, channel 29, is a
MyNetworkTV -affiliated station licensed to
Minneapolis, Minnesota , and serving the Minneapolis-
St. Paul metropolitan area. WFTC is owned by
Fox Television Stations , a division of the
News Corporation , which also owns MyNetworkTV and co-located
Fox Network station
KMSP-TV (channel 9).
The two stations share studio facilities in .
Prior to joining MyNetworkTV, WFTC was affiliated with the
United Paramount Network (UPN) , from
September 8 ,
2002 to
August 31 ,
2006 .
The station signed on air on
September 13 ,
1982 as (for "'''F'''amily '''B'''ible '''T'''elevision"). It was a
Christian station offering a family-oriented lineup consisting of classic reruns and religious programming. In
1984 The station was sold to the
Beverly Hills Hotel Corporation , who changed its call letters to '''KITN-TV''' (known colloquially as ''Kitten'' as in, "The KITN That Roars!"), and changed the programming to that of a mainstream independent station. BHHC sold it a year later to
Nationwide Communications , the broadcasting subsidiary of
Columbus, Ohio -based
Nationwide Insurance .
Along with becoming a traditional independent, KITN-TV also acquired broadcast rights to the
NHL 's
Minnesota North Stars , and also aired
University Of Minnesota college football games. It then picked up the
Fox affiliation from
KMSP-TV in 1988 and became known as ''Fox 29''. The station again changed its
Call Sign to in 1994 (for "'''F'''ox '''T'''win '''C'''ities"), with the additional change using the ''W'' first-letter identifier over the ''K'', allowed for by its
Transmitter location on the eastern side of the
Mississippi River .
As part of its liquidation of its broadcasting interests, Nationwide Communications sold WFTC to shows moved from KMSP to WFTC.
On
January 24 ,
2006 , the UPN and
WB networks announced that they would merge into a new network called
The CW . The following day (
January 25 ), WFTC changed its branding from ''UPN 29'' to ''WFTC 29'', and revamped its logo to just feature the boxed "29". The station also announced that they would no longer promote any UPN programing. Similar changes were also made to Fox's other UPN affiliates, as the CW network list did not include WFTC or its sister stations. The formation of
MyNetworkTV , of which WFTC and the other Fox-owned UPN stations have become affiliates, was announced on
February 22 , 2006, less than a month later. But it wasn't until
May 2 ,
2006 that the CW announced outgoing WB affiliate KMWB-TV (now
WUCW ) as its Twin Cities station.
On
June 2 ,
2006 , with the impending switch to MyNetworkTV, WFTC's on-air branding was changed to ''My 29'', using the new slogan on its newscasts and other non-UPN programming elements. On
June 30 ,
2006 , WFTC aired its final 10 p.m. newscast, and moved that program to sister station KMSP-TV.
Despite the announced launch date of MyNetworkTV (September 5), UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until
September 15 , 2006. While some UPN affiliates who switched to MyNetworkTV aired the final two weeks of UPN programming outside its regular primetime period, the Fox-owned stations, including WFTC, dropped UPN entirely on
August 31 , 2006.
On
September 9 ,
2006 WFTC began carrying the
4Kids TV lineup for the first time since 2002, when the station was a Fox affiliate airing what was then
Fox Kids .
In addition WFTC may carry Fox network programming should it be preempted by KMSP in the event of a local special or an emergency such as a
Breaking News story.
- WFTC is one of a few stations to have been affiliated with both News Corporation-owned networks, Fox and My Network TV.
Under Clear Channel ownership, WFTC launched a 60-minute newscast at 9:00 pm in ,
KSTP-TV , and
WCCO-TV . Channel 29's effort lasted five years, ending on
June 30 , 2006, and has been replaced with syndicated programming. The 10:00 news program was then moved to KMSP as part of an expanded late news programming block.
In addition to channel 26 in Bemidji, WFTC is rebroadcasted on a network of
Translators to other regions of the state:
