Channel 13 went on the air on September 17, 1948, as KMTR-TV. The station briefly changed its call letters to KLAC-TV (Los Angeles,California), and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13". It was co-owned with KLAC-AM-FM, which was later co-owned with channel 13's current sister station KTTV. Although it was an independent station, it did run some programming from the DuMont Television Network.