KSLA

KSLA, virtual channel 12 (UHF digital channel 17), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. The station is owned by Raycom Media. KSLA maintains studio facilities located on Fairfield Avenue (southeast of I-20) in central Shreveport, and its transmitter is located near Mooringsport (southeast of Caddo Lake).

History

The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1954; it has served as a primary CBS affiliate since its sign-on, but originally also carried select programs from ABC, NBC and DuMont. The station originally operated from studio facilities housed inside the Washington Youree Hotel in downtown Shreveport. William Carter Henderson, son of William Kennon Henderson, Jr. (founder of KWKH radio), was among the original owners of KSLA-TV.

On March 5, 1955, Elvis Presley made his television debut on KSLA on the local music program Louisiana Hayride, which was produced from the Municipal Auditorium. That same year, D. L. Dykes, Jr., who launched a 30-year career as the pastor of the First Methodist Church at the Head of Texas Street in downtown Shreveport, began having his sermons televised on KSLA; over the years, other churches followed Dykes's lead. KSLA lost the NBC affiliation when KTBS-TV (channel 3) signed on in September 1955. The two stations shared limited ABC programming until 1960, when Texarkana-based KTAL-TV (channel 6) took the NBC affiliation after Texarkana was collapsed into the Shreveport market. KTBS then became an exclusive ABC affiliate, leaving KSLA solely affiliated with CBS (KSLA is one of two stations in the market to have never changed its primary network affiliation, along with Fox affiliate KMSS-TV, channel 33).