WATN-TV — BrandWiki

WATN-TV

callsign	WATN-TV
branding	ABC 24 Memphis; ABC 24 News Right Now
digital	25 (UHF)
virtual	24
affiliations	24.1: ABC for others, see
owner	Nexstar Media Group‡R1R‡
licensee	Tegna Memphis Broadcasting, Inc.
location	Memphis, Tennessee
country	United States
airdate	September 10, 1978
callsign meaning	ABC for Tennessee
sister stations	WREG-TV, WLMT
former callsigns	WPTY-TV (1978–2013)
former channel numbers	Analog: 24 (UHF, 1978–2009)
former affiliations	Independent (1978–1990) Fox (1990–1995) The WB (secondary, 1999–2003)
erp	1,000 kW 500 kW (STA)
haat	340 m
facility id	11907
coordinates	35.27583°N, -89.77722°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://www.localmemphis.com/

WATN-TV (channel 24) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate WREG-TV (channel 3) and CW station WLMT (channel 30). WATN-TV and WLMT share studios at the Shelby Oaks Corporate Park on Shelby Oaks Drive in northeast Memphis and transmitter facilities near Brunswick, Tennessee.

Channel 24 in Memphis began broadcasting in September 1978 as WPTY-TV, the first independent station in the Memphis area. It was originally owned by Petry Television, an advertising sales representative for TV stations. Under the station's third owner, Chase Broadcasting, WPTY cemented its status as the leading independent over channel 30 by securing the rights to Memphis State University basketball and the Fox affiliation, which had both been on its competitor. Clear Channel Television purchased WPTY-TV in 1992 and then began programming WLMT in 1993.

In 1995, Fox acquired WHBQ-TV (channel 13), then the ABC affiliate. As a result, WPTY-TV became the ABC affiliate in Memphis and started a local news department, though it has met with little ratings success.

History

The first proposal for a channel 24 television station in Memphis was made by Connecticut-based Gamma Television Corporation in 1965.[2] Gamma president Al Hartigan promised a station focused on local events and news coverage.[3] Two other applicants also sought channel 24 at this time: John McLendon and a consortium of Victor Muscat and Cliff Ford.[4] The Muscat–Ford group was granted a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in April 1968, having merged with McLendon's group and paid Gamma in exchange for its withdrawal.[5] Muscat never built the station: he ultimately pled guilty in a legal case involving giving false and misleading information to the FCC, and when the FCC asked him to build the station after the trial concluded, he was unable to sell the permit in a timely manner and surrendered it to the commission.[6]

As an independent station

Petry Television, a national advertising sales firm and representative to television stations nationally, applied through subsidiary Delta Television in 1977 for a construction permit to build channel 24. John Serrao, the operations director for Petry, noted that Memphis was the largest market lacking an independent station or a station on the ultra high frequency (UHF) band.[7] The FCC granted the construction permit in December,[8] and by June, construction was under way on studios at 2225 Union Avenue in Memphis.[9]

WPTY-TV began broadcasting on September 10, 1978.[10] In the weeks leading up to its launch, local dealers reported a surge of interest in UHF antennas to receive the new station.[11] The schedule focused on counterprogramming the city's three network affiliates with alternative offerings.[12] It also filled a void in sports coverage: syndicated Southeastern Conference basketball, which appeared on the station's schedule in its first year, had gone unaired in Memphis the year before.[13] In addition, the station offered the live discussion program Memphis Forum.[14]

WPTY was the only independent station in Memphis until April 18, 1983, when TVX Broadcast Group launched WMKW-TV on channel 30.[15] With two independents in town, the stations engaged in competition among themselves,[16] though WPTY led WMKW in the ratings.[17] A year later, Petry sold the station to Robert H. Precht, a former producer of The Ed Sullivan Show, for $13 million; Precht also owned television stations in western Montana.[18] Less than two years later, Precht sold WPTY-TV to Chase Broadcasting, owner of WTIC-TV in Hartford, Connecticut; the original sale price of $12.5 million was discounted to $11.2 million because of the state of some of channel 24's equipment.[19][20]

Fox affiliation

In 1989, as part of a process of divesting its smaller-market stations, TVX Broadcast Group sold WMKW-TV to MT Communications, which renamed it WLMT.[21][22] In the span of a year, channel 30 would lose its two main programming attractions to channel 24. First to go was Memphis State University basketball; WPTY-TV presented a proposal to the university that paid three times as much money per game.[23]

The next year, the Fox affiliation came up for renewal, and WPTY-TV intensively lobbied the Fox network; it had stronger ratings than channel 30, drawing a 7.4 percent share of total-day ratings to WLMT's 4.1.[24] On WLMT, some Fox shows had less than half the audience they did in other cities.[25] Fox chose to move its affiliation to channel 24 effective July 1, 1990.[26]

Affiliation switch to ABC

In May 1994, Fox announced a 12-station affiliation switch agreement with New World Communications in major markets; Fox was actively looking for upgrades from UHF stations like WPTY-TV to stations in the very high frequency (VHF) band. Memphis was not involved in the New World switches, but a rumor circulated and was quickly quashed that the Memphis NBC affiliate, WMC-TV, was seeking to move to Fox; its owner, Ellis Communications, owned four Fox stations, even though Clear Channel had become the second-largest group owner of Fox affiliates.[33] However, in August, Fox made its move by purchasing local ABC affiliate WHBQ-TV (channel 13) from Communications Corporation of America, which had just taken over ownership.[34]

Movement around the switch was initially slow because Fox needed to wait for FCC approval to purchase WHBQ-TV; the FCC at the time was considering petitions from NBC about whether Fox was a foreign-owned entity not allowed to own broadcast stations.[35] As part of a series of attempts to prevent News Corporation

WATN-TV: Nexstar and Tegna ownership

As part of a liquidation of Newport Television's assets, Nexstar Broadcasting Group purchased WPTY-TV and WLMT in a 12-station deal worth $285.5 million (equivalent to $ in ) on July 19, 2012.[52] Nearly immediately, Nexstar announced that it would move the stations from their aging five-story building in midtown Memphis into a former MCI call center on the city's northeast side.[53] The relocation, in addition to providing more up-to-date facilities for the stations, was done because the impending replacement of the adjacent Poplar Viaduct would create vibrations and noise making the building unsuitable for television production.[54] As part of a major rebrand, WPTY-TV became WATN-TV after moving into the new studios.[55]

In 2019, Nexstar acquired Tribune Media, owner of Memphis CBS affiliate WREG-TV

Second Nexstar ownership

In August 2025, Nexstar agreed to acquire Tegna for $6.2 billion.[59] The deal was completed on March 19, 2026, and included approval for Nexstar to own three full-power station licenses in markets such as Memphis.[60] This, in turn, placed WATN-TV and WLMT under Nexstar's ownership once again.

News operation

WPTY-TV had no plans for a newscast as late as July 1994, even though other Fox affiliates were starting local newscasts.[61] To plot the station's expansion into news, Clear Channel hired Los Angeles market veteran and consultant Jeff Wald.[62] While several of the station's assignment desk and production staff members were hired from other local stations, the news talent largely came from elsewhere, ranging from Kennewick, Washington, to Duluth, Minnesota.[63] One exception was Brian Teigland, a weatherman cut by WREG-TV in a dispute over disability benefits.[64]

News Watch 24 newscasts debuted on December 1, 1995, the same day the station switched to ABC. The newsroom initially offered local news at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. on channel 24, as well as a 9 p.m. newscast known as News Watch 30 on WLMT.[65][66] The 9 p.m. newscast, anchored by two Black men (Robb Harleston and Ken Houston), was intended to feature increased coverage of the city's minority communities.[67]

The debut of News Watch 24 was particularly rough, owing to the simultaneous move to a new building and a lack of time to rehearse the newscasts.[68] Sound issues plagued the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts; the opening to the 10 p.m. news played out three times in a row. On the 9 p.m. show, sports anchor Greg Gaston called the University of Memphis "Memphis University".[69] Such errors continued to be noticeable on WPTY's newscasts for months.[70] Less than two weeks after starting, the anchor lineup for the weeknight newscasts was changed, with original lead anchor Wendell Stacy demoted to weekends and replaced with Bill Lunn and Teigland moved to weeknight weather.[71] Ratings were low, with the newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. attracting just three percent of the available audience in the May 1996 sweeps.[72] The original news director was fired less than a year after the first newscast aired.[73]

Measured ratings improved substantially, to about 8 percent of the viewing audience, once Nielsen Media Research introduced meters for ratings purposes in 1997;[74] the station's 10 p.m. news ratings were even stronger among younger viewers.[75] However, the station's most successful newscast was its 9 p.m. news for WLMT, which held its own against WHBQ-TV's newscast at that hour and drew more viewers than WPTY at 10.[76]

The news product was overhauled in 2003 under the brand Eyewitness News and with new news talent; four existing anchors were replaced with the duo of Cameron Harper and Dee Griffin, who were cited as "high-energy", and a new weather radar system was installed.[77][78] In September 2006, WPTY began airing a local morning newscast, coinciding with a visit by Good Morning America to Beale Street.[79] Ratings continued to sit firmly in fourth place during this period.[80][81]

Under Nexstar, in 2013, the station rebranded as "Local 24" coinciding with the call sign change to WATN-TV and relocation to the Shelby Oaks studio. WATN began broadcasting newscasts in high definition upon the move, using a surplus news set that Nexstar shipped from KLRT-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas;[53] WATN also replaced the syndicated ''Live! with Kelly and Michael at 9 a.m. with a local lifestyle program, Local Memphis Live''.[82]

Notable former on-air staff

Dayna Devon – weeknight anchor/reporter, 1997–1999[83][84]