The station first signed on the air on September 10, 1978 as WPTY-TV, and was the first station on the UHF band and first independent station in the market, as well as the first new commercial station to sign on in Memphis since WREG-TV (channel 3) debuted 23 years earlier.
WREG-TV |
On October 7, 2013, WATN debuted a local talk program, Local Memphis Live(replacing Live! with Kelly and Michael, which was dropped in early September) that competes with WHBQ's newscast and WREG's own news/talk program in the 9 a.m. timeslot.
However, some parts of Southeastern Missouri could not receive channel 3's signal clearly, presumably because WSIL had to conform it to protect WREC-TV (now WREG-TV) in Memphis, Tennessee in the next market to the south.