WTTG
Moorefield, WV | |
Links | |
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Public license information | |
Website | www |
WTTG (channel 5) is a
WTTG's signal is rebroadcast on a low-power digital translator station, W24ES-D, in Moorefield, West Virginia[4] (which is owned by Valley TV Cooperative, Inc.).
History
Early years (1945–1958)
The station traces its history to May 19, 1945, when television set and equipment manufacturer
The station was named for Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr.,[2] the DuMont Network's chief engineer and a close friend of Dr. DuMont.[1]
Like WABD and DuMont's other owned-and-operated station, WDTV in
As an independent station (1958–1986)
In 1958 Washington investor John Kluge bought controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting from Paramount Pictures and installed himself as its chairman. He changed the company's name to Metromedia in 1961. Goldsmith sat on Metromedia's board of directors for over a quarter-century.[2] Channel 5 gained a sister station on radio when Metromedia purchased WASH (97.1 FM)[7] in 1968. At first, WTTG ran on a low budget. However, in the late 1960s, it benefited from Metromedia's aggressiveness in acquiring top syndicated programming, giving it a significant leg up on WDCA, which signed on in 1966.
By the 1970s WTTG was one of the leading independent stations in the country, running a broad lineup of
When cable television began in the 1970s, WTTG became a regional superstation. At one point it appeared on every cable provider in Maryland and Virginia, as well as most of Delaware and in parts of West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania.[1]
Transition to Fox (1986–present)
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2019) |
Metromedia owned the station until 1986 when
As channel 5 transitioned to an O&O and more independent stations signed on, it lost much of its cable audience. Though not distributed as widely as it once was, it is still available on several cable providers in Maryland and Virginia outside the D.C. metro area. For instance, it is still carried on cable in
During the 1990s the station added more syndicated talk shows and
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC (affiliated network of WJLA-TV, channel 7), announced its intent to buy WTTG's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WTTG and sister station WDCA as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly formed Fox Corporation.[11][12]
On July 24, 2021, both WTTG and sister station WDCA (the latter of which is now branded as Fox 5 Plus) moved two miles (3 km) from their old studios in Washington's Friendship Heights neighborhood to a new broadcast facility on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland.
Programming
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2021) |
Sports programming
WTTG has been the primary station for the
The station also airs
News operation
As of January 2023[update], WTTG broadcasts 72 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12+1⁄2 hours each weekday, 4+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). The Sunday morning news show Fox 5 News on the Hill airs in the final half hour of Fox 5 Morning News Sunday at 8:30 a.m.
On September 4, 2006, WTTG began simulcasting its weekday morning and nightly 10 p.m. newscasts on then-Baltimore sister station WUTB (now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group partner company Deerfield Media), under the banner of My 24 News. Management at both stations cited the decision to simulcast as a by-product of cross-regional news interests and increasing overlap between the Baltimore and Washington media markets.[13] In October 2006, while WTTG aired Fox Sports' coverage of the 2006 Major League Baseball postseason, the first half-hour of the 10 p.m. newscast was broadcast by sister station WDCA under the title Fox 5 News at Ten: Special Edition; this also occurred in 2007, with the WDCA broadcast of the program being titled My 20 News at 10.
On July 2, 2007, WTTG discontinued its noon newscast and replaced it with an hour-long newscast at 11 a.m., titled Fox 5 News Midday. On September 10, 2007, the station reformatted its 6 p.m. newscast into an early evening edition of NewsEdge; the addition of NewsEdge at 6 p.m. was due in part to the success of its current 11 p.m. counterpart. On January 14, 2009, WTTG and WRC-TV entered into a Local News Service agreement in which the two stations pool video and share news helicopter footage.[14]
On January 30, 2009, starting with its 6 p.m. newscast, WTTG became the third television station in the Washington, D.C. market (behind CBS affiliate WUSA and ABC affiliate WJLA-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On September 14, 2009, WTTG expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours by adding another hour at 9 a.m.; in turn, its hour-long 11 a.m. midday newscast was discontinued. In early 2010, WTTG became the second station in the market (behind WUSA) to expand its weekday morning newscast to 4:30 a.m.
In late August 2013, WTTG began using the
On June 16, 2014, WTTG expanded its weekday morning newscasts with the addition of an hour-long block at 10 a.m.[15] This was followed on July 12 by the addition of a two-hour Saturday morning newscast from 7 to 9 a.m. and the July 13 expansion of its existing Sunday morning newscast to two hours from 7 to 9 a.m.[15][16]
On June 5, 2017, WTTG added an additional half-hour to its late-night news block, titled The Final 5. This makes WTTG among the very few stations to extend their late newscast to midnight and one of three Fox affiliates (Kansas City's WDAF and Atlanta's WAGA-TV are the others) to air a two-hour late-night news block. On July 17 of the same year, WTTG began producing its primetime nightly newscasts for sister station WDCA titled Fox 5 News on the Plus (but are titled on-air as Fox 5 News at 8pm). The weeknight editions, which are run for a half-hour from 8 to 8:30 p.m. and from 9 to 9:30 p.m. were originally anchored by the 10 p.m. team of Tony Perkins, Shawn Yancy and meteorologist Sue Palka, while the weekend editions are run from 7 to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 7 to 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
On July 8, 2019, WTTG become the third station in the Washington media market to debut an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast after WJLA-TV and WRC-TV (WUSA was the first station in the market to debut an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast in 1989; however, it was also the first to cancel the 4 p.m. newscast, which happened in 2000; WUSA has since revived its 4 p.m. newscast, which happened in September 2023).
Criticism
In 2004, the inner operations of WTTG during the station's first years under
WTTG attracted controversy over its chief investigative reporter
In May 2017, WTTG was criticized for its coverage of the
Notable current on-air staff
Notable former on-air staff
- Brian Bolter – anchor (1999–2013)
- NBC Sports Washington until the end of the 2018–19 NBA season
- Connie Chung – reporter (1970–1971); was most recently with MSNBC until June 2006
- Jack Conaty – reporter (1986–1987); was most recently at Chicago sister station WFLD until 2009
- Dave Feldman – sports anchor (2000–2012); now with NBC Sports Bay Area
- Michael Gargiulo – morning anchor (2000–2006); now at WNBC/New York City
- Brett Haber – sports anchor/reporter (1997–2000); later with WUSA, now with the Tennis Channel
- Hillary Howard (Statter) – meteorologist (1990s–2000); now at WTOP-FM
- Gus Johnson – weekend sports anchor/reporter (1991–1992); now a play-by-play commentator with Fox Sports
- Morris Jones – anchor/reporter (1983–2001); was most recently at NewsChannel 8 (now WJLA 24/7 News) until his departure from that station on May 31, 2016
- Pat Mitchell – anchor/Panorama host (1977–1979)
- Holly Morris – reporter (1998–2024)
- Dan Patrick – reporter (1970s) later became sportscaster with KHOU in Houston; now Lieutenant Governor of Texas
- Tony Perkins – weather anchor/anchor (1993–1999 and 2005–2019); now at WRC-TV
- Maury Povich – anchor/reporter/Panorama host (1967–1976 and 1983–1986); hosted the syndicated talk show Maury from 1991 to 2022
- Amy Robach – anchor/reporter (1998–2003); was with ABC News from 2012 to 2023
- Al Roker – weather anchor (1976–1978); now with NBC News' Today
- Bob Schieffer – reporter (1969–1977); now contributor for CBS News and former host of Face the Nation from 1991 to 2015
- Nashville until 2016, now with Newsmax.
- Sara Underwood – reporter; now at WFXT (WTTG's now-former sister station) in Boston
- Tim White – morning anchor (1990–1993); was previously at WKYC in Cleveland until 2008, now president of Lives and Legacies Films, Inc.
- Brian Williams – anchor/reporter/Panorama host (1985–1986); anchor/managing editor for NBC Nightly News from 2004 to 2015, was most recently with MSNBC until December 2021
- Fox News Channel, later with WMAL
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
5.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WTTG-DT | Main WTTG programming / Fox |
5.2 | 480i | BUZZR | Buzzr | |
5.3 | START | Start TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WTTG shut down its analog signal over
On April 4, 2017, the FCC announced that sister station WDCA was a winner in the 2016–17
Translator
- W24ES-D Moorefield, WV
References
- ^ a b c d e "Fox 5 / My 20". DCJobs.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
- ^ a b c Brennan, Patricia (May 14, 1995). "WTTG Marks 50 Years". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTTG". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "RabbitEars.Info". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ Daily Variety, December 4, 1946, pg. 31
- ^ "FCC History Cards for WTTG".
- ^ "More Sites Around Washington, DC, 2008". Tower Site of the Week. February 12, 2010.
- ^ Greene, David (March 14, 2014). "'Requiem for The Big East' Honors Basketball Rivalries". NPR.
- ^ "Maury Povich Reminisces About Time at WTTG during Station's 70th Anniversary". Fox 5 DC. January 4, 2017.
- ^ Carmody, John (May 19, 1987). "Channel 5 Cancels 'Panorama'". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Disney Buys Big Chunk Of Fox In $66.1B Deal". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
- ^ "Murdoch: New Fox Interested In More Stations". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
- ^ Farhi, Paul (August 11, 2006). "WTTG to Span Two Beltways With Washimore Newscast". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Fox And NBC To Share In DC". Retrieved January 14, 2009.
- ^ a b Calbaugh, Jeff (April 10, 2014). "Fox 5 Ups the Morning News Ante". Washington Business Journal.
- ^ Fox Stations Beef Up Local News In 9 Markets, TVNewsCheck, June 25, 2014.
- ^ Additional document casts doubt on 'home invasion' of local Fox reporter, Erik Wemple, The Washington Post, March 3, 2015
- ^ Virginia trainer claims Fox5 misidentified him as a sex offender, Erik Wemple, The Washington Post, January 13, 2016
- ^ Emily Miller is leaving Fox5, Erik Wemple, The Washington Post, March 1, 2016
- ^ "Seth Rich Murder: What we know and what we don't know", WTTG (May 17, 2017).
- ^ Phillps, Kristine and
Holley, Peter. "Fox News retracts controversial story on Seth Rich’s death and alleged WikiLeaks contact", Washington Post(May 23, 2017)
- ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WTTG". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "DA-17-314A2.pdf" (PDF). FCC.gov. April 4, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 14, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application". Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "STA Extension". FCC LMS.