WDTN

Encyclopedia : W : WD : WDT : WDTN

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WDTN (channel 2) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio affiliated with the NBC network since August 30, 2004. The station was previously an ABC affiliate from 1980 to the switch networks in reverse. Its transmitter is located in Dayton. It is Dayton's first television station, established in 1947. However, it did not go on the air until late 1949, a couple months after WHIO-TV signed on the air in July of that same year.

WDTN's local news department, 2NEWS, has usually placed second to WHIO-TV's news department in the ratings. The 2NEWS team is lead by Marsha Bonhart, Coleen Sullivan, Mark Allan, Carl Day and Chief Meteorologist Carl Nichols. They also are known for Turn to 2, which viewers can contact reporters Howard Nathan or Kennan Oliphant if they need help with consumer issues. 2NEWS is an emmy award winning newscast.

History

It originially signed on as WLW-D, one of several stations owned by Powell Crosley's company, whose flagship was WLW AM.

The license for WLW-D was granted to the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in March 3, 1947. It was the first broadcast television license granted by the Federal Communications Commission to the Dayton television market. The station began broadcasting in 1949 as an affiliate of NBC; it also carried programming from DuMont [link]. The first program broadcast was the Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle.

While NBC shows aired on WLWD, its main specialty was local programming and news serving Dayton. This provided an alternative not found anywhere else. Across town, WHIO signed on a few weeks later with a similar format with CBS programs. Dayton received clear pictures from stations in Cincinnati (45 miles south) and Columbus. Phil Donahue debuted on WLWD in 1967 and went national in 1970.

In 1968 Crosley merged with Avco. In 1976 Avco sold WLWD to Grinnell College, who changed the call letters to WDTN.

By the mid 1970s, ABC had become the leading network. Dayton's ABC affiliate, WKEF, was only a part-time affiliate. It ran ABC's prime time shows, sports, Saturday and Sunday cartoons and ABC shows preempted by WKRC-TV (then Cincinnati's ABC affiliate). ABC wanted a primary affiliate that had news and was better-rated. It approached WDTN for a deal and on January 1, 1980 WDTN and WKEF swapped affiliations. Under the deal they were to run all of ABC's programming that was being preempted by WKRC but was exempt from running the afternoon soaps after 2 p.m.. In place of One Life to Live and General Hospital, WDTN ran cartoons and off network sitcoms. NBC's programming would go to less desirable WKEF. In 1981, the station was purchased by Hearst Broadcasting.

Later in the 1980s, the cartoons and sitcoms made way for first run talk shows like Oprah Winfrey at 4 p.m. but also younger talkers like Montel Williams and Jerry Springer. WDTN would begin their talk block at 2 p.m. weekdays.

In 1998, the station was sold to the Sunrise Television Group after Argyle Television's purchase of Cincinnati's WLWT. WDTN's city-grade signal covers most of the Cincinnati area, and FCC rules of the time did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping city-grade coverage. Hearst-Argyle (which was formed with the merger between Hearst's broadcasting unit and Argyle Television the year before) had to sell WDTN (ironically both stations were at one point owned by Crosley Broadcasting, under Crosley they were grandfathered).

Dayton has always had a high percentage of cable subscribers. As new satellite channels were signing on cable systems needed more space so Dayton's largest cable system took duplicate network affiliates from Cincinnati in 2000 to make room for more satellite channels. As a result ABC soap viewers could no longer see One Life or General Hospital while over the air viewers still could. As a result in the Fall of 2000 General Hospital was added to WDTN's schedule. But One Life To Live would be preempted another 2 years. In 2002, when Sunrise merged with LIN TV, One Life To Live was added to the schedule as well. After that WDTN ran ABC's entire schedule.

On August 30, 2004 in a reversal of the 1980 swap, WDTN returned to NBC to take advantage of NBC's more popular programming. In spite of this however, WDTN still remains a strong second in the Dayton market to WHIO-TV.

Previous logos

Left: 1996-2002 logo, based on first generation Hearst standardization.
Right: 2002-2004 logo, used between LIN takeover and affiliate swap.

Newscasts

• Weekdays

2 NEWS Sunrise 5:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m. with updates during NBC's Today

2 NEWS at Noon 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.

2 NEWS at 5:00 5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

2 NEWS at 5:30 5:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

2 NEWS at 6:00 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

2 NEWS at 11 11:00 p.m.-11:35 p.m.

• Weekends

2 NEWS at 6:00 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

2 NEWS at 11 11:00 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

External links

• [WDTN-TV (NBC 2) Website]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WDTN]

Broadcast television in the Dayton market  [(Nielsen DMA #59)]
WDTN 2 (NBC) - WHIO 7 (CBS) - WPTO 14 (PBS) - WPTD 16 (PBS) - WKEF 22 (ABC) (The Tube on DT2) - WBDT 26 (The WB/The CW) - WRCX-LP 40 (Ind.) - WKOI 43 (TBN) - WRGT 45 (Fox) - W66AQ 66 (The WB/My Network TV)
Local cable television channels
WHIO 17/6 (UPN)
See also: Broadcast television in the , , , , and markets

'''NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Ohio
WDTN 2 () - WKYC 3 () - WCMH 4 () - WLWT 5 () - WTOV 9 () - WHIZ 18 () - WFMJ 21 () - WNWO 24 () - WLIO 35 ()
See also: , , , , , and stations in Ohio

 

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