WDSU-TV was the ratings leader in New Orleans for over a quarter century, largely because of its strong commitment to coverage of local events and news.

It originated the first live broadcasts of the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras, and was the first area station to provide extensive local hurricane coverage.

In 1984, WDSU built the first working television studio at a World's Fair for the station's live broadcasts from the event held in New Orleans that year.

In March 1996, the station moved into its current facility on Howard Avenue, located a few blocks from the Le Pavillon Hotel, where WDSU radio began operations in 1923.

Fellow sister station, NBC affiliate WESH in Orlando, Florida, also originated some on-air weather content during the storm.

The Howard Avenue studio facility largely withstood Hurricane Katrina with minimal damage, but WDSU's analog and digital transmitters were both destroyed in the storm.

As a result, on September 1, 2008, satellite provider DirecTV began simulcasting WDSU's coverage of Hurricane Gustav nationally on channel 361.

C-SPAN2 and ABC affiliate WBRZ (channel 2) in Baton Rouge also ran portions of the station's live news coverage of Gustav.

Some members of WDSU's news staff were relocated to support studios in Baton Rouge and Orlando, and provided reports via satellite.

Among the station's notable local programs over the years included Midday, one of the earliest magazine programs in the United States, hosted by Terry Flettrich (later Rohe, who eventually served as senior citizens affairs correspondent for Good Morning America); the 3:00 Money Movie, a Saturday afternoon movie showcase with irreverent wraparound segments hosted by Sam Adams, who regularly performed parody songs on a piano serving as clues to the answers during phone-in contests for cash prizes; and Morgus the Magnificent, a program hosted by a mad doctor character played by Sid Noel.

[11] Cox Cable provided a feed of Late Night from WRBT (now WVLA-TV) in Baton Rouge as an interim solution for their subscribers.

WDSU's corporate parent, Hearst Communications, holds a 20% ownership stake in ESPN (the network's remaining ownership interest is held by The Walt Disney Company), and the company has right of first refusal for simulcasts of ESPN's NFL telecasts in a team's home market, which it has never declined for WDSU (in these situations, the station reschedules NBC's Monday lineup).

WDSU ended carriage of the show upon the launch of a noon newscast, effectively leaving the program off the station schedule, though it quickly found a new home in the market on WNOL-TV.

In July 2011, WDSU claimed ratings wins in key demographics at 5 and 6 p.m.—marking the first time in a quarter-century that a station other than WWL-TV had placed first among viewers most sought by advertisers.

Among WDSU's first staffers was meteorologist Nash Roberts, one of the first television weather forecasters in the United States, who drew predicted weather conditions by marker on wall maps (Roberts left the station in 1973 to become meteorologist at WVUE-TV); and Mel Leavitt, who served as the station's original sports director and later as its special events director.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the station carried editorial cartoons (similar to those commonly found in many newspapers) drawn by cartoonist John Churchill Chase; the twice-daily segments featured his take on major local, national and international news stories with commentary over the illustrated pieces (Chase, who died in 1986, has a street in the Warehouse District named in his honor[15]).

[16] On December 14, 2008, WDSU entered into a content partnership with Biloxi newspaper Sun Herald, to provide supplementary news and weather coverage focused on South Mississippi.

Like all stations broadcasting on channel 6 prior to the digital switchover, WDSU's audio signal could be heard on 87.75 MHz on the FM band in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

As part of the SAFER Act,[24] WDSU kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

[25] As a result, no HD program content from NBC was available in the New Orleans area via any medium (over the air, cable, or satellite), forcing viewers to attempt to receive a signal from Baton Rouge affiliate WVLA-TV.