History
KALB began broadcasting on September 29, 1954 with NBC's airing of the 1954 World Series. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 5. The station has been an affiliate with the network from the very first day although it also carried programs from CBS and ABC until 1957 plus DuMont until that network folded in 1955. In 1957, the station was bought by Shreveport businessman T.B. Lanford and his company Red River Valley Broadcasting. Park Communications purchased KALB in 1993 and merged with Media General in 1997. KALB began broadcasting in stereo in 1988. The station launched its digital signal in 2002.
On October 29, 2007, Media General announced it was exploring the sale of KALB. On March 14, 2008, the company reached an agreement to sell the station and sister outlet WMBB in Panama City, Florida to the Hoak Media Corporation. The deal was closed on July 16. However, KALB still retained its Media General-era logo with the arc motif and news theme until it adopted a new theme in 2011. The station adopted an updated graphic look, logo, and music theme when the station launched its newscasts in high definition in July, 2012. On February 17, 2009, it turned-off its analog signal on channel 5 and now only operates in digital on channel 35. However, through PSIP, digital tuners show the virtual channel as the former analog channel.
Originally, it aired a digital signal from a transmitter at its facilities in Downtown Alexandria. KALB is one of the country's most dominant stations in part because it was the only commercial station in town until KLAX-TV signed-on in 1983. Alexandria is sandwiched between Monroe/El Dorado to the north, Baton Rouge to the east, Shreveport to the west, and Lafayette/Lake Charles to the south. This created a large "doughnut" in Central Louisiana where there could be only one VHF license. When cable arrived in the market in the 1970s, companies supplemented the area with stations from those cities. Before CBS began broadcasting on KALB-DT2, viewers watched CBS on cable from KLFY-TV in Lafayette, KNOE-TV in Monroe, or WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge.
Read more about this topic: KALB-TV
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