WDTN
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.
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 [
1]. 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.
Left: 1996-2002 logo, based on first generation Hearst standardization.
Right: 2002-2004 logo, used between LIN takeover and affiliate swap.
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Weekdays2 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.
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Weekends2 NEWS at 6:00 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
2 NEWS at 11 11:00 p.m.-11:30 p.m.
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WDTN-TV 2 Website
