However, what would become of the Lake Charles market was sandwiched between Houston (channels 2, 8, 11 and 13), Beaumont–Port Arthur (channels 4, 6, and 12) and Lufkin (channel 9) to the west, Lafayette (channels 3 and 10), Baton Rouge (channels 2 and 9) and New Orleans (channels 4, 6, 8 and 12) to the east, and Alexandria (channel 5), Shreveport (channels 3, 6, and 12) and Monroe (channels 8, 10, and 13) to the north. This created a large "doughnut" in Southwestern Louisiana where there could only be one VHF license. KPLC-TV was fortunate to gain that license, and eventually became the only station to be based in Lake Charles when the market's original TV station, KTAG-TV (channel 25), went off the air due to being on the UHF frequency (before all-channel tuning was made mandatory on TVs in 1962) and unable to compete with KPLC in 1961. This changed in the early 1980s when LPB outlet KLTL (channel 18) signed on in 1981, and independent-turned-Fox affiliate KVHP (channel 29) signed on a year later.