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WTVD

From Alfawiki
WTVD
Company typeTelevision station
IndustryBroadcasting
FoundedSeptember 2, 1954; 72 years ago (1954-09-02) in Durham, North Carolina, United States
Headquarters
Durham, North Carolina
,
United States
Area served
Research Triangle (Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville), North Carolina
OwnerABC Owned Television Stations (The Walt Disney Company)
Websiteabc11.com

WTVD (channel 11) is a television station licensed in Durham, North Carolina, serving the Research Triangle region. It is owned and operated by the ABC through its ABC Owned Television Stations division. The station's main studios are situated on Liberty Street in downtown Durham, with additional news bureaus located in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Fayetteville. Its transmitter is positioned in Auburn, North Carolina. The station markets itself as ABC 11, with the call letters playing a secondary role.

Early years

In 1952, two entities sought a construction permit to establish a television station on VHF channel 11 in Durham: Herald-Sun Newspapers (publishers of the Durham Morning Herald and Durham Sun and owners of radio station WDNC) and Floyd Fletcher along with Harmon Duncan, proprietors of WTIK radio. By December 1953, these parties merged their efforts under Durham Broadcasting Enterprises.[1] Originally assigned the call sign WTIK-TV, they sold WTIK radio as a condition for permit approval and opted for the call letters WTVD instead. The FCC initially delayed this call sign due to its prior appearance in a 1953 film, granting approval only after two years.[2]

WTVD commenced operations on September 2, 1954, initially affiliating primarily with NBC, while also carrying secondary affiliations with ABC and CBS. It holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving television station in the Triangle area. The station’s first studios were housed in a former tuberculosis sanatorium on Broad Street in Durham, with its transmitter located atop Signal Hill in northern Durham County.[3]

When WRAL-TV (channel 5), owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company, launched in December 1956, it acquired the NBC affiliation, leaving WTVD to focus on ABC. Following WNAO-TV’s shutdown at the end of 1957 due to financial difficulties, CBS shifted its primary affiliation to WTVD.[4][5]

On May 22, 1957, WTVD’s original proprietors sold the station to Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company from Albany (owners of WCDA-TV), which led to the creation of Capital Cities Television Corporation, a precursor to Capital Cities Communications.[6] Around 1958, WTVD constructed a transmission tower in Auburn to broaden its signal reach across Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville; at that time, it was the tallest man-made structure in the United States. That year also marked the start of network color broadcasts for WTVD, although local color programming did not begin until 1966.

After WRAL-TV assumed full ABC affiliation in 1962, WTVD carried both CBS and NBC content—a unique arrangement for a market served by only two stations. The sole other VHF license belonged to educational broadcaster WUNC-TV on channel 4; UHF stations were not yet practical due to limited receiver capabilities and coverage constraints. During this period, WTVD aired highly rated programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

When channel 28 launched as WRDU-TV (now WRDC) six years later, WTVD continued selecting top-tier CBS and NBC shows for an additional three years while WRDU was left with less popular programming. In 1971, an FCC mandate required WTVD to affiliate exclusively with one network to encourage UHF growth; WTVD chose CBS full-time while WRDU became an exclusive NBC affiliate (now linked with MyNetworkTV).[7]

In 1978, WTVD extended its coverage toward Fayetteville and moved its studios to Liberty Street in downtown Durham on property shared with Durham County Library. The station also erected its present transmission tower in Auburn that year. A fire on March 4, 1979 severely damaged the new studio facility,[8] but essential operations resumed within a month using temporary spaces such as meeting rooms adapted for newscasts.

Transition to ABC

On March 18, 1985, Capital Cities, the owner of WTVD, declared its acquisition of ABC. Subsequently, on August 4, 1985, WTVD switched affiliations with WRAL-TV to join ABC. This change positioned WTVD among the rare stations that have been primarily affiliated with each of the "Big Three" networks. The deal was officially completed on January 3, 1986, transforming WTVD into an ABC owned-and-operated station, marking it as the first network-owned television station in North Carolina. Later, in 1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC.

On December 6, 1991, a tragic helicopter accident occurred involving a pilot and three WTVD staff members after an engine bearing failure caused the crash. Three of the four passengers lost their lives; sports reporter Tony Debo survived but sustained injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the accident to the pilot’s choice to continue flying despite awareness of engine problems.

A carriage dispute between Disney and Time Warner Cable on April 30, 2000, led to WTVD being removed from cable systems in the Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville area for over a day during May sweeps. This blackout also impacted other ABC affiliates in Time Warner markets until the FCC mandated restoration on May 2. Another carriage conflict emerged in July 2010 between Disney and Time Warner Cable, threatening to pull WTVD and other Disney channels from cable providers nationwide; a resolution was reached by September 2, 2010. More recently, on August 31, 2023, Disney withdrew all its channels—including WTVD and ESPN networks—from Spectrum amid a carriage disagreement, marking its first such dispute with Spectrum since 2010. The channels resumed broadcasting on September 11, 2023, following an agreement between Disney and Charter Communications (Spectrum's parent company).

Sports coverage

WTVD broadcasts selected college football matchups featuring the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils, and NC State Wolfpack teams through ESPN College Football on ABC. While affiliated with CBS, WTVD aired the Wolfpack men's basketball team’s surprising victory over the Houston Cougars during the 1983 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game. The station also carried select Carolina Hurricanes NHL games via NHL on ABC between 2000 and 2004 and resumed airing these games starting in 2021.

News production

WTVD currently delivers a total of 48 hours of local newscasts weekly—7½ hours on weekdays, 4½ hours on Saturdays, and 6 hours on Sundays—making it the station with the most news programming in the Research Triangle market. Although it consistently ranks second in local news viewership behind WRAL, unlike many ABC-owned stations that dominate their markets, WTVD remains one of ABC’s strongest affiliates nationally.

Weather updates are supplied by AccuWeather, complemented by the station’s proprietary "First Alert Doppler XP" radar located at its Auburn transmitter site. The news fleet includes various vehicles such as "Breaking News One," a yellow Toyota FJ Cruiser, along with a news helicopter dubbed "Chopper 11 HD," and more recently added "Drone 11" to enhance newsgathering capabilities.

Veteran anchor Larry Stogner was part of WTVD’s team from 1976 until his retirement in 2015 due to ALS; he passed away in 2016. Miriam Thomas co-anchored during the late ’80s and ’90s before departing in 2001. Distinguished former employees include musicians John Tesh and John D. Loudermilk, former Good Morning America host David Hartman, ESPN personality Stuart Scott, and Nightline anchor Byron Pitts.

Between 1973 and 1984, WTVD adopted the Eyewitness News branding with a format modeled after sister station WPVI-TV's Action News. Similar branding and theme music ("Move Closer to Your World") were shared by stations like WKBW-TV and KFSN-TV. From 1984 to 1993, it was known as "WTVD 11 News," then rebranded as "NewsChannel 11" until returning to Eyewitness News in 2000. The station was among the last to retire the Cool Hand Luke "Tar Sequence" theme music in 1993.

On June 26, 2006, WTVD introduced a primetime newscast for WB affiliate WLFL (channel 22) titled Eyewitness News at 10 on WB 22, directly competing with WRAL’s late news on WRAZ. After WLFL transitioned to The CW in September 2006, the newscast was renamed accordingly. On April 21, 2008, WTVD became the second station in the Triangle region to broadcast local news in high definition—including its WLFL newscast. On May 26, 2011, an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m. was launched to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show.

WTVD ended production of newscasts for WLFL on June 27, 2022; their former late-night slot from 10 to 11:30 p.m. was replaced by an extended airing of The National Desk, leaving WRAZ as the sole provider of local news at that hour.

On September 11, 2023, WTVD debuted a new one-hour morning newscast at 10 a.m., aligning with sister stations WABC-TV and WPVI-TV in expanding daytime news offerings. Anchored by John Clark and Barbara Gibbs alongside meteorologist Kwielyn Murphy, this program highlights regional newsmakers and topics featured on Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Mark.

Distinguished former on-air personnel

Subchannels

WTVD's broadcast signal is multiplexed as follows:

WTVD Subchannel lineup
Channel Resolution Aspect Ratio Identifier Content
11.1 720p 16:9 WTVD-D1 ABC
11.2 LOCLish Localish
11.3 480i CHARGE! Charge!
11.4 HSN HSN
28.3 480i 16:9 COMET Comet (WRDC)

Transition from analog to digital

In compliance with the federal mandate for digital conversion, WTVD discontinued its analog transmission on VHF channel 11 at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009. The station relocated its digital broadcast from UHF channel 52, which was removed from service, to VHF channel 11. On September 23, 2009, WTVD submitted a request to raise its effective radiated power from 20.7 kW to 45 kW. Following the FCC's spectrum repacking initiative, WTVD transitioned its broadcast frequency to channel 9 on June 30, 2020, while retaining virtual channel number 11.

Cable and satellite availability outside primary market

WTVD has been accessible on cable providers outside the Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville area, including locations such as Greensboro, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Wilmington (North Carolina), and Roanoke (Virginia). On DirecTV, the station serves Alamance County within the Greensboro designated market area.

During the 1970s and 1980s, WTVD's reach via CATV extended eastward to Wilmington and westward to Mount Airy. It was also carried on cable in Brunswick County, Greenville, Williamston, Emporia (Virginia), and Bennettsville (South Carolina).

External links

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