As WKJL/WHSW
In February 1977, Jesus Lives, Inc., whose president hosted a syndicated talk show of the same name, applied to build a new station on channel 24.[4] The firm promised to use the station "as a tool to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ".[5] A competing applicant, Buford Television of Maryland, eyed the station for possible use to transmit subscription television.[6] Jesus Lives ended the comparative hearing in December 1980 by buying out Buford Television's bid.[7][8]
The construction of WKJL-TV went very slowly. The founder, Rev. Philip Zampino, moved to Florida, and the license fight had saddled Jesus Lives with legal fees. By 1982, the station project a late 1984 launch.[9] $75,000 had been raised to purchase and prepare a site in the Randallstown area, of $100,000 needed.[10] However, fundraising continued to lag, and so too did construction activities. Jesus Lives, which renamed itself Look and Live Ministries, accepted a $100,000 loan from Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University), owned by Jerry Falwell, in late 1984 to accelerate the process.[11] Right before going on air, Look and Live agreed to sell the station to Family Media Inc., a subsidiary of Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson.
Family Media completed construction, and on December 24, 1985, channel 24 returned to Baltimore nearly 14 years after it had left, as WKJL-TV.[12] Family Media harbored intentions of possibly expanding with more stations to feature family programming and conservative-oriented news.[13] It also briefly tried its hand at a local children's show, Pop's Place with Stu Kerr.[14]
However, the Baltimore entertainment market had changed rapidly around the time that WKJL-TV started. Where Baltimore had one independent station, it suddenly had three: WBFF, WKJL-TV, and WNUV-TV, which had devoted its evenings to Super TV subscription service until March 31, 1986. The boom in independents coincided with a flattening of national advertising revenues, squeezing stations economically. In this environment, Family Media bowed out after less than a year and filed to sell the station to Silver King Broadcasting, the stations division of the Home Shopping Network, which was purchasing outlets in major markets.[15] In October 1986, the station added 18 hours a day of HSN programming, conserving six hours daily of its existing programming and a six-hour religious block on Sunday mornings.[16] The FCC granted full approval in January 1987, at which time the station began 24-hour HSN broadcasting with the new call sign of WHSW.[17]
