MSS 319 - WVUE Channel 8 News Collection: Inventory

WVUE CHANNEL 8 NEWS COLLECTION

(Mss 319)

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

June 2005

 

Summary

 

Size                            Approximately 350 linear feet of reels of 16 mm film; 88.5 linear feet of scripts

Geographic

locations                   Chiefly New Orleans metropolitan area, Baton Rouge, and region within station’s broadcast signal

Inclusive dates        1968-1980

Bulk dates                1968-1980

Summary                  Film and scripts of news and sports programs broadcast by WVUE-TV, then the ABC affiliate in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Related

collections               Alec Gifford WDSU Television Archive of New Orleans Broadcasting (Mss 277); Patricia Gormin Collection (Mss 306)

Source                      Transfer from New Orleans Public Library, 2004

Access                      The library currently has no viewing facilities.  Film will be professionally restored and duplicated upon patron’s request, at the patron’s expense.

Copyright                 Physical rights rest with the Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.  Permission to broadcast must be obtained from WVUE-TV.

Citation                     WVUE Channel 8 News Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

 

Historical Note

 

The station signed on November 1, 1953, as WJMR, broadcasting on Channel 61.  The call letters changed to WVUE five years later, and although the dates are fuzzy, there were subsequent moves in the late 1950s and early 1960s to Channel 20, then Channel 12, then Channel 13.  When its signal began interfering with Channel 13 in Biloxi, it moved back to 12, which is where it stayed from 1962 until 1970.  And then WVUE made history, becoming the first commercial television station in the country to trade places on the dial with a community-owned public TV station—WYES, seen at the time on Channel 8.

 

TV was still in the pre-remote control era, so “channel-surfing” required getting out of one’s chair and turning the knobs.  In return for sparing its viewers four extra clicks of the dial, WVUE agreed to build a new broadcast tower for itself and give WYES its old 1,049-foot tower in Chalmette.  That was 600 feet higher than the PBS station’s inadequate existing tower site atop the Hibernia Bank Building.  WYES got better reception, and WVUE got a more strategic channel placement.  “This kind of a switch had never been attempted before,” said Mike Herrera a station employee since 1964, “but the FCC approved it because there were clear benefits for both.”

 

The switch was preceded by a promotional campaign that had never been seen from a New Orleans television station.  The “Click click click click!” signs that sprung up on billboards all over town were just the beginning.  “There were WVUE playing cards, WVUE electric clocks, and even little toy clickers with Channel 8 logos on them,” says Herrera, a staff announcer at the time. . . . The coup de grace was scheduled the night of June 10, 1970.  Viewers were invited to tune into “The Naked Jungle” starring Charlton Heston at 7 p.m. on Channel 12.  A third of the way through the movie, if they wanted to see the rest, they were to turn to Channel 8.  “During the 8 o’clock commercial break,” Herrera says, then-Mayor “Moon Landrieu was shown live in the WVUE studios, pulling this big prop switch.  And at that moment, WVUE’s signal switched to Channel 8.”[1]

 

A more convoluted swap occurred on January 1, 1996, when the longtime ABC affiliate switched to the Fox network, whose affiliates were noted for producing news and establishing local identities.  It was part of a three-way swap that involved ABC moving to WGNO (Channel 26) and Warner Brothers to WNOL (Channel 38).[2]  Only the network shows changed channels; local news and syndicated programs were mostly unaffected by the switch, although some were assigned to time periods.  Film in the present collection antedates this swap.

 

Notes

 

[1]Quoted almost verbatim from Mark Lorando, “Fine Tuning,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 31, 1995.

[1]Mark Lorando, “Stations Uncork Plans for Switch,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 11, 1995; “WVUE Deal Is Done; Fox Next?,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 24, 1995.

 

List of Series and Subseries

 

 

Series I.         Scripts

                        Scripts read by on-air personnel, including miscellaneous notes and summaries of programming on competing local stations.  Divided into two subseries, I.1 News and I.2 Sports.  Both subseries are incomplete.  Significant gaps are indicated in the following container list, but the occasional missing or incomplete date is not noted.

 

Series II.        Film

                                    Daily news programs, one reel per date.  Most dates between March 12, 1968, and August 27, 1980, are present.

 

Series III.       Finding Aids

                                    Alphabetical card index.

 

Container List

 

 

Series I.         Scripts

 

            Subseries I.1.   Daily News

 

BOX NUMBERS	FOLDER NUMBERS	INCLUSIVE DATES
	1 – 54	1970/10/01 – 1970/11/24
	55 – 100	1970/11/25 – 1971/01/09
	101 – 144	1971/01/10 – 1971/02/22
	145 – 196	1971/02/23 – 1971/04/15
	197 – 241	1971/04/16 – 1971/05/31
	242 – 286	1971/06/01 – 1971/07/15
	287 – 326	1971/07/16 – 1971/08/24
	327 – 372	1971/08/25 – 1971/10/10
	373 – 415	1971/10/11 – 1971/11/23
	416 – 459	1971/11/24 – 1972/01/06
	460 – 500	1972/01/07 – 1972/02/16
	501 – 542	1972/02/17 – 1972/03/29
	543 – 582	1972/03/30 – 1972/05/08
	583 – 623	1972/05/09 – 1972/06/19
	624 – 665	1972/06/20 – 1972/07/31
	666 – 707	1972/08/01 – 1972/09/11
	708 – 752	1972/09/12 – 1972/10/26
	753 – 798	1972/10/27 – 1972/12/11
	799 – 845	1972/12/12 – 1973/01/28
	846 – 893	1973/01/29 – 1973/03/17
	894 – 936	1973/03/18 – 1973/04/30
	937 – 977	1973/05/01 – 1973/06/10
	978 – 1017	1973/06/11 – 1973/07/20
	1018 – 1056	1973/07/21 – 1973/08/29
	1057 – 1095	1973/08/30 – 1973/10/07
	1096 – 1135	1973/10/08 – 1973/11/17
	1136 – 1179	1973/11/18 – 1973/12/31
	1180 – 1219	1974/01/01 – 1974/02/10
	1220 – 1261	1974/02/11 – 1974/03/25
	1262 – 1300	1974/03/26 – 1974/05/03
	1301 – 1338	1974/05/04 – 1974/06/10
	1339 – 1374	1974/06/11 – 1974/07/17
	1375 – 1410	1974/07/18 – 1974/08/22
	1411 – 1448	1974/08/23 – 1974/09/30
	1449 – 1484	1974/10/01 – 1974/11/05
	1485 – 1521	1974/11/06 – 1974/12/12
	1522 – 1556	1974/12/13 – 1974/12/31, 1975/09/29 – 1975/10/15
	1557 – 1601	1975/10/16 – 1975/11/30
	1602 – 1647	1975/12/01 – 1976/01/15
	1648 – 1688	1976/01/16 – 1976/02/25
	1689 – 1728	1976/02/26 – 1976/04/05
	1729 – 1778	1976/04/06 – 1976/05/26
	1779 – 1827	1976/05/27 – 1976/07/15
	1828 – 1879	1976/07/16 – 1976/08/03, 1976/09/01 – 1976/10/03
	1880-1931	1976/10/04 – 1976/10/09, 1977/01/01 – 1977/02/15
	1932 – 1983	1977/02/16 – 1977/04/04, 1977/06/01 – 1977/06/04
	1984 – 2028	1977/06/05 – 1977/07/20
	2029 – 2075	1977/07/21 – 1977/09/07
	2076 – 2119	1977/09/08 – 1977/10/21
	2120 – 2164	1977/10/22 – 1977/12/08
	2165 – 2207	1977/12/09 – 1978/01/21
	2208 – 2250	1978/01/22 – 1978/02/28, 1978/07/21 – 1978/07/25
	2251 – 2288	1978/07/26 – 1978/09/01
	2289 – 2338	1978/09/02 – 1978/10/22
	2339 – 2392	1978/10/23 – 1978/12/11

 

            Subseries I.2.           Sports

 

BOX NUMBERS	FOLDER NUMBERS	INCLUSIVE DATES
	2393 – 2412	1972/01/01 – 1972/06/30
	2413 – 2436	1972/07/01 – 1972/12/31
	2437 – 2464	1973/01/01 – 1973/07/31
	2465 – 2494	1973/08/01 – 1973/08/24, 1978/03/29 – 1978/10/31, 1978/11/16 – 1978/11/30

 

 

Series II.        Film

 

                        1968/01/04 – 1968/01/05, 1968/03/12 – 1980/08/27

 

 

Series III.       Finding Aids

 

                        Card file in Reading Room

 

Index Terms

 

 

Television broadcasting of news—Louisiana—New Orleans

Television programs—Louisiana—New Orleans

Television stations—Louisiana—New Orleans

WVUE-TV (Television station : New Orleans, La.)

[1]Quoted almost verbatim from Mark Lorando, “Fine Tuning,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 31, 1995.