The station signed on the air on April 7, 1954, and was owned by Gray Communications (now Gray Television) along with WALB radio (1590 AM) and "The Albany Herald". It is one of only two full-power stations to have been built and signed on by the company, the other being WCAV-TV in Charlottesville, Virginia. When the radio station's studios were built back in 1953, Stuart Avenue was a dirt road running through a pecan grove. For its first three years on-air, WALB-TV transmitted an analog signal on VHF channel 10 from a tower at its studios. As the first television outlet in Albany, it was a primary NBC affiliate with secondary relations with ABC and DuMont.