on channel 20 since october 12 2010 see wlwd lp . for the fm station serving lima ohio from april 2003 until april 2010 with the callsign wlwd see wbks . wdtn dayton ohio united states branding wdtn general 2 news newscasts slogan working for you channels digital 50 uhf virtual 2 psip affiliations .1 nbc .2 escape .3 justice network owner media general tvl broadcasting llc founded april 4 1947 1 first air date march 15 1949 ; 67 years ago 1949 03 15 call letters meaning dayton sister station s wbdt former callsigns wlwd 1949 1976 former channel number s analog 5 vhf 1949 1953 2 vhf 1953 2009 former affiliations primary nbc 1949 1980 abc 1980 2004 secondary dumont 1949 1955 abc 1949 1971 dt2 nbc in sd until 2016 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 323 m 1 060 ft facility id 65690 transmitter coordinates 39 43 7 n 84 15 22 w 39.71861 n 84.25611 w 39.71861 ; 84.25611 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wdtn.com wdtn virtual channel 2 is an nbc affiliated television station licensed to dayton ohio usa . wdtn is owned by media general and also operates cw affiliate wbdt owned by vaughan media llc through a local marketing agreement . the two stations share studios located on south dixie drive in moraine ohio though with a dayton mailing address and wdtn s transmitter on digital channel 50 is located in the frytown section of dayton . however master control and some internal operations of wdtn are based within centralcasting facilities at sister station wish tv in indianapolis . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 switch to abc 1.3 return to nbc 2 programming 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit early years edit the construction permit for what is now wdtn was awarded to the crosley broadcasting corporation of cincinnati on april 4 1947 . it was the first broadcast television license granted by the federal communications commission fcc to dayton . however due to several delays the station did not actually go on the air until march 15 1949 2 twenty days after cbs affiliate whio tv began broadcasting . originally called wlwd and broadcasting on channel 5 the station operated from an office and studio facility established in a former skating rink on dixie drive in moraine . wlwd was the third link of a group of inter connected stations which made up the wlw television network and was named for crosley s flagship cincinnati radio station wlw world s largest wireless dayton . the other stations were wlwt in cincinnati and wlwc now wcmh tv in columbus both also owned by crosley . the three outlets shared common local programming most of which was produced in cincinnati and sent by way of microwave link to dayton and columbus . 3 4 all three stations were also nbc affiliates and had secondary relationships with the dumont television network ; wlwd also carried abc programs . the first program shown on wlwd was nbc s texaco star theater with milton berle . to reflect their connection to each other the wlw television stations hyphenated their call signs on air ; the dayton outlet was known as wlw d. the crosley television group would later expand to include wlwa now wxia tv in atlanta wlwi now wthr in indianapolis and woai tv in san antonio . wdtn s studio in moraine ohio the release of the fcc s sixth report and order in 1952 resulted in shifts of vhf channel assignments in the midwest region . in ohio wlwd s channel 5 allocation was moved to cincinnati and given to sister station wlwt with the dayton station reassigned to transmit over channel 2 . wlwd s channel change took place on april 27 1953 . 5 6 7 8 whio tv dayton s only other station at the time also shifted channels from 13 to 7 as a result of the same ordinance . the channel shift also greatly increased wlwd s penetration into the nearby cincinnati and columbus markets ; the analog channel 2 signal travelled long distances under normal conditions . wlwd lost dumont in 1955 a few months before the network shut down . it lost abc in 1965 though it cleared some abc daytime programming until 1971 as a secondary affiliate when then independent wone tv channel 22 now wkef picked up abc s prime time programming . game show host and announcer johnny gilbert hosted his own local daytime variety talk show immediately after the local airing of wlw television s paul dixon show in the mid 1960s . 9 10 phil donahue former news anchor and radio talk show host at whio radio began hosting a talk show on wlwd in 1967 11 called the phil donahue show that was more issue oriented greatly reducing the station s program budget . donahue s show went national in 1970 . since most programs on the wlw television regional network originated from wlwt in cincinnati it was the first time wlwd was the originator of a program . aside from paul dixon s weekday morning show other cincinnati based programming that aired on wlwd included the 50 50 club hosted by ruth lyons succeeded by bob braun after lyons 1967 retirement and the saturday evening country music program midwestern hayride . due to wlwd s heavy local and regional programming schedule many network programs from nbc and abc were recorded on film as a kinescope for later airing . on rare occasions when a program was unavailable sometimes due to network technical difficulties or if fill time was available before or after a network sportscast a half hour series entitled star performance consisting mostly of drama pilots from the 1950s would air . fifteen minute mini documentaries or newsreels would also air as a time filler under the title miniature theater . in 1968 the crosley group took on the name of its parent company and became known as avco broadcasting a subsidiary of the aviation corporation later known as avco . after the fcc restricted the common ownership of stations with overlapping signals in the late 1960s it grandfathered avco s common ownership of wlwd wlwt wlwc and of wlw radio in cincinnati whose 50 kilowatt signal covered nearly all of ohio and overlapped with all three television stations . in 1975 avco decided to exit broadcasting . as a result wlwd lost its grandfathered protection and had to be sold off separately from wlwt and wlwc . wlwd ended up being the last of avco s television stations to be sold off going to grinnell college in iowa for 13 million in june 1975 . 12 13 14 15 the school changed the call letters to wdtn shortly after the sale closed in spring 1976 . 16 switch to abc edit by the mid to late 1970s abc was searching for stronger affiliates in order to cement its status as the leading network in the united states . its existing dayton affiliate wkef was a distant third in the ratings and only ran abc s primetime and sports programming plus whatever daytime programming was pre empted by two taft broadcasting owned abc affiliates in adjacent markets wkrc tv in cincinnati and wtvn tv now wsyx in columbus . wkef also did not have a functioning news department until 1979 . meanwhile wkrc tv and wtvn tv were not only pre empting abc s daytime programs but also its late night shows and some of its saturday morning cartoons . abc also wanted a station in dayton with both stronger ratings and signal and one which could reach portions of the cincinnati and columbus markets . in summer 1979 abc approached wdtn and reached an affiliation deal . 17 almost by default nbc was then left to go with wkef . on january 1 1980 wdtn and wkef swapped network affiliations . under the deal wdtn was exempted from running abc s soap operas after 2 p.m. since wkrc tv s signal easily covered dayton . in place of one life to live and general hospital wdtn ran cartoons and off network sitcoms . five months after joining abc in may 1980 grinnell college announced it would sell wdtn to the broadcasting division of the hearst corporation . 18 the sale was finalized over a year later in september 1981 for a price of over 47 million . 19 by the late 1980s cartoons and sitcoms made way for first run talk shows such as the oprah winfrey show at 4 p.m. the montel williams show and the jerry springer show . wdtn would begin its talk block at 2 p.m. during the week . in august 1997 hearst s television group merged with argyle television holdings ii to form what was then known as hearst argyle television . argyle had purchased wdtn s former sister station wlwt that january . for the same reason that forced the breakup of avco s television group 20 years earlier hearst argyle could not keep both stations common ownership of stations with overlapping city grade signals would not be allowed until 2000 . it opted to keep the larger wlwt and trade wdtn together with wnac tv in providence rhode island to sunrise television for wptz in plattsburgh new york wnne in hartford vermont and ksbw in salinas california . the sale was finalized on july 2 1998 . in 2000 time warner cable dayton s largest cable system dropped the cincinnati network affiliates to make room for new cable channels . the cincinnati stations had been available on cable in the dayton area ever since cable arrived there in the mid 1960s . as a result abc soap viewers could no longer see one life to live or general hospital while over the air viewers could still pick them up on wcpo tv which had become cincinnati s abc affiliate in 1996 . as a result in the fall of 2000 general hospital was added to wdtn s schedule . in may 2002 sunrise merged with lin tv . after the lin tv acquisition one life to live was added to the station s schedule as well . from this point on wdtn aired abc s entire schedule until the station returned to nbc in 2004 . return to nbc edit on august 30 2004 in a reversal of the 1980 switch wdtn became an nbc affiliate for the second time to take advantage of the network s then stronger programming . in another reversal abc was left with wkef by default . ironically several months after the affiliation shift abc s ratings overtook those of nbc and the network wouldn t rebound for nearly a decade ; in 2014 nbc regained the lead over abc . on may 18 2007 lin tv announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could have resulted in the sale of the company . in early june wdtn s website along with those of several other lin tv owned stations not affiliated with fox such as wndy tv wwho wand wwlp and wlfi tv underwent a redesign . the web addresses were then operated by the local media network division of world now for a little over a year until october 2008 when lin tv relaunched most of its station websites through fox interactive media later spun off as the independent company known today as endplay . prior to the world now contract the web addresses were powered by web pros . on october 3 2008 lin tv pulled wdtn and its other stations from time warner cable due to a dispute over retransmission fees . 20 21 22 time warner replaced wdtn with a free preview of hbo family . on october