When WTLV started as WFGA-TV in 1957, the station's first news director was Harold Baker, who had served in the same position at WSM radio and television in Nashville, Tennessee.

[3] In the early 1990s, WTLV mounted a strong challenge to WJXT, particularly in late news, only to slip when that station expanded its newscasts and increased its community involvement.

[4][5] Meanwhile, in 1996, Allbritton Communications secured the ABC affiliation for the Jacksonville market from longtime third-rated station WJKS (channel 17), which it intended to use on WBSG-TV in Brunswick, Georgia.

Allbritton leased and activated a dormant construction permit for channel 25 in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville, which it built out and signed on as WJXX on February 9, 1997, with WBSG as its semi-satellite.

[11][12] For most of the rest of that year, technical and signal issues dogged the new ABC affiliate, weighing on its public perception.

Due to the compressed timetable, WJXX operated from an interim transmitter facility until September;[13][14] it would not offer a direct feed to the area's cable systems until December.

[15] While ABC 25 News was hailed as a superior product compared to WJKS, which had aired just two 30-minute newscasts on weekdays,[3][16] Allbritton faced several overwhelming factors in establishing WJXX: in addition to the technical issues that alienated viewers and continued signal deficiencies in some areas, the market had historically been an underperformer for the ABC network, and WJXT and WTLV were entrenched in the market.

The deal was initiated after Allbritton approached Gannett about a possible sale and was legal because of WJXX's unusually low ratings for an ABC affiliate.