On August 1, 1968, WXIX-TV debuted as an independent station; it was formed by U.S. Communications Corporation, which also controlled UHF independent stations WATL-TV in Atlanta, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, WPHL-TV in Philadelphia, and KEMO-TV (now KOFY-TV) in San Francisco. It was co-owned by the U.S. Communications Corporation (subsidiary of AVC Corporation) station group of Philadelphia, which controlled 80%, and Daniel H. Overmyer, who owned the other 20%. On March 28, 1967, Overmyer sold the primary stake (80%) in the building permits for the stations in Atlanta, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Houston to AVC, with FCC clearance arriving on December 8, 1967. Prior to the sale to AVC, Overmyer intended to launch channel 19 in late 1966 as WSCO-TV, named after his wife Shirley Clark Overmyer. WXIX-TV was the market's first new commercial station since 1949, and the area's second UHF station (behind PBS member station WCET, channel 48). The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) original channel allotment tables did not include channel 19 in the greater Cincinnati area. On March 10, 1965, Overmyer was granted a building permission for channel 74. On August 10, 1965, Overmyer requested that the channel 74 allocation be changed to channel 19, which was done in the following allocation table release a year later. WXIX was deemed to be more marketable because of the lower channel number, which allowed it to give greater signal coverage at a reduced cost.