WGMB-TV

WGMB-TV ("Fox 44") is the local Fox affiliate for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, and is sister station to the area's The CW affiliate, WBRL-CD. WGMB also shares facilities and staff with WVLA-TV (channel 33) and KZUP-CD (channel 19). WGMB's transmitter is located near Addis, Louisiana, while broadcasting from shared studios at Perkins Rowe Town Center in Baton Rouge. The station transmits its digital signal on UHF channel 45. The station is seen via satellite through DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T U-verse and on cable Cox Communications.

History

The station first signed on August 11, 1991, making Baton Rouge the last of the Top 100 Nielsen Designated Market Areas to receive a Fox affiliate. The station was originally owned by the Galloway family, whose broadcast holdings operated under the Communications Corporation of America banner. It took five years to bring Fox to Baton Rouge, as the FCC licensed channel 44 to Baton Rouge in 1983 and several potential buyers sought a license. One company, Parish Family Television expressed an interest in broadcasting an independent station affiliated with the network in 1986 with the call letters WPFT. Delays occurred as Southwest Multimedia of Houston expressed an ownership interest in Parish Family Television and rival company Louisiana Super Communications objected to this sale. After Southwest Multimedia bowed out of the ownership stake, Thomas Galloway of Lafayette purchased the license from PFTV in November 1990. The station installed an antenna on WVLA's tower, bought from future sister station WNTZ's parent company at the time, Delta Media Corporation. From April 1990 to February 1991, local NBC affiliate WVLA aired week-delayed episodes of Fox shows such as The Simpsons, Married... with Children, and In Living Color.