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WLMT (channel 30) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside ABC affiliate WATN-TV (channel 24). The two stations share studios at the Shelby Oaks Corporate Park on Shelby Oaks Drive in northeast Memphis; WLMT's transmitter is located in the Brunswick section of unincorporated northeast Shelby County.
Channel 30 began broadcasting as WMKW-TV on April 18, 1983. 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. It was the original Memphis affiliate of Fox from 1986 to 1990. 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 WJKT; it simulcast most of channel 30's programming, though in later years this was limited to local newscasts.
Clear Channel Communications, the then-owner of WPTY-TV, began leasing channel 30 in 1993, leading to a merger of operations. In 1995, the station became an affiliate of UPN and added a local 9 p.m. newscast in conjunction with WPTY-TV's switch to ABC; the local newscast has been competitive in the market, sometimes beating channel 24's own late news. The station became an affiliate of The CW in 2006; it was already airing programming from its predecessors, UPN and The WB. It was acquired by Newport Television in 2007, Nexstar Broadcasting Group in 2012, and Tegna in 2019.
After several days of delays due to bad weather impeding completion, WMKW-TV began broadcasting on April 18, 1983. 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. The new station found itself running behind WPTY-TV in the ratings.
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. 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. The Memphis State telecasts raised the station's profile in the market.
While channel 30 was making headway, TVX's financial picture changed significantly after its 1986 acquisition of five large-market independents from Taft Broadcasting. The Taft stations purchase left TVX highly leveraged and highly vulnerable. TVX's bankers, Salomon Brothers, provided the financing for the acquisition and in return held more than 60 percent of the company. 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 even before Black Monday. TVX initially announced it would sell some stations, including possibly WMKW-TV, and though it backed off the plan months later after announcing a refinancing plan, it began selling off smaller-market properties to help finance its debt. An initial deal was reached with Bain Capital in December 1988—the same month that the station doubled its effective radiated power—a deal that fell apart a month later.
MT's ownership of the station would see it lose its two principal programming draws to WPTY-TV. Rights to Memphis State basketball were put up for bid in 1989, with WMKW-TV competing against WPTY-TV and syndicator Creative Sports. WMKW-TV almost changed its call letters to WMSU—which had become available as a result of call letter changes elsewhere—but held off because the university feared it would impact their decision. The rights went to WPTY-TV, which paid the university three times more per game than WMKW-TV had in its previous contract.
The next year, the Fox affiliation came up for renewal, and WPTY-TV intensively lobbied the Fox network; it had stronger ratings than channel 30, drawing a 7.4 percent share of total-day ratings to WLMT's 4.1. On WLMT, some Fox shows had less than half the audience they did in other cities. Fox chose to move its affiliation to channel 24 effective July 1, 1990. However, WMTU continued to hold the Fox affiliation in the Jackson market, breaking away from channel 30 to air the network's programs. This continued until March 1992, when the local operation in Jackson was closed: local commercials no longer aired on WMTU, and five jobs were eliminated. Memphis was one of four markets, all in the South, where Fox moved its affiliation during 1990; of the other three, two (Little Rock, Arkansas, and Nashville) involved ex-TVX stations, with the Nashville station losing its Fox affiliation also owned by MT.
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. Five WLMT employees, including general manager Beitch, were laid off, as all three stations now shared a general manager. The deal was seen to give the unprofitable WLMT the resources it needed to adequately promote itself. (Clear Channel would move to acquire WLMT and WMTU in 1999, when duopolies were legalized.) Even though WPTY had renewed its rights to Memphis State basketball in 1992, University of Memphis basketball moved to WLMT by 1994.
With two new networks starting in 1995, both—UPN and The WB—wooed WLMT as an affiliate. Clear Channel affiliated WLMT and another station it managed in Tulsa, with UPN. The station's operations were consolidated in the same building with WPTY-TV in 1995 when that station moved to new studios as part of its affiliation switch to ABC and startup of a news department. The WB never scored a full-time affiliate in Memphis in its eleven-year history; the NewsNation 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, and it moved to a slightly earlier time slot at WLMT in 2003. However, UPN's programming lineup, targeted at Black audiences, resonated in Memphis, where they represented about 40 percent of TV households; in 2004, WLMT was one of the highest-rated UPN affiliates in the United States, and the station was fourth in revenue, ahead of one major network affiliate.
WMTU in Jackson, while remaining a UPN affiliate, was slowly split off of WLMT in 2001 when the station changed its call sign to WJKT. WJKT began simulcasting WLMT's Memphis newscast in 2003.
WLMT debuted an in-studio wrestling program from Memphis Wrestling in 2003, two years after WMC-TV canceled its long-running wrestling show.
WPTY-TV and WLMT were included in the sale of Clear Channel's television station portfolio to Newport Television, controlled by Providence Equity Partners, for $1.2 billion on April 20, 2007 (equivalent to $ in ). The sale was made so Clear Channel could refocus around its radio, outdoor advertising and live event units. 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. In 2009, an agreement was signed to air programs supplied by MyNetworkTV.
As part of a liquidation of Newport Television's assets, Nexstar Broadcasting Group purchased WPTY-TV and WATN-TV in a 12-station deal worth $285.5 million (equivalent to $ in ) on July 19, 2012. 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. WPTY-TV became WATN-TV after moving into the new studios.
In 2019, Nexstar acquired Tribune Media, owner of Memphis CBS affiliate WREG-TV. Nexstar opted to retain WREG-TV (as well as WJKT in Jackson) and sold WATN-TV and WLMT to Tegna Inc.
WLMT's news has mostly been affected by changes at channel 24, long the fourth-rated news outlet in Memphis. The news product was overhauled in 2003 under the brand Eyewitness News and with new news talent. Even despite the move to a more general-market product, which included 45 minutes of news and an expanded 15-minute sportscast, WLMT's 9 p.m. news continued to beat WPTY's 10 p.m. broadcast and approach WHBQ in the ratings. By the major relaunch of channel 24 in 2013, the station was airing a 7 a.m. hour of WATN-TV's morning newscast.
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