LaGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) — A former WRBL employee is starting her own television station right out of Main Street. April Ross worked on the production team at WRBL before starting her solo career which now led her to buy her own television station out of LaGrange.
“We want to bring to this area something that they have never seen before out of this local TV station. That’s my vision is to grow it and to be like any other major affiliate that is around the area,” said Ross.
Ross bought WJCN, a former local television station that was based in LaGrange. She hopes to launch a few segments from her station like a morning show and many others. Shows like “The Wanda Show” from WJCN are still currently airing. They are available from Peachtree City, Georgia to Salem, Alabama through Spectrum. Ross said the station is currently available in 600,000 homes throughout 11 counties.
She started Bee TV in 2017 when a deputy was shot in West Point and she realized there was no reporter on the scene. A friend reached out to Ross and encouraged her to go live on Facebook Live, which she did. Since then, Ross has grown her social media presence and has approximately 15,000 followers on her Facebook page.
Once the television station fully takes off Ross intends to scale back the news portion of her Facebook page. She wants her followers to receive the news from her television station instead.
“I know that they have been spoiled with getting information right on the fly. Which we are going to still continue to do those nice, heartwarming stories to post on Facebook but the news is going to go on television,” said Ross.
Ross credits her success to God and longtime evening anchor, Teresa Whitaker. She said Whitaker took notice of her in the control room during her time at WRBL and began to train her for news.
“Between her newscasts from 6 to 11 she would take me, help me write stories, edit stories together, she took her time. Although she was the anchorwoman on the 6 o’clock news, the 11 o’clock news, she saw something in me. She took that time to say you know what, I’m going to train you behind the scenes and I appreciate that,” said Ross.
Ross said Whitaker was the first person to train her professionally once she had graduated from Alabama State University.
