The station first signed on the air on August 31, 1955; it was founded by the owners of now-defunct radio station KTRE-AM (1420), and originally operated as a satellite of Houston NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. However, it occasionally deviated from the KPRC schedule to air programming from ABC and CBS. In 1964, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) collapsed Lufkin and Nacogdoches into the Tyler–Longview market. Soon afterward, the Buford family, owners of KLTV, bought KTRE and converted it into a semi-satellite of that station.