Dave McNamara is an award-winning broadcast journalist, with more than 40 years of experience in television and radio in his home state of Louisiana. Dave’s feature stories, investigative reports and live coverage of breaking news have earned numerous awards at the local, regional and national level.
As a general assignment TV reporter in New Orleans, Dave frequently covered Gulf Coast hurricanes from Andrew in 1992 through Katrina in 2005. He covered the standoff in Waco, the bombing in Oklahoma City, the 2000 Presidential Election controversy in Florida, and the meeting of American Catholic Cardinals at the Vatican. Years before Hurricane Katrina, Dave was reporting on the disappearing wetlands of coastal Louisiana and the increasing vulnerability of New Orleans to a catastrophic hurricane.
Beyond the hard news, Dave has spent the past decade working with WVUE TV in New Orleans, travelling to nearly every parish in Louisiana to produce hundreds of stories that highlight his home state’s unique places, people, cultures and history. Dave has also produced numerous documentaries that feature Louisiana locations and history, and explore the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s. “WVUE has given me the freedom to find interesting stories, which I produce, shoot, write and edit,” Dave says, “I am truly a one-man-band.” Dave’s weekly “Heart of Louisiana” features air on WVUE ch-8 New Orleans, WAFB ch-9 Baton Rouge, KSLA ch-12 Shreveport, KPLC ch-7 Lake Charles, KNOE ch-8 Monroe and KALB ch-5 Alexandria.
“Now with HeartofLouisiana.com, I am able to share what I have learned during a lifetime of working in Louisiana”, Dave said. “Hopefully, this website will help others explore and appreciate the natural beauty and the amazing people and cultures that make Louisiana a one-of-a-kind home and destination.”