KHMA-TV (channel 11) was a short-lived

independent television station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays t ...

Houma, Louisiana Houma ( ) is the largest city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is also the largest principal city of the Houma– Bayou Cane– Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. The city's governme ...

, United States, which served the south Louisiana community.

History

The

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) licensed channel 11 to St. Anthony TV Corporation in 1958, and the station was intended to be an

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

. In 1964, St. Anthony TV Corp. petitioned to move the station's transmitter to a point north of Houma near

Geismar, Louisiana Geismar is an unincorporated community in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States and is at the heart of Louisiana's chemical corridor. The community is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area. Geismar is south of Prairieville ...

so that the station could also serve

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

(which did not have a primary ABC affiliate at the time). After the FCC granted permission to move the tower on the condition it did not interfere with WTOK of

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

, both Louisiana Television Broadcasting Corporation (owner of Baton Rouge's then-

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate

WBRZ WBRZ-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by the Manship family, who formerly published the Baton Rouge daily newspaper, ''The Advocate'', and is one of a hand ...

, now Baton Rouge's ABC affiliate) and Guaranty Broadcasting Corporation (owner of Baton Rouge's

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate

WAFB WAFB (channel 9) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power, Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-CD (channel 39). The two stations share studios on Government Street i ...

) filed an appeal to block the transfer. In 1965, the District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the two Baton Rouge stations, blocking the FCC's grant. On March 1, 1972, at 11:30 a.m., the station signed on as an independent station serving the tri-city area of Morgan City (although part of the Lafayette DMA),

Thibodaux Thibodaux ( ) is a city in and the parish seat of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the northwestern part of the parish. The population was 15,948 at the 2020 census. Thibodaux is a principal city ...

, and Houma and the ten-parish area south of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The first program the station aired was '' The Phyllis Diller Show''. During weekdays, KHMA signed on at 11:30 a.m. and signed off at 12:30 a.m., and, on weekends, it signed on at 8:00 a.m. and signed off at 12:30 a.m. The station suffered financial trouble, and the FCC authorized the station to go dark on October 15, 1973, and St. Anthony TV Corp. declared

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

. At the same time, station owner Denver T. Brannen launched WDTB (now

WMBB WMBB (channel 13) is a television station in Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW (via The CW Plus). Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station ...

) in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Route 98 in Florida, U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...

, which served as that region's NBC affiliate and is now the ABC affiliate. The license was deleted at the request of the licensee on November 12, 1974. In the mid-1980s, New Dawn Broadcasting was issued a permit to establish a new TV station in Houma on channel 11, KNHH, but due to technical trouble, the FCC denied their request for an extension. Today,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member station

WYES-TV WYES-TV (channel 12) is a PBS member television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, owned by the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation. The station's studios are located on Navarre Avenue in the city's Navarre neig ...

in New Orleans uses the digital channel 12, and Martin Folse established

KFOL-CD KFOL-CD (channel 30) is a low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power, Class A television service, Class A independent television station in Houma, Louisiana, United States. It is owned by station manager and news anchor Martin Folse via licen ...

(HTV Channel 10) to serve the Houma area.

Programming

Among the locally produced programs included a local news show (''The Tri-City Report'') twice a day, at 5:30 and 10 p.m., sports (''The Tri-City Accent''), and a third show hosted by local farm authority George W. Shannon, as well as a program by local musician L. J. Foret. KHMA primarily aired old

movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

and syndicated reruns, including ''The Phyllis Diller Show'', '' Peyton Place'', ''The Movie Game'', ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

'', ''

Petticoat Junction ''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, an ...

'', ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom created by Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy which is set in a Prisoner-of-war camp, prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Nazi Germany during World War II, and centers around a group of Allied prisoner ...

'', '' Dragnet'', '' The Virginian'', ''

Lassie Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, '' Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with anot ...

'', ''

America Sings America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronics animals singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashio ...

'', '' Time Tunnel'', ''

The Wild Wild West ''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western (genre), Western, spy film, spy, and science fiction on television, science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 19 ...

'', '' The Name of the Game'', ''

The Andy Griffith Show ''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American sitcom television series that was aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color. The series ...

'', ''Happy and His Friends'', ''

Land of the Giants ''Land of the Giants'' is a one-hour American science fiction television series that aired on ABC for two seasons, beginning on September 22, 1968, and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. ''Land of the G ...

'', '' Galloping Gourmet'', ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 J ...

'', and '' Engelbert Humperdinck''. The station also broadcast movies under the following monikers: ''Cinema 11'', ''Western Theatre'', ''Adventure Theatre'', ''Nightmare Theatre'', ''The Late Movie'', and ''Afternoon Theatre''.The Houma Courier, various issues from 1972 and 1973

References

{{TV Stations Louisiana Houma, Louisiana Television channels and stations established in 1972 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1973 1972 establishments in Louisiana 1973 disestablishments in Louisiana Defunct television stations in Louisiana