KATC TV 3 id promo montage 1986-2021 (ABC for Lafayette, LA)

Here is a station id, newsbreak, and promo montage from KATC TV 3, the ABC affiliate for Lafayette, LA. All copyrights of Abellor, Merrill Lynch, Cordillera, and Scripps acknowledged. KATC has recently emerged as the ratings leader in the Lafayette/Acadiana area. It also broadcasts a rather strong signal such that it penetrates relatively well into Baton Rouge.

KATC was locally owned by Arbellor and then Loyola until about 1986 until it was purchased by Merrill Lynch. In the 1990s, it joined Cordillera Communications until they sold their entire group to Scripps in 2019.

Throughout the 1980s until about 1995, the station lifted several items from sister station WWL in novel Orleans, notably the news themes “The Best Things in Life” by TM Productions (as seen in the 1983 id at the beginning of the id) and the Jim Kirk WWL News Theme, which the station used from the end of its Loyola operating days through its Merrill Lynch era. The newscast was called Action News or Action 3 News given rival KLFY used Eyewitness News like WWL. It also had the title Newswatch 3. 1988 ids begin at 0:10, 0:41 shows some 1989 newswatch promos; 1:09 shows some scenery ids set to the WWL News theme. 3:58 features a Newswatch promo with Bill Leger using a different news theme. Said theme may have been used in tandem with WWL News, but WWL News certainly was used in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 5:16 features some Where the News First ids from 1994.

In 1995, the station received a face lift with its Cordillera ownership. It adopted the common square motif news open found on other stations including WAPT in Jackson, WDSU in novel Orleans, and KALB in Alexandria and a customized news theme, Newzreel, by Michael Beausoleil Doucet and began calling itself Acadiana’s Newschannel. 7:07 features footage from this era. By 1998, the station started calling itself Acadiana’s Newschannel. An interesting transition news promo at 11:21 appears. By 1998, the station adopted the Gari theme “The One and Only,” which, as of now, is the longest running current news theme by a Louisiana TV station. It also adopted a rectangular pillbox logo that seemed to inspire ComCorp to use on many of its Fox affiliates through the 2000s. 11:52 shows a late 1990s news promo. 19:08 features a station id from the era.

When the station converted to HD, it upgraded its logo to a circular 3 with a red and black motif. This occurred in 2012. KATC also assumed the CW affiliation from KLWB in 2010. Modern station ids appear at 19:54.

Syndicated programming that appeared on KATC included but is not limited to: Oprah, Montel Williams, Spin City, Frasier, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Inside Edition. Station talent in the assorted ids and promos include, but not limited to: Bill Leger, Deborah Terribile Pooler, David Tyree, Roby Chavez, Kris Wartelle, Pat Brown, Chris Paulsen, Dave Baker, Avry Jones, Julie Kelley, Candice Gale, Tom Voinche, Darla Montgomery, Steven Albritton, Jim Hummel, Marcelle Fontenot.

In 2010, KATC added the CW to its second subchannel, assuming the affiliation from KLWB. In 2016, Grit TV joined on 3.3, and after Scripps acquired the station, Court TV went on 3.4 in 2019 and Bounce TV on 3.5 in March 2021. On November 1, 2021, KATC received the Scripps graphics and its “News Image”-inspired news theme, retiring “The One and Only” after 23 years of use and, likewise, marking the last Louisiana station to use a Frank Gari theme (incidentally, rival KLFY was the first to adopt a Gari theme in Louisiana with Hello News in 1979).