general wdsu news newscasts slogan live . local . latebreaking . channels digital 43 uhf virtual 6 psip subchannels 6.1 nbc 6.2 metv affiliations nbc owner hearst television new orleans hearst television inc. first air date december 18 1948 1948 12 18 call letters meaning taken from wdsu am fm which were once housed at the desoto hotel and were founded by joseph uhalt former callsigns wdsu tv 1948 1998 former channel number s analog 6 vhf 1948 2009 former affiliations all secondary dumont 1948 1955 cbs 1948 1957 abc 1948 1957 nta film network 1957 1961 dt2 nbc weather plus march december 2008 noaa weather radio 2008 2009 ; march april 2012 the local accuweather channel 2009 2012 transmitter power 1000 kw height 230 m facility id 71357 transmitter coordinates 29 57 0.1 n 89 57 27.6 w 29.950028 n 89.957667 w 29.950028 ; 89.957667 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wdsu.com wdsu virtual channel 6 uhf digital channel 43 is an nbc affiliated television station located in new orleans louisiana united states . the station is owned by the hearst television subsidiary of the hearst corporation . wdsu maintains studio facilities located on howard avenue in the new orleans central business district and its transmitter is located on paris road highway 47 in chalmette . on cable wdsu is carried on cox communications channel 7 in standard definition and digital channel 1007 in high definition . contents 1 history 1.1 hurricane katrina 1.2 hurricane gustav 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 2.3 digital retransmission disputes 3 programming 4 news operations 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on december 18 1948 ; it was the first television station to sign on in the state of louisiana . wdsu tv was founded by new orleans businessman edgar b. stern jr. owner of wdsu radio 1280 am now wodt ; and 93.3 fm now wque fm which he had recently purchased along with the construction permit to build the television station for 750 000 . the station has been a primary nbc affiliate since it signed on earning the affiliation as a result of wdsu am s longtime affiliation with the nbc red network however it initially also carried programming from the three other major broadcast networks at the time cbs abc and dumont . it lost dumont programming when that network ceased operations in august 1956 . even after wjmr tv channel 61 now fox affiliate wvue on channel 8 signed on in november 1953 as a primary cbs and secondary abc affiliate wdsu continued to cherry pick a few of the higher rated programs carried by those two networks until september 1957 when wwl tv channel 4 signed on as a full time cbs affiliate . at that time wjmr became a full time abc affiliate leaving wdsu exclusively with nbc . wdsu s longtime french quarter location seen shortly before their move in 1996 . the radio station was originally located at the desoto hotel now the le pavillon hotel on baronne street ; the d in the name stood for the desoto while s referred to the now defunct new orleans states newspaper which had maintained a news share agreement with wdsu radio that lasted for one year ; the paper later merged with the new orleans item tribune in 1960 which in turn merged with the times picayune in 1980 and the u stood for joseph uhalt who founded the radio station as wcbe in 1923 . wdsu tv originally operated out of studio facilities located within the hibernia bank building the tallest building in new orleans at the time a plaque commemorating its distinction as the station s original broadcasting facility is located on the 14th floor of the building . the wdsu stations moved into the historic brulatour mansion on royal street in the french quarter in april 1950 ; stern had also bought other buildings near the mansion including a lumber yard and an ice house to construct production studios for the radio and television stations . at that point stern reorganized his broadcast holdings as the royal street corporation . the transmitter site remained at the hibernia bank building until 1955 when a new transmitter facility in chalmette where the tower remains today was completed . in the 1950s wdsu tv became the springboard for the career of dick van dyke first as a single comedian and later as the emcee of a locally produced comedy program on the station ; among his duties van dyke had also served as a staff announcer hosted music programs and appeared in a segment during the station s noon newscast . 1 wdsu became the first television station in the new orleans market to telecast its programming in color in 1955 . wdsu was the ratings leader in new orleans for over a quarter century largely because of its strong commitment to coverage of local events and news . it originated the first live broadcasts of the sugar bowl and mardi gras and was the first area station to provide extensive local hurricane coverage . the station was also the first television station in the market to provide statewide election coverage as well as the first to utilize a mobile newsgathering unit . wdsu was also the first to originate an international broadcast relaying a today broadcast from bimini to the united states in 1955 using a 300 000 watt transmitter built by wdsu tv engineers via special permission granted to nbc by the federal communications commission . among the station s notable local programs over the years included midday one of the earliest magazine programs in the united states hosted by terry flettrich later rohe who eventually served as senior citizens affairs correspondent for good morning america ; the 3 00 money movie a saturday afternoon movie showcase with irreverent wraparound segments hosted by sam adams who regularly performed parody songs on a piano serving as clues to the answers during phone in contests for cash prizes ; and morgus the magnificent a program hosted by a mad doctor character played by sid noel . in january 1972 royal street merged with columbia south carolina based cosmos broadcasting in a 17 million deal . cosmos decided to sell off the radio stations because the ownership of the three station properties combined would exceed ownership limits of the time set by the fcc . cosmos eliminated much of the local flavor that had been the station s hallmark opting to concentrate on its already strong news operation channel 6 had been saluted by time as a news pioneer in 1966 . by the early 1980s rival wwl tv had overtaken wdsu as the top rated station from sign on to sign off as well as in local news . wdsu has been a solid runner up to wwl for most of the last quarter century although since the mid 2000s it has had to fend off a strong challenge from a resurgent wvue . in 1984 wdsu built the first working television studio at a world s fair for the station s live broadcasts from the event held in new orleans that year . in the early 1980s the station sustained criticism among its viewers when it chose to pre empt late night with david letterman in favor of airing the syndicated late night talk show thicke of the night which was a notorious flop ; around this time the station also carried feature films during the overnight hours instead of airing the short lived news program nbc news overnight . 2 when wdsu began clearing late night the station aired the show later than the network mandated 11 35 p.m. timeslot for the network s central time zone station instead airing syndicated reruns of the love boat . today wdsu clears the entire nbc programming lineup only pre empting certain programs during instances in which the station has to carry extended breaking news or severe weather coverage . wdsu building on howard avenue . cosmos sold wdsu to pulitzer inc. for 47 million in 1989 . in march 1996 the station moved into its current facility on howard avenue located a few blocks from the le pavillon hotel where wdsu radio began operations in 1923 . also during the 1990s wdsu became the first new orleans station to operate its own doppler weather radar system super doppler 6000 . pulitzer sold its entire television station division including wdsu to hearst argyle television predecessor to the present day hearst television in 1999 for 1.8 billion . wdsu celebrated its 60th anniversary of broadcasting on december 18 2008 . 3 as of 2012 although the channel 6 red dot logo is part of the station s branding wdsu simply identifies its branding by its callsign only in verbal usage with no mention of the 6 . in 2015 the nbc peacock logo was added to the channel 6 red dot logo ; due to the network s requirement to the nbc logo included with any affiliate s logo . hurricane katrina edit prior to the landfall of hurricane katrina wdsu shut down operations at its studios in new orleans around 9 30 p.m. on august 28 2005 in order to allow station staff to take shelter from the oncoming hurricane . at that point wdsu s broadcasts began to originate from the studios of abc affiliated sister station wapt in jackson mississippi where some of wdsu s on air staff had already evacuated . fellow sister station nbc affiliate wesh in orlando florida also originated some on air weather content during the storm . in the weeks that immediately followed the hurricane wdsu s news programming originated from the wapt facility using meteorologists and anchors from both stations with programs being simulcast in jackson and new orleans . wdsu s iconic studio tower 2014 the howard avenue studio facility largely withstood hurricane katrina with minimal damage but wdsu s analog and digital transmitters were both destroyed in the storm . 4 in early september wdsu arranged to transmit its signal via i now ion television affiliate wpxl channel 49 through the end of december 2005 ; wdsu also partnered with i owned and operated station kpxb tv in houston to simulcast wdsu s morning newscast and continuing coverage of the storm s aftermath that channel 6 had aired between 6 00 and 11 00 p.m. from september 7 to september 13 2005 . 5 the station restored its analog signal operating at reduced power in october 2005 . 1 wdsu chose to replace its existing transmitter building with an elevated and rugged hurricane resistant building to house its analog and digital transmitters ; construction of this building was completed in early february 2008 . 2 3 wdsu s digital signal was restored on august 1 2007 having temporarily shared a frequency with lesea broadcasting owned whno s digital signal on uhf channel 21 . in late february 2008 wdsu s analog signal was upgraded to full power and its digital signal on channel 6.1 was restored on march 6 2008 . hurricane gustav edit in september 2008 wdsu broadcast continuous coverage of the approach landfall and aftermath of hurricane gustav for five consecutive days . the storm prompted a massive evacuation of much of the station s viewing area . as a result on september 1 2008 satellite provider directv began simulcasting wdsu s coverage of hurricane gustav nationally on channel 361 . its storm coverage was also streamed on the station s website while its broadcast audio was carried by the stations within citadel communications new orleans radio cluster . c span2 and abc affiliate wbrz channel 2 in baton rouge also ran portions of the station s live news coverage of gustav . wdsu tapped the