Effective today, WVLA and WGMB will no longer be producing or anchoring a local newscast out of Baton Rouge. The NBC affiliate will continue to air newscasts at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., and the Fox newscast will air at 9 p.m., but the broadcasts will originate out of a sister station in Tyler, Texas, with local news, sports and weather shipped in.
What this means for staffing on the news side at the two stations is unclear. Jim Baronet, general manager of the stations, would not give further details. A weekend WVLA newscast had been originating from KETK in Tyler since the fall. WVLA and FOX News Louisiana have struggled in the ratings ever since they began airing local news exactly two years ago. In quarterly ratings periods it has never earned more than a 1% share of the viewing audience, which translates into 2,000 households or so at best. The statewide news program aired in several cities around the state, though only in Baton Rouge was the newscast broadcast live in its entirety. For sister stations in Lafayette and Shreveport, certain local segments were pre-recorded to look live. It was a cost-saving measure designed to enable parent company Communication Corp. of America to air news in several markets for the price of producing one.—Stephanie Riegel
