Its construction permit was secured in 1960 by a pair of New York City-area radio men, Robert Noble and Robert Moss,[2] who shared equal ownership in Island Teleradio Service, Inc., the original licensee of WBNB-TV and sister station WBNB radio (1000 AM, now WVWI); their names ("Bob and Bob") served as the basis for the station's callsign.

Shortly after the award, newspaper advertisements proudly announced that the station would be affiliated with CBS and NBC (but would be a primary CBS affiliate), and would also carry programs from National Educational Television (NET), the predecessor to PBS.

On September 17, 1989, Hurricane Hugo made landfall on the Virgin Islands, destroying WBNB-TV's transmitter in the process and knocking the station off the air.

Benedek Broadcasting, who acquired the station three years earlier, did not have the financial resources to rebuild it right away.

Despite remaining off-the-air ("dark" in television terminology), the station's broadcast license remained active until 1995, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced Benedek to surrender the license for cancellation on grounds of abandonment.