Due to protracted battles over the other two allocations for Tampa Bay – VHF channels 8 and 13, both licensed to Tampa – WSUN-TV was the only station in the Tampa Bay area for two years. The station's most popular local program during this time was "Captain Mac", hosted by Burl McCarty. Channel 38 lost its monopoly in 1955. On February 14 of that year, WFLA-TV (channel 8) signed on and took the NBC affiliation. In April, WTVT (channel 13) signed on and took the CBS affiliation (Now Fox owned affiliate). WSUN-TV dropped its affiliation with the dying DuMont network shortly afterward, leaving it as a sole ABC affiliate. WTVT's debut hit WSUN-TV particularly hard, as many of the station's staffers bolted to channel 13. One of them was McCarty, triggering a legal battle over whether he or channel 38 owned the Captain Mac character. Ultimately, McCarty was allowed to take his character to WTVT, but not his uniform or the show's format. WSUN-TV was allowed to use the Captain Mac name as well. This strange situation prevailed for only six months, until McCarty returned to WSUN-TV and stayed there until his retirement in 1959.