WPGA-TV

As a Fox affiliate

The station first signed on the air on March 1, 1995 as the Macon market's original Fox affiliate. Prior to the station's sign-on, Macon residents could only receive Fox network programing via Foxnet (the network's now-defunct national cable feed) or via Fox stations piped in from the nearby Atlanta market (network-owned WATL from the network's launch in October 1986 until December 1994, and then WAGA-TV from December 1994 until WPGA's sign-on). In addition, when Fox assumed the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference television package from CBS in 1994, ABC affiliate WGXA (channel 24) carried Fox's NFL telecasts on Sunday afternoons until December 1994.

As an ABC affiliate

On September 10, 1995, GOCOM Media announced that it had signed an agreement with Fox to move its affiliation to WGXA, effectively ending WPGA's tenure with the network at the end of that year (after only ten months as a Fox station). Shortly afterward, Register Communications signed an affiliation agreement to make WPGA the Macon market's new ABC affiliate. The affiliation swap took place on January 1, 1996, ending WGXA's fourteen-year tenure with ABC.^[2]

WPGA started in April 2001 a newscast dropped in January 2002.^[3] In July 2007, WPGA-TV changed its on-air branding from "ABC 58" to "ABC Macon". In July 2007, Register Communications contracted with Independent News Network (INN) for news production which lasted until the original owner of INN filed bankruptcy in January 2009.^[3] WPGA's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.^[4][5]

WPGA-TV's logo as "ABC Macon", used from July 2007 to November 2009; the station's current logo is based on this design. For a time after this logo was dropped, the station's website used a modified version of this logo that omitted the ABC logo.

On October 29, 2009, Register Communications announced that WPGA-TV would terminate its affiliation contract with the network and become an independent station. Owner Lowell Register cited concerns that ABC's programming did not meet the station's family-oriented focus,^[6] and also objected to the network's decision to begin requiring its affiliates to pay an annual fee of $500,000 to carry its programming.^[7] WGXA owner Frontier Radio Management, Inc. signed an affiliation deal with the network to carry its programming on a second WGXA digital subchannel (the station had carried ABC programming as its primary affiliation from its sign-on in April 1982 until it switched to Fox in January 1996).^[8]

As an independent station

Upon becoming an independent station on January 1, 2010, WPGA began cherry-picking select programs from the Retro Television Network (sharing the affiliation with sister station WPGA-LP) in addition to shows from This TV and retained the station's existing syndicated programming.^[9] In preparation for the switch, WPGA began phasing out ABC network references from its branding in November 2009, changing its branding to "Macon TV".

The station's disaffiliation from ABC resulted in a dispute with Cox Communications over its channel 6 slot (as well as a high definition feed on channel 706, later moved to channel 1006), as Cox intended to drop WPGA in favor of WGXA-DT2, a move that Register contended the provider does not have the right to make.^[10] On December 22, 2009, WPGA was granted a temporary restraining order requiring Cox to continue to carry the station on channels 6 and 706;^[11] however, the court later dismissed WPGA's case on April 30, 2010. Register filed an appeal; in light of this, a judge ordered Cox to leave WPGA on its existing channel slots until an appeals court heard the case.^[12] In addition, Register also filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the status of WPGA's channel placement on Cox.^[12] Satellite provider DirecTV would drop WPGA itself on January 1, though the station remains available on Dish Network, as well as cable providers that the station maintains must carry agreements with (Register considers Cox to have such an agreement, even though the cable provider claims it instead has a retransmission consent agreement).^[11] On June 23, 2011, the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the ruling that would enable Cox to drop WPGA from its lineup, effective July 28. On that date, WGXA-D2 would begin to be carried on both channel 6 and its existing channel 15 position; with the subchannel being carried exclusively on channel 6 starting August 28 (channel 15 would then be used for bandwidth for the system's high-definition channels).^[13]

On July 12, 2011, Register filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, seeking an injunction to prevent Cox from not only dropping WPGA, but from giving the channel 6 slot to WGXA-D2. However, Cox announced that it would go forward with the channel shuffle despite the complaint, as the previous court case authorized them to make the changes.^[14] In addition, the FCC ruled on December 5, 2011 that WPGA's contract with Cox rendered it a station that elected retransmission consent.^[15]

On April 7, 2010, WPGA began carrying This TV on its second digital subchannel. In early spring 2011, the station began airing select MeTV programs on its primary channel; the station would later begin carrying the complete MeTV schedule on digital channel 58.2.^[16] In August 2011, the station had agreed to add KIN TV, an African-American subchannel network distributed by MGM Television, or some portion, to its primary subchannel (the network never launched). On September 26, 2011, WPGA became a charter affiliate of Bounce TV, carrying the network on digital subchannel 58.3.^[17] On July 2, 2015, This TV replaced Bounce TV on sub-channel 58.3, which was previously on WPGA-LP channel 50; Bounce TV was then taken up by WMGT-TV on digital channel 41.3.