The station is owned by Morris Multimedia, and maintains studios on US 49 in Lyman (with a Gulfport postal address); its transmitter is located on Wire Road East, in unincorporated Stone County, northeast of McHenry.

After an early history that was financially turbulent, including a bankruptcy filing in order to stave off a public auction, the station stabilized under owners Prime Cities Broadcasting in the 1990s.

In July 1982, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received three applications for channel 25 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, all fighting to be just the area's second local station (after ABC affiliate WLOX).

[2] Four-O won the permit and selected the call sign WXXV, but it had yet to choose by September 1983 whether channel 25 would be a network affiliate or an independent station.

[4] However, work on the tower at McHenry was considerably delayed, and station officials repeatedly pushed back WXXV's projected sign-on.

The station sought new limited partners, only to put the round on hold; it owed money to several large creditors, most notably AmSouth Bank of Birmingham, Alabama.

[13] Days before the auction was to take place, Gulf Coast Television preempted the action by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

[16] The bank, through its realty division, put channel 25 on the market a year later;[17] it was acquired by Prime Cities Broadcasting, a partnership of Dick Shively and Jim Tupper.

[25] The move coincided with WLOX, its competitor with an 80 percent share of market revenue,[25] adding a CBS subchannel, giving the four major networks in-market affiliates on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.