WLTX (channel 19) is a television station in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Garners Ferry Road (US 76–378) in southeastern Columbia, and its transmitter is located on Screaming Eagle Road (southeast of I-20) in rural northeast Richland County. History WNOK-TV The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1953, as WNOK-TV, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 67. It is the second oldest continuously operating television station in South Carolina, having signed on two months before WIS-TV (channel 10). The station has always been a CBS affiliate, but carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network until 1955, one year before that network ceased operations. The station originally maintained studio facilities located in the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Columbia, where it was based alongside sister radio property WNOK (1230 AM, later WPCO, and WNOK-FM 104.7). On June 30, 1961, the station switched channel positions, moving to UHF channel 19. In June 1967, WNOK-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio facility on Garners Ferry Road, located east of downtown Columbia and from I-77 and the campus of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. In 1977, the station was sold to Lewis Broadcasting and changed its call letters to WLTX. Signal upgrade Historically, channel 19 was well behind long-dominant WIS in the ratings, especially in news programming. This was partly because the station was hampered by a weak signal. Although channel 19 decently covered Columbia itself as well as Lexington and Sumter counties, it was practically unviewable in the outlying areas of the market. This was due in part to being on UHF while WIS-TV was on VHF. In analog days, VHF signals carried farther than UHF signals. But WLTX's power and tower height were also lacking. Until cable television arrived in the Columbia market in the 1970s, viewers looking for CBS programs in the outlying regions of the market had to rely on grade B signals from WRDW-TV (channel 12) in Augusta, Georgia or WBTV (channel 3) in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, in 1985, WLTX activated a new tall transmission tower in Lugoff that nearly doubled the station's signal and expanded its over-the-air coverage to 24 counties. Secondary UPN affiliation In January 1995, WLTX became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN); it carried the network's programming on a secondary basis during weekend afternoon