WSLA is a Sports Talk outlet serving the New Orleans

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

 area. The station, which is owned by Mapa Broadcasting, operates at 1560 kHz with 1 kW/Daytime-only power and is licensed to Slidell, Louisiana

Slidell, Louisiana

Slidell is a city situated on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 25,695 at the 2000 census. The Greater Slidell Community has a population of about 90,000...

.

History

WSLA AM broadcasting 1560, originally WSDL, was founded by George Mayoral, a New Orleans radio and television pioneer and member of the NAB Hall Of Fame, in the 1960s. It began broadcasting as WBGS, owned by Bill Garrett, a Slidell Chevrolet dealer, in 1963. The station's studios and transmitter were originally housed on the showroom floor of the Chevrolet dealership on Pontchartrain Drive. As WSDL, the station was sold in the 1980s and became WSLA on February 27, 1989. It was later repossessed by the Mayoral family in 1993. WSLA went through various talk, political, and other formats before experiencing success with ESPN, local sports, and weekend Cajun music as well as local religious programming on Sunday mornings. WSLA remains one of the last independent stations in the New Orleans DMA, completely owned by New Orleans indie MAPA Broadcasting.

Local and regional sports is one of WSLA's strengths. WSLA is a primary outlet for high school football in the Slidell/St. Tammany Parish area. In recent years the station has been the New Orleans market host for the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. A program hosted by John Fine focuses on New Orleans-area sports talk.

The other strength is the station's continued support of Cajun music. In the 1970s, the station (then called WDSL) featured Allen Fontenot and Darryl Brasseaux as host of a regular Cajun music weekend program. Fontenot left WSLA for WWOZ-FM, the Jazz and Heritage station in New Orleans, sometime in the 1980s. In 1993, Kateri Yager began producing the show <La musique Cadjin pour samedi>, or in English, the Cajun Zydeco Music Show. The program has run continually every weekend since 1993 with the exception of the interruption of Hurricane Katrina. WSLA-AM and WWOZ-FM are the last two remaining station in the New Orleans market to feature Cajun French language/music programs with native Cajun speakers. WSLA alone participated in the pre-Katrina French-language hurricane evacuation warnings program.

WSLA's offices, transmitter, and tower are located in Slidell, LA. The station experienced flooding and some roof damage during Hurricane Katrina, all of which has since been repaired.