The station first signed on the air on December 18, 1948. It was the first television station to sign on in the state of Louisiana, the first in the city of New Orleans, the first on the Gulf Coast, the first in the Deep South, and the 49th in the nation. It was founded by New Orleans businessman Edgar B. Stern, Jr., owner of WDSU radio (1280 AM, now WODT; and 93.3 FM, now WQUE-FM). The station has been a primary NBC affiliate since it signed on, owing to WDSU radio's longtime affiliation with the NBC Red Network; however, it initially also carried programming from the three other major broadcast networks at the time: CBS, ABC, and the DuMont Television Network.
1955–1959
BETTER LOGO NEEDED
1960–1963
1963–1975
In January 1972, Royal Street merged with Columbia, South Carolina-based Cosmos Broadcasting in a $17 million deal. Cosmos decided to sell off the radio stations because the ownership of the three station properties combined would exceed ownership limits of the time set by the FCC. Cosmos eliminated much of the local flavor that had been the station's hallmark, opting to concentrate on its already strong news operation (channel 6 had been saluted by Time as a news pioneer in 1966).
1975–1977
1977–1988
A somewhat similar design to the previous 1975 logo, but with the '6' being bolder and "TV" replacing the call sign.
1988–1994
Cosmos sold WDSU to Pulitzer, Inc. for $47 million in 1989. Under Pulitzer, channel 6 finally dropped the "-TV" suffix from its calls in 1993, more than 20 years after it and its former radio sisters had gone their separate ways.
1994–2000
Pulitzer sold all of its television stations to Hearst-Argyle Television in 1998 for $1.8 billion.
2000–present
2000–2010
2010–present
This is the same logo as 2000, but enhanced. In 2015, NBC peacock was enlarged and added to the on-screen bugs and newscasts.
