WVUE at Full Power

WVUE New Orleans, the city’s Emmis Communications-owned Fox affiliate, is back on the air in New Orleans with a full power signal. On Monday afternoon, for the first time since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and crippled local broadcasters, WVUE resumed broadcasts from its tower in St. Bernard’s Parish outside of New Orleans.

The station’s transmitter flooded after Hurricane Katrina and was inoperable. Immediately after the storm, WVUE was off the air but managed to resume broadcasts with a low-power transmitter. That signal, however, did not reach the majority of the market.

Last weekend, WVUE engineers cleaned the tower of sludge and debris, Emmis says, that included an 18-foot boat and installed a new generator and air conditioner. WVUE will use the low-power transmitter as an alternate site.

WVUE is running regular Fox programming with a news crawl at the bottom of the screen, as well as news updates and regularly-scheduled newscasts