The station began broadcasting on New Year's Day 1963 as WTEV-TV from studios on 430 County Street in New Bedford. Its analog transmitter was located in Tiverton and aired on VHF channel 6. In the 1950s and 1960s, the FCC had allocated only two VHF frequencies to Rhode Island. Providence had three stations allocated to it but UHF was not considered viable at the time. To make the market viable given Rhode Island's small size, New Bedford and surrounding Bristol County were added to the Providence television market even though the rest of southeastern Massachusetts is in the Boston market.