WBDT - History

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. WBDT maintained a secondary affiliation with PAX until mid-2004, airing its most popular programming on weekday mornings from 9am-noon, and late nights from midnight-4am on weekends.

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. WBDT was to leave its longtime studios on Corporate Place, off Byers Road in Miamisburg, in October and move to WDTN's South Dixie Drive studios in Moraine. The former WBDT studio facility is currently slated to undergo renovations for use by Sinclair Broadcast Group's duopoly of ABC affiliate WKEF and Fox affiliate WRGT-TV.

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. 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. 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. The sale of WBDT was consummated on May 20, 2011.

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. On March 13, LIN and DISH entered into a retransmission consent agreement, and all affected channels were restored.