Two veteran broadcasters are returning to their roots on the local airwaves, both bringing considerable experience and clout with them to their hometown.
Baton Rouge native and former WAFB-TV sports anchor André Moreau will be back on the air at the local CBS affiliate later this spring to co-anchor the 10 p.m. newscast with Donna Britt. He replaces George Sells, who will continue to man the desk with Britt at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, another homegrown journalist, Mike Steele, has left KLFY-TV in Lafayette after six-plus years to become the new capitol correspondent for WBRZ-TV. Steele assumed his new duties last month.
Not surprisingly, both broadcasters say they’re happy to be coming home. Both also have deep roots in the community. Moreau comes from a sprawling, well-connected Baton Rouge family. The youngest of 10 children, his dad was world-renowned track star Al Moreau and his brother is District Attorney Doug Moreau. He was a college athlete himself at LSU and began his broadcast career in 1985 as a sports anchor in Alexandria. Not long after, he moved to WAFB, where he spent the next eight years and was a popular local celebrity.
In 1994, André Moreau accepted a sports anchor position at WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. From there, he moved to the major markets, with reporting and anchoring stints at WJBK-TV in Detroit, KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and, most recently, KFMB-TV in San Diego.
So why the move from the nation’s No. 27 market to Baton Rouge, which is ranked 94th in the country? For Moreau, it wasn’t so much about wanting to move up the news station food chain as it was about wanting to make a lifestyle change.
“I’ve worked in top 10 markets all over the place, and I don’t find they’re all that different than any other markets,” he says. “This was a lifestyle choice. I wanted to go to some place that I knew and that I’ve known my entire life.”
Station management denies ratings had anything to do with the decision to bring a younger, fresher face to the anchor desk of 9 News at 10, and the numbers certainly don’t suggest there was any need for the change. WAFB continues to trounce the competition at 10 p.m. and is currently the second-most popular 10 p.m. newscast in the country, proportionally that is, with a market penetration of 16.2%.
Whether those killer ratings are because of the folksy, opinionated Sells or in spite of him is a matter of some debate. But Station Manager Nick Simonette says Moreau’s return to the station in no way signals a phasing out of the steely-haired Sells.
“George has been doing the 10 o’clock news for 18 years, and he needs a break,” Simonette says. “This gives him an opportunity to do more reporting and to have a little bit of a night life.”
In addition to co-anchoring the 6 p.m. newscast, Sells will concentrate on special reports. Moreau, meanwhile, will be re-acclimating himself to life in the Red Stick and gearing up for his new gig, which begins in early July.
Steele has already jumped into his new duties of covering the capitol for WBRZ. A former weekend anchor for KLFY, he is a Baton Rouge native and a 1997 graduate of Southern University. He worked briefly for KLAX-TV in Alexandria before moving to Lafayette in 1998. He did two stints at the station, with a break in between to test the 9-to-5 world of medical sales. The hours were better but he missed the excitement and returned to the station in 2000.
For Steele, the move 60 miles east is a big career jump; Lafayette is the country’s 123rd-rated market. Steele denies that he is using this as a career stepping stone. Rather, he wanted to return to his roots and be closer to family. A teenage son from a previous marriage lives in St. Francisville and plays football for West Feliciana High School. Being in Baton Rouge will give him an opportunity to make more home games.
It also gives him a chance to sink his teeth into covering the new administration, something he enjoys.
“It’s kind of fun to be so involved in the local political scene,” he says. “In Lafayette you were more removed from it. Here, there’s a lot going on.”
Comments
Posted by BR_newsie on March 27, 2008 at 4:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I find it fascinating that Ms. Riegel is in a position to critique television news when she clearly knows almost nothing about it. Did she sleep through her 12 years at WWL?
The comment I find so moronic is this: "Whether those killer ratings are because of the folksy, opinionated Sells or in spite of him is a matter of some debate." WAFB's 10pm news did a 41 share in this past book and has not fallen below a 40 in recent memory. Anyone who knows the slightest thing about TV news is aware such numbers don't pop up "in spite" of anybody. Weak links don't cut it such rarified air.
Then there's the back end of the sentence, referring to a "debate" over some sort of problem with Sells. Hey Steph, you just told me he's on the 2nd highest rated 10pm show in the country. You never mentioned who, besides yourself, thinks he might be a liability.
If anyone in Business Report management is reading this, I suggest you take a long look at who is covering media for you. I for one think journalism should be covered by journalists. Ms. Riegel seems to have some kind of a personal problem, either with Sells or WAFB. The "reporting" in this article makes one thing clear: when it comes to journalism, Stephanie Riegel is no George Sells.
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