Informed Sources

INFORMED SOURCES “Jefferson Parish Bicentennial”
Monday, February 10 at 9pm; Saturday, Feb. 15 at 5pm; Friday, February 28 at 7pm; Sunday, March 2 at 9:30am

In 1825, Gov. Henry S. Johnson signed legislation creating a new parish for Louisiana. It would be named after the president who championed the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson. To mark the 200th anniversary of Jefferson Parish, WYES presents an INFORMED SOURCES special edition examining the parish’s history, politics, culture and geography.

Over two centuries, Jefferson Parish (now with a population of more than 418,000) has evolved into a political and economic powerhouse. It includes two distinctive sides, divided by the Mississippi River with suburban-style neighborhoods and several old towns on both the East and West Bank. Plus, there were swamps (once a hideout for pirates) on the southern tip of the west side. No other county or parish in the nation borders a major lake on one side and has barrier islands on the other. Jefferson’s story is one worth exploring.

Joining host Marcia Kavanaugh and producer Errol Laborde will be guests Tony McAuley, Robert Collins and Richard Campanella.

Pictured in B&W photo: From left-right: Dennis Woltering, WWL-TV; Elizabeth Curren, WYES Associate Producer; Marcia Kavanaugh Radlauer, producer/moderator; Gary Esolen, Gambit; Clancy DuBos, WDSU-TV

The year was 1984…the World’s Fair was the biggest local news story at the time. Dutch Morial was halfway through his second term as the city’s mayor and Edwin Edwards was just starting the second of four terms as governor. With those stories as the backdrop, a new public affairs program and local reporters’ roundtable made its debut on WYES — INFORMED SOURCES.

The founder of INFORMED SOURCES, Marcia Kavanaugh, is the moderator, joined by longtime INFORMED SOURCES producer and panelist Errol Laborde.

In honor of 40 years on the air, WYES will broadcast a special retrospective of INFORMED SOURCES reflecting on the top news stories the weekly series has shared in the past four decades in politics, the economy, education and the media. The INFORMED SOURCES “40th Anniversary Special” will air on Friday, March 22 at 7:30pm on WYES-TV, wyes.org/live and on the WYES and PBS Apps.

While New Orleans and southeast Louisiana has undergone tremendous change over the past 40 years, INFORMED SOURCES remains a trusted and vital source for analysis of the week’s top news stories with insights from local journalists covering the major stories of the week.

INFORMED SOURCES was inspired by “City Desk,” a program with a similar format that ran on Friday nights for seven seasons from 1971 through 1978. It featured States-Item newspaper editor Charles Ferguson as moderator and reporters from the newspaper as panelists. Kavanaugh, a New Orleans native and former WDSU news anchor who was working as a freelance producer and reporter, was recruited by WYES program managers to revive a “City Desk” style program.

INFORMED SOURCES premiered at 6:30 p.m. on February 3, 1984. Kavanaugh was the host, with former TV and radio reporter Elizabeth Curren conducting in-studio interviews with newsmakers. “We plan to be an informative and timely show,” Kavanaugh told The Times-Picayune shortly before the debut show. “We hope for banter going back and forth so people feel they can be as candid as possible.”

Errol Laborde, who in 1984 was serving as associate editor of Gambit, was an early panelist and before long became associate producer and then producer. He has served as producer and regular panelist for nearly all the program’s 35 years since.

By the show’s second month in March 1984, Times-Picayune TV critic Bob Wisehart told readers it was “worth a look,” saying it had “quickly evolved into a good broadcast. Kavanaugh and Curren move it (the show) along briskly. If you get a chance, tune in.”

Kavanaugh left the program in 1985 and was first replaced by former network TV correspondent Richard Anderson and then by her former WDSU colleague Warren Bell, who served as moderator of INFORMED SOURCES from 1985 through 1987. In 1987, Larry Lorenz, chairman of the Department of Communications at Loyola University, joined the program as moderator, a role he held until 2013. Kavanaugh, who by then was back at WYES serving as its Community Projects producer, rejoined INFORMED SOURCES as moderator.

Panelist featured in INFORMED SOURCES “40th Anniversary Special” Pictured (l-r): Dave Cohen, news director WWL Radio; Stephanie Riegel, staff writer, The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate; Marcia Kavanaugh, host; Errol Laborde, producer; Norman Robinson, retired WDSU anchor.