WLTX

WLTX, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 17), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Owned by Tegna, WLTX maintains studio facilities at 6027 Garners Ferry Road (U.S. 76 and 378) in southeastern Columbia, and its transmitter is located on Screaming Eagle Road (southeast of I-20) in rural northeast Richland County. On cable, the station is available on Time Warner Cable channel 9 and in high definition on digital channel 1209. Sub Channel 19.2 is on Time Warner Channel 1255 and Channel 19.3 is on Time Warner Channel 1256.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1953 as WNOK-TV, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 67. It is the second oldest continuously operating television station in South Carolina, having signed on two months before WIS-TV (channel 10). The station has always been a CBS affiliate, but carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network until 1955, one year before that network ceased operations. The station originally maintained studio facilities located in the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Columbia, where it was based alongside sister radio property WNOK (1230 AM, now WOIC, and 104.7 FM). On June 30, 1961, the station switched channel positions, moving to UHF channel 19. In June 1967, WNOK-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio facility on Garners Ferry Road, located 5 miles (8.0 km) east of downtown Columbia and 1 mile (1.6 km) from I-77 and the campus of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. In 1977, the station was sold to Lewis Broadcasting and changed its call letters to WLTX.