WGBA-TV

WGBA-TV, virtual channel 26 (UHF digital channel 41), is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The station is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WACY-TV (channel 32). The two stations share studios on North Road (WIS 172) in Ashwaubenon (with a Green Bay postal address), WGBA's transmitter is located in the Shirley section of De Pere.

The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable (channels 13 in standard definition and 1007 in high definition) and CenturyLink (channels 7 in SD and 1007 in HD).

History

Early history

The station signed on the air on December 31, 1980 as WLRE, broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 26. The call letters stood for station co-founder Lyle R. Evans. 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, as well as the first new commercial station to sign-on in Green Bay itself in 25 years since WFRV-TV (channel 5) signed on in May 1955. 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.