WTOV-TV

WTOV-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Steubenville, Ohio, covering the Upper Ohio Valley, including Wheeling, West Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter in Mingo Junction, Ohio. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Red Donley Plaza in Steubenville.

Digital channels

History

The station went on air as WSTV-TV (for STeubenVille) on December 24, 1953. It was owned by Rust Craft Broadcasting along with WSTV radio (AM 1340, which went off the air in 2011, and FM 103.5 (now WOGH). When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened bidding for the channel 9 license, Rust Craft and CBS emerged as the favorites. CBS planned to move the station's license to Pittsburgh in order to get its own station in what was then the sixth-largest market. However, the FCC turned CBS' bid down. The major cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band, and the FCC had opted not to issue any more VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give Wheeling/Steubenville and the other smaller markets in the area a chance to get on the air. The Wheeling/Steubenville TV market, despite its very close proximity to Pittsburgh and overlapping signals, remains a separate market today.