WJXT

WJXT, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 42), is an independent television station located in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The station is owned by the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WJXT maintains studio facilities located at 4 Broadcast Place on the southbank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, and its transmitter is located on Eve Drive in the city's Killarney Shores section.

History

As a CBS affiliate

The station first signed on the air on September 15, 1949 as WMBR-TV; it was the second television station to sign on in the state of Florida (after WTVJ) and the first that was licensed outside of Miami. The station was co-owned alongside WMBR radio (1400 AM, now WZAZ; and 96.1 FM, now WEJZ). Though the station was originally a primary CBS affiliate, it also maintained secondary affiliations with NBC, ABC and the DuMont Television Network. In 1953, the WMBR stations were purchased by The Washington Post Company. WMBR-TV dropped the DuMont affiliation in 1955, less than a year before the network ceased operations. Since its only competition in the Jacksonville market came from UHF station WJHP-TV (which signed on in 1953 and went dark three years later), channel 4 had a virtual television monopoly in northern Florida until September 1957, when it lost the NBC affiliation to upstart WFGA (channel 12, now WTLV).