Owned by a consortium of TVX Broadcast Group and local investors including Kemmons Wilson, it was the second independent station in the market behind channel 24, then WPTY-TV.

However, after TVX sold the station to MT Communications (who changed its call sign to WLMT) in 1989, it lost the Fox affiliation to the higher-rated WPTY-TV in 1990.

MT Communications also purchased a TV station in Jackson and renamed it WMTU; it simulcast most of channel 30's programming, though in later years this was limited to local newscasts.

[6][7] The station was still not built by 1977, and CBN intended to sell the permit to Evans Broadcasting Corporation, whose holdings included another channel 30: KDNL-TV in St.

[12] Competing with existing independent WPTY-TV (channel 24), the new station offered Metro Conference basketball, as well as children's programs, movies, and classic sitcoms and dramas.

[15] WMKW-TV became a charter affiliate of Fox at the network's launch on October 9, 1986, as part of a group agreement involving all eight TVX-owned stations.

[16] That year, it also obtained rights to a major sports attraction in the market, Memphis State University men's basketball, with all home and away games being shown live.

[18] The company was to pay Salomon Brothers $200 million on January 1, 1988, and missed the first payment deadline, having been unable to lure investors to its junk bonds even before Black Monday.

[22] In March 1989, TVX announced it would sell WMKW-TV to MT Communications, owned by Michael Thompson, for $7 million—a purchase price lower than executives had hoped the station would fetch.

[23] MT Communications also owned two other Fox affiliates in Tennessee: WCAY-TV in Nashville, which like WMKW-TV had been built by TVX, and WETO-TV in Greeneville.

[26] MT Communications also acquired WJWT, a struggling Fox affiliate in Jackson, and converted it to a semi-satellite of WLMT with local advertising that December;[27] it became WMTU in January 1990.

"[37] Max Media's involvement with WLMT–WMTU operations was comparatively brief, as in August 1993, the two stations were leased to WPTY-TV owner Clear Channel Communications, which also purchased their physical assets.

[45] The WB never scored a full-time affiliate in Memphis in its eleven-year history; the then-superstation feed of Chicago station WGN-TV served as the de facto Memphis home of WB programming until 1999, when WPTY-TV took on a secondary affiliation with the network and began airing its prime time programs in late night slots,[46] and it moved to a slightly earlier time slot at WLMT in 2003.

[55][56] The sale received FCC approval on December 1, 2007; after settlement of a lawsuit filed by Clear Channel owners Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital against Providence to force the deal's completion, consummation took place on March 14, 2008.

[60] 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 in the Shelby Oaks Corporate Park on the city's northeast side.

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.

[64] Nexstar opted to retain WREG-TV (as well as WJKT in Jackson) and sold WATN-TV and WLMT to Tegna Inc.[65][66] WPTY-TV established a news department on December 1, 1995, coinciding with its affiliation switch to ABC.

[77] WLMT ended regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009; it was the only Memphis station to transition earlier than the delayed June 12 shutoff date.