The station first signed on the air on September 30, 1968, as WCWB-TV. It was the first commercial television station to start up in the Macon market since CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV (channel 13) debuted on September 27, 1953, fifteen years and three days earlier. The station was founded by Dothan, Alabama broadcaster and perennial Alabama political candidate Charles Woods, who owned the station for about six years. WCWB's original studio facilities were located at its transmitter site, located east of Macon, on what local residents refer to as the "Cochran Short Route." Channel 41 has been an NBC affiliate since its debut; however, unlike many stations in (then) two-station markets, WCWB did not assume a secondary affiliation with ABC. During the 1970s and early 1980s, select ABC programs continued to air on WMAZ instead, during time periods when the station was not carrying CBS programming; Macon would not receive a full-time ABC affiliate of its own until WGXA (channel 24, now a Fox affiliate) signed on in April 1982. Woods sold channel 41 to a local group known as Bibb Television, Inc., led by his then-station manager, F. E. Busby, in 1974. The local group proved no more successful at making WCWB profitable than Woods had been, and current owner Morris Multimedia bought the station from Bibb four years later, in 1978.