Spain, which made WTWV an official NBC affiliate–one of only three primary NBC affiliates in Mississippi at the time. It still carried some ABC programming in off-hours (namely, college football on Saturdays) until WVSB (now WLOV) in nearby West Point began operating in 1983. Starting in 1972, WTWV operated a full-time satellite for eastern central Mississippi, WHTV (now WMDN) in Meridian on channel 24; WHTV operated as such until 1980, when Spain decided to make it a stand-alone station, with a CBS affiliation. WTWV built a new tower in the 1970s that not only brought a city-grade signal to Columbus for the first time, but gave the station one of the largest coverage areas in the country. WTVA On July 4, 1979, WTWV changed its call letters to "WTVA" to reinforce its identity, not only as the first TVA city, but also its then-current branding of "TV Alive". The WTWV call sign was later used on WFRQ, a radio station in Mashpee, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. The WTWV call sign is now in use by a Memphis-based TV station. Neither the Massachusetts nor the Memphis station are related to the current WTVA. Frank Spain served as CEO of WTVA, Inc. until his death on April 25, 2006. He continued to visit the station regularly well into his seventies. His widow Jane assumed the CEO position until the station was sold in September 2014. The outlet was the first commercial television station in Mississippi to devote its entire morning broadcast schedule to educational programming. The station also made history as the first in Mississippi to broadcast a live basketball game. In the late 1990s, WTVA launched a low-powered translator, W22BS, which served as a primary UPN affiliate, before selling the station to rival WCBI in 2002. The Spains continued to own WHTV/WMDN until it was sold to Meridian Media (now Waypoint Media) in January 2008. Although WTVA operates WLOV through local marketing agreement (LMA), and previously operated ABC affiliate WKDH through a similar arrangement from its 2001 sign-on until its final sign-off on August 31, 2012, each station has its own station manager and owner in accordance with FCC policy. WTVA, Inc. also previously owned and operated WTVX in Fort Pierce, Florida and KTFL in Flagstaff, Arizona. During the majority of the time KTFL was broadcasting, it carried programing from FamilyNet. KTFL's transmitter was licensed as the most powerful television station