When was WGBA-TV station created?
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.
WAGA-TV
By September 1994, with only a little more than two months left before WAGA-TV was slated to join Fox, CBS faced the prospect of having to pipe in WRBL in Columbus, WMAZ-TV in Macon, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina and WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee for Atlanta-area cable customers until it found a new affiliate in the market. Almost out of desperation, on September 26, CBS made a deal to buy independent station WVEU (channel 69, now CW owned-and-operated station WUPA) for $46 million. However, this was only a contingency, since CBS preferred to move its programming to a higher-profile station. It continued to negotiate with Tribune Broadcasting to reach a deal to affiliate with longtime independent station WGNX (channel 46, now WGCL-TV), which initially turned down CBS' offer to affiliate with the station; WGNX was especially attractive for the network since channel 46 was the only non-Big Three station in the Atlanta market that had a functioning news department. That November, Tribune relented and signed a deal with CBS to convert WGNX into the network's new Atlanta affiliate. As a consequence of the WGNX deal, CBS reached an agreement to sell WVEU to Viacom from Broadcasting Corp. of Georgia for $27 million, in a deal that saw it sell CBS affiliate KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana to Ellis Communications (owned by Atlanta-based businessman Bert Ellis) to comply with FCC ownership rules in coincidence with Viacom's divestitures of its major network-affiliated television stations to focus on its UPN charter outlets. The last CBS network program to air on WAGA was a first-run episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December 10; this led into a message by then-station president and general manager Jack Sander shortly before the start of that evening's edition of "Channel 5 Eyewitness News at 11:00" (which was relaunched as an hour-long prime time newscast at 10:00 p.m. two days later), informing viewers about the pending network changes.
WGBA-TV
On May 18, 2015, Scripps and Katz Broadcasting announced an affiliation agreement allowing Scripps' Green Bay duopoly to carry all three of Katz's digital broadcast networks in the near future, with WGBA carrying Laff and WACY carrying Escape and Grit (Laff launched one month earlier in markets with Scripps-owned stations not affected by its merger with the Journal Broadcasting Group, while the two others will also begin to be carried by select sister stations of WGBA through the deal). Laff debuted as a digital subchannel on August 12, 2015.
WGBA-TV
Larry McCarren, who had been the sports director at WFRV until the Packers contract ended in March 2012, along with budget cuts at that station, went over to Journal in July 2012; however he was only able to do short Packer analysis segments through the 2012 season on-air for WTMJ and WGBA, along with blogging on WTMJ's site, due to a one-year non-compete clause (which included these segments by contractual force originating outside the Green Bay market in Milwaukee), but continued his duties as color commentator over Journal's Packers Radio Network. With the expiration of the clause, McCarren assumed sports director duties for WGBA on April 1, 2013. "Packers Live", a program that resembles his former "Locker Room" program, with Packer player guests and "chalk talk" play analysis in front of a live audience, also began airing on the station beginning with the 2013 NFL season. He retired as WGBA sports director in April 2015 to fully focus on his television and radio network duties for the Packers and Scripps.
WAGT (TV)
The station began operations December 24, 1968 as WATU-TV, the third television station in Augusta. Dr. Harold W. Twisdale, a dentist from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.-based engineer David L. Steel were the leaders of the original ownership group, operating as Augusta Telecasters Inc. The Twisdale/Steel group, which had interests in other planned stations (WCTU-TV in Charlotte being the only of their other interests to make it to air), was granted a construction permit for the Augusta outlet in late 1967. On paper, the new channel 26 became Augusta's NBC affiliate. Unfortunately, the station became one of numerous UHF start-ups of that era that failed to obtain a foothold against long-established VHF competition.
WNAB
The station first signed on the air on November 29, 1995 as the WB affiliate for the Nashville market. Prior to WNAB's debut, WB programming was only available on Nashville area cable and satellite providers either through Chicago-based national superstation WGN, or by Cookeville-based WKZX (channel 28, now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV), which served the eastern part of the market. By mere coincidence, the call letters were chosen in 1987 (as a construction permit) as WNAB; something that would be exploited when the station became affiliated with The WB. Original owner Speer Communications, a company founded by Home Shopping Network co-founder Roy Speer, launched the station from studios on Dickerson Road in Nashville, in a former Sam's Club building.
WJXX
The station first signed on the air on February 9, 1997; the station was founded by WPR, L.P. and operated by Allbritton Communications under a local marketing agreement. In 1996, Allbritton had signed another LMA with WB affiliate WBSG-TV (channel 21) in nearby Brunswick, Georgia; in April of that year, ABC signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with Allbritton, which renewed contracts with the group's five existing ABC affiliates—WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.; WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia; KATV in Little Rock; KTUL in Tulsa; and WHTM in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—and resulted in five of its other television stations switching to the network—among them were NBC affiliate WCIV (now Heroes & Icons affiliate WGWG) in Charleston, South Carolina, and low-power independent station W58CK (now WBMA-LD) in Birmingham, Alabama, and CBS affiliates WCFT-TV (now Heroes & Icons affiliate WSES) in Tuscaloosa and WJSU-TV (now Heroes & Icons affiliate WGWW) in Anniston (the three of which would form a triple-simulcast to serve as the ABC affiliate for central Alabama).
WGBA-TV
Before it became an NBC affiliate, WGBA was rebroadcast in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on W02AM (channel 2) in Gwinn, W09BA (channel 9) in Felch, W49AF (channel 49) in Crystal Falls, and W56BF (channel 56) in Iron Mountain. The last translator was encrypted and part of the now-defunct over-the-air cable system in the area.
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV traces its history to 1940 when Balaban and Katz, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, signed on experimental station W9XBK, the first all-electronic television facility in Chicago. Balaban and Katz was already well known for owning several movie theaters in the Chicago area. In order to establish the station, the company hired television pioneer William C. "Bill" Eddy away from RCA's experimental station W2XBS in New York City. When World War II began, Eddy used the W9XBK facilities as a prototype school for training Navy electronics technicians. While operating the Navy school, Eddy continued to lead W9XBK and wrote a book that defined commercial television for many years.
WGBA-TV
On April 7, 2012, WGBA upgraded its local newscasts to widescreen standard definition. It became the last station in the market to convert to full high-definition operations on January 23, 2016, with the unveiling of a new chyron-heavy "virtual" set, the first major change to the station's newsroom and set since the station began carrying newscasts in 1996 and the newsroom and anchor sets were split off in the early 2000s via an opaque partition. The station began to use the default Scripps graphics package/news music package in October 2016.
WVBG-LP
What is now WVBG-LP has its origins in a translator station on channel 4 serving Gilboa, Prattsville, and Roxbury, operated by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of the Third Supervisory District of Delaware, Greene, and Schoharie counties and carrying programming from WMHT in Schenectady, WCNY-TV in Syracuse, and WNDT in New York City. The station, which was granted its construction permit in 1966, went on the air two years later as W04AS. On February 8, 1991, the Otsego-Northern Catskills BOCES transferred the station to the WSKG Public Telecommunications Council; by this point, W04AS was a translator for WSKG-TV in Binghamton.
WGAL
The station first signed on the air on March 18, 1949, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 4. It was the fourth television station in Pennsylvania and the first to sign-on outside of Philadelphia, beating WDTV (now KDKA-TV) in Pittsburgh which began operations in November of that year. It was founded by the Steinman family, owners of WGAL radio (1490 AM, now WLPA, and 101.3 FM, now WROZ) and Lancaster's two major newspapers, the "Intelligencer Journal" and the "Lancaster New Era". At the time, Lancaster was the smallest city in the country with a television station. The station's first formal program was shown on March 22 to a group of RCA executives, television dealers, and radio station personnel at the Stevens House Hotel in downtown Lancaster.
WZBJ
The station first signed on the air on August 18, 1994 as independent station WDRG (the calls standing for its broad service area of Danville, Roanoke and Greensboro, North Carolina). It was founded by MNE Broadcasting, a locally based company owned by businessman Melvin N. Eleazer. Three months after its sign-on, in November 1994, MNE Broadcasting reached an agreement with Time Warner to become the WB affiliate for the Roanoke DMA; the station joined The WB upon the network's launch on January 11, 1995. On January 1, 1997 (as the FCC was switching from using Arbitron's ADI to Nielsen's DMA system to determine which counties remained part of the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, then ranked as the 67th largest in the United States), WDRG changed its call letters to WDRL-TV, standing for Danville-Roanoke-Lynchburg. On that date, the station concurrently became the UPN affiliate for southwestern Virginia; the WB affiliation moved to primary Fox affiliate WFXR (channel 27) and Lynchburg-based satellite WJPR (channel 21), which carried the network's programming on a secondary basis in late night. (WB programming would later move to cable-only "WBVA-TV", a charter affiliate of The WeB [later known as The WB 100+ Station Group], when it launched on Cox Communications' Roanoke system on September 21, 1998.)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Prior to the merger, both papers planned to start TV stations: WSB-TV on channel 8 for the "Journal", and WCON-TV on channel 2 for the "Constitution". Only WSB got on the air (making it the first TV station in the South), moving from channel 8 to WCON's allotment on channel 2 in 1951 to avoid TV interference from the nearby channel 9. (WROM-TV since moved, leaving WGTV on 8, after it was also used by WLWA-TV, now WXIA-TV 11.) This was also necessary to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules preventing the excessive concentration of media ownership, preventing the combined paper from running two stations.
WGBA-TV
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
WGBA launched a new second digital subchannel in November 2010 carrying TheCoolTV (an automated music video network) which had aired on the WTMJ's second subchannel since the summer of 2009. The establishment of WGBA-DT2 made it the second commercial station in the market to launch a subchannel service after WBAY-TV. On September 7, 2011, Journal and Weigel Broadcasting announced that WGBA would carry the classic television network MeTV beginning on October 1, 2011. MeTV replaced TheCoolTV on 26.2 on that date, as Journal brought a lawsuit against TheCoolTV's parent company Cool Music Network, LLC for non-payment of services; WTMJ-TV, along with Journal's other stations dropped the network on October 1, 2011 to carry Live Well Network or MeTV, depending on the market. Sometime in the summer of 2016, 26.2 was converted to a widescreen presentation in line with Weigel converting their networks to that format.
WGEN-TV
W21CL-D was established before 1979 as W65AP, until forced to move out of the 700MHz band by the digital television transition. W17DG-D was also established before 1979, as was W63AL, which was briefly W23BG from late 1990 to early 1991. WDLP-CA began operations in 1992 as W21BD, which was deleted in June 1994 after its permit expired, and restored the following December. In April 2003, its license was upgraded to Class A status and its calls were changed to WGEN-CA; it was then changed to WDLP-CA the following month, and later to WDLP-CD on August 11, 2011.
WJLA-TV
The District of Columbia's third television station began broadcasting on October 3, 1947 as WTVW, owned by the "Washington Star", along with WMAL radio (630 AM and 107.3 FM, now WRQX). It was the first high-band VHF television station (channels 7-13) in the United States. A few months later, the station changed its call letters to WMAL-TV after its radio sisters. WMAL radio had been an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network since 1933, and remained with the network after it was spun off by NBC and evolved into ABC. However, channel 7 started as a CBS station since ABC had not yet established its television network. When ABC launched on television in 1948, WMAL-TV became ABC's third primary affiliate; the station continued to carry some CBS programming until WOIC (channel 9, now WUSA) signed on in 1949. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. ("Note": The WTVW call letters were later picked up by what is now WISN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when it signed on in 1954. Today, the callsign resides in Evansville, Indiana on a CW-affiliated station that is also on channel 7.)
WGN-TV
WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began regular programming on April 5 with a two-hour special, "WGN-TV Salute to Chicago", at 7:45 p.m. that evening. It was founded by the "Chicago Tribune" – whose slogan "World's Greatest Newspaper" was the basis for the call letters used by the television station and its radio sister. WGN-TV originally held dual primary affiliations with CBS and the DuMont Television Network, sharing both networks with WBKB (channel 4). For its first 13 years on the air, WGN-TV had operated from an annex of the Tribune Tower with their sister radio station at 435 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, a space currently filled by Dylan's Candy Bar.
WACY-TV
The FCC would approve Journal's request of WACY's license transfer on September 4, 2012, specifically citing two points Journal had included in its request: The financial and operational status of WACY before the grandfathered LMA commenced in 1994 (and which Journal inherited when it bought WGBA in 2004), and WGBA's ability to "produce and broadcast [on WACY] programming that furthers the public interest," programming that WACY would otherwise not have been able to produce. Also cited was channel 32's bankruptcy as WXGZ. On October 23, the deal was consummated. It was the third station that Journal acquired through a failed station waiver, after KNIN-TV in Boise and KWBA in Tucson.
WNPT (TV)
During much of the 1960s, although the Bowling Green, Kentucky area was considered to be within the Nashville DMA until Nielsen created a market area of its own in 1978, WNPT (as WDCN) was the default PBS outlet for that area, because no other educational television station reached that area with its signal. This ended when WKGB-TV, a broadcast relay station of the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) network of Lexington, signed on the air in September 1968. However, even after WKYU-TV signed on in that same area in January 1989, WDCN was available on cable in the Bowling Green up until about the early 2000s. WNPT can still be picked up with an outdoor antenna in the city of Bowling Green proper.
WTAJ-TV
The station signed on March 1, 1953 as WFBG-TV. The call letters came from the initials of the station's founder, William F. B. Gable, owner of Gable's Department Store in Altoona. Gable also owned WFBG radio (1290 AM and 98.1 FM, now WFGY). In the station's early days, all programs were produced and transmitted live from the studios on Wopsononock Mountain in Altoona; the WFBG stations moved in 1959 to a new studio facility on 6th Avenue, where channel 10 continues to operate from today. Channel 10 was one of the strongest stations in the entire country, utilizing over 300,000 watts to serve its coverage area (most of which is a very rugged dissected plateau). The station could be seen as far west as Pittsburgh and as far east as State College.
WSET-TV
In 1965, Lynchburg Broadcasting sold the WLVA stations to the Washington Star Company, which also owned WMAL-AM-FM-TV in Washington. Joe Allbritton purchased a controlling interest in the "Star" in 1975. By this time, however, the FCC had tightened its rules on cross-media ownership. Due to the manner in which Allbritton's purchase of the Star Company was structured, the FCC considered it to be an ownership change. It told Allbritton that he had to sell off either the radio or television stations. Allbritton chose to sell off the company's non-television assets, including WLVA radio, in April 1977. In September 1977 WLVA-TV changed its call letters to the current WSET-TV to coincide with its new branding, "NeWSET-13." The change was brought on by a now-repealed FCC regulation that stated that TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership that must have different callsigns. The television station became part of the newly-established Allbritton Communications.
WGBH Educational Foundation
The WGBH Educational Foundation was established in 1951 in Boston, Massachusetts as an American nonprofit organization that oversees all of the PBS member stations licensed to the state of Massachusetts: the WGBH stations in Boston (WGBH-TV, the foundation's flagship property, and WGBX-TV) and WGBY-TV in Springfield. The foundation also oversees a group of NPR member stations, including WGBH-FM in Boston, and other productions. Other significant activities include production of prime-time and children’s content for PBS and accessible media services for people with disabilities. The foundation won a Peabody Award in 2007 for "" and "Design Squad".
WFAA
The initial application for the television station was filed on October 23, 1944, when local businessman Karl Hoblitzelle, owner of movie theater chain Interstate Circuit Theatres, applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain a construction permit and license to operate a television station on VHF channel 8; it was the first such license application for a television station in the Southern United States. Hoblitzelle planned to operate the station out of the Republic Bank building in downtown Dallas, and even conducted a closed-circuit television broadcast of the opening of one of his properties, the Wilshire Theatre. Texas oil magnate Tom Potter filed a separate application for the Channel 8 license and was ultimately awarded the permit over Hoblitzelle.
The station first signed on the air at 8:00 p.m. on September 17, 1949 as KBTV, with a fifteen-minute ceremony inaugurating the launch of Channel 8 as its first broadcast; KBTV broadcast for one hour that evening, with the remainder of its initial schedule consisting of its first locally produced program, the variety series "Dallas in Wonderland". Potter founded and operated the station through the Lacy-Potter TV Broadcasting Company, which he partially controlled. It was the third television station to sign on in Texas (behind WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV) in nearby Fort Worth, which signed on almost one year earlier on September 29, 1948; and KLEE-TV (now KPRC-TV) in Houston, which debuted on January 1, 1949), the second station in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and the first to be licensed to Dallas. The station originally operated from studio facilities located at Harry Hines Boulevard and Wolf Street, north of downtown Dallas.
WBKI-TV (1983–2017)
The station first signed on the air on July 27, 1983 as WGRB, for Green River Broadcasting. It originally operated as an independent station, serving mainly rural areas on the far southern fringe of the Louisville market. In 1990, the station became the Fox affiliate for this section of the market. Although Louisville's Fox affiliate, WDRB (channel 41), broadcast at the maximum five million watts of power, the station's signal was marginal at best in the southern part of the market. Additionally, cable television did not have much penetration in this portion of the market, leaving much of the area without any access to Fox programming until WGRB joined Fox. WGRB thus became one of the few known cases in which a separately owned station carried a network that already had an affiliate in the same market (similar to situations such as ABC affiliates WCVB-TV and WMUR-TV in the Boston market or NBC affiliate WHIZ-TV in Zanesville, Ohio, about east of Columbus which has WCMH-TV for their NBC affiliate).
WGRB dropped Fox in 1997 and joined The WB, bringing that fledgling network's programming to the southern portion of the market. However, the main WB affiliate for Louisville, WBNA (channel 21, now an independent station), was a conservative religious station, and its owner, Evangel World Prayer Center, frequently pre-empted most of the network's more risqué programs. Frustrated with the pre-emptions, The WB made WGRB the network's exclusive Louisville outlet in 1998. At the same time, WGRB announced plans to build a new transmitter tower that would be located closer to Louisville, and upgrade its analog signal to a full five million watts of power. The station activated this new, more powerful tower in 1999. Along with an upgraded transmitter, the station changed its call letters to WWWB on November 29, 1999, likely done in tribute to the "dubba-dubba-WB!" jingle that the network utilized at the time in its image campaign. On September 19, 2000, the station changed its calls again to WBKI-TV. For most of the remainder of The WB's run, WBKI was one of the network's strongest affiliates.
WXIA-TV
The station signed on the air on September 30, 1951 as WLTV, an ABC affiliate on VHF channel 8 (the second Atlanta station on this channel after WSB-TV moved to channel 2 a year before), and was originally owned by a group of Atlanta businessmen. In 1953, the station was bought by Cincinnati-based Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, who changed its call letters to WLWA (often rendered as "WLW-A"). This aligned their Atlanta property with Crosley's other television stations, who took their call letters from its flagship radio station, WLW. Crosley then moved the station's over-the-air frequency to channel 11 in order to alleviate signal interference with WROM-TV (channel 9) in nearby Rome (which later moved north to Chattanooga, Tennessee as WTVC), with channel 8 being reallocated for non-commercial educational use by the Federal Communications Commission in May 1960 (WGTV was started by the University of Georgia on channel 8 in 1960).
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV operates a secondary station in the Boston market, WGBX-TV (channel 44), which signed on the air on September 25, 1967. The station's schedule focuses on program genres not covered by WGBH-TV. Reruns of programs aired the previous evening on WGBX and WGBH-TV also make up a portion of the station's programming schedule. WGBX also maintains several digital subchannels that rebroadcast programs produced by WGBH and other PBS member stations around the U.S.
WDWD
The station signed on with original broadcast callsign WAGA (once the sister station of the current television station by that name) on August 1, 1937. The "Atlanta Journal" newspaper, which owned WSB, had difficulty choosing programming to be carried on WSB between the two NBC radio networks, the Red Network and the Blue Network. Thus, the "Journal" established WAGA to carry the Blue Network while WSB carried programming from the Red Network. WAGA's on-air slogan during the station's early days was "Atlanta's Wave of Welcome". The station's studios were located in the Western Union Building (current location of Telecom Tower SW corner of Marietta Street and Forsyth Street) in downtown Atlanta. WAGA's transmitter was located at Sugar Creek, three miles from the center of Atlanta. The station moved from 1450 AM to 1480 in 1941 (following the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement), then to 590 AM in 1942. The 1480 kHz frequency later returned to the air under a new license as WYZE, with no affiliation to WAGA.
WGBA-TV
WGBA-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 26, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 26.
WGGS-TV
WGGS was the only independent station in the western Carolinas until the winter of 1979, when WAIM-TV (channel 40, now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA-TV) lost its secondary ABC affiliation and reformatted itself as independent station WAXA. WGGS began to phase out secular programs from its lineup in 1982, a process that sped up when WHNS (channel 21, now a Fox affiliate) signed on in April 1984. By 1986, the station almost entirely ran Christian-oriented religious programs. WGGS did acquire some additional secular cartoons and barter sitcoms to air during the late afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the early 1990s, but by 1999, the station was back to airing a schedule almost entirely made up of religious programming. The station also turned down an offer by Paxson Communications to affiliate with Pax TV in 1998. The station originally signed off on a nightly basis until the early 1990s, when it reduced its off-hours to late Sunday night/early Monday mornings; channel 16 began broadcasting on a 24-hour schedule in late 1999.
WSB-TV
At that time, its present channel 2 allocation was licensed to the "Journal's" rival newspaper "The Atlanta Constitution", who had a construction permit for WCON-TV there. In 1950, the two newspapers merged. At the time, the Federal Communications Commission did not allow one entity to own two television stations in the same market. As a result, WSB-TV and WCON-TV merged. The merged station operated under WSB-TV's license but used the stronger channel 2. This proved to be a fortunate decision, as the FCC later collapsed a large and mostly mountainous swath of northern Georgia into the Atlanta market. The channel 8 allocation was eventually given to WLWA as an ABC affiliate. When that station moved to channel 11 in 1953, channel 8 was reserved as a non-commercial educational allocation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and is now WGTV, a PBS affiliate, and also the flagship television station of Georgia Public Broadcasting.
WMBB
It first began broadcast operations on October 4, 1973 as WDTB-TV started by Panhandle Broadcasting Corporation (run by attorney Denver T. Brannen, from where the original call letters were derived from), financed by local businessman/car dealer Tommy Thomas, and attorneys Julian Bennett and Dick Arnold. When it first took to the air, the station was originally an NBC affiliate. On February 28, 1977, WDTB was sold to Octagon Broadcasting, an Atlanta-based outfit. Upon the change, Octagon changed the station's call sign to the current WMBB (which stands for "The World's Most Beautiful Beaches").
WABI-TV
WABI-TV was the first television station in Maine signing-on January 25, 1953 and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 5. It was owned by the Community Broadcasting Service, which was founded in 1949 by former Governor Horace Hildreth when he purchased WABI radio (910 AM, now WTOS; and 97.1 FM, now WBFB). It was managed in its early years by Murray Carpenter. The station was a primary NBC affiliate, but carried secondary affiliations with the other three major networks of the day (CBS, ABC, and DuMont). It lost CBS to WTWO (channel 2) in 1955; that station had been founded by Carpenter. It lost DuMont soon afterward when that network shut down. After Carpenter sold WTWO to the Rines-Thompson family in 1959, the new owners changed that station's calls to WLBZ-TV and swapped affiliations with WABI-TV, making channel 5 a primary CBS affiliate. The two outlets then began to share ABC programming, which had previously been exclusive to WABI. This ended when WEMT (channel 7, now WVII-TV) signed-on in 1965 and took the affiliation. During the late 1950s, WABI was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
Wisconsin Public Television
WHA-TV signed on the air on May 3, 1954 as the first educational station in Wisconsin and the seventh in the United States. WHA-TV is the only public television station in the country that maintains a three-letter callsign, and one of only three analog-era UHF stations altogether (along with WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and WWJ-TV in Detroit, Michigan) with a three-letter callsign.
WGEA
In 1962 a group of local businessmen formed Geneva County Broadcasting Company and bought the station. WGEA-FM (now WPHH in Hope Hull) was launched on June 27, 1969. The FM station was largely programmed separately but did simulcast some popular local news programs in the morning hours. James C. Helms was the General Manager from 1962 until his death in 1980 at which time his wife Joan assumed his position and became one of the first female General Managers in Alabama radio.
WJLA-TV
In 1975, Houston businessman Joe Allbritton, the owner of Washington-based Riggs Bank, purchased a controlling interest in the "Star"s media properties, which by that time also included WLVA radio and WLVA-TV (now WSET-TV) in Lynchburg, Virginia; and WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina. As a condition of the purchase, Allbritton was given three years to break up the Washington newspaper/broadcast combination, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was seeking to prohibit under the tightening of its concentration of media ownership policy. WMAL-TV was separated first from its radio sisters when ABC purchased WMAL-AM-FM in March 1977. Upon the radio transfer, channel 7, per FCC regulations at the time that forbade TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership groups from sharing the same call letters, changed theirs to the current WJLA-TV, after the owner's initials. In April 1977, Allbritton negotiated a deal to trade the station to Combined Communications Corporation in return for KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, but called off the deal due to last-minute complications despite receiving FCC approval. Allbritton instead sold the "Washington Star" to Time Inc. in January 1978, and retained WJLA-TV and the Lynchburg and Charleston television stations for what would eventually become Allbritton Communications. Beginning in September of 1984, WJLA became the flagship station in the Greater Washington, DC area for Atlantic Coast Conference Football and Men's Basketball along a syndicated network that was operated by Jefferson-Pilot Communications and eventually jointly produced with Raycom Sports which would last through the 1994 season.
The WB
On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner announced the formation of The WB Television Network, with the Tribune Company holding a minority interest; as such, Tribune Broadcasting signed agreements to affiliate six of its seven television stations at the time – all of which were independent stations, including the television group's two largest stations, WPIX in New York City and KTLA in Los Angeles – with the network. Only five of these stations – along with a sixth that Tribune acquired the following year – would join The WB at launch (the company's Atlanta independent WGNX would instead agree to affiliate with CBS in September 1994, as a result of Fox's affiliation deal with New World Communications, then-owner of longtime CBS station WAGA-TV; in contrast, New Orleans sister station WGNO did become a WB charter affiliate before joining ABC in January 1996 due to a similar affiliation deal between Fox and longtime ABC station WVUE-TV).
WLAX
WLAX signed on the air on November 10, 1986 with an analog signal on UHF channel 25. After a few months as Western Wisconsin's first general-entertainment independent station, it joined Fox. The station was originally owned by Family Group Broadcasting. However, since the outlet's transmitter was located in Minnesota, it provided an inadequate over-the-air signal to the northern part of the market (the same problem that long plagued ABC affiliate WXOW). As a result, viewers in Eau Claire could only watch the station on cable television. Family Group sold both WLAX and WGBA-TV in Green Bay to Aries Telecommunications in 1991.
WUOA-LD
The station began broadcasting in January 1988 as an Owned-and-operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The station originally broadcast on UHF channel 52 under its original callsign W52AI. It became W53AZ in 1990 after moving the signal to UHF channel 53. Two years later, the station moved its signal again to channel 51 and changing the call letters to W51BY. It remained a TBN translator until 2003. In 2003, the station moved its signal to UHF channel 46, and changed the callsign again, this time to W46DK. It was purchased by the University of Alabama, whose communications department converted the station to a translator of the university-owned WVUA-CA.
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV's history dates back to CBS' opening of experimental station W2XAB on July 21, 1931, using the mechanical television system that had been more-or-less perfected in the late 1920s. Its first broadcast featured New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, Kate Smith, and George Gershwin. The station had the first regular seven-day broadcasting schedule in American television, broadcasting 28 hours a week. Among its early programming included "The Television Ghost" (1931–1933), "Helen Haynes" (1931–1932) and "Piano Lessons" (1931–1932).
WGN-TV
WGN-TV then reversed course on its earlier decision to turn down the WB affiliation, and signed an affiliation agreement with that network one month later on December 3, 1993; prior to the signing of the agreement, the network had planned to affiliate with competing independent WGBO-TV (channel 66), which instead joined Univision two weeks prior to The WB's launch on December 30, 1994. As part of the agreement, WGN would carry The WB's prime time schedule (and upon its September 1995 debut, Kids' WB children's programming) on its national superstation feed, with the purpose of making the network available to areas of the United States where The WB did not have an affiliate early on.
WGBO-DT
Although not dramatically different overall, in January 1986, WGBO added a few more off-network sitcoms, a limited number of children's programs, and several western series to its schedule. In addition, it carried daily simulcasts of CNN Headline News, as well as Loyola Ramblers college basketball games. The station also adopted a very slick on-air look, using CGI graphics of near-network quality. This design was very similar to those adopted by sister stations WGBS-TV (now WPSG) in Philadelphia and WBFS-TV in Miami. However, WGBO was run somewhat more frugally than its two sisters and never really thrived in the ratings, despite Grant's ambitions of turning his three stations into regional superstations.
WXXA-TV
WXXA signed on July 30, 1982 and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 23. It was the Capital District's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station to launch in the market since WTRI (channel 35), forerunner of WNYT (channel 13), launched 28 years earlier. The Capital District had a fairly long wait for an independent station, considering its size. On paper, it had been large enough to support an independent since the late 1960s. However, the Capital District is a fairly large market geographically, stretching across a large swath of east-central New York, as well as portions of southern Vermont and western Massachusetts. Much of this area is very mountainous, particularly in the northern portion. UHF stations have never covered large areas or rugged terrain very well. By the late 1970s, cable and satellite—then as now, a must for acceptable television in much of this market—had gained enough penetration for an independent to be viable.
WSPA-TV
The station first signed on the air on April 29, 1956. It was founded by broadcasting pioneer Walter J. Brown and his company, Spartan Radiocasting, alongside WSPA radio (950 AM, now WOLI at 910 AM; and 98.9 FM). The station has been a CBS affiliate since its sign-on. Spartan Radiocasting bought several other radio and television stations over the years, and was renamed Spartan Communications in 1995. WSPA began broadcasting a 24-hour schedule in July of that same year, after previously having signed off during the overnight hours on Fridays and Saturdays.
WJZ-TV
Group W felt betrayed by ABC after so many years of loyalty, as channel 13 had been ABC's longest-tenured affiliate at the time (a distinction that now belongs to WJLA-TV). As a safeguard, it began to shop for an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, Westinghouse agreed to a long-term affiliation contract with CBS, resulting in WJZ-TV and its sister stations in Philadelphia and Boston switching to CBS (Westinghouse's two other television stations, in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates). The affiliation switch, the second in Baltimore television history, occurred early on the morning of January 2, 1995. As a result, channel 13 became the third station in Baltimore to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally affiliated with WMAR-TV in 1948 before moving to WBAL-TV in 1981. Westinghouse then bought CBS on November 24, 1995, making WJZ-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station. Notably, this marked the first time that CBS had wholly owned a station in the Baltimore/Washington corridor; it had been minority owner of WTOP-TV in Washington (now WUSA) from 1950 to 1955.
WAGT-CD
In 1998, WBAU, a local affiliate of The WB 100+ Station Group, signed on, appearing on cable systems in the Augusta area; as a result, WBEK lost its WB affiliation. The station then became an affiliate of UPN, and for a few years sold advertising on WBAU, before these rights went to WRDW-TV (channel 12; this changed hands once more before The WB 100+ was replaced with The CW Plus). In 2001, WBEK moved to its present channel location, channel 16, and obtained Class A status (modifying its call sign to WBEK-CA).
After the affiliation switch, the station attempted to maintain its status as a "top" local affiliate. The station's move to channel 16 had come with a loss in power, and viewership began to decline. The station picked up a secondary affiliation with America One during this period. In 2004, the station lost the UPN affiliation to WRDW's digital subchannel 31.2 ("UPN Augusta"), and continued on with America One programming to very little viewer interest. In 2015, the station converted to digital broadcasting and became WBEK-CD. That same year, America One and cable network Youtoo TV merged to become Youtoo America.
WGN-TV
Channel 9 lost its CBS affiliation as a sidebar to the February 1953 merger of ABC and United Paramount Theatres; at the time, CBS had purchased the VHF channel 4 license in Chicago (now WBBM-TV, which later moved to channel 2, forcing Phonevision off the air) from United Paramount Theatres – which absorbed WBKB's founding owners, Balaban and Katz in 1949, after a U.S. Supreme Court order forced Paramount Pictures to divest its chain of movie theaters – for $6.75 million, as the newly merged entity could not keep both WBKB and ABC owned-and-operated station WENR-TV (channel 7, now WLS-TV) due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations then enforced that forbade common ownership of two television stations that were licensed to the same market. Following a two-month cancellation clause, all of the CBS programs that WGN-TV had been airing were moved to the rechristened WBBM-TV, leaving channel 9 exclusively with DuMont.
Ashley Webster
Before joining FBN—and returning to his native country—in 2007, Webster was an anchor at WZTV, a Fox affiliate in Nashville, for 10 years. Webster also helped launch the news department of NBC affiliate WGBA-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1996 as the station's first male co-anchor. He also anchored at CBS affiliate KSWT-TV in Yuma, Arizona.
WACY-TV
WXGZ's license to operate was put back into use in June 1994. License holder Ace TV, Inc. put WXGZ back on the air with the help of WGBA and its then-owner Aries Telecommunications, who arranged to put WACY on solid financial footing through the entrance of a local marketing agreement with Ace TV, allowing WGBA to operate and program WXGZ through its studios and sell advertising time for the station.
WFLA-TV
The station first signed on the air on February 14, 1955, with a live broadcast of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It was originally owned by "The Tampa Tribune", along with WFLA radio (970 AM and 93.3 FM, now WFLZ). WFLA-TV has been an NBC affiliate since the station's inception. Largely because of its newspaper background, it was the early ratings leader in the Tampa market until WTVT (channel 13) passed it for first place in 1962. In 1966, Richmond Newspapers, publishers of the "Richmond Times-Dispatch" and part-owner of the "Tribune", acquired full control of the paper and the WFLA radio and television stations. Three years later, Richmond Newspapers changed its name to Media General, and WFLA-TV, the first television station owned and operated by the company, would be the flagship of its broadcasting group for the rest of its existence.
WXXA-TV
A construction permit had been issued for channel 23 in the 1950s with the calls WPTR-TV; that permit was canceled in 1960. Rumors had previously abounded that NBC would move its programming to the new channel 23 after WRGB (channel 6) switched to CBS in 1981. However, the network ended up affiliating with WNYT.
WAGA-TV
For many years as a CBS affiliate, the station called its newscasts "5 News Scene". In the 1980s, this changed to "Eyewitness News". In 1992, WAGA dropped "CBS This Morning" through 1994 in favor of a three-hour locally produced morning news program called "Good Day Atlanta". With the 1994 affiliation switch to Fox, WAGA poured more resources into its news department. Channel 5's news department was already very well respected; for most of its history it was a solid runner-up to longtime leader WSB-TV, but from the 1970s until early 2009 had to fend off a spirited challenge from WXIA-TV. As of mid-2009, with plummeting ratings at WXIA, WAGA-TV has returned to a solid second-place position in the Atlanta news ratings.
WXXA-TV
On April 17, 2006, it was announced WNYA would begin airing an hour-long extension of WRGB's weekday morning show from 7 until 8. This action could be seen as a preemptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by WXXA which had announced its own plans to launch a weekday morning newscast two weeks earlier. The actual launch of "Fox 23 News Mornings" occurred September 18, 2006 and it initially ran for three hours from 5 until 8. WRGB subsequently moved the sixty-minute extension of its morning show from WNYA to WCWN, and in 2008 began producing a 10 p.m. newscast for that station, giving WXXA its first challenger in the time slot in a decade. WXXA reduced its weekday morning broadcast to a two-hour format (from 6 until 8) in Summer 2009 due to low viewership.
WIPB
The UHF channel 49 allocation in Central Indiana was originally occupied by WLBC-TV, which signed on the air on June 14, 1953, as a primary CBS affiliate with secondary affiliations with ABC, NBC and DuMont. The station was founded by Don Burton, owner of Muncie radio station WLBC (1340 AM, now WXFN). During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. WLBC-TV dropped CBS programming in the early 1960s, becoming a primary NBC and secondary ABC affiliate. Burton expanded the WLBC radio facility on 29th Street in southeast Muncie and constructed a tower outside the building.
WBBH-TV
The station first signed on the air on December 18, 1968 as WBBH-TV. Before its existence, NBC programming in the market was relegated to off-hours clearances through a secondary affiliation with CBS affiliate WINK-TV (channel 11). As the second television station in Southwest Florida (after WINK-TV), WBBH shared ABC programming with that station until WEVU (channel 26, now WZVN-TV) signed on the air on August 21, 1974. Founded by a consortium of local businessmen named Broadcast Telecasting Services, Inc., the station originally transmitted its signal from a tower in Lehigh Acres which increased to in 1983. Waterman Broadcasting purchased the station in 1978; the -TV suffix was removed from the call letters on October 16 of that year (the suffix was later brought back).
WXXA-TV
In July 1986, WXXA-TV agreed to become a charter affiliate of Fox, which launched on October 9. Shortly afterward, Albany TV 23 sold the station to Heritage Broadcasting Group (a Detroit-based company, unrelated to the similarly-named Heritage Communications and Heritage Media, that was also in the process of acquiring WWTV in Cadillac, Michigan) for $10.1 million. The station picked up programming from the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) block in 1993.
East Tennessee PBS
WETP-TV was founded on March 15, 1967 as WSJK-TV (Sneedville-Johnson City-Knoxville), the first in a series of four stations that the Tennessee Board of Education would establish over the next 12 years, the others being WLJT-TV in Martin, WTCI-TV in Chattanooga and WCTE-TV in Cookeville. The transmitter was built on Short Mountain near Sneedville not by choice, but by necessity (see below). Studios were located on rented space at the University of Tennessee's communications building in Knoxville with a satellite studio located at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Reception was spotty at best even in the Tri-Cities area because of the distance the signal had to travel from Short Mountain, as well as the area's rugged terrain. The Tri-Cities wouldn't get a city-grade signal from PBS until WSBN-TV in Norton, Virginia, started in 1971 as a satellite of WBRA-TV in Roanoke.
WRGB
In 1948, WRGB took on secondary affiliations with the three other networks in operation (CBS, ABC, and DuMont). At the time of the announcement, the station only broadcast for 28 hours a week. On January 4, 1954, it moved from channel 4 to channel 6 to alleviate interference from WNBC-TV (then known as WRCA-TV) and Boston's WBZ-TV, and increased its radiated power approximately fourfold to 93,000 watts. WRGB dropped its secondary affiliations when WCDA (channel 41, now WTEN on channel 10) and WTRI (channel 35, now WNYT on channel 13) took the ABC and CBS affiliations respectively. From 1939 till 1957, the station's studio were located on Washington Avenue in downtown Schenectady. In 1957, WRGB moved to its current studio on Balltown Road on the line between Niskayuna and Schenectady; the old studio is currently occupied by Schenectady County Community College.
WAFB
Originally broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 28, WAFB moved to VHF channel 9 in 1960. WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Mississippi moved to channel 7 to accommodate this switch. The station has always been a CBS affiliate but carried some NBC programming until WBRZ-TV signed-on in 1955. WAFB also carried some ABC programming with WBRZ until WRBT (now WVLA) signed-on in 1971 and some programming from DuMont until that network folded. The station also aired "Time for Beany" during its early years on the air from the Paramount Television Network and was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, airing programs "Sheriff of Cochise", "How to Marry a Millionaire", and "This is Alice".
WGGB-TV
The station signed on April 14, 1953 as WHYN-TV, broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 55. It was the second television station to launch in the Springfield market, debuting one month after NBC affiliate WWLP (channel 22). WHYN-TV was founded by Hampden-Hampshire Corporation, the owners of WHYN radio (560 AM and 93.1 FM); the stations were in turn jointly owned by the owners of the "Holyoke Transcript-Telegram" and the Northampton-based "Daily Hampshire Gazette". In 1954, a 50% interest in Hampden-Hampshire Corporation was purchased by the employees beneficial funds of the Springfield "Republican" and "Daily News" and the "Springfield Union" for $250,000.
WTMJ-TV
After "Today" expanded to four hours in September 2007, WTMJ began shifting its programming focus very heavily towards local news, as replacement syndicated programming for "Martha", "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" after all three programs moved to other area stations, and "Montel"s August 2008 departure from syndication failed to spark viewer interest outside of local/network hours. On August 25, 2008, after "Extra" moved to WITI, the station expanded its 6:00 p.m. newscast to one hour (although it reverted to a half-hour on Tuesday nights during the NFL season due to Mike McCarthy's coaches show in the past); this was followed on September 8 by the debut of an hour-long newscast at 3:00 p.m., which featured segments including "Ask the Experts", an interactive "sound off" segment incorporating viewer calls and social media contributions, and a "hot topics" section which features WTMJ radio afternoon host Jeff Wagner among the regular panelists. Green Bay sister station WGBA-TV added simulcasts of WTMJ's morning and noon newscasts on July 14, 2008, with WGBA producing local weather inserts using its own meteorologists in place of the WTMJ-produced weather segments. The simulcast ended in early 2009, due to viewer disinterest in Milwaukee-focused news (WGBA relaunched a local morning newscast in January 2011). WTMJ also began to produce forecasts for WGBA to air during its weekend newscasts. Until April 2013, when Larry McCarren became WGBA's sports director, all sports segments on WGBA were produced by WTMJ.
WVTM-TV
The station first signed on the air on May 29, 1949, as WAFM-TV, originally carrying a limited schedule of local programming. The station began carrying select network programming on July 1, operating as a primary CBS and secondary ABC affiliate; channel 13 began carrying an expanded schedule of programming from ABC and CBS on October 1. It was originally owned by The Voice of Alabama, Inc., along with radio stations WAPI (1070 AM), and WAFM (then at 93.3, now WJOX-FM at 94.5 FM). It is the longest continuously operating television station in Alabama. During the summer of 1949, most programs aired by WAFM-TV aired during the daytime hours, allowing radio electronics and department stores to demonstrate television set receivers to potential customers. In January 1953, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application to increase the station's transmitter power from 26,000 to 316,000 watts.
WGN America
On August 21, 2008, WGN America announced a partnership with Indianapolis radio station WFBQ to carry the television broadcast of "The Bob & Tom Show" radio program – which was originally produced for Tribune's duopoly of Fox affiliate WXIN (channel 59) and CW affiliate WTTV (channel 4, now a CBS affiliate) in that market. The program debuted on WGN America on November 3, 2008, originally airing in a standard late night slot, before being moved to overnights until the television broadcast ended on September 13, 2010. On December 19, 2008, WGN America reached a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to broadcast "WWE Superstars" as an hour-long weekly program, starting on April 16, 2009. The program was dropped from WGN America after the April 7, 2011 telecast (it was then available on WWE's subscription-based WWE Network until its cancellation in November 2016).
WCTI-TV
A new problem arose in 1958, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped in a channel 13 allocation in Hampton, Virginia to give the Hampton Roads area a third VHF station; WVEC-TV moved there from channel 15 shortly afterward. To alleviate concerns about short-spacing, the channel 13 allocation for New Bern was moved to channel 12. Almost immediately, WRVA-TV in Richmond, Virginia (now WWBT) raised concerns of its own about short-spacing. All objections were eventually overcome by 1961, and the station went on the air on September 7, 1963, as WNBE-TV (for "New B Ern"). The call letters were changed to the current WCTI-TV in 1970. The station has been an ABC affiliate since its inception. When it signed on, the Greenville/Washington/New Bern market became one of the smallest DMAs in the country with three commercial network affiliates. Continental Television sold the station to Malrite Communications in 1976.
WLOA
The station first signed on the air as WFAR, a 500-watt daytime-only station, on October 3, 1954. The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown area, doing business as Farrell-Sharon Broadcasting Company. Schafitz also started up WWIZ in Lorain, Ohio. He was involved in the launching of WXTV-TV in Youngstown in 1955. Before WFAR went on the air, a dispute occurred between Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation and Schafitz. Greater New Castle Broadcasting Corporation wanted to put a 1,000-watt daytime-only station on 1460 kHz in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and Schafitz wanted to put a 500 W daytime only station on 1470 kHz. The FCC ruled in favor of Schafitz on September 4, 1953, and he put the station on the air shortly thereafter.
WJBF
Media General had initially intended to move WAGT into an expanded wing of the WJBF building in downtown Augusta. Both WJBF and WAGT have had a longstanding presence in the downtown area. Channel 6's facility on Reynolds Street was built around 1956, and channel 26 moved into its Broad Street building, a converted theatre, in 1981. However, it soon became apparent that WJBF's facility could not sustain the expansion necessary to house both stations. Media General instead chose to construct a new building for the stations. The new facility, located at the Augusta West Shopping Center in a former Barnes & Noble retail location, was opened in October 2011. While the two stations shared some internal services, WAGT's news operation and sales department operated autonomusly from that of WJBF, and the two stations also produced competing news programming from their dedicated areas of the facility.
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV first began operations on March 8, 1949. The station was originally owned by Toledo, Ohio-based Fort Industry Company, which also operated WAGA radio (AM 590, now WDWD; and WAGA-FM 103.3, now WVEE), all colloquially called "Wagga". (The "-TV" suffix was dropped from the WAGA callsign on July 12, 1998, before being reinstated on July 1, 2009.) Fort Industry would later be renamed Storer Broadcasting after the company's founder, George B. Storer. Channel 5 is Atlanta's second-oldest television station, signing on seven months after WSB-TV (then on channel 8). Originally a CBS affiliate, channel 5 also carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network from 1949 to 1956. It also shared the ABC affiliation with WSB-TV (which moved to channel 2 in 1950) until WLTV (a then-new channel 8 station) signed on in September 1951. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. Storer sold the WAGA radio stations in 1959; however, channel 5 retained the "-TV" suffix before dropping it in 1998, only to pick it up again in 2009.
WAGT (TV)
Ever since WJBF (channel 6) had dropped its primary NBC affiliation in favor of a full ABC affiliation in September 1967, NBC had been relegated to off-hours clearances on WJBF and CBS affiliate WRDW-TV (channel 12). Even after WATU signed on, NBC allowed WJBF and WRDW-TV to cherry-pick its stronger shows, most likely because most Augusta-area viewers still didn't have UHF-capable sets (the FCC had only mandated all-channel tuning in 1964). WATU was thus left with most of NBC's news programming, as well as lower-rated entertainment shows. During this time, it was not unusual for tape-delayed NBC programs to air on both WJBF and WRDW between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. before the respective networks' prime-time feeds began for the evening. WJBF also aired the "Today Show" and WRDW-TV ran "The Tonight Show". Another problem for channel 26 came from WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina, which provided at least "Grade B" coverage on VHF channel 10 to most of the South Carolina side of the Augusta market and aired the full NBC schedule. In a market that was just barely large enough to support three full network affiliates, WATU-TV was unable to make any headway, and went dark in 1970.
WGBA-TV
On July 14, 2008, due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership, WGBA discontinued its weekday morning and noon newscasts, while laying off some of its staff. In place of those shows, the station began simulcasting WTMJ's morning and midday newscasts "Live at Daybreak" and "Live at Noon", interspersed with local weather cut-ins presented by a meteorologist from WGBA's Green Bay studios (again, recorded in advance since WTMJ was already live in its own market), but with no regard to coverage of Fox Valley and Green Bay news. Due to the latter issue, in January 2009, the weekday morning simulcast was dropped and turned into a WGBA-produced rolling weather block called "Non-Stop Weather". WTMJ's weekday noon broadcast was later moved to WACY and replaced in that timeslot on WGBA by paid programming, which for a time in 2008, filled some of the station's early afternoon schedule due to an unusual number of syndicated program cancellations in that year. The midday news simulcast on WACY and paid programming on WGBA were eventually dropped as well.
WGBX-TV
The station initially existed as a construction permit for WJDW-TV, a commercial station co-owned by television producer Jack Wrather and his business partner, Maria Helen Alvarez. In 1965, Wrather and Alvarez donated the license to WGBH Educational Foundation, in which WGBH used to launch its secondary educational station. WGBX-TV first signed on the air on September 25, 1967; its transmitter has been located in Needham (on a broadcast tower that is owned operated by CBS Corporation, and is used by some of the Boston markets' commercial television stations, including CBS-owned WBZ-TV), WGBX's current digital transmitter shares the master antenna at the very top of the tower with the commercial stations. The now defunct analog signal maintained a separate antenna on a lower portion of the tower that was shared with WGBH's digital transmitter.
WGBA-TV
In early 1996, shortly after WGBA picked up the NBC affiliation, then-owner Aries Telecommunications announced plans to start a full-fledged news department for the station. On July 19, 1996, during the start of NBC's coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics, WGBA debuted its local newscasts, with a half-hour early-evening newscast at 6:00 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays (the initial broadcast of that program on July 19 ran a special one-hour broadcast, leading into NBC's coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta) and a late evening newscast at 10:00 p.m. seven nights a week. Ted O'Connell was WGBA's first news director; he was succeeded by Ashley Webster (now a journalist with Fox Business Network), who also served as weeknight co-anchor alongside Heather Hays (presently a main anchor at Fox owned-and-operated station KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth). Eventually as the operation grew, the station added newscasts on weekday mornings, weekdays at noon and at 5:00 p.m.
WGBA-TV
In early 1983, coinciding with the purchase of a licensing deal of approximately 1,000 movies and other syndicated programs, WRLE took on the tagline "The Great Entertainer", using station imaging shared with (at least) WPHL. In late 1984, the station's partnership was dissolved in a bankruptcy court in which investors lost money. In 1985, it was bought by Family Group Broadcasting Incorporated for only pennies on the dollar. On October 3 of that year, the station's call letters were changed to WGBA-TV. The station, then known on-air as "TV 26", was well known in its early years for children's program host "Cuddles the Clown", who stayed with the station until it switched to NBC, and moved to sister station WACY before retiring. The station's imaging was also shared with sister station WQRF-TV in Rockford, Illinois, WVFT-TV in Roanoke, Virginia, WPGX-TV in Panama City, Florida, WFGX-TV in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and WLAX-TV in La Crosse, Wisconsin, including its early 'diamond' logo.
WGBB
WGBB was born December 1924 as a 150-watt share-time outlet. The call letters were twisted into the slogan “Where Good Broadcasting Begins,” but in actuality were sequentially assigned by the Commerce Department from an alphabetical list. Harry H. Carman, ham station operator 2EL, was creator and owner until his death in 1954. Carman was seriously hurt in an auto mishap just before Christmas 1953 and perished the following July.
WGBH-TV
WGBH is a leading provider of accessible media services for the deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and visually impaired for use by commercial and public television producers, and to home video, websites, and movie theaters throughout the United States through the Media Access Group, a non-profit organization that was founded by the WGBH Educational Foundation in 1990. The unit originated with the founding of The Caption Center in 1972, which invented the method of closed captioning to improve access to television programs for the hearing impaired ("The French Chef" was the first program to offer captioning provided by the unit), and created the Rear Window Captioning System for films. Along with providing closed captions for television programs seen on channel 2 and its sister stations, the Media Access Group is a major captioning provider for programs on other broadcast television networks (with the exception of ABC) and several cable channels. In addition, it also developed the Descriptive Video Service, and is the main provider for audio description soundtracks that give visually impaired viewers details about events occurring on-screen within an individual program, which are commonly found on PBS, and select broadcast networks and cable channels.
WGBH-TV
In 1957, Hartford N. Gunn Jr. was appointed general manager of WGBH; he would later earn the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Ralph Lowell Award for his achievements in programming development. Under Gunn, who resigned in February 1970 to become president of PBS, WGBH made significant investments in technology and programming to improve the station's profile and set out to make it a producer of public television programming. That February, WGBH expanded its programming to weekends for the first time, adding a four-hour schedule on Sunday afternoons from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. (its sign-on time on Sundays was later extended to 11:00 a.m. that May). In March 1958, channel 2 began offering academic instructional television programs, with the debut of eight weekly science programs aimed at students in the sixth grade, which were televised “in some 48 separate school systems in and around the Boston area.” In November of that year, the station installed a new full-power transmitter donated by Westinghouse, which increased channel 2's transmitting power to 100,000 watts.
During the early morning hours of October 14, 1961, a large fire caused significant damage to the Cambridge studios of WGBH-TV and WGBH radio. Until the WGBH Educational Foundation was able to build a new studio complex to replace the destroyed former building, the two stations arranged to operate from temporary offices and had to produce their local programming from the studio facilities of various television stations in the Boston area and southern New Hampshire. WGBH-TV maintained a splintered operation, basing its master control operations at Newman Catholic Center at Boston University, production facilities (for which it was reserved to use late nights and on weekends) at the studios of then CBS affiliate WHDH-TV (channel 5, now defunct; allocation now operated by ABC affiliate WCVB-TV) on Morrissey Boulevard in Boston's Dorchester section, and its film and tape library (including those which were salvaged from the fire) was housed at the studios of fellow NET station WENH-TV (channel 11) in Durham, New Hampshire. WGBH was only off the air for one day after the fire.
WGTA (TV)
The station first signed on the air on September 9, 1984, as WNEG-TV (the call letters representing NorthEast Georgia); operating as a commercial independent station at the time, the station was originally owned by Toccoa businessman Roy Gaines and his Stephens County Broadcasting Company along with longtime local radio station WNEG (630 AM). Gaines felt that northeast Georgia received very little local news coverage from stations in the adjacent Atlanta, Augusta, and Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville markets, and launched WNEG in order to fill this void. However, the station struggled to make money, as there were barely enough viewers or advertisers in its primarily rural area for it to be viable. Virtually the only program that generated ratings on the station was the popular "Billy Dilworth Show"; it and WNEG radio's ratings were all that kept channel 32 afloat. Gaines campaigned tirelessly to have WNEG added to area cable systems, often buying antennas and offering technical assistance in exchange for adding WNEG to their channel line-ups.
WVBG-LP
Because of the delay in receiving the construction permit, channel 25 was the last of the three stations to go on the air; W39CE (later renamed WVBX-LP; now WEPT-CD channel 15 in Newburgh) signed on in December 1997, and W49BU (later renamed WVBK-LP; now WYCX-CD channel 2) went on in March 1998, with WVBG itself debuting on August 27, 1998. Initially an independent station, WVBG and its satellites became a UPN affiliate on October 5, 1998; it already carried the UPN Kids block, but the network's primetime programming had previously been seen in the Capital District through secondary affiliations with Fox affiliate WXXA-TV (channel 23) and Pax station WYPX (channel 55), as well as cable carriage of WSBK-TV from Boston. However, from its inception, the station could not get carriage on Time Warner Cable, which chose to continue its carriage of WSBK; this was despite acquiring several sports packages, including Big East football and basketball, the Boston Red Sox (the telecasts of which were dropped following a territorial complaint by the New York Yankees), and the Boston Celtics.
WMGT-TV
The station began producing newscasts at its 1968 inception. However, due to the problems mentioned above caused by WMAZ's dominance of the market, WCWB's newscasts struggled in the ratings for years, and were mostly discontinued by the early 1970s. It made a modest attempt at newscasts again later in the decade. However, within a few months following its start in 1982, WGXA's newscasts surged to second place in the market (behind WMAZ), because its news product was perceived as far more modern than that of the newscasts seen on WCWB. Once again, due to low viewership, channel 41 shut down its news department in 1992. For the next 12 years, it was one of the few Big Three affiliates that did not air any newscasts at all.
WGGN-TV
The station was founded in 1980 and first signed on the air on December 5, 1982 as an affiliate of the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
WKBT-DT
On April 16, 1965, during the worst of the famous 1965 flood, the downtown La Crosse building that housed both WKBT and WKBH burned to the ground; WKBT would rebuild its current building on the same site. WKBT was sold to Harold F. Gross, a businessman from Lansing, Michigan in 1970, who owned WJIM-AM-FM-TV in that city. Gross Telecasting sold both stations to Backe Communications in 1984, following a licensing dispute involving WJIM-TV (which changed its call letters to WLNS-TV). Backe sold WLNS and WKBT to Young Broadcasting in 1986. In March 2000, Young sold WKBT to current owner Morgan Murphy Media (ironically, the original owner of WEAU).
WKMG-TV
The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1954 under the callsign WDBO-TV, standing for the two major cities in the market; Daytona Beach and Orlando. Or, as it was informally known, "Way Down By Orlando". It is the sixth-oldest television station in Florida, and the oldest in Central Florida. It was originally owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company, which also owned WDBO radio (580 AM and 92.3 FM, now WWKA). Its original studios were located on Texas Avenue, just north of Colonial Drive. As the only station in the market at its inception, it originally carried programming from all four networks of the time—CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont. DuMont would shut down most network operations in 1955, but honor network commitments until 1956; at that point, DuMont programming disappeared from the schedule. It lost NBC when Daytona Beach's WESH expanded its signal to cover all of Central Florida in November 1957, and ABC when WLOF-TV (now WFTV) signed on in February 1958.
WXIA-TV
In 1962, WLWA was purchased by Indianapolis businessman Richard Fairbanks, via his WIBC, Inc., as part of a settlement between Crosley and Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI (now WTHR) in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's callsign then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta" and the calls standing for "Atlanta's 11" (II). The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting in 1968 and on March 23 became known as WQXI-TV, aligning it with WQXI (AM) and FM (the calls originally used on channel 36, currently WATL, from 1954 to 1955). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications. The station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters on December 25, 1973.
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.
WGPX-TV
The station first signed on the air on August 7, 1984 as WRDG, originally operating as a religious independent station. It changed its call letters to WAAP in 1990, continuing to air religious programs while adding home shopping programming from Shop at Home. The station added cartoons during the early mornings and afternoons in the fall of 1992, and some low-budget barter entertainment shows during the evening hours that winter. In 1991, WAAP ran a local newscast, titled "News Source 16". Austin Caviness, now a meteorologist at WXII-TV (channel 12), was among the on-air staffers; the newscast was cancelled in 1992.
WGN-TV
The station lost the DuMont affiliation when the network ceased operations on August 6, 1956; at that point, WGN-TV became an independent station. Channel 9 then spent much of the next two decades as the top-rated independent in Chicago, offering a variety of general entertainment programs including movies, sports, off-network reruns and children's programs. For much of its existence, WGN-TV produced a large number of its own programs at its studios. A historic moment in Chicago television occurred when Sheldon Cooper launched "The All-Time Hits", a musical variety show that ran for 13 weeks and featured The Buckinghams; the program was broadcast in color. During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1957, WGN-TV became one of the first television stations in the Chicago market to broadcast live programming in color.
WBKB-TV
Thunder Bay Broadcasting Corporation was formed in the State of Michigan in September 1971 by Thomas Scanlan, a U.S. Air Force Captain stationed in Indianapolis, for the express purpose of establishing a commercial television station in Alpena, Michigan. At the time Alpena and its surrounding area was one of the last places in the Eastern United States without any over-the-air television service, as defined by the FCC. Such areas were called 'white areas'. Scanlan had just completed a tour of duty in Germany, where he and three other active duty airmen, Thomas Disinger, S. Peter Neumann and Curtis Smith had been engaged in creating the first use of live satellite feeds to Europe of events specifically targeted to military personnel stationed in Europe. This first use was the live Apollo XI moon walk and events surrounding it from blast off to touchdown.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting
Finally, in 1969, the Mississippi Legislature created the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television to create a locally focused educational television service for Mississippi. After almost a year of planning, WMAA-TV, channel 29 (now WMPN-TV) debuted on February 1, 1970 as the state's first educational television station. It immediately joined PBS. The initial broadcast was written by Jeanne Lucket and produced and co-directed by Mims Wright, then Director of Public Affairs at Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT and Joe Root, WLBT Production Manager.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The "Constitution" established one of the first radio broadcasting stations, WGM, which began operating on March 17, 1922, two days after the debut of the "Journal's" WSB. However, WGM ceased operations after just over a year. Its equipment was donated to what was then known as Georgia School of Technology, which used it to help launch WBBF (later WGST, now WGKA AM 920) in January 1924.
In late 1947, the "Constitution" established radio station WCON (AM 550). Subsequently, it received approval to begin operating an FM station, WCON-FM 98.5 mHz, and a TV station, WCON-TV, on channel 2.
WGWG
WGWG began operations on October 23, 1962 as WCIV, the third commercial outlet in Charleston. The original license was granted to WTMA-TV but the call letters were later changed to WCIV before it signed-on. It took the NBC affiliation from WCBD-TV (known as WUSN-TV at the time), leaving that station to become a full-time ABC affiliate. The station was originally owned by the Washington Star Company. In 1976, businessman Joe Allbritton bought the "Star" and sold off the non-television assets in 1978 to form Allbritton Communications.
WSB-TV
WSB-TV first began broadcasting on September 29, 1948, originally broadcasting on channel 8. It is the second-oldest station south of Washington, D.C.; only Richmond, Virginia's WTVR-TV (channel 6) is older. The station was founded by James M. Cox, publisher of "The Atlanta Journal", and who also owned WSB radio (AM 750 and 104.5 FM, now on 98.5 FM). Cox owned WSB AM-FM-TV under the banner of Miami Valley Broadcasting Inc., which later changed its name to the current Cox Enterprises. The station was originally a primary NBC affiliate, owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with NBC Radio. It also carried some ABC programming (from 1949, shared with WAGA-TV, channel 5) until WLWA-TV (channel 8; now WXIA-TV, channel 11) signed on in 1951.
WGNT
With WYAH's growth and profitability, CBN began expanding to other markets. The ministry launched WHAE-TV (now WGCL-TV) in Atlanta in 1971; purchased KXTX-TV in Dallas in 1972; and signed-on WXNE-TV (now WFXT) in Boston in 1977. These stations formed the Continental Broadcasting Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of CBN, with WYAH-TV as the flagship station. Locally, channel 27 faced competition for the first time in 1979 when WTVZ (channel 33) was signed-on by TVX Broadcast Group. The new, locally owned independent purchased general-entertainment programming–many of which was passed over by CBN, having been deemed too racy for the ministry's liking. The impact was near-immediate as WTVZ equalled, then surpassed WYAH (the station officially dropped the "-TV" suffix from its call sign in June 1983) in viewership.
WGBA-TV
In October 2014, the station added "Wisconsin Tonight", a pre-primetime newsmagazine to nights without Packers team programming which features news rundowns, feature segments and various NBC affiliate service reports, along with some shared content from WTMJ, which also carries their own edition of "Wisconsin Tonight"; this averted a situation where "Inside Edition", which was moved to an earlier timeslot, might only air up to two of their five programs a week on the station in the fall and early winter. That show moved to WBAY in the same timeslot in September 2015, as WGBA replaced the 4 p.m. hour's programming with the new syndicated program "Crime Watch Daily", which was moved to 2 p.m. (replacing a second episode of "") starting with the 2016 Summer Olympics, in order to launch Scripps' national programs "The List" and "Right This Minute" in the 4 p.m. timeslot. In June 2017, "Wisconsin Tonight" was retitled "The Now Wisconsin", in line with Scripps' branding for their feature-heavy local newscast format; the "Wisconsin Tonight" title remains in use for a Saturday night advertorial program, presumably to prevent trademark dilution where another state station can claim the title for their program.
WGBA-TV
E.W. Scripps and Time Warner Cable announced a new multi-year carriage agreement on February 1, 2016 that includes WGBA and WACY, well ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics and averting any carriage issues for the Games. This also returned all the subchannels of WGBA to Time Warner systems in the area on channels 990 and 991, which occurred on April 4, 2016.
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV officially became a Fox affiliate on December 11, 1994, when the network's programming lineup moved to the station from WATL; the first Fox network program to air on the station as a full-time affiliate was "Fox NFL Sunday" at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time that day, leading into that afternoon's NFL doubleheader: an early game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Rams and a mid-afternoon game between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers. (The affiliation switch involving WAGA, WGNX and WATL was originally slated to occur on November 27, but was delayed two weeks in order to allow Fox, New World and CBS to iron out the final details.) Prior to the switch, WAGA had been CBS's longest-tenured affiliate south of Washington, D.C. (a title now held by Charlotte, North Carolina affiliate WBTV, which has carried CBS programming since it signed on the air on July 15, 1949). WGNX concurrently took over the CBS affiliation, which necessitated the shift of a large number of the syndicated cartoons, drama series and sitcoms in its inventory over to WVEU — which had become a UPN affiliate when that network launched on January 16, 1995 — as channel 46 could not continue to accommodate many of these shows due to CBS's network-dominated programming lineup; as a result, WGNX became the only Atlanta television station that did not retain its entire existing syndicated programming lineup following the switch. WATL — whose sale to Qwest Broadcasting (which, in 2000, merged with WB network part-owner, the Tribune Company), would not be finalized until December 1995 — temporarily operated as an independent station during its transition into an affiliate of upstart network The WB upon that network's launch the following month on January 11, 1995. (WATL is now owned by Tegna as part of a duopoly with WXIA).
WBBJ-TV
The station signed on March 6, 1955 as WDXI-TV, Jackson's first television station. It operated an analog signal on VHF channel 7, and was a CBS affiliate owned by Aaron Robinson along with WDXI radio (1310 AM). Cy Bahakel bought the station in 1966 and changed the call letters to the current WBBJ-TV in 1967 (as Robinson's estate held on to WDXI radio). Since then, WBBJ has had the longest ownership tenure of any station in Tennessee, surpassing stations in much larger markets in the state.
WGBA-TV
On March 2, 2012, the Green Bay Packers and Journal announced that WTMJ would be retained as the "Official Packers Station" in the Milwaukee market after the expiration of the previous agreement, and that WGBA would become the official station for the team in the Green Bay market beginning in August 2012, replacing former partner WFRV-TV. As a result, WGBA carries the majority of the team's preseason schedule (the game broadcasts use CBS Sports announcers, with the "NBC Sunday Night Football" graphics package) along with "Packers Live" Tuesday nights and "The Matt LaFleur Show" on Wednesday evenings before primetime, and the "Inside Lambeau" program on Sunday nights, along with other official team programming; the station also provides gametime and 'ride home' forecasts for the "TundraVision" scoreboard displays at Lambeau Field during Packers home games. The first preseason game of 2012 was a national ESPN game against the San Diego Chargers on August 9 and aired on WBAY-TV, precluding a situation where NBC's non-preemptable coverage of the Summer Olympics would have forced WGBA to move that game to WACY instead (that situation also occurred in August 2016 due to the 2016 Summer Olympics for two games). In addition, the station also held the rights to the September 13 "Thursday Night Football" game of the Packers–Bears rivalry broadcast on cable/satellite on NFL Network, a network unavailable to much of the Green Bay market at the time due to conflicts with Time Warner Cable (three weeks later Time Warner added the network to its systems); this unusually forced the season seven finale of "America's Got Talent" to air the same night over WACY (the station's first move of NBC programming to that station in a pre-emption situation), and re-air after "Saturday Night Live" on September 15 on WGBA due to the pre-emption. As an NBC affiliate, WGBA broadcasts Packers games that are played on "Sunday Night Football". For the 2016 and 2017 seasons, the station also aired Packers appearances on NBC's portion of the "Thursday Night Football" contract.
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.
WGTV
WGTV began broadcasting on May 23, 1960. It was licensed to the University of Georgia and operated out of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. The station's VHF allocation was originally occupied by WSB-TV, which at that time was owned by the "Atlanta Journal". The "Journal"'s competitor in Atlanta, the "Atlanta Constitution", had applied for and received from the FCC a construction permit for channel 2, which was to be called WCON-TV. When the "Journal" and "Constitution" merged, media ownership rules of the day did not permit one entity to own two television stations in the same market. Plans for WCON-TV were scrapped and WSB-TV moved to channel 2 from channel 8 in 1951. The ABC-TV affiliate WLTV broadcast on channel 8 from 1951 to 1953, when the station moved to channel 11 (now WXIA-TV) to avoid radio interference with newly launched WROM-TV Rome, operating on adjacent channel 9.
WPGA-TV
The station first signed on the air on March 1, 1995 as the Macon market's original Fox affiliate. Prior to the station's sign-on, Macon residents could only receive Fox network programing via Foxnet (the network's now-defunct national cable feed) or via Fox stations piped in from the nearby Atlanta market (network-owned WATL from the network's launch in October 1986 until December 1994, and then WAGA-TV from December 1994 until WPGA's sign-on). In addition, when Fox assumed the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference television package from CBS in 1994, ABC affiliate WGXA (channel 24) carried Fox's NFL telecasts on Sunday afternoons until December 1994.
WNYA
In February 2003, Venture Technologies signed a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Freedom Communications, then-owner of CBS affiliate WRGB (channel 6); this allowed WNYA to operate from WRGB's studios in Niskayuna. Soon afterward, WNYA secured an affiliation with UPN, replacing "WEDG-TV," a cable-only station operated as a partnership of WXXA-TV (channel 23) and Time Warner Cable.
WXXA-TV
When UPN launched on January 16, 1995, WXXA aired programming from UPN off-hours on weekends. Cable viewers in virtually the entire market were also able to watch UPN in pattern on WSBK-TV in Boston, which had been available on cable in the area for decades. WXXA's secondary affiliation ended in 1998, when UPN signed WYPX (channel 55) as its new secondary affiliate and low-powered WVBG-LP (channel 25) as a primary affiliate. The network was picked up again by WXXA after Clear Channel, in partnership with Time Warner Cable, launched cable-only affiliate "WEDG-TV" in January 2000. Eventually known on-air as "UPN 4" after its channel location, "WEDG" signed-off in August 2003 concurrent with the sign-on of over-the-air UPN affiliate WNYA (channel 51), which was operated by WRGB.