TWILA Team
Avery Davidson, Executive Producer & Reporter
(Reporting on Hurricane Gustav in 2008)
Avery began his career in broadcast journalism the day after he graduated from New Iberia Senior High, landing a job at his hometown radio station, 1240 KANE.
While at KANE, Avery covered city and parish governmental meetings, schools and, of course, sugarcane farming. While attending The University of Southwestern Louisiana (Now ULL), Avery made the move into television. In September 1995, KATC News hired Avery as the producer of TV-3’s morning show, Good Morning Acadiana. It was there that Avery first worked with TWILA veteran A.J. Sabine.
While at KATC, Avery won his first Louisiana Associated Press award: 2nd place for spot news. In April of 1999, Avery moved to Baton Rouge to work for WAFB-TV 9 as the weekend and investigative producer.
Following the September 11th attacks, Avery was the first and only reporter to travel with a group of Louisiana volunteers called the Gumbo Krewe to Ground Zero. There, Avery documented how Cajun hospitality extended well beyond the Bayou State. It was that series, Operation: Gumbo, which won Avery his first 1st place award from the Louisiana Associated Press for an In-Depth Series.
In January of 2004, Avery became the first Louisiana reporter to cover the war in Iraq from Baghdad. Avery traveled to the Middle East with a group of Louisiana medics who worked for Med Express out of Alexandria. Their job was to set up and operate an urgent care clinic for the contractors working at the “safe-zone” around Baghdad International Airport. Coverage of that story earned Avery another award from the Louisiana Associated Press: 3rd Place for an In-Depth Series.
During the following years, Avery worked his way up to weekend anchor at WAFB. In March 2008, Avery began working for This Week in Louisiana Agriculture as a reporter and executive producer. “It’s the people who make a story great,” Avery says, “and agriculture is blessed with lots of great people with wonderful stories to tell.”
In his spare time, Avery plays bass guitar in a local band and enjoys watching live music.
