WTTG
Encyclopedia : W : WT : WTT : WTTG
WTTG, "FOX5 DC" is an owned and operated TV station of the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is located in Washington, D.C. and serves the entire Washington metropolitan area (including Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the Martinsburg, West Virginia area) from a studio and transmitter located in the Tenleytown section of Washington. It also operates a low-powered translator in Harrisonburg, Virginia. WTTG's sister station is UPN affiliate WDCA, forming a duopoly owned by Fox Television Stations Group.
History
The station traces its history to May 19, 1945, when television set and equipment manufacturer Allen B. DuMont founded W3XWT, the second experimental station in the nation's capital (after NBC's W3XNB, forerunner to WRC-TV).Later in 1945, DuMont Laboratories began a series of experimental coaxial cable hookups between W3XWT and its other television station, WABD in New York City (now WNYW). These hookups were the beginning of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first licensed commercial television network. DuMont began regular network service in 1946. Almost a year later, on January 3, 1947, W3XWT received a commercial license--the first in the nation's capital--as WTTG. The station was named for Thomas T. Goldsmith, Dr. DuMont's best friend and chief engineer.
Like its New York sister station, WTTG was far more successful than the network as a whole. In 1956, after DuMont ended network operations, WTTG and WABD were spun off as the "DuMont Broadcasting Corporation." It later changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting due to the failure associated with DuMont. In 1958, Washington investor John Kluge bought controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting and installed himself as its chairman. He changed the company's name to Metromedia in 1961. Goldsmith sat on Metromedia's board for over a quarter-century.
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 cartoons, off-network sitcoms, first-run syndicated shows, old movies, local news and locally produced programs. During this time period, and well into the early 1990s, WTTG was the flagship station for the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team. Its main claim to fame was Panorama, an afternoon talk show hosted by John Willis, and Maury Povich.
When cable television began in the 1970s, WTTG became a regional superstation. At one point, it appeared on every cable system in Maryland and Virginia, as well as most of Delaware and in parts of North Carolina. Though not distributed as widely as it once was the popularity of WTTG has kept it available on cable on several Maryland and Virginia cable systems and to this day serves as the default Fox affiliate for the Harrisonburg and Salisbury, Maryland TV markets.
Metromedia owned the station until 1986 when Rupert Murdoch, after buying 20th Century Fox, purchased the Metromedia television stations to form the nucleus of the Fox network. WTTG has since become a Fox owned-and-operated station (O&O), but has retained consistently high ratings, a rarity for a Fox affiliate. Initially, its programming was similar to what it had run as a true independent station, since Fox only programmed for a few hours on weekends. Then, in the summer of 1990, the morning cartoon block was ended in favor of Fox 5 Morning News. It was the second Fox O&O to have a morning newscast and the fourth or fifth Fox affiliate with morning news.
In the 1990s, Fox 5 added more syndicated talk shows and reality shows. It continued to air afternoon cartoons from Fox Kids until the fall of 2001, when they moved to WDCA (only to be cut to Saturdays everywhere in 2002). But WTTG later on brought back Fox children's programming under the banner 4Kids TV. On October 29, 2001, WDCA became WTTG's sister station when Fox bought it from Viacom. Fox 5 continued to run top rated off-network sitcoms in the evenings. In 2005, it added an evening 5 to 6 p.m. newscast. Today, Fox 5 has over 40 hours a week of local news.
On May 15, 2006 WTTG launched a test of a new website, which features more news and video with the "MyFox" name and interface. (The "My" in the MyFox name may be a reference to Fox's new network My Network TV, which will be shown locally on WDCA.) It is at [www.myfoxdc.com]. Sister stations WNYW in New York and WBRC in Birmingham already have new "MyFox" test websites, and WNYW has already put in place the new Fox News Channel-inspired logo shown at myfoxdc.com; this spread and logo will come to other FOX O&O Stations in the months to come.
The new logo and set premiered on June 25, 2006. On July 31, 2006, WTTG will also launch an 11-11:30pm newscast, which follows its 10-11pm newscast.
Criticism
The inner operations of WTTG were sructinized in the 2004 Robert Greenwald documentary . Former WTTG employees claimed that media magnate Rupert Murdoch used the station as an experiment to test the allegedly right-wing slanted formula that would be the trademark of his FOX News Channel. Former producers and reporters reminisced about how Murdoch ordered them to air, among other things, a price from A Current Affair "rehashing the whole affair of [Senator Ted Kennedy's deadly car accident at] Chappaquiddick" which had "zero news value"; an uncut tribute to Ronald Reagan as seen at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and hot-button issues such as race relations and AIDS (a former WTTG producer said that "I constantly remember complaints that there was too much being done on AIDS.")
Logos and idents
Newscast schedule
- FOX 5 Morning News at 5 a.m.
- *Steve Chenevey, Allison Seymour "News"
- *Tony Perkins "Weather"
- *Julie Wright "Traffic" along with SkyFox
- FOX 5 Morning News at 6 a.m.
- *Same
- FOX 5 Morning News
- *Lark McCarthy, Mike Gargiulo "News"
- *Tony Perkins "Weather"
- *Julie Wright "Traffic" along with SkyFox
- FOX 5 News at Noon
- *Same team as 5 a.m. News
- FOX 5 News at 5 p.m.
- *Brian Bolter, Shawn Yancy "News"
- *Sue Palka Chief Meteorologist "Weather"
- *Dave Feldman "Sports"
- FOX 5 News at 10
- *Same as above
- FOX 5 News at 11 p.m.
- *WTTG to add an 11pm newscast on July 31st.
References
External links
- [WTTG FOX 5]
- [Query the FCC's TV station database for WTTG]
- [Aerial photo of WTTG transmitter from Google Local]
| Broadcast Television in the Washington, D.C. market [(Nielsen DMA #8)] | ||
|---|---|---|
| WRC 4 (NBC) - WTTG 5 (Fox) - WJLA 7 (ABC) - WUSA 9 (CBS) - WAZT-CA 10 / WAZC-LP 16 / WAZF-CA 28 / WAZW-CA 48 (TBN) - WFDC 14 (UNV) - W15AD 15/W17AL 17/W41AO 41/W48AA 48/W69AC 69 (PBS/WVPB) - WDCA 20 (UPN/MNTV) - WDDN 23 (DAY) - WHAG 25 (NBC) - WETA 26 (PBS) - WWPB 31/WFPT 62 (PBS/MPB) - WHUT 32 (PBS) - WVPY 42 (PBS) - WMDO 47 (TFR) - WWTD 49 (Ind) - WDCW 50 (The WB/The CW) - WNVC 56 (Ind) - WIAV 58 (AV/Ind) - WWPX 60/WPXW 66 (i) - WZDC 64 (TMD) - WJAL 68 (Ind) | ||
|
Digital only
WNVT 30 (Ind) | ||
|
Local cable television channels
News Channel 8 - TV-3 Winchester (ABC) | ||
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