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WVUE was also the callsign for Channel 12 in Wilmington, Delaware in the Early 1950s. Please see WHYY-TV for details.

WVUE
New Orleans, Louisiana
Branding	FOX 8 Fox 8 News
Slogan	Your Weather Authority
Channels	Analog: 8 (VHF) Digital: 29 (UHF)
Affiliations	FOX
Owner	Emmis Communications (sale pending)
Founded	September 1, 1953
Call letters meaning	W VUE, pronounced "view"
Former callsigns	WJMR (1953-1965)
Former channel number(s)	61 (1953-58) 20 (1958-59) 13 (1959-64) 12 (1964-70)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953-57) ABC (1953-95)
Website	www.fox8tv.net/

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.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Hurricane Katrina 2 News Staff 3 Former Employees 4 References 5 External links

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 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 and WDSU, even as ABC topped the national ratings for a time 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.

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. 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. The affiliation switch in New Orleans took place on January 1, 1996, with WVUE becoming the 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 Communications declared its intention to sell its television stations, however, a buyer for WVUE has not been found. This is possibly related to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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.

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 lowlying 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.[1] 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' pending sale of WVUE. Katrina hit while Emmis was in the midst of exiting television, and the uncertain status of the market post-Katrina has delayed the finding of a new buyer. With the New Orleans TV market not taking as much of a loss as once thought, a buyer may be found sometime in 2007.

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 ^[1]
• Sandra Gonzalez
• Rob Masson
• Natasha Robin
• Elizabeth Willis
• Sabrina Wilson

• 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 TV 27 Orlando
• Eric Clemons
• Jeff Baskin - meteorologist
• Jim Gallagher
• Joe Giardina - investigative reporter- from 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 from 1966-80; 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 - Retired
• Mike Herrera - meteorologist. Currently does voiceovers for WVUE.
• John Huffman
• George Jones
• Lori Kilgore
• 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
• Bob Pearce - photojournalist; now at KCNC-TV Denver
• Monica Pierre - now at WWL-AM/FM New Orleans
• Nash Roberts - later worked for WWL-TV; retired.
• Steve Rosanovich
• George Ryan - now public relations director at Exxon Mobil Baton Rouge
• 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

• WVUE Website
• Mod Squad Pictures (includes ident slide for WVUE)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVUE

v • d • e Emmis Communications
Radio Stations:	KBPA · KDHT · KFTK · KGSR · KIHT · KLBJ · KLBJ · KMVN · KPNT · KPWR · KROX · KSHE · WEXM · WIBC · WKQX · WLHK · WLUP · WQCD · WQHT · WRKS · WTHI-FM · WWVR · WYXB
Television Station:	WVUE
Magazines:	Atlanta
Annual Revenue: 373.26 million USD · Employees: 1,500 · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: EMMS · Website: www.emmis.com

v • d • e Broadcast television in the New Orleans market  (Nielsen DMA #53)
WWL 4 (CBS) - WDSU 6 (NBC) - WVUE 8 (Fox) - WYES 12 (PBS) - WHNO 20 (LeSEA) - WTNO 22 (AZA) - WGNO 26 (ABC) - KFOL-CA 30 / KJUN-CA 7 (Ind) - WLAE 32 (PBS/LPB) - WNOL 38 (The CW) - WPXL 49 (ION) - WUPL 54 / WBXN-CA 18 (MNTV) - KNOV 57 (Ind) Local cable television channels CST - NewsWatch 15 Local digital television channels KGLA 42 (TEL)
See also: Broadcast television stations in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi Markets

v • d • e Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Louisiana
WVUE 8 (New Orleans) - KARD 14 (West Monroe) - KADN 15 (Lafayette) - KVHP 29 (Lake Charles) - KMSS 33 (Shreveport) - WGMB 44 (Baton Rouge) - K47DW 47 / K61GO 61 / K51FO 521 (Alexandria/Hicks/Leesville) 1Stations are repeaters of WNTZ-TV Natchez, MS
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other Stations in Louisiana