The station signed on February 14, 1982 as WTSG-TV, Southwestern Georgia's first independent station. It was founded by black physician Carl Gordon Jr. The station's original studio facilities were located on North Slappey Boulevard/US 82 in Albany. It became a charter Fox affiliate on October 6, 1986. However, the station itself still operated as a "de facto" Independent station because of the fact that the Fox network only had one program in its lineups until April 1987 and even then, would not expand to seven nights of programming per week until 1993. Prior to that time, the station itself aired movies on nights where Fox had no scheduled programming. Gordon sold the station to NewSouth Broadcasting in 1987. The station changed its call letters to the current WFXL in 1989.