WCTX - History

History

As early as 1953, a construction permit for the analog UHF channel 59 allotment was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was originally owned by the Connecticut Radio Foundation. However, the group was never able to get the station on-the-air and sold the permit to Impart Systems in 1967. In 1971, the then-owner of NBC affiliate WHNB built a low-power translator on UHF channel 59 in New Haven (W59AA licensed to West Haven). Although WHNB had boosted its power to cover New Haven a few months earlier, some areas in Southern Connecticut still could not get a good signal from the station.

On November 5, 1994, this station finally began broadcasting as a stand-alone Independent with the calls WTVU. It initially operated at low-power running Shop at Home programming for most of the day and later adding coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. In April 1995, WTVU upgraded to full power operations. In June of that year, LIN TV took over control of the station through a local marketing agreement (LMA) with WTNH. With the LMA came an affiliation with The WB, which until that point, had been airing its prime time programming on WTNH following its late newscast on Saturday nights.

The LMA also allowed WTVU to significantly upgrade its programming. It acquired stronger syndicated programs, mostly barter shows and second runs from WTNH. It also began running classic sitcoms such as: Perry Mason, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, The Honeymooners, The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and Gilligan's Island among others that fell off the schedules of WTXX and WTWS some years back. It also picked up Hartford Whalers hockey, which aired on the station until the team became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997.

On April 1, 1996, the station changed its call letters to WBNE (for "WB New England"). After Tribune Broadcasting (a minority owner of The WB) purchased then-UPN affiliate WTXX, WBNE and that station swapped network affiliations on January 1, 2001. With the new network relationship came the current WCTX calls and use of the on-air identity "The X". That identity was used in lieu of the conventional "UPN (channel number)" branding. LIN TV purchased WCTX outright in 2002. On September 19, 2005, WCTX became known as "UPN 9," highlighting its cable channel position in some areas. This branding was the same as WWOR in New York City, a station that is available over-the-air and on cable in Southwestern Connecticut.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge to create a new network called The CW. It was to be jointly owned by CBS and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WTXX was chosen as Connecticut's CW affiliate after its owner Tribune announced a ten-year deal with the upcoming network leaving WCTX to tentatively become an Independent once again. However on April 26, WCTX announced it would join MyNetworkTV (a second new network launched by News Corporation).

This began broadcasting on September 5, and as a result, the station did not carry the final two weeks of programming from UPN. With its new network affiliation, the station changed its branding to the current "My TV 9". As of the 2007/2008 season, University of Connecticut men's college basketball games now air primarily on WCTX while a handful of games air on sister station WTNH. It recently signed a multi-year television deal with the WNBA's Connecticut Sun to broadcast select regular season games as well.

Until March 31, 2008, WCTX served as the default MyNetworkTV affiliate on Charter cable systems for the Springfield/Holyoke, Massachusetts market as that area did not have an affiliate of its own. On that date, ABC affiliate WGGB-TV added the network as a secondary affiliation on its new Fox second digital subchannel. WCTX is still seen on Charter. This station was also repeated on W11BJ (now WFXQ-CD) from a transmitter on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington from 2004 until 2006 while LIN TV built a new transmitter for that channel and moved its city of license to Springfield.

On June 12, 2009, WCTX left channel 59 and moved to channel 39 when the analog to digital conversion was completed. It is considered an alternate ABC affiliate airing that network's programs when WTNH is unable to do so such as during a breaking news emergency or local special. Until TheCoolTV was added on WCTX-DT2, this aired a 24-hour live feed of WTNH's regional weather radar known as the "SkyMax Doppler Network".