Digital subchannel

WRBT-TV/WVLA-TV id montage (1979-2015)—NBC 33, Local 33, Channel 33

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• published: 31 Dec 2015
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Here is a station id montage for the NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge, LA, WVLA-TV. All copyrights acknowledged. The earliest ids are from 1979. For the most part, WRBT/WVLA has always used the NBC logo of the period in its own logo. During the 1980s into the mid 1990s, local businessman and musician Cyril Vetter owned the station, and, for the most part, it used localized versions of NBC promos and slogans. 0:09 shows ids from 1983/early 1984, the Be There campaign. 0:33 begins the “33 Let’s All Be There” era from 1984-1985, and 1:01 starts the second version of “33 Let’s all be there” from 1985-1986 (used until NBC modified its peacock logo). In 1986, WRBT used the slogan “Come Home to 33” (1:50), and it also became Baton Rouge’s first TV station to adopt stereo broadcasting. In November 1987, after upgrading its signal to 5 million watts, the station changed its call sign to WVLA (Vetter Louisiana) and modified its logo to a Circular 33 logo (33 a New Vision)—see 4:05. The new vision logo was used until 1988 when WVLA resumed using localized versions of NBC graphics; Come Home to the Best Only on 33 is shown at 4:35 and was used from 1988 until early 1990. By late 1989, WVLA eliminated most of its newscasts, aside from its morning news program and a handful of primetime newsbreaks and an information hotline. In 1990, along with the slogan “WVLA the Place to Be,” it also used the mantra “entertainment television,” (see 6:55). This was the last slogan set with the circular 33 logo. In late 1992, the station adopted a parallelogram logo used with “The stars are back on 33” slogan (starts at 12:25). Notable was a rather scary/dark looking station id with a WVLA flag flying in a dark background (see 12:36). During this era, WVLA, perhaps taking from the WAFB playbook, used some of its staffers, like Larry Davis and Monique Bienville and later Jeanne Burns (who boomeranged back to the station in 2012), to plug various programs the station aired as station ids as well as various community events around Baton Rouge sponsored by the station. Another tactic used a promo alongside manipulations of the NBC peacock (see 23:52 for an example). This logo motif was used until Vetter sold the station to Sheldon Galloway/White Knight Broadcasting in 1996. Starting at this point, WVLA rebranded as NBC 33 (starting at 27:12). The logo got a slight upgrade in 1998 (see 32:23). In 2000, the logo was upgraded again with many promos and ids featuring Pamela Henkel Matassa and Leo Honeycutt, who hosted the morning program (see 34:35). In 2001, WVLA adopted a rectangular logo of red, white, and blue similar to that of WRCB in Chattanooga (36:55). Around the summer of 2001, the station went back to using its call letters WVLA instead of NBC 33 and used the services of Eric Gordon for announcing. By 2002, the station called itself TV 33, and by 2004, went back to NBC 33 again. Most ids from this era did not feature staffers; in fact, the morning news program was cancelled in early 2004, leaving WVLA sans any newscasts for 3 years. In early 2007, WVLA relaunched a fully staffed news department with primetime news likely due to the population boom post Hurricane Katrina (although rumors indicate NBC was considering other stations for its Baton Rouge affiliate if WVLA continued to operate without newscasts). The logo got a facelift with this, see 41:40 for the start—ids used “LA Groove,” which was the news theme of the era—a handful of promos also used “iNews” by First Com, as well, especially around 2009/2010. After two years, the local newscast was outsourced to KETK, but, this was short lived as WVLA began producing local news again in 2010 with the BP Gulf Oil Spill; some slight upgrades, including the slogan “We Tell Your Stories Everyday,” and a new news theme “The Rock,” are featured (see 44:10). This presentation remained the same until after Nexstar began operating the station in 2015. In late 2015, the news set was upgraded, branding was changed to Local 33, and news theme “Evolution” replaced “The Rock.” 52:47 features modern ids from WVLA. WVLA had a digital subchannel until 2015. After airing NBC Weather Plus, it took on This TV (see 46:32 from 2008-2012). In September 2012, it lost This TV to WBTR/KBTR-CA, which only airs the network’s programming sporadically. From September 2012-January 2015, WVLA aired a local weather radar and rebroadcasts of its newscasts on 33.2, AKA Always On (see 51:02). In January 2015, Nexstar shut down the subchannel with no replacement programming.