Dish Network subscribers in New Orleans lost access to WVUE, the Fox-affiliate in New Orleans, earlier this week, after the two parties could not reach a retransmission consent agreement by the January 31 deadline.

Dish Network said that WVUE, which is owned by Louisiana Media, is asking for affiliate fee increases as much as 300%. David Schull, senior vice president of programming at Dish, said in a statement that WVUE is being “unreasonable in its demands.”

WVUE addressed the disagreement in a statement on the station website, saying negotiations continue “in order to reach a fair agreement and to restore Dish’s carriage of WVUE.”

As the AMS holds its annual meeting this week, a group of conservationists has launched a campaign pressuring TV meteorologists “to report the facts about climate change.”

Forecast the Facts is backed by three non-profit organizations and its goal is to hold meteorologists accountable on climate change.

“Scientists have been predicting for years that human-induced climate change would lead to a future of increasingly dangerous extreme weather events,” the campaign states. “But when most Americans tune into their local weather report, they won’t hear a peep about climate change. Why? Because the majority of TV meteorologists don’t believe in it.” Read more

Jessica Holly, a former WGNO anchor who was cut loose from the New Orleans ABC-affiliate last year, has resurfaced at rival WVUE.

“She is working as a freelancer,” WVUE news director Mikel Schaefer told TVSpy via email.

Holly was one of seven people let go from WGNO during a round of layoffs in December.

Holly debuted on Fox-affiliate WVUE on Monday. She has been reporting on the evening newscasts this week.

Steve Alexander, a reporter at CBS-affiliate WKRG in Mobile, is leaving the station next month when his contract is up.

“I want to take a moment to thank all of you,” Alexander wrote on Facebook. “My contract at Channel 5 is not being renewed, and my last day at work is November 20.”

Alexander joined WKRG in 2000 from KAVU, the ABC-affiliate in in Victoria, TX. He has also worked at WVUE in New Orleans, KDEB in Springfield, MO and WTVW in Evansville.

WTHR staffers at the 2011 Murrow Awards

Twenty local television stations were presented with Edward R. Murrow Awards at an RTDNA dinner honoring the winners in New York City last night. TVSpy was there as WTHR in Indianapolis was presented the award for Overall Excellence in a large market. WGRZ in Buffalo was honored for Overall Excellence in a small market.

Although the winners represented every platform of the news industry — national news, radio, online — enthusiasm for the local stations was palpable, with staffers from winning stations cheering on their colleagues audibly as they took the stage to accept their awards.

In his opening speech, RTDNA chairman Kevin Benz implored the 95 Murrow award winners — more than the RTDNA has ever presented before — to “celebrate truth through journalism.”

“The practice of producing great journalism is as important today as it has ever been,” he told the packed ballroom at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. Read more

WVUE is expanding their news programming to include a 4 p.m. newscast this fall.

The Fox affiliate in New Orleans will replace “Judge Judy” in the 4 p.m. timeslot. The new program will be anchored by Nancy Parker and Kim Holden, with weather updates from Bob Breck and sports news from Jennifer Hale (pictured).

Hale, currently the station’s morning anchor, will move to sports anchor permanently with the new broadcast, which debuts on September 12. WVUE news director Mikel Schaefer told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that Hale’s move to sports was “organic,” and was inspired by her performance as a fill-in sports anchor after the departures of John Henry Smith and Rob Ennis this summer.

Seven local news stations were nominated today for TV News and Documentary Emmys. The stations were nominated in two categories: Outstanding Regional News Story for Spot News, and Outstanding Regional News Story for Investigative Reporting.

For the spot news category, the nominees are WMAQ for “Blurr Oak Cemetary Scandal” and WSMV for “1000 Year Flood.”

For investigative reporting, the nominees are KMGH for “33 Minutes to 34 Right,” KHOU for “Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard,” KUSA for “Foreclosure Woes,” WHTR for “State of Your Money” and WVUE for “Missing from the Bench.”

The nominated stations represent three NBC affiliates, one NBC O&O, one CBS affiliate, one ABC affiliate and one Fox affiliate. The Emmys will be awarded in New York City on September 26.

“Certainly during May, we were driven in large part by the rising Mississippi river waters and flooding in the area,” said WWL anchor Mike Hoss, describing the latest sweeps period for the New Orleans market.

Here’s how stations fared in the Crescent City during May sweeps (change from May 2010 noted in parentheses)…

Household:

	6:00 a.m.	5:00 p.m.	6:00 p.m.	11 p.m.
WGNO (ABC)	0.7 (-22%)	2.4 (+72%)	1.6 (-12%)	3.1 (+25%)
WWL (CBS)	8.2 (-26%)	10.9 (-12%)	10.6 (-22%)	10.5 (-11%)
WDSU (NBC)	5.4 (+22%)	6.0 (+23%)	6.9 (+19%)	6.0 (+34%)
WVUE (Fox)	3.2 (+17%)	5.7 (-7%)	N/A	8.0 (+14%)

The Society of Professional Journalists announced the winners of its 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award this week. The awards banquet will be held on September 24th in New Orleans, giving WVUE an opportunity to accept their award for Investigative Reporting in front of a hometown crowd.

Here’s a list of winners:

Investigative Reporting (Small-Market Station, 51+)
The Gravy Train – by Lee Zurik, Donny Pearce, Greg Phillips and Mikel Schaefer, WVUE

Investigative Reporting (Large-Market Station 1-50)
Their Crime, Your Dime – by Chris Ingalls, Kellie Cheadle and Steve Douglas, KING

Feature Reporting (Large-Market Station 1-50)
Land of 10,000 Stories – by Boyd Huppert, Jonathan Malat and Bill Middeke, KARE

Breaking News Coverage (Small-Market Station 51+)
Family Feud – by A.J. Lagoe, Paul Nevadomski, Ben Arnold and Katelyn Sherwood, WRIC

Breaking News Coverage (Large-Market Station 1-50)
Palm Bay Hospital Gunman – by Staff, Central Florida News 13

Video of the winning entries is available on SPJ’s website.

RTDNA has officially announced the winners of the 2011 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

KUSA (Denver), KARE (Minneapolis-St. Paul), KRDO (Colorado Springs), and WGRZ (Buffalo) had especially impressive showings this year, dominating their respective divisions in addition to winning Overall Excellence.

In a show of vindication for KARE’s departing VP of News Tom Lindner, the NBC-affiliate won 7 of the 12 categories in its division.

KTUL (Tulsa) and WVUE (New Orleans) also garnered a significant amount of awards, with their call signs showing up more than any other station in their individual divisions.

List of winners inside… Read more