23, 2011, channel 8 debuted an hour-long midday newscast that airs Monday through Fridays at noon. This was followed on September 12 of that year, with the debut of an hour-long newscast at 4:00 p.m. In the summer of 2012, WVUE entered into a content partnership with The Times-Picayune in which the station and newspaper would collaborate on sports coverage. On June 27, 2013, this partnership was expanded to include news content (including collaborations on investigative reports and entertainment stories), breaking news updates and analysis occasionally provided by Times-Picayune reporters on WVUE's newscasts and the sharing of photo and video content; WVUE also began to provide weather forecasts for the newspaper and its companion website, NOLA.com. On April 21, 2014, WVUE began airing its weekday morning newscast at 4:30 a.m., expanding the program to 4½ hours. On September 10, 2018, WVUE debuted a 9:00 a.m. newscast. Notable former on-air staff Bernard "Buddy" Diliberto – sports director/anchor (April 1966 – January 1981; later worked for WDSU and WWL AM/FM; died in 2005) Jennifer Hale – now with Fox Sports Jim Henderson – retired sports broadcaster and former commentator and voice of the New Orleans Saints (2012–2018) Fred Hickman – sports director/anchor (2011–2015; now on WVLA-TV in Baton Rouge) Arthel Neville – anchor/reporter (now with Fox News Channel) Nash Roberts – station's first Chief Meteorologist (January 1974 – March 3, 1978; succeeded by Bob Breck, previously at WDSU and later at WWL-TV; died in 2010) Norman Robinson – anchor/reporter (1976–1978; later at WWL-TV and at WDSU; retired) Chris Rose – provided an editorial weekly on-air and online (former longtime contributor to The Times-Picayune) Ron Swoboda – sports anchor (later at Cox Sports Television) Leslie Sykes – anchor/reporter (now at KABC-TV in Los Angeles) Technical information Subchannels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Digital subchannel 8.2 originally launched in 2007 as the Fox 8 Newschannel, a 24-hour news simulcast and rebroadcast service similar to WWL-TV's NewsWatch 15 cable channel. On August 23, 2010, WVUE announced that it would carry the Retro Television Network on a digital subchannel; that September, 8.2 switched to a mix of RTV programming on weekdays, as well as similar general entertainment programming on weekends. On November 11, 2011, WVUE signed an affiliation agreement with Bounce TV; the network replaced RTV on digital subchannel 8.2 on November 12, 2011. In March 2012, WVUE became one of the first (if not