| ATSC 3.0 station | |
|---|---|
 | |
| |
| City | Slidell, Louisiana |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WUPL 54 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WWL-TV | |
| History | |
| Founded | November 21, 1994 |
First air date | June 1, 1995 (30 years ago) (1995-06-01) |
Former channel numbers |
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| UPN (1995–2006) | |
Call sign meaning | "UPN Louisiana" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 13938 |
| ERP | 850 kW |
| HAAT | 295.8 m (970 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 29°54′22.9″N90°2′22.1″W / 29.906361°N 90.039472°W /29.906361; -90.039472 |
| Translator(s) | WBXN-CD 36 New Orleans |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WUPL (channel 54) is atelevision station licensed toSlidell, Louisiana, United States, serving theNew Orleans area as an affiliate ofMyNetworkTV. It is owned byTegna Inc. alongsideCBS affiliateWWL-TV (channel 4). The two stations share studios onRampart Street in the historicFrench Quarter district; WUPL's transmitter is located on Cooper Road inTerrytown, Louisiana.
The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1995, as an affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN). It was owned byTexas broadcaster Larry Safir via his company, Middle America Communications. Safir also ownedUnivision affiliateKNVO in theRio Grande Valley. Prior to the station's sign-on,WHNO (channel 20) was approached by UPN for an affiliation, though WHNO's ownerLeSEA Broadcasting declined all netlet offers on their stations through the country, as the programming planned for both UPN and competitorThe WB conflicted with the company's core programming values; as a result, programming from UPN, which launched on January 16, 1995, was only available on New Orleans-area cable and satellite providers throughNew York City-based nationalsuperstationWWOR for the5+1⁄2 months prior to WUPL's debut. Along with programming from UPN, the station ran a general entertainment format, offering vintage off-networksitcoms,talk shows,court shows and other syndicated programs. In 1996, Safir entered a deal withCox Enterprises to take over operations of the station, and in 1997, he sold the station to theParamount Stations Group subsidiary ofViacom; as a result, WUPL became a UPNowned-and-operated station (Viacom launched UPN in a programming partnership withChris-Craft Industries/United Television, and acquired a 50% interest in the network from Chris-Craft/United in 1996).
Viacom merged withCBS in 2000. Despite Viacom's ownership of WUPL, the market's CBS affiliation remained onWWL-TV (channel 4), the highest-rated television station in New Orleans and CBS' strongest affiliate for over 20 years. Viacom briefly considered buying WWL-TV, in which it would create a duopoly with WUPL. However, afterBelo Corporation turned down Viacom's offer to buy the station, Viacom decided instead to sell WUPL to Belo in July 2005 for $14.5 million.
On January 24, 2006,Time Warner andCBS Corporation (the latter of which took over WUPL and UPN after Viacom split into two companies one month earlier) announced that both companies would partner to launchThe CW, which would replace The WB and UPN; the network, which debuted on September 18, 2006, would feature a mix of programs carried over from its two predecessor networks as well as newer series.[3][4] The day of the announcement of the network's formation,Tribune Broadcasting signed a ten-year agreement to affiliate the network with 16 of the group's 19 WB affiliates; as a result, WNOL-TV (channel 38) was announced as The CW's New Orleans affiliate.
Three weeks later, on February 9, CBS filed a lawsuit against Belo Corporation over the failure to finalize the sale of WUPL to Belo. The deal was slated to close by the end of 2005, but was placed on hold whenHurricane Katrina devastated theNew Orleans metropolitan area in late August of that year.[5][6] Though the lawsuit provided some doubt as to its future affiliation, on July 12, 2006, it was announced that WUPL would become an affiliate ofMyNetworkTV. SinceNews Corporation ownsFox and MyNetworkTV, CBS originally relented on allowing any of its UPN affiliates to affiliate with the new network because The CW did not affiliate with any of News Corporation's UPN stations (CBS and Time Warner instead chose Tribune andCBS Television Stations as The CW's core station groups, with Tribune getting affiliations in the three largestmarkets ofNew York City,Los Angeles andChicago among other markets, along with Tribune'sWNOL-TV in New Orleans).
On February 26, 2007, Belo announced that it would go forward with the purchase of WUPL from CBS.[7] A Belo press release also said the sale—which had already received FCC approval—"settles litigation between Belo and CBS over the purchase that arose after Hurricane Katrina".[8] At that time, Belo closed on WUPL, and later acquired its low-power repeater, WBXN-CA (channel 18; previously a separate station, K10NG, affiliated withThe Box and laterMTV2) on April 20, 2007. Before then, WUPL was one of two television stations in New Orleans at the time that whose ownership held interest in a major network (the other was former WB affiliate WNOL-TV, owned by that network's part-owner, theTribune Company), and the only one to be a network owned-and-operated station.
In mid-April 2007, Belo moved WUPL's operations into WWL-TV's facility on Rampart Street.[citation needed] On June 13, 2013, theGannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo for $1.5 billion.[9] The sale was completed on December 23.[10]
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WWL and WUPL were retained by the latter company, namedTegna. In April 2018, WUPL dropped the "My 54" branding and rebranded under its call letters as "WUPL 54", adopting a logo based on that of its parent station.
Occasionally as time permits, WUPL may air CBS network programs whenever WWL-TV is unable to in the event of extended breaking news or severe weather coverage.
On April 4, 2005, WUPL began carrying CBS'morning programThe Early Show in lieu of WWL-TV, which preempted the program in the late 1980s (asCBS This Morning) in favor of running an extended weekday morning newscast (which as of 2014, runs for4+1⁄2 hours); WUPL also carried the syndicated morning news and talk programThe Daily Buzz until 2012, pairing that program and CBS' morning news programs under the umbrella brand "My Morning News". WUPL subsequently picked upCBS This Morning when that program replacedThe Early Show in January 2012 (WWL-TV, however, carried that program'sSaturday edition as the station did not air local newscasts on weekend mornings at the time). However, this changed on December 5, 2016, as WWL picked upCBS This Morning for the entire two hours (likely due to a corporate mandate from Tegna in order to satisfy their CBS affiliation agreements), while WUPL now carries the 7–9 a.m. block ofEyewitness Morning News (it also now simulcasts all4+1⁄2 hours of the newscast).[11]
WWL-TV began producing a half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. for WUPL on June 4, 2007. TitledMy54Eyewitness News at 9, it competed againstWVUE (channel 8)'s longer established and hour-long in-house newscast as well as aWGNO (channel 26)-produced half-hour prime time newscast on CW affiliate WNOL-TV.[12] The newscast featured the same anchor team as that seen onEyewitness News Nightwatch, WWL-TV's 10 p.m. newscast. Unlike the 9 p.m. newscast on WVUE, the WUPL newscast aired only on Monday through Friday evenings. The WNOL newscast was canceled after the June 4, 2010, edition due to low ratings; by that time, the WWL-produced newscast on WUPL had passed the WNOL newscast at a distant second in the timeslot, behind WVUE. In September 2010, WWL-TV began broadcasting its newscasts in16:9widescreenstandard definition; the WUPL newscast was included in the upgrade.
The WWL-produced 9 p.m. newscast ended its run on WUPL after the April 26, 2013, edition, having been canceled due to consistently low ratings; three days later on April 29, the program was replaced byThe 504, a pre-recorded interview show originally hosted by WWL-TV weekday morning co-anchorMelanie Hebert; it was hosted by Sheba Turk, who was a WWL morning anchor until relocating toKCBS-TV/KCAL-TV in 2023.[13] Newscasts returned to WUPL on September 9, 2014, with the debut of a half-hour weeknight 6:30 p.m. newscast produced by WWL.[14]
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on themultiplexed signals of other New Orleans television stations:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WUPL-HD | MyNetworkTV | WNOL-TV |
| 54.2 | 480i | Quest | Quest | WGNO | |
| 54.3 | H & I | Heroes & Icons | |||
| 54.4 | IONPlus | True Crime Network | WDSU | ||
| 54.5 | Crime | Cozi TV | WVUE-DT |
WUPL addedMundoMax to its second digital subchannel in 2014 andHeroes & Icons to its third subchannel in 2015. When MundoMax went dark on November 30, 2016, WUPL duplicated its main feed on its second subchannel until the addition of the newly-launchedQuest network in late January 2018.
WUPL shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 24,[16] usingvirtual channel 54.
The station carrieshigh definition programming in the1080i resolution format rather than in720p, MyNetworkTV's default HD resolution format, as WWL-TV (and the majority of the former Belo stations, regardless of network affiliation) carries its HD programming in the 1080i format.
| Channel | Res. | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 1080p | WWL-HD | CBS (WWL-TV) |
| 6.1 | WDSU DT | NBC (WDSU) | |
| 8.1 | FOX 8 H | Fox (WVUE-DT) | |
| 8.20 | GameLoop (WVUE-DT)[18] | ||
| 26.1 | WGNO-DT | ABC (WGNO) | |
| 38.1 | WNOL-DT | The CW (WNOL-TV) | |
| 54.1 | WUPL-HD | MyNetworkTV |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofLouisiana | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Louisiana | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMississippi | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Mississippi | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
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