('''''Dayton's WB''''') is the
WB affiliate in the
Dayton, Ohio television market.
Licensed to
Springfield, Ohio , the station serves the
Miami Valley . It broadcasts on analog channel 26, and was the original home to the syndicated morning show
The Daily Buzz . That show now broadcasts out of
Florida , but is still seen on Dayton's WB. WBDT will become the new home of
The CW since the local UPN affiliate is cable only.
The station began operation in the summer of 1968 as WSWO-TV, owned by Southwestern Ohio Broadcasting as an independent station but suddenly went dark in 1970. It briefly returned to the air in the summer of 1972 under a different ownership, but fell silent again by year's end and remained off the air until September
1980 , when it retuned to the air as a Christian station under the callsign WTJC, for "itnessing '''T'''il '''J'''esus '''C'''omes". It was owned by Miami Valley Christian Television (MVCT). During the week, the station ran religious programming all day, and a local newscast. On Saturdays it ran westerns, sporting and hunting shows, and Lawrence Welk, and religious programming thereafter. It only ran religious shows on Sundays. The station's religious lineup included
The 700 Club ,
PTL , and
Jerry Falwell , its secular lineup featured shows like
The Bullwinkle Show ,
Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon and
Lassie .
MVCT decided to sell its programming inventory to
WRGT Channel 45 when that station signed on in
1984 , and switched WTJC to an all-religious format, with the exception of a few children's shows, as well as sporting and hunting shows on Saturday mornings. However, several ministries which bought time on the station soon became involved in scandals, and the station began to lose money as viewer donations declined. The station's primary owner, Marvin Sparks, bought out his partners' shares in
1991 , and in turn sold them to Video Mall Communications. The station then began to air home shopping and paid programming 18 hours a day, relegating religious programming to the rest of the broadcast day.
In the mid-1990s, Act III Communications (later known as Abry) approached MVCT with a proposal to manage WTJC for 18 hours a day. MVCT declined, and chose to sell the station to Paxson Communications in
1995 instead. Paxson kept a similar lineup for the station, airing religious programming in early mornings, informercials for most of the day, and worship music overnight. The station became a charter affiliate of the Pax TV network (now
I Network ) on
August 31 ,
1998 , running Pax programming from noon to midnight. It also changed its call letters to WDPX.
Paxson sold the station to Acme TV in
1999 . At that point, the station dropped half of Pax's programming from its lineup, replacing them with more traditional general entertainment fare such as cartoons and classic sitcoms. The station also became an affiliate of the
WB network, changing its call letters to WBDT.
In a major announcement, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced on
January 24 ,
2006 , that they will close their respective
UPN and WB networks and jointly launch the
CW Network in September 2006. The network will be a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies.
On
March 9 ,
2006 , it was announced that WBDT will become the CW affiliate in the Dayton market. It may change its call letters before September to reflect its new affiliation. WDCW would be ideal call letters for the station, but they have been assigned to the
Fellow WB/CW Affiliate in
Washington, DC , formerly WBDC-TV.
