WDSU

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WDSU
New Orleans, Louisiana
Branding	NewsChannel 6
Slogan	On Your Side
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 43 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Hearst-Argyle Television
Founded	December 6, 1948
Call letters meaning	DeSoto Hotel (station's original location) Joseph Uhalt (founder)
Former affiliations	ABC / CBS / DuMont (1948-1951)
Website	WDSU.com

WDSU is the NBC affiliate for the New Orleans, Louisiana television market. It is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 6, and its digital signal on UHF channel 43. Its transmitter is located in Chalmette, Louisiana.

The station's current tagline is "6 On Your Side."

Contents 1 History 2 Hurricane Katrina 3 News staff 4 Former staff 5 Syndicated shows formerlly shown on WDSU 6 Newscasts 7 External links

[edit] History

WDSU signed on the air on December 6, 1948 as the first television station in Louisiana. The station initially carried programming from NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont; by 1951, it became solely affiliated to NBC.

The station was originally located at the DeSoto Hotel with its sister radio station. It moved into the historic Brulatour Mansion on Royal Street in the French Quarter in April 1950.

WDSU was the leading local television station in the 1960s and much of the 1970s. That changed after Cosmos Broadcasting purchased the station. Cosmos' management eliminated much of the local flavor that made the station number one, focusing on news. By the late 1970s, rival WWL-TV had taken WDSU's place as the ratings leader. Currently, the station faces stiff competition for second place from WVUE.

WDSU was owned by Royal Street Corporation until 1972, when it was bought by Cosmos Broadcasting. The station was sold to Pulitzer in 1989. Hearst-Argyle Television bought the station in 1997 as part of a group deal. The station moved into a new facility on Howard Avenue and Baronne Street in March 1996.

WDSU became the first TV station in the market to provide color telecasts in 1955, and the first New Orleans station with its own doppler radar in the 1990s (Super Doppler 6000).

On November 11, 2006, after a remarkable 51 years in New Orleans broadcast television - the vast majority of them with WDSU, reporter and anchor Alec Gifford officially announced his retirement, capping off a legendary career as one of the stations first television journalists. His retirement is effective December 2006.[1]

WDSU's audio signal can also be heard on 87.7 FM in most areas where the video signal can be received; this is because of the electromagnetic field effect which puts the audio signal of channel 6 at the location of 87.75 MHz with tuners getting the signal at 87.7. Other examples of this include WLNE, WRGB and WTVJ. WDSU is also available to CableOne subscribers in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

[edit] Hurricane Katrina

WDSU's New Orleans studios ceased operations around 9:30pm Sunday, August 28, allowing staff at the station to take shelter. At that point, WDSU broadcasts began originating from sister Hearst-Argyle station WAPT, the ABC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, to which some WDSU on-air staff had already evacuated. Sister station WESH, the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida, also originated some on-air weather content. In the immediate weeks following the hurricane, WDSU's news content originated from WAPT with a hybrid team of WAPT and WDSU meteorologists and anchors, with programs simulcast in Jackson and New Orleans.

WDSU's analog and digital transmitters were both destroyed in the hurricane[2]. WDSU arranged to transmit via i affiliate WPXL channel 49 through the end of December 2005; reduced-power service was restored on channel 6 in October of 2005.[3] WDSU's digital channel remaines off the air as of late November 2006. WDSU is in the process of building a rugged, hurricane resistant building to house their analog and digital transmitters. They estimate that the building will be complete, and their transmitters restored to service by mid to late 2007.[4] In October of 2006, a dispute between WDSU's owner, Hearst-Argyle and Cox Communications caused WDSU's HDTV signal to be pulled from New Orleans area cable TV systems.[5] As a result, as of November 2006, no HDTV content is available from WDSU via any medium (over the air, cable, or satellite), forcing New Orleans viewers looking for high-definition NBC programming to attempt to pull in a signal from Baton Rouge affiliate WVLA.

The station is now broadcasting from its Howard Avenue studios. NBC News has even set up a "New Orleans Bureau" there so its correspondents based there can compose and file stories to headquarters in New York City.

[edit] News staff

Anchors

• Taslin Alfonzo - weekend mornings
• Kris Fairbairn - weekday evenings
• Rich Lenz - sports director; weekday evenings; anchor-weekend evenings
• Helena Moreno - weekday mornings and noon
• Norman Robinson - weekday evenings; also hosts "6 On Your Side Live"
• Roop Raj - weekday mornings and noon
• Camille Whitworth - 5 pm anchor and reporter
• Alec Gifford (retiring at the end of 2006)

Meteorologists

• Dan Milham - chief meteorologist; weekday evenings
• Margaret Orr - weekday mornings and noon
• Damon Singleton - weekend mornings
• Ron Smiley - weekend evenings

Reporters

• Heath Allen - married to former WVUE-TV reporter Janet Gross.
• Richard Angelico - investigative reporter
• Davis Brister - covers the North Shore area.
• Alec Gifford - politics; also worked for WVUE-TV.
• Ken Jones
• Travers Mackel
• Fletcher Mackel - sports. Also is Travers Mackel's brother.
• Ed Reams

[edit] Former staff

• Lisa Bacquet - now traffic reporter for Metroscan Traffic Network, New Orleans.
• Stephanie Boswell
• Ro Brown
• Leslie Carde
• Bob and Jan Carr - "Midday" and "Second Cup" hosts
• Ed Daniels - sports; now sports director at New Orleans ABC affiliate WGNO
• Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto - sportscaster; later worked for WWL Radio. Died 2005.
• Byron Dowty - sports
• Clancy DuBos - now the publisher of the New Orleans Gambit Weekly newspaper
• Terry Flettrich - "Midday" host and "Mrs. Muffin"
• Lynn Ganser
• Nancy Holland
• Marcia Kavanaugh
• Mel Leavitt
• Vince Marinello
• Gary Mattingly
• Bill Monroe - original news reporter who left for NBC in Washington and eventually became the host of NBC's Meet the Press
• Nash Roberts - meteorologist
• Susan Roberts - now at CBS News
• Susan Roesgen - now at CNN
• Al Shea - entertainment critic
• Scott Simmons - now at WAPT-TV Jackson, MS
• Steve Bellas
• Bill Stanley
• Dan Thomas - meteorologist; now at WSMV Nashville.
• Dick Van Dyke - had his own variety show before Hollywood came calling
• Stan Verrett - sports; now at ESPN
• Richard Anderson For WDSU Weekend Anchor
• Terry Wood
• Charles Zewe - formerly at CNN; now Vice President of Communications for the Louisiana State University System

[edit] Syndicated shows formerlly shown on WDSU

• Amen (1991-1995)
• The Golden Girls (1990-1996)
• Empty Nest (1993-1999)
• Roseanne (1992-1998)
• Good Times (1979-1987)
• Rolonda (mid 1990s)
• Webster (1987-1989)
• A Current Affire
• USA Today
• The John Walsh Show
• Late Night With David Letterman

WDSU test pattern used in the 1950s while the station was off the air.

WDSU promo of then-meteorologist Nash Roberts in the 1960s.

[edit] Newscasts

WEEKDAYS

• NewsChannel 6 Early This Morning, 5 - 5:30am
• NewsChannel 6 This Morning, 5:30 - 7am
• NewsChannel 6 at Noon, Noon - 1pm
• NewsChannel 6 at Five, 5 - 5:30pm
• NewsChannel 6 at Six, 6 - 6:30pm
• NewsChannel 6 at Ten, 10 - 10:30pm
• 6 On Your Side Live, 10:30 - 11pm

SATURDAY

• NewsChannel 6 Saturday Morning, 6 - 7am and 9 - 10am
• NewsChannel 6 at Five, 5 - 5:30pm
• NewsChannel 6 at Ten, 10 - 10:30pm

SUNDAY

• NewsChannel 6 Sunday Morning, 6 - 7am and 8 - 9am
• NewsChannel 6 at Five, 5 - 5:30 pm
• NewsChannel 6 at Ten, 10 - 10:30 pm

[edit] External links

• WDSU's Web site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WDSU

Broadcast television in the New Orleans market  (Nielsen DMA #54)
WWL 4 (CBS) - WDSU 6 (NBC) - WVUE 8 (Fox) - WYES 12 (PBS) - WHNO 20 (LeSEA) - WGNO 26 (ABC) - KFOL-CA 30 / KJUN-CA 7 (Ind) - WLAE 32 (PBS) - WNOL 38 (The CW) - WPXL 49 (i) - WUPL 54 / WBXN-CA 18 (MNTV)
Local cable television channels
NewsWatch 15