When that attempt fizzled after the Federal Communications Commission ruled they had spent too much time building the station, two interested parties formed Big Sun Television, which won the permit and put WBSP-TV on the air in October 1983.

Big Sun sold the station in 1986 to Indiana-based Wabash Valley Broadcasting, which changed the call sign to WOGX the next year and upgraded programming.

The first group to express interest in building channel 51 in Ocala was Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of the to-be-built WTOG in St. Petersburg, who applied in March 1967 to construct the station.

[6] Because of the months-long delay in approval of the tower, activity on the station languished as the backers ran into a poor economy and struggled to gain financing amid high interest rates.

This delay caused Marion Communications to lose its funding, forcing it to sell the WOCA-TV construction permit to Gator Broadcasting Corporation.

The station opted to switch from the tall tower at Orange Lake to a 199-foot (61 m) site in central Ocala in 1980, applying for a modification of the construction permit.

[14] Two investors who had been involved with the 1979 WOCA Inc. company, Randolph Tucker and Randall Schrader, formed a new firm in October 1980 with the intention of seeking a new channel 51 permit.

The original studio site on Fort King Street was later found to be unsuitable, and as it was being sold, Big Sun TV vacated it in June 1983.

[23] In April 1987, coinciding with upgrades in studio equipment and programming, Wabash Valley changed the call sign to WOGX; the new designation conformed with other stations ending in X owned by the firm.

[25] At one time, George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees as well as the local Kinsman Stud Farm, considered buying the station from Wabash Valley but opted not to do so.

As early as 1983, a locally owned low-power TV station in Crystal River, W49AI, was on air, rebroadcasting Orlando's WOFL to a small area in Citrus County.

[36] When the sale took effect on January 1, 1996,[37] WOFL's general manager assumed responsibility for WOGX, and the company set up data links between the two stations.

[41] The early newscast was discontinued after nine months because it represented a decline in ratings over the entertainment programming it replaced and general manager Tom Calato found the news audience did not match the 18–49 target demographic for the station.

[46] It ended regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 51, on June 12, 2009, the official digital television transition date for full-power stations.