The organization joined forces with the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, which had been looking for a way to get its locally-based programming into the state's largest market.

At the time, WYES-TV (channel 12) was the city's sole public TV station, and Willwoods sought to obtain the other non-commercial license allocated to the New Orleans market.

WLAE-TV first signed on the air on July 8, 1984; it originally served as a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and operated from studios on the campus of Notre Dame Seminary.

[3] WLAE was one of at least two PBS member stations that were owned at least in part by a Catholic-related organization (KMBH in Harlingen, Texas was the other; it is now Fox affiliate KFXV, owned by commercial media company Entravision Communications), and one of at least three in general that were run by a religious organization (counting KBYU-TV in Provo, Utah, which left PBS in 2018).

In 2000, WLAE and WYES both received a $691,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to negotiate and establish joint production and master control facilities.

The two stations' operators agreed to build the facility on the grounds of a Lakefront research park owned by the University of New Orleans.

When Hurricane Katrina struck the New Orleans metropolitan area on August 29, 2005, WLAE was knocked off the air due to significant damage to its transmitter.

"[4] As part of its educational outreach for the program, the station also held a special screening of the documentary at the St. Bernard Docville Farm in Violet on October 30.