WBDT

WBDT is the CW-affiliated television station for Ohio's Miami Valley. Licensed to Springfield, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter in the Frytown section of Dayton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 13 and in high definition on digital channel 1013. WBDT is the default CW affiliate for Lima, Ohio; that area had been previously served by a cable-only affiliate until early 2010. WBDT is owned by WBDT Television, LLC, is operated by LIN TV Corporation and is sister station to WDTN; the stations share studios on South Dixie Drive in Moraine, Ohio (though their mailing address is Dayton).

Programming on WBDT includes the full CW network lineup, along with syndicated programming including The Daily Buzz, How I Met Your Mother, Two and A Half Men, The King of Queens, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

History

The station began analog operation on UHF channel 26 in 1968 as independent WSWO-TV, under the ownership of Southwestern Ohio Broadcasting. WSWO-TV ran a local live version of Bozo the Clown (portrayed by announcer Dave Eaton, who was previously with the former WKTR-TV in Kettering, now public station WPTD), as well as other local shows. The station suddenly went dark in 1970, possibly due to financial difficulties.

WSWO-TV briefly returned to the air in summer 1972 under the ownership of Lester W. White, but fell silent again by year's end. This second sudden demise of the station was attributed to White, who was later charged with equipment theft.

The station remained off-the-air until September 1980 when it returned as a Christian-oriented station under the call sign WTJC (for Witnessing 'Til Jesus Comes) and the ownership of Miami Valley Christian Television (MVCT). WTJC aired religious programming during most of its daytime and weekend schedule (including The 700 Club, PTL, and Jerry Falwell) although it also aired lifestyle programming such as The Joy of Gardening, cartoons, and children's programming in late weekday afternoon slots (including The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Porky Pig, Great Space Coaster, and New Zoo Revue). There were also family-friendly reruns in early evenings (among them Leave It to Beaver, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and Lassie) and a local newscast. WTJC's Saturday schedule included Westerns, sportsmen/hunting/wildlife shows (including Wild Kingdom), and The Lawrence Welk Show.

When WRGT signed on in 1984, MVCT sold most of its secular programming inventory to that station, and switched WTJC to a mostly-religious format (with the exception of a few children's shows, and Saturday morning sporting and hunting shows). Over the next few years, several ministries that bought time on WTJC became involved in scandals. Due to the scandals, donations to the ministries, and to MVCT, declined. The primary owner of MVCT, Marvin Sparks, bought out his partners' shares in 1991 and in turn sold them to Video Mall Communications. WTJC then aired home shopping and paid programming eighteen hours a day, while relegating the remaining religious programming to the remainder of the broadcast day.

In the mid-1990s, Abry Communications (which had purchased WRGT's owner, Act III Broadcasting) approached MVCT with a proposal to manage WTJC for eighteen hours a day. MVCT declined and chose instead to sell the station to Paxson Communications in 1995. Paxson kept a similar lineup for WTJC, airing religious programming in early mornings, infomercials for most of the day, and worship music overnight. In January 1998, WTJC's call sign was changed to WDPX (for Dayton PaX). Accordingly, later that year, the station became a charter affiliate of Pax (now Ion Television).

In summer 1999, Paxson sold the station to ACME Communications, which dropped most Pax programming for a primary affiliation with The WB, along with syndicated programming; the previous WB affiliate was WUCT-LP (now WRCX-LP). ACME also changed WDPX's call sign to the current WBDT.

On September 18, 2006, WBDT became the market's CW outlet after The WB and UPN merged. It became a strong affiliate with the new network in terms of prime time ratings -- strong enough for The CW to designate WBDT the "#1 CW affiliate" in the nation in March 2007. In that same month, the station became the first in the area (and one of the few in the entire country) to broadcast in a 1080i high definition 16:9 format 24 hours a day, broadcasting on digital UHF channel 18. Original high definition shows on WBDT are "passed through" for broadcast; all other programming and commercials are upconverted to HD.

On June 4, 2010, it was announced that the LIN TV Corporation (owner of WDTN) would begin to operate WBDT through shared service and local sales agreements.^[1][2] WBDT would leave its longtime studios at Corporate Place on Byers Road in Miamisburg in October and moved to WDTN's South Dixie Drive studios in Moraine.

Three months after ACME and LIN TV reached their operations and sales agreements, LIN TV exercised an option to purchase WBDT along with another LIN TV-operated ACME station, fellow CW afifliate WCWF in Green Bay, Wisconsin.^[3] LIN TV requested that WBDT's license be assigned to a subsidiary of Vaughan Media (owner of Austin, Texas CW affiliate KNVA, which is also operated by LIN TV). LIN TV holds a 4.5% equity stake in Vaughan Media, but controls most of that company's voting stock, effectively making it a shell corporation for LIN TV.^[4] The FCC approved the sale and license transfer in April 2011; the commission also denied objections from area cable operators Time Warner Cable and Buckeye Cablevision, who claimed that retransmission fees for WBDT would increase as a result of the sale.^[5] The sale of WBDT was consummated on May 20, 2011.^[6][7]

On March 4, 2011, LIN TV's contract with DISH Network expired, and all TV stations owned or operated by LIN, including both WBDT and WDTN, were pulled from DISH.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} On March 13, LIN and DISH entered into a retransmission consent agreement, and all affected channels were restored.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Digital programming

On June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States, WBDT ended its digital broadcast on channel 18 and switched channel 26 from an analog broadcast to a digital one.^[17][18]

Initially, WBDT aired a standard definition simulcast of its HD programming on its DT2 subchannel. After several months, this subchannel was dropped. On September 26, 2011, WBDT began airing Bounce TV on DT2, becoming a charter affiliate of the network.^[19]

Newscasts

On September 16, 2002, the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, premiered from WBDT's studios. The program, then produced by then-parent ACME Communications, remained based at the station until its August 2004 move to the facilities of former sister station WKCF in Lake Mary, Florida near Orlando. The Daily Buzz currently airs on WBDT weekdays from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m., with local weather forecasts inserted into the broadcast.

On August 18, 2007, WDTN began to produce a nightly prime time newscast for WBDT known as 2 News at 10 on Dayton's CW. On the 26th day of its broadcast, this show achieved higher ratings than WRGT's nightly prime time news (produced by WKEF) in Dayton's metered market households.

Anchors

• Mark Allan - weeknights
• Michelle Kingsfield - weeknights
• Holly Samuels - weekends and reporter

Live Doppler 2X Meteorologists

• Brian Davis (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief, seen weeknights
• Tara Hastings (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends
• Carl Nichols - fill-in

Sports

• Jack Pohl - Director seen weeknights
• Neil "Hutch" Konerman - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• Jim Bucher - "Bucher's Beat" segment producer
• Megan O'Rourke - Greene County Bureau
• Dan Edwards - business and education
• Marsha Bonhart - health
• Anthony Kiekow
• Pam Elliot

References

External links

• WBDT "Dayton's CW"
• WDTN "Channel 2"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBDT