WLTZ

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WLTZ
Columbus, Georgia
Branding	NBC 38
Slogan	It Just Feels Great on NBC 38
Channels	38 (UHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Lewis Broadcasting Corporation
Founded	October 29, 1970
Call letters meaning	W Lewis Television Zenith
Former callsigns	WYEA-TV (1970-1984)
Website	www.wltz.com/

WLTZ is the NBC affiliate in Columbus, Georgia, serving western Georgia and eastern Alabama. Its transmitter is located in Columbus.

[edit] History

The station began with several handicaps. First, like almost all other U.S. television markets with one or two dominant VHF stations, the Columbus area had strong-established preferences for either CBS station WRBL or NBC affiliate WTVM. This meant that channel 38, which started with the callsign WYEA-TV, has had, as a UHF frequency, to struggle mightily to make an impact on local viewers. But it also has had problems in the outlying counties of Georgia and Alabama with established NBC stations WSB-TV in Atlanta (later WXIA-TV, after an affiliation change in that market), WALB in Albany, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama's WSFA, whose signals often turned up quite clearly (in pre-cable days) in many of those areas, constituting an encroachment of sorts. In fact, the original owners of WYEA, Gala Broadcasting, attempted to block WSFA's plans to build a new tower in southeastern Alabama, fearing that it would cut into channel 38's proposed market share.

The new station went on the air anyway, on October 29, 1970, taking the NBC affiliation from WTVM, which had shared the network with ABC. Later in the 1970s, WYEA became the flagship station of locally-based insurance company Aflac's broadcast operations. Aflac sold WYEA to J. Curtis Lewis, owner of WJCL in Savannah, in 1981, and channel 38 renamed itself WLTZ. Lewis sold off his other broadcasting properties in the early 1990s, but still owns WLTZ. In an ironic twist, Aflac bought WTVM a few years later.

[edit] Currently

WLTZ produced local newscasts until sometime in the early 1990s. Al Fleming, Columbus broadcast veteran and former nightclub owner, was once anchor of these newscasts, as was Richard Elliot, later of WRBL and WSB-TV. However, WLTZ had almost no success against WTVM and WRBL.

During the timeslots when news appears on the other Columbus stations, channel 38 broadcasts syndicated shows instead, with taped news updates that run only a few minutes.

[edit] External links

• WLTZ website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLTZ
• Text of a 1970 FCC decision denying Gala Broadcasting's request to prohibit a new tower for WSFA

Broadcast television in the Columbus, Georgia market  (Nielsen DMA #127)
WRBL 3 (CBS) - WTVM 9 (ABC) - WCGT-LP 16 (IND) - WACS 25 (PBS/GPB) - WJSP 28 (PBS/GPB) - WLTZ 38 (NBC) - WGIQ 43 (PBS/APT) - WXTX 54 (FOX/MNTV) (The Tube on DT2) - WLGA 66 (The CW)
See also: Broadcast television stations in the Albany, Montgomery, Macon, Dothan and Atlanta Markets