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New Orleans, Louisiana United States |
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Branding | WDSU (general) WDSU News (newscasts) |
Slogan | Live. Local. Latebreaking. |
Channels |
Digital: 43 (UHF) Virtual: 6 () |
Affiliations | |
Owner |
Hearst Television (New Orleans Hearst Television, Inc.) |
First air date | December 18, 1948 |
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) |
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Former affiliations |
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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°WCoordinates: 29°57′0.1″N 89°57′27.6″W / 29.950028°N 89.957667°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www |
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.
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.