WTTO first signed on the air at 6:00 p.m. Central Time on April 21, 1982, with a rerun of the 1970s action series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" as the first program to air on the station. As Chapman Family Television, its original owners, Chapman Broadcasting, founded WCFT-TV (channel 33, now Heroes & Icons affiliate WSES) in Tuscaloosa in October 1965, before selling the station to South Mississippi Broadcasters in 1967. The station originally operated from studio facilities located next to its transmission tower near the city's Goldencrest neighborhood.