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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. ==History== 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. The radio station was originally located at the DeSoto Hotel (now the Le Pavillon Hotel) on Baronne Street; the "D" in the name stood for the DeSoto, while "S" referred to the now-defunct ''New Orleans States'' newspaper (which had maintained a news share agreement with WDSU radio that lasted for one year; the paper later merged with the ''New Orleans Item-Tribune'' in 1960, which in turn merged with the ''Times-Picayune'' in 1980) and the "U" stood for Joseph Uhalt, who founded the radio station as WCBE in 1923. WDSU-TV originally operated out of studio facilities located within the Hibernia Bank Building, the tallest building in New Orleans at the time (a plaque commemorating its distinction as the station's original broadcasting facility is located on the 14th floor of the building). The WDSU stations moved into the historic Brulatour Mansion on Royal Street in the French Quarter in April 1950; Stern had also bought other buildings near the mansion (including a lumber yard and an ice house) to construct production studios for the radio and television stations. At that point, Stern reorganized his broadcast holdings as the Royal Street Corporation. The transmitter site remained at the Hibernia Bank Building until 1955, when a new transmitter facility in Chalmette – where the tower remains today – was completed. In the 1950s, WDSU-TV became the springboard for the career of Dick Van Dyke, first as a single comedian and later as the emcee of a locally produced comedy program on the station; among his duties, Van Dyke had also served as a staff announcer, hosted music programs and appeared in a segment during the station's noon newscast.〔''New Orleans TV: The Golden Age'', documentary produced by WYES-TV (channel 12) in New Orleans, broadcast on July 18, 2009; see the (documentary's web site at WYES ). See also (WDSU Serves New Orleans Since 1948 ) and Dave Walker, (That old-time TV: New book celebrates 60 years of local stars. )〕〔''WDSU 50th Anniversary Special'', documentary produced by WDSU, broadcast on December 18, 1998; see the (documentary on YouTube ).〕 WDSU became the first television station in the New Orleans market to telecast its programming in color in 1955. WDSU was the ratings leader in New Orleans for over a quarter century, largely because of its strong commitment to coverage of local events and news. It originated the first live broadcasts of the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras, and was the first area station to provide extensive local hurricane coverage. The station was also the first television station in the market to provide statewide election coverage, as well as the first to utilize a mobile newsgathering unit. WDSU was also the first to originate an international broadcast, relaying a ''Today'' broadcast from Bimini to the United States in 1955, using a 300,000 watt transmitter built by WDSU-TV engineers via special permission granted to NBC by the Federal Communications Commission. Among the station's notable local programs over the years included ''Midday'', one of the earliest magazine programs in the United States, hosted by Terry Flettrich (later Rohe, who eventually served as senior citizens affairs correspondent for ''Good Morning America''); the ''3:00 Money Movie'', a Saturday afternoon movie showcase with irreverent wraparound segments hosted by Sam Adams, who regularly performed parody songs on a piano serving as clues to the answers during phone-in contests for cash prizes; and ''Morgus the Magnificent'', a program hosted by a mad doctor character played by Sid Noel. In January 1972, Royal Street merged with Columbia, South Carolina-based Cosmos Broadcasting in a $17 million deal. Cosmos decided to sell off the radio stations because the ownership of the three station properties combined would exceed ownership limits of the time set by the FCC. Cosmos eliminated much of the local flavor that had been the station's hallmark, opting to concentrate on its already strong news operation (channel 6 had been saluted by ''Time'' as a news pioneer in 1966). By the early 1980s, rival WWL-TV had overtaken WDSU as the top-rated station from sign-on to sign-off as well as in local news. WDSU has been a solid runner-up to WWL for most of the last quarter-century, although since the mid-2000s, it has had to fend off a strong challenge from a resurgent WVUE. In 1984, WDSU built the first working television studio at a World's Fair for the station's live broadcasts from the event held in New Orleans that year. In the early 1980s, the station sustained criticism among its viewers when it chose to pre-empt ''Late Night with David Letterman'' in favor of airing the syndicated late night talk show ''Thicke of the Night'', which was a notorious flop; around this time, the station also carried feature films during the overnight hours instead of airing the short-lived news program ''NBC News Overnight''.〔''The Times-Picayune'', Focus Forum, September 25, 1983〕 When WDSU began clearing ''Late Night'', the station aired the show later than the network-mandated 11:35 p.m. timeslot for the network's Central Time Zone station, instead airing syndicared reruns of ''The Love Boat''. Today, WDSU clears the entire NBC programming lineup, only pre-empting certain programs during instance in which the station has to carry extended breaking news and severe weather coverage. Cosmos sold WDSU to Pulitzer, Inc. for $47 million in 1989. In March 1996, the station moved into its current facility on Howard Avenue, located a few blocks from the Le Pavillon Hotel, where WDSU radio began operations in 1923. Also during the 1990s, WDSU became the first New Orleans station to operate its own Doppler weather radar system ("Super Doppler 6000"). Pulitzer sold its entire television station division, including WDSU, to Hearst-Argyle Television (predecessor to the present-day Hearst Television) in 1999 for $1.8 billion. WDSU celebrated its 60th anniversary of broadcasting on December 18, 2008.〔(WDSU-TV Celebrates 60th Anniversary ) WDSU.com〕 As of 2012, although the "channel 6" red dot logo is part of the station's branding, WDSU simply identifies its branding by its callsign only in verbal usage, with no mention of the 6. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WDSU」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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