WTAP-TV, located at 121 West Seventh Street just below Juliana, went on the air on November 8, 1953. Though the station later became an NBC affiliate, it originally filled its days with local programming and silent comedies, including the Keystone Kops. One of the first local on-air personalities was Sam Slater, a former NBC announcer who had covered the 1936 Berlin Olympics and, more recently, the Army-Navy games (he was a West Point graduate).

Thanks to general manager Roger Sheppard and creative services executive Shane King at WTAP.