In September 1959, then licensed by South Mississippi Broadcasting, Inc., WDAM moved from channel 9 to channel 7 to allow WAFB in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to move from UHF channel 28 to VHF channel 9 and to protect Tupelo's WTWV (now WTVA) that also broadcast on channel 9. After moving to 7, the station was designated as serving the Laurel–Hattiesburg area. In 1962, WDAM dropped its secondary ABC affiliation to become a sole NBC affiliate. In 1967, the license holding changed its name to Service Broadcasters, Inc. In 1978, Beam Communications purchased the stations from Service Broadcasters. who later changed their name to Beacon Communications in 1989 (the company also owned KYEL-TV KYMA-DT in Yuma, Arizona–El Centro, California). Beacon sold the station to Federal Broadcasting in 1990, The station was acquired by current owner Raycom Media in 1997. However, Raycom owned WHLT at the time and had to sell it to Media General in order to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) duopoly rules. In 2008, the station added a new position, web manager, and updated its website to conform to modern standards. That same year, the station launched "wdamtogo.com", a site designed for internet-capable mobile devices. In 2010, the station launched news and weather smart phone applications along with a photo and video sharing service called "Send It to Seven". In 2011, the station launched a secondary set of websites for each community of over 20,000 people in the station's viewing area called "WDAM Neighborhoods"; those sites were retired in early 2014. In early 2012, WDAM launched tablet applications.