WJBF (channel 6) is a television station in Augusta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located in Television Park, near the Augusta Mall in Augusta, and its transmitter is located in Beech Island, South Carolina. History WJBF-TV began operations on November 23, 1953 as Augusta's first television station. The station was founded by the Georgia-Carolina Broadcasting Company, the broadcasting arm of local entrepreneur J. B. Fuqua, who also owned NBC Radio Network affiliate WJBF (1230 AM). WJBF-TV was a primary NBC affiliate, but picked up programs from CBS, ABC and DuMont on a secondary basis. Sister station WJBF radio was sold by Fuqua in 1954 (it is now WEZO). It lost CBS only three months later when WRDW-TV (channel 12) signed on. On September 1, 1967, WJBF became a primary ABC affiliate. The move relegated NBC to a shared secondary affiliation with WRDW-TV. This was an unusual situation for a then two-station market, especially one as small as Augusta. ABC, as the smallest and weakest of the big three networks, would not be on nearly the same footing with CBS and NBC until the 1970s, when most markets of Augusta's size grew large enough to support three full network affiliates. However, fellow NBC affiliate WIS-TV in Columbia provided at least grade B coverage to the South Carolina side of the market. In contrast, no full-time ABC affiliate put even a grade B signal into the area. Fuqua reasoned that if channel 6 took a primary ABC affiliation, it wouldn't have significant out-of-market competition. Additionally, in 1966 Fuqua bought two full-time ABC affiliates, WTVW in Evansville, Indiana and KTHI-TV (now KVLY-TV) in Fargo, North Dakota, and apparently wanted to get his other stations—WJBF and KTVE in El Dorado, Arkansas—in line with the new acquisitions. In 1969, Fuqua branched out into the movie theater business when he purchased Martin Theaters of Georgia, forerunner of Carmike Cinemas. At the time, Martin Theaters of Georgia itself also owned WTVM in Columbus, Georgia, and WTVC in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also ABC affiliates. Those were added to Fuqua's portfolio. When WATU (channel 26, later WAGT) began operations in December 1968, conventional wisdom suggested that it would become a full NBC affiliate. However, since many Augusta viewers still didn't have UHF-capable sets, NBC allowed WJBF and WRDW-TV to continue to cherry-pick most of its stronger programs. For its