with New England Cable News)
• André Trevigne - (later at WGNO)
• Thahn Truong - reporter (2002-2005; now at KUSA, Denver, Colorado)
• Ronnie Virgets - feature reporter
• Don Westbrook - meteorologist; also provided voiceovers (retired July 30, 1999, simultaneously with Phil Johnson)
• Charles Zewe - anchor/reporter (1972-1977; later at WDSU-TV and CNN; now vice president of communications for the Louisiana State University System)

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• Eyewitness News (1970s-present)

Station Slogans

• The Spirit of Louisiana (1990-present)
• Louisiana's News Leader (1988-present)

External links

• 4 WWL-TV
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