wilmington delaware see wvue delaware . not to be confused with the abc affiliate in austin texas kvue . wvue dt new orleans louisiana united states branding fox 8 general fox 8 news newscasts slogan we investigate general your first choice for news secondary channels digital 29 uhf virtual 8 psip subchannels 8.1 fox 8.2 bounce tv 8.3 grit affiliations fox owner louisiana media company louisiana media company llc operator raycom media first air date november 1 1953 1953 11 01 call letters meaning vue is the french word for view former callsigns wjmr tv 1953 1959 wvue tv 1959 2009 former channel number s analog 61 uhf 1953 1956 20 uhf 1956 1959 13 vhf 1959 1962 12 vhf 1962 1970 8 vhf 1970 2008 digital 8 vhf 2008 2010 former affiliations primary cbs 1953 1957 abc 1953 1995 secondary until 1957 secondary nta film network 1957 1961 rtv 8.2 2010 2011 transmitter power 850 kw height 292 m facility id 4149 transmitter coordinates 29 57 14.0 n 89 56 58.0 w 29.953889 n 89.949444 w 29.953889 ; 89.949444 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox8live.com wvue dt virtual channel 8 uhf digital channel 29 is a fox affiliated television station located in new orleans louisiana united states . the station is owned by the louisiana media company which is controlled by tom benson owner of the new orleans saints nfl and new orleans pelicans nba franchises ; 1 raycom media operates wvue under a shared services agreement . wvue maintains primary studio facilities located on jefferson davis parkway in the city s gert town section with a secondary studio located within the benson tower in downtown new orleans ; 2 3 its transmitter is located on paris road highway 47 in chalmette . on cable wvue is available on cox communications channel 9 in standard definition and in high definition on digital channel 1009 . contents 1 history 1.1 early years with abc and cbs 1.2 fox affiliation 1.3 hurricane katrina 1.4 purchase by tom benson and ssa with raycom 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit early years with abc and cbs edit the station first signed on the air on november 1 1953 as wjmr tv ; it was the second television station to sign on the air in the new orleans market behind wdsu tv which signed on in december 1948 and the third in louisiana behind wdsu tv and baton rouge s wafb which signed on in april 1953 . originally broadcasting on uhf channel 61 it was moved to channel 20 on july 20 1955 . 4 it originally operated as a primary cbs affiliate while splitting abc programming in off hours with wdsu tv . during 1957 and 1958 wjmr tv had simulcast its signal on vhf channel 12 using the call sign kk2xfw . 5 when wwl tv channel 4 signed on in september 1957 wwl took over the cbs affiliation because of wwl radio s longtime affiliation with the cbs radio network leaving wjmr with abc . the station moved to vhf channel 13 on january 13 1959 and subsequently changed its call letters to wvue on february 1 . the station moved to channel 12 on september 6 1962 due to interference with biloxi mississippi abc affiliate wlox which also broadcasts on channel 13 . screen gems the television arm of columbia pictures acquired the station in 1965 . on june 8 1970 at 8 00 p.m. it made a highly publicized switch of channel positions with the city s pbs member station wyes tv and moved to vhf channel 8 . this was done to give wvue a greater broadcast signal range ; while on channel 12 it had operated at relatively low power to avoid interfering with the signal of jackson mississippi s wjtv which had also broadcast on channel 12 . 6 the channel 61 allocation was later assigned to wlpn lp which operated from 1989 to the late 2000s and the channel 20 allocation was assigned to religious station whno which signed on in october 1994 . wvue logo in 1974 . throughout the 1970s and 1980s the station consistently ranked at 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 pre emptions of network programs . for example during much of the 1970s wvue preempted portions of abc s daytime soap opera lineup and aired westerns cartoons and off network sitcoms in their place . additionally wvue did not carry many of the network s saturday morning cartoons as well as american bandstand . wvue also pre empted abc s late night programming which prior to the 1979 debut of nightline consisted of movies and reruns of primetime series . viewers in the new orleans market that wanted to see most of abc s full schedule could watch the network s other affiliates in surrounding markets wrbt now wvla and later wbrz from baton rouge west of new orleans to wlox from biloxi to the east or to wapt from jackson to the north . columbia pictures sold wvue to oklahoma city based gaylord broadcasting company in 1977 . under the new ownership wvue reinstated abc s entire lineup of daytime soaps to its schedule in the fall of 1978 . in spite of ownership changes and programming modifications wvue was still unable to improve its standing in the ratings . wvue started broadcasting 24 hours a day in june 1986 becoming the last commercial television station in new orleans to transition to a round the clock schedule . 7 when gaylord broadcasting began a gradual paring down of its station group in 1987 which would not be completed until 1999 wvue was sold to the burnham broadcasting company . the station continued to underperform in the ratings into the 1990s . fox affiliation edit on december 18 1993 the fox broadcasting company outbid cbs for the rights to the nfl s national football conference television package . 8 in march 1994 fox partnered with minority owned communications firm savoy pictures which would serve as majority partner to form sf broadcasting . 9 on august 25 1994 the company bought wvue wala tv in mobile alabama and khon tv in honolulu hawaii for 229 million ; fellow sister station wluk tv in green bay wisconsin was sold to the company one month earlier in a separate 38 million deal which for a time was challenged by an fcc petition filed by nbc alleging that the deal violated foreign investment limits for u.s. broadcasters 10 11 12 the only burnham station exempted from the deal was kbak tv in bakersfield california which was spun off to westwind communications a company founded by several former burnham executives . as part of the deal fox signed a long term agreement in which the network would affiliate with sf s four big three network affiliates beginning in the fall of 1995 . fox originally planned to own a minority voting stock in sf broadcasting ; however in 1995 fox opted against holding a voting interest which would have resulted in the stations being counted against the fcc s station ownership total although it would retain an ownership stake . the transaction was completed in the summer of 1995 . wvue tv affiliated with fox on january 1 1996 ending its 43 year affiliation with abc which moved to independent station wgno channel 26 ; new orleans s original fox affiliate wnol tv channel 38 took the wb affiliation that network had been affiliated with wgno for just shy of a year prior to the switch due to that station s owner tribune broadcasting s partial ownership interest in the wb . of the former burnham stations that switched to fox wvue was the only one involved in the deal that was an abc affiliate wala now owned by the meredith corporation wluk now owned by the sinclair broadcast group and khon now owned by media general had previously been affiliated with nbc . unlike the new world communications owned stations that joined fox around the same timeframe the savoy stations including wvue carried fox s children s programming on weekday mornings and afternoons as well as on saturday mornings ; the network later discontinued the fox kids weekday blocks in 2002 with the saturday morning lineup remaining until its successor 4kids tv ended in november 2008 . 13 ratings for fox s programming had increased slightly from when the network was affiliated with wnol however viewership for wvue s newscasts remained well behind that of wwl tv and wdsu . the station acquired additional syndicated talk shows to fill certain daytime slots where abc programming formerly aired . because of fox s acquisition of television rights to the national football conference the switch resulted in channel 8 becoming the unofficial home station for the new orleans saints carrying many of the team s sunday afternoon road games . wwl tv had aired most of the saints games beginning in 1970 when cbs assumed rights to the nfc upon the merger of the american football league and the national football league ; when cbs lost the nfc broadcast rights to fox in 1994 the saints telecasts resided on wnol tv for the following two years . in addition to wvue the team s regular season games televised over the air locally are split primarily between wwl tv for select games televised by cbs in which the saints play against an afc opponent ; cbs also had the rights to the saints lone super bowl wgno through over the air rights to the nfl network s thursday night football package wdsu through nbc s rights to sunday primetime and select playoff games as well as its local broadcast rights to monday night football games during occasions when a game involving the saints is scheduled and preseason games which as of 2015 are produced by raycom s sports division raycom sports . 14 on november 28 1995 silver king communications operated by former fox executive barry diller announced that it would acquire savoy pictures ; 15 at the time of the purchase silver king s existing stations had mainly been affiliates of the home shopping network both silver king and hsn were later acquired by usa networks . the sale of wvue and the other sf stations was approved and finalized in march 1996 with its other assets being merged into the company that november . on april 1 1998 silver king subsequently sold the stations to emmis communications for 307 million in cash and stock as part of a sale of its major network affiliates in order to concentrate on its formerly hsn affiliated independent stations . 16 beginning under emmis wvue strengthened its syndicated programming inventory including acquiring the local syndication rights to wheel of fortune and jeopardy as part of a group deal with emmis fox affiliates a rarity for a fox station prior to airing on channel 8 the two shows aired for about two decades on wwl tv . on may 15 2005 emmis communications announced that it would sell its 16 television stations including wvue in order to concentrate on its radio properties . 17 hurricane katrina edit wvue s jefferson davis parkway studio march 2007 . after hurricane katrina struck greater new orleans on august 29 2005 wvue temporarily moved its operations to the studios of then sister station wala tv in mobile alabama . wvue s facility on jefferson davis parkway is located in a low lying part of new orleans that was badly flooded due to