Co. with prejudice. The decision also granted a merger between Great Southern TV Broadcasting (owned by Joseph D. Waggoner and Grey Teekell, whose separate application as existed prior to the merger was dismissed with prejudice) and Media South Broadcasting, whose amended application for channel 33 was given approval. In February 1985, Media South requested and received approval to assign KMSS-TV (in reference to the licensee, Media South of Shreveport, Inc.) as the call letters for its television station. Channel 33 first signed on the air on April 11, 1985. It was the fifth commercial television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market (as well as the first to sign on in the market since ABC affiliate KTBS-TV (channel 3) debuted thirty years earlier on September 3, 1955), and the second UHF station to have signed on in the market (after PBS member station and Louisiana Public Broadcasting satellite KLTS-TV [channel 24], which debuted six years prior on August 9, 1978). The station originally operated from studio and office facilities located at 3519 Jewella Avenue (between Claiborne Avenue and Ninock Street) in southwestern Shreveport. Originally broadcasting daily from 6:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m., KMSS-TV—which was also the first independent station to sign on in the market—initially maintained a programming format consisting of a mix of recent and classic sitcoms, westerns and drama series, cartoons, religious programs and some older movies. Channel 33 also aired CBS programs that KSLA-TV (channel 12) declined to air, mostly the network's late night and morning lineup (with the exception of The Price Is Right and The Young and the Restless) and most of its Saturday morning children's programming. From its sign-on, KMSS was the first television station in the state of Louisiana to broadcast in stereo. Fox affiliation; ComCorp ownership and JSA/SSA with KSHV-TV In the summer of 1986, News Corporation approached Media South about turning KMSS into a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. Channel 33 joined Fox when the network inaugurated programming on October 9, 1986. Though it was technically a network affiliate, KMSS continued to be programmed as a de facto independent station as Fox's initial programming lineup consisted solely of a late-night talk show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Even after its programming expanded with the launch of a three-hour Sunday night lineup in April 1987, Fox aired its prime time programming exclusively on weekends until September 1989, when it began a