KBTR-CA
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| Baton Rouge, Louisiana | |
|---|---|
| Branding | WBTR 41 |
| Slogan | This BTR |
| Channels | Analog: 41 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | This TV (secondary) |
| Owner | Louisiana Television Broadcasting, LLC (Manship family) |
| Founded | August 5, 1987 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Ba Ton Rouge, also the IATA airport code for the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport |
| Sister station(s) | WBRZ-TV |
| Former callsigns | W49KG (1987-1988) |
| Former channel number(s) | 49 (1987-1988) 19 (1988-2002) |
| Former affiliations | UPN (January 1995-September 1999), All News Channel (mid 1990s) (Urban America Television (January 2000-May 2006), Independent (1987-1995; 1999-2000; 2006-September 2012) |
| Transmitter power | 18.9 kW |
| Class | A |
Ba Ton Rouge, also the IATA airport code for the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
or
KBTR-CD channel 41, branded as WBTR 41, is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana affiliated with This TV. The station is owned by Louisiana Television Broadcasting, the owners of area ABC affiliate WBRZ-TV. The station is seen on Cox Communications and AT&T U-verse. Its transmitter is based on the property of WBRZ-TV, where its studios are also co-located, just south of downtown.
While the station is licensed as KBTR-CD, it brands itself on the air as "WBTR 41" to help fit in with other stations in the market. To keep other stations from using the WBTR calls (other than in legal IDs), KBTR has registered "WBTR" as a Registered trademark.
The channel began as an independent television station on May 1, 1987 as W49KG, a low-powered station on UHF channel 49. It was the first over-the-air outlet of non-network programming in Baton Rouge. Branding as WKG-TV, it was owned by Woody Jenkins and Great Oaks Broadcasting. The call letters were chosen because of a partnership with WKG-TV-Video-Electronic College, which taught television and radio broadcasting and production. It did not have a local newscast but, instead, ran Independent Network News. Following several format tests, the station officially began broadcasting 24 hours a day on August 5, 1987.
On October 20, 1988, it moved to UHF channel 19. From the start, the station had trouble getting added to the Baton Rouge cable lineup due to its low-power status. To improve its reach, it retransmitted its signal on various translator stations; namely, K07UJ, K13VE, W19AW, W39AT, and K65EF. On May 15, 1989, Cablevision added the station to its lineup. The station changed its call letters to WBTR on February 1, 1991 in order to emphasize its local programming and started branding itself using the melody of the Steely Dan song "Hey Nineteen" for its station ids. In January 1995, it became Baton Rouge's first UPN affiliate; it also carried programming from the All News Channel overnight in the early-to-mid 1990s. While affiliated with UPN, KBTR continued to use W39AT and K65EF as translators, while K07UJ and K13VE were used as translators for Jenkins's other station in Baton Rouge: WTNC, which was a short-lived 24-hour news channel serving the capital city.
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