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Baton Rouge, Louisiana United States |
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City | Baton Rouge |
Branding | 9 News MyBRTV (on DT3) |
Slogan | Louisiana's News Channel |
Channels |
Digital: 9 (VHF) Virtual: 9 () |
Subchannels | 9.1 CBS 9.2 Bounce TV 9.4 MyNetworkTV |
Affiliations | CBS (Secondary through 1971) |
Owner |
Raycom Media, Inc. (WAFB License Subsidiary, LLC) |
First air date | April 19, 1953 |
Call letters' meaning | derived from former sister radio station WAFB and WAFB-FM |
Sister station(s) |
WBXH-CD KPLC (Lake Charles) KSLA-TV (Shreveport) WVUE-DT (New Orleans) |
Former callsigns | WAFB-TV (1953–1988) |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 28 (UHF, 1953–1960) 9 (VHF, 1960–2009) Digital: 46 (UHF, until 2009) |
Former affiliations |
All secondary: NBC (1953–1955) DuMont (1953–1955) ABC (1953–1971) DT3: The Tube |
Transmitter power | 5.57 kW |
Height | 511 m |
Facility ID | 589 |
Transmitter coordinates | 30°21′58″N 91°12′47″W / 30.36611°N 91.21306°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.wafb.com |
WAFB is the CBS-affiliated television station for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter southwest of Arlington. Owned by Raycom Media, WAFB is sister to Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CD. The two share studios on Government Street in downtown Baton Rouge. On cable, WAFB is available on Cox Communications channel 7 in standard definition, and in high definition on digital channel 1007, as well as on AT&T U-verse. The station is also seen on DirecTV and Dish Network.
The station began broadcasting on April 19, 1953, as the second television station in the state of Louisiana. It launched as a television counterpart to local radio stations WAFB and WAFB-FM, which both signed on in 1948 and were affiliated with MBS. Louis S. Prejean and associates (Modern Broadcasting of Baton Rouge) were the first owners of the station, and they sold it to Royal Street Corporation of New Orleans in 1956, which owned WDSU-TV, the first television station in Louisiana. In 1957, they sold the radio stations, with the AM station changing its format to black music and the FM station going off the air until being relaunched in 1968. Royal Street owned the station until 1964, when it sold the station to locally based Guaranty Corporation. In 1965, the station moved its transmission tower from Zachary to south of LSU's campus, allowing viewers in a 90-mile radius to receive its signal; it was also in that year that the station started broadcasting in color.