WGBA-TV
WLRE, which stood for station co-founder Lyle R. Evans, sought to be operational as early as December 1977. It delayed so that it could put its transmission tower on Scray's Hill near De Pere, the location of other Green Bay market transmitter towers. Ultimately the location was approved, but it meant ground was not broken on the studio and antenna location until June 1980. The station signed on the air on December 31, 1980, broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 26. It was the Green Bay market's second independent station, after the short-lived KFIZ-TV (channel 34) in Fond du Lac from 1968 to 1972. It was also the first new commercial station to sign-on in Green Bay itself since WFRV-TV (channel 5) signed on in May 1955. On November 12, 1982, WLRE was able to power up a new transmitter and had plans for further antenna power boosts.
WUPA
The station ran low-budget syndicated shows, CBS and NBC programs that were preempted by WAGA-TV and WXIA-TV, respectively, and some older movies. However, better programming was difficult to come by, as longer-established competitors WTBS and WANX (now WGCL-TV) picked up the higher-profile programs. Another problem was the station's signal. It originally broadcast from a transmitter atop the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, the city's second tallest building. However, it was painfully weak at the time and did not reach very far outside of the I-285 corridor. Most viewers could only get an acceptable picture from the station via cable. Things became more difficult when WATL was sold to Outlet Broadcasting in 1984 and became more competitive in acquiring better syndicated programs and films. WANX, while running slightly more religious programming than normal but largely still maintaining a general entertainment format, also became a more aggressive competitor when it came to acquiring programming after the Christian Broadcasting Network sold the station to Tribune Broadcasting, changing its callsign to WGNX.