Even though the station did not come on the air until March 1967, WMET-TV's construction permit was issued more than 13 years prior in December 1953,[2] as WTLF on channel 18.

[11] The station's first live program from its Baltimore studios was a three-hour special on April 17, presenting films on both sides of the Vietnam War argument.

[15] Pauline Wells Lewis, then a disc jockey at WSID and in the middle of a 50-year career in gospel music and local radio,[16] hosted a Saturday night half-hour.

[18] A year later, the station started airing a locally produced children's show, Pogo the Clown, in early evenings.

[19] In 1971, the station's news director was 19-year-old John Domenick, a college sophomore who delivered a half-hour newscast at 4:30 p.m. each weekday compiled from wire service material.

In 1971, United found a proposed buyer for its Baltimore station: the Christian Broadcasting Network, which agreed to pay $750,000 to buy channel 24.

[23] As United continued to lose money—$7,000 a month—running channel 24, and with many of its stations in legal limbo, the company took WMET-TV dark on January 14, 1972, and sought permission to remain silent from the FCC until the transfer to CBN was finalized.

[31] 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.