KATC (channel 3) is a television station in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, the station has studios on Eraste Landry Road in Lafayette, and its transmitter is located near Branch, Louisiana.
KATC began broadcasting on September 19, 1962, and has been an ABC affiliate since its inception. It was Lafayette's second TV station after KLFY-TV (channel 10) and for decades was a distant second-place outlet in local news under several owners, including Loyola University. A typo in a letter to the station's founding owner and namesake, Acadian Television Corporation, is claimed to have resulted in the coining of the term Acadiana for southern Louisiana. The station produces local newscasts covering the region.
History
In 1957, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized the insertion of channel 3 at either Lafayette or Lake Charles as one of three new television channels assigned to the state.[1][2]