WDTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for North-Central West Virginia licensed to Weston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter in an unincorporated area between Clarksburg and Arlington. The station can also be seen on Comcast, Suddenlink, and Time Warner Cable channel 5. There is a high definition feed offered on Suddenlink digital channel 782 and Comcast digital channel 905. Locally-owned by the Withers Broadcasting Company, WDTV is sister to Fox/CW affiliate WVFX and the two share studios on Television Drive in Bridgeport along I-79/Jennings Randolph Expressway. However, the latter also maintains facilities on West Pike Street/SR 20 in Downtown Clarksburg. Syndicated programming on this station includes The Insider, Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy, and Judge Joe Brown among others.

Digital programming [link]

On WDTV-DT2 and Comcast digital channel 192 is The Local AccuWeather Channel.

Translators [link]

The station has construction permits to air two digital fill-in translators on VHF. Both will have the same call sign as the main signal. WDTV also has a petition to add/modify a digital allotment on VHF channel 6 in Weston presumably for a third translator.

History [link]

It signed-on as WJPB-TV on March 17, 1954 as the second television station in the market licensed to Fairmont. WJPB was a primary NBC affiliate but maintained secondary relations with ABC and CBS. WTAP-TV in Parkersburg was technically the area's first outlet having launched October 8, 1953. That station cleared programming from NBC, CBS, and ABC but was intended to be a primary NBC outlet. Originally, there were plans calling for WJPB to join WTAP (located seventy miles to the west) and turn North-Central West Virginia into one giant market. However, the latter's analog signal on UHF channel 15 was not strong enough to reach across the very rugged dissected plateau to provide Fairmont, Clarksburg, and Weston with adequate reception. Likewise, WJPB's analog signal on UHF channel 35 did not reach Parkerburg.

Those two issues, combined with the fact UHF converters were very expensive, led the station to shut down on February 28, 1955. Meanwhile, the area's third station WBOY-TV signed-on from Clarksburg on November 17, 1957. That was originally intended to be the ABC affiliate for all of North-Central West Virginia. After it became clear Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont and Parkersburg were going to be separate markets, WBOY joined NBC and remains with the network to this day. On December 30, 1959, WJPB's owner was awarded a construction permit for an analog signal on the more desirable VHF channel 5. It signed back on in June 1960 as a sole ABC affiliate licensed to Weston. In 1965, the station changed its call letters to WDTV. The calls had previously been used from 1949 until 1954 on what is now CBS O&O KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. The call sign was reportedly chosen for use on this West Virginia outlet "in honor" of KDKA which had been a charter affiliate with DuMont and served as the default station to Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont.

In 1967, WDTV switched primary affiliation to CBS. However, for many years it continued sharing ABC with WBOY and aired select sports programming from the network since the market was one of the few in the country without a primary ABC affiliate. The area's cable companies piped in WTAE-TV from Pittsburgh to bring the full ABC schedule to the area. At some point in the 1980s, WDTV and WBOY dropped ABC altogether. The network would not return to a Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont based station until August 1, 2008 when WBOY launched a new second digital subchannel to offer the network. WDTV aired programming from UPN on its second digital subchannel until September 18, 2006 when the network merged with The WB to form The CW. WVFX, at the time owned separately from this station, became an affiliate with the new combined service (through The CW Plus) on a second digital subchannel.

In 2007, WFVX's owner Davis Television (relation unknown to Wisconsin company of the same name controlling WFXS-DT) merged with Withers Broadcasting. Since the Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont market has only five full-powered stations, this amount is too few to allow a duopoly under normal Federal Communication Commission (FCC) guidelines. However, Withers obtained a "failed station" waiver allowing the purchase to go through. WDTV shut down analog transmissions on June 12, 2009 ^[1] and moved its digital broadcasts back to its previous analog channel. ^[2] Fairmont is technically the market's largest city because Morgantown (though only twenty miles north) has the largest population of any city in the geographic area and is part of the Pittsburgh market. Despite this technicality, the station is still able to sell commercials to businesses in that area. Locations around Morgantown are within reach of over-the-air signals from Pittsburgh stations. In addition to WDTV, most cable providers offer KDKA on their basic tiers. In some cases, that station's high definition feed is offered on the digital tiers instead of WDTV.

Out of Market Carriage [link]

WDTV is carried as far south as Summersville in the Charleston-Huntington DMA. In the Pittsburgh DMA, it is carried in Morgantown, Markleysburg (PA) and Oakland (MD). In the Harrisonburg DMA, it is carried in Franklin, Pendleton County.

CATV [link]

During the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s, WDTV was once carried in Charleston.^[3]

Newscasts [link]

WBOY currently leads WDTV in local Nielsen ratings because it operates a news bureau in Morgantown and provides other stations in the West Virginia Media Holdings group with a large amount of sports content relative to West Virginia University. However, WDTV's news department holds its own. In Summer 2005, its newscast operation and commercial production went completely digital using electronic news gathering cameras. The station was also first in West Virginia (and quite possibly the East Coast) to exchange audio and video files through various compression formats and high speed FTP servers.

After acquiring WVFX, WDTV made plans to produce a prime time newscast at 10 on the former. It would be the second time a broadcast has been attempted on the station in its history. In late-2010, the plans became a reality. The show is known as Fox 10 News at 10 and it features the Fox Interactive Media graphics package and music theme. WVFX also simulcasts WDTV's early evening broadcasts on weeknights from 5 until 6:30. This station does not air its weekday morning show for a full two hours unlike most CBS affiliates.

On November 12th, 2011, WDTV began airing their news broadcasts in high definition. It makes WDTV the third station in West Virginia to broadcast local news in high definition, following WTAP and WSAZ.

News team [link]

Anchors

• Matt Heckel - weekday mornings and noon (also producer)
• Brittany Hoke - weekday mornings and noon (also reporter)
• Nate Smail - News Director seen weeknights at 5 and 6
• Karilynn Galiotos - weeknights at 5:30 and 10 (also producer)
• Ben Katko - weeknights at 11 (also producer and General Assignment Reporter)
• Katie Lusso - weekends (weekday reporter)

5 News First Alert Stormcenter Team

• Ken Meehan - Chief seen weeknights
• Brandon Stover - weekday mornings and noon
• Larry Hallock - Weekends (also Upshur, Randolph, and Barbour County Reporter)

Sports

• Joe Brocato - Director seen weeknights at 6, 10 and 11
• Brad Bowden - weekends and sports reporter
• Ben Eshenbaugh - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• Nicole Porter - Harrison, Lewis and Doddridge Counties
• Katie Lusso - Upshur, Randolph, and Barbour Counties
• Whitney Wetzel - Marion and Taylor Counties
• Andrew Forgotch - Monongalia and Preston Counties
• Zach Maskell - weeknights
• Lindsey Burnworth - weekends
• Ashton Marra - weekends

References [link]

External links [link]

• WDTV
• WVFX "Fox 10"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WDTV