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.
WRNN-TV
Channel 62 was first used in the New York metropolitan area by W62AA, which was founded in 1970 by Screen Gems Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures as a translator for independent station WNJU-TV (channel 47). It was one of the many translator stations serving the entire New York City area. By 1975, WNJU-TV and most of the major stations in New York had moved their transmitters to the World Trade Center, but W62AA remained at the Empire State Building to expand its signal farther north of the city and the surrounding area. With the introduction of the cell phone developed by Bell Labs in 1982, all upper band channels were scheduled to be displaced for cell phone use. But before that happened, WNJU-TV expanded its signal farther north, making W62AA obsolete as a backup. W62AA was taken off the air in 1983; that year, a construction permit for a full-power television station in Kingston, New York was issued to a group led by Albany-area businessman Edward Swyer. It would be two years before the channel 62 allocation would be used again.