Gray also operates Fox affiliate WXTX (channel 54) under a separate SSA with owner American Spirit Media.

WLTZ's studios and transmitter are located on NBC 38 Drive off Buena Vista Road on the east side of the city.

Master control and most internal operations are based at WTVM and WXTX's shared studios on Wynnton Road (GA 22) in the Dinglewood section of Columbus.

The transmitter was not finished by that fall due to a strike at RCA, which was fabricating the antenna; as a result, WTVM had to petition to carry the World Series.

It also faced the prospect of audience erosion from fellow NBC affiliate WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama, which activated a new tower whose footprint penetrated well into channel 38's viewing area.

Citing its audience share, market size, and signal strength, as well as its status as the least profitable station in the group,[20] American Family opted to sell WYEA to former Savannah mayor Julius Curtis Lewis Jr., whose Lewis Broadcasting owned WJCL-TV in Savannah and WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina.

[21] Years later, Leroy Paul, who presided over AFLAC's broadcast division, quipped, "We learned we could never become the city's news leader on a UHF station.

[25][26][27] The lack of a late newscast or weekend newscasts, plus many resources their competitors had and the frequent confusion of their reporters with those from other stations, slighted the channel 38 news staff: Mick Walsh, the television writer for The Columbus Enquirer, called WLTZ "the Rodney Dangerfield of local news".

By this time, the station was deep in fourth place; its 6 p.m. newscast attracted only a tenth of the ratings of market leader WTVM and was well behind Star Trek: The Next Generation on WXTX.

However, it did invite one of the staffers it fired, Fleming, to produce short news breaks to air during NBC's coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

[32] Lewis announced it would sell WLTZ in 1994 to Piney Creek Broadcasting, headed by Ruth Allen Ollison, which would contract with Jack Pezold, owner of Fox affiliate WXTX, to provide its programs under a local marketing agreement (LMA).

[38] In November 2007, the station brought back weeknight newscasts (seen at 6, 7, and 11 p.m., or 5, 6, and 10 Central) in partnership with the Independent News Network (INN) of Davenport, Iowa.

Originally, the early evening shows aired in traditional half-hour formats, while the late newscast ran for 11 minutes.