Founded as WGPR-TV in 1975 by Dr. William V. Banks and the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons as an extension of WGPR (107.5 FM), channel 62 in Detroit was the first Black-owned television station in the continental United States.

On Sept. 29, 1975, Detroit television station WGPR-TV 62 signed on air for the first time. That came after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously voted in 1973 to grant a permit by African Americans to operate a television station in Detroit.