'''''"FOX8"''''' is a television station in
New Orleans, Louisiana . It is the area's
Fox affiliate. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 8 and its digital signal on UHF channel 29. It is owned by
Emmis Communications .
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. 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.
In
1957 , it moved from channel 20 to channel 12 due to interference with WAFB, which was also on channel 20 (WAFB has since moved to channel 9).
Screen Gems bought the station in
1965 and renamed it 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 awhile 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 .
Along with WVUE, Burnham also owned VHF stations in
Mobile, Alabama (
WALA );
Green Bay, Wisconsin (
WLUK ); and
Honolulu, Hawaii (
KHON ). These VHF stations (as well as others around the country) became sought after by the
Fox network after it landed the rights to the
NFL 's National Conference football games in
1993 . As a result, in late
1994 , Fox arranged to have another company (Savvoy) purchase these four Burnham stations. Fox would own a minority voting stock in these stations and the company would be called "Savvoy Fox", or SF. (However, in 1995, Fox opted not to have voting stock in the company, although it would still hold an interest.) Meanwhile, another conglamerate called
New World Communications wanted to affiliate most of its stations with the Fox network around this time, with more stations acquired from
Argyle Television and Citicasters for the network swap for each to take place in late 1994 until mid-1995.
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 /38, which had hitherto been the market's Fox affiliate, took the
WB affiliation; the ABC affiliation went to
WGNO /26.)
In the wake of the affiliation switch, WVUE initially ran children's programming and sitcoms from 6-9am, instead of adding a morning newscast. It also ran Fox Kids in the afternoon, which by 1997 would move to the 6-9am slot. (The station would not add a morning newscast until after Fox cancelled the weekday children's block in
2002 .) Whereas, since WVUE was an Emmis station by then, it did not follow the example of the New World Fox affiliated stations that did not run Fox Kids at all, but passed on to another local counterpart.
Savvoy Fox 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 . Through all the ownership changes in the late 1990s, WVUE continued to underperform. However, since 2003, WVUE has often tied or beat WDSU for second place in the news ratings.
However, as of late, WVUE has been getting stronger shows on its lineup. It recently acquired the local rights to
Wheel Of Fortune and
Jeopardy! -- a rarity for a Fox station to carry
King World produced programming that would more likely air on the longer-standing Big Three affiliates.
In 2005,
Emmis Communications declared its intention to sell its television stations - as of
September 2005 , no buyer had been named for WVUE, although rumors that
News Corp 's Fox may buy the station from Emmis Communications, and become an Fox owned and operated station have floated around.
- FOX8 News at 5 AM - 5AM-6AM
- FOX8 News at 6 AM - 6AM-7AM
- FOX8 News at 7 AM - 7AM-8AM
- FOX8 News at Five - 5PM-5:30PM
- FOX8 News at 5:30 - 5:30PM-6PM
- FOX8 News at Nine
- ---9PM-10PM Monday thru Friday
- ---9PM-9:30PM Saturday and Sunday
