please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wttg washington d.c. united states branding fox 5 general fox 5 local news newscasts newsedge 6pm and 11pm newscasts slogan we are fox 5 general channels digital 36 uhf virtual 5 psip affiliations .1 fox o & o .2 buzzr owner fox television stations fox television stations inc. founded may 19 1945 as experimental station w3xwt first air date january 3 1947 ; 69 years ago 1947 01 03 call letters meaning thomas toliver goldsmith chief engineer of founding company dumont sister station s wdca former channel number s analog 5 vhf 1947 2009 former affiliations dumont 1947 1956 independent 1956 1986 transmitter power 1000 kw height 227 m 745 ft facility id 22207 transmitter coordinates 38 57 22 n 77 4 59 w 38.95611 n 77.08306 w 38.95611 ; 77.08306 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox5dc.com wttg channel 5 is a fox owned and operated television station located in the american capital city of washington d.c. . the station is owned by the fox television stations subsidiary of 21st century fox and is part of a duopoly with mynetworktv owned and operated station wdca channel 20 . the station s studios office and transmitter facilities are co located on wisconsin avenue in the friendship heights neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of washington . 1 the station s signal is rebroadcast on a low powered translator station w46br d in moorefield west virginia 2 which is owned by valley tv cooperative inc. . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 as an independent station 1.3 transition to fox 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 criticism 5 news operation 5.1 on air staff 5.1.1 current on air staff 5.1.2 notable former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit early years edit 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 channel 5 later wnew tv and now wnyw in new york city . 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 jr. the dumont network s chief engineer and a close friend of dr. dumont . like its new york city sister station wttg was far more successful than the network as a whole . in 1956 after dumont shut down network operations wttg and wabd became independent stations and were spun off from dumont laboratories as the dumont broadcasting corporation . it later changed its name to metropolitan broadcasting in order to distance itself from its former parent company . as an independent station edit in 1958 washington investor john kluge bought controlling interest in metropolitan broadcasting from paramount pictures 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 . channel 5 gained a sister station on radio when metromedia purchased wash 97.1 fm in 1968 . 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 older movies local newscasts and locally produced programs . during this time period and well into the early 1990s wttg was the flagship station for the georgetown university men s basketball team . its main claim to fame was panorama an afternoon talk show hosted by john willis and later maury povich . when cable television began in the 1970s wttg became a regional superstation . at one point it appeared on every cable provider in maryland and virginia as well as most of delaware and in parts of north carolina south carolina and pennsylvania . transition to fox edit wttg s station logo from 1997 to 2006 . 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 became one of fox s six original owned and operated stations when the network launched on october 9 1986 all the while retaining consistently high ratings a rarity for a fox station at the time . being the only independent station on the vhf dial in d.c. also played a part in its ratings and leading ahead of wdca channel 20 and wcqr channel 50 now wdcw before taking on the new network . citation needed 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 . as channel 5 transitioned to an o & o and more independent stations signed on it lost much of its cable audience . though not distributed as widely as it once was it is still available on several cable providers in maryland and virginia outside the d.c. metro area . for instance it is still carried on cable in charlottesville virginia even though the city has had its own fox affiliate wahu cd since 2005 ; both stations are carried on basic cable in the charlottesville area . it also served as the default fox affiliate for salisbury maryland until the debut of new default fox affiliate fox21 delmarva a subchannel of wboc tv on august 21 2006 . during the 1990s the station added more syndicated talk shows and reality shows . it continued to air afternoon cartoons from fox kids until the fall of 2001 when the block moved to wdca only to be reduced to just saturdays nationwide in 2002 ; wttg brought back fox children s programming later on in 2003 under the banner 4kids tv . on october 29 2001 fox bought wdca from viacom s paramount stations group creating a duopoly with wttg . the station continued to run top rated off network sitcoms in the evenings . wttg has been the primary station for the washington redskins since 1994 when fox obtained the rights to air nfl games in which a team from the national football conference the nfl division that the redskins are in played a road game . all redskins home games since 1965 have sold out though the redskins have had to deal with numerous no shows allowing them to be televised on wttg along with the redskins entire slate of road games provided they are against an nfc team are not being played at night or beginning in 2014 have not been moved to wusa ; under such instances the game may be aired on wrc tv for sunday night football espn wdca locally for monday night football or wusa when a team from the american football conference is the visiting team or in one case in the 2014 season a thursday night football game as part of cbs nfl network s tnf deal . this relationship is limited to network coverage of regular season and postseason games since wrc tv and comcast sportsnet mid atlantic are the official broadcast partners for the team including coach s shows and other programming . prior to 1994 wttg aired the redskins preseason games and training camp scrimmages during the majority of the 1980s into the early 1990s . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 5.1 720p 16 9 wttg dt main wttg programming fox 5.2 480i 4 3 buzzr buzzr analog to digital conversion edit on june 12 2009 wttg terminated its analog signal on vhf channel 5 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 4 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 36 . through the use of psip digital television receivers display wttg s virtual channel as 5 . programming edit wttg clears the entire fox schedule including primetime saturday morning sports programming and sunday news program fox news sunday wttg delays the saturday night animation domination high def block by a half hour due to the station s 11 00 p.m. newscast . syndicated programming currently on wttg including tmz on tv the wendy williams show harry judge judy and modern family among others . criticism edit in 2004 the inner operations of wttg during the station s first years under news corporation s ownership were scrutinized in robert greenwald s documentary outfoxed rupert murdoch s war on journalism . the documentary through a panel of former wttg journalists and staffers claimed that following rupert murdoch s acquisition wttg s news reporting became biased and sensationalist . the former wttg employees claimed that they were ordered from the top to air an uncut tribute to ronald reagan from the 1988 republican national convention ; they were told to run a piece that rehashed the whole matter of senator ted kennedy s deadly car accident at chappaquiddick which had zero news value ; and there was an obsessive attitude over airing stories related to wedge issues such as race relations and aids . wttg more recently attracted controversy over its chief investigative reporter emily j. miller who aired segments critical of gun control without divulging her involvement in gun rights activism . as a result wttg added disclosures to miller s segments informing viewers that she was a proponent for second amendment rights . miller had claimed that her pro gun views resulted from being the victim of a home invasion but washington post blogger erik wemple discovered that her account was largely fabricated . 5 critics also highlighted missteps in miller s reporting including an incident where she confused the photographs of two black men and misidentified one of them as a convicted sex offender . 6 miller left wttg at the conclusion of her contract in march 2016 . 7 news operation edit wttg presently broadcasts 56 hours of locally produced newscasts each week 9 hours of weekdays and 4 hours of weekends same as kron tv . on september 4 2006 wttg began simulcasting its weekday morning and nightly 10 p.m. newscasts on then baltimore sister station wutb now owned by sinclair broadcast group partner company deerfield media under the banner of my 24 news . management at both stations cited the decision to simulcast as a by product of cross regional news interests and increasing overlap between the baltimore and washington media markets . 8 in october 2006 while wttg aired fox sports coverage of the 2006 major league baseball postseason the first half hour of the 10 00 p.m. newscast was broadcast by sister station wdca under the title fox 5 news at ten special edition ; this also occurred in 2007 with the wdca broadcast of the program being titled my 20 news at 10 . on july 2 2007 wttg discontinued its noon newscast and replaced it with an hour long newscast at 11 00 a.m. titled fox 5 news midday . on september 10 2007 the station reformatted its 6 00 p.m. newscast into an early evening edition of newsedge ; the addition of newsedge at