KTAG-TV

KTAG-TV
Lake Charles, Louisiana
City of license Lake Charles, LA
Channels Analog: 25 (UHF)
Network CBS (1953-1961)
DuMont (secondary) (1953-1956)
ABC (secondary) (1953-1954)
Owner Charles W. Lamar Stations
(KTAG Associates)
First air date November 15, 1953
Last air date August 3, 1961
Transmitter power 20.4 kW
Height 348m

KTAG-TV was the first television station in the Lake Charles area. It was owned by Charles W. Lamar of Baton Rouge and broadcasted on UHF channel 25. Originally, the station was affiliated with CBS, ABC, and Dumont, but by 1957, it was solely a CBS affiliate, as Dumont folded and when KPLC signed on in 1954, it took the ABC affiliation on a secondary basis.[1]

With the sign on of KPLC, KTAG was at a major disadvantage being a UHF station in a small market competing with a VHF. In 1955, the Charles W. Lamar estate petitioned the FCC for VHF channel 3 to move the station to that spot, but it was not granted, as Acadian Television Corporation of Lafayette also lobbied (and was eventually granted) for the channel. By the early 1960s, KTAG operated only five hours a day with a staff of only three people, and on August 3, 1961, it signed-off.[2] In 1962, KATC-TV signed on as the ABC affiliate for Lafayette (and, by extension, Lake Charles) on KTAG's desired channel 3. Today, Lafayette's KLFY serves as the CBS affiliate for the area, and it was not until the 1980s that another UHF station signed on to serve the Lake Charles area (KLTL-TV, a satellite of LPB signed on in 1981, and KVHP, which is now a Fox affiliate, signed on in 1983).

References

  1. ^ Telecasting Yearbook, 1954-1955
  2. ^ Final Telecast Slated Tonight by KTAG, Lake Charles American Press, August 3, 1961