Owner DC Broadcasting, Inc. | ||
Channels Digital: 14 (UHF)
Virtual: 36 and 49 (PSIP)) Subchannels 49.1 MBC-D
49.2 NTDTV
49.3 QVC Over Air
49.4 Retro TV
49.5 Rev'n
49.6 JTV First air date 1990; 27 years ago (1990) Former callsigns W63BP (1990–1995, 2001–2004)
DW63BP (silent, 1995–2001) Former channel number(s) Analog:
63 (UHF, 1990–2005)
49 (UHF, 2005–2010) | ||
WWTD-LD is a low-powered digital television station in Washington, D.C., broadcasting locally on channel 14. The station is owned by DC Broadcasting, Inc. which itself is wholly owned by Syncomm Media and Christopher Blair of Denver, Colorado.
Contents
History
The station was granted its initial construction permit in 1990. At the time, it was owned by one Robert E. Kelly of Annandale, Virginia, and was licensed to Annapolis, Maryland with the callsign W63BP. The station never made it to air; the permit, initially scheduled to expire in January 1991, was extended multiple times through 1995. At that point, the FCC denied a further request for extension, the permit expired, and the station was deleted from the FCC database. The construction permit was again applied for and granted in 2001, at which point the station actually began broadcasting. The station went silent again in 2004, and Kelly sold it the following year to DC Broadcasting, its current owners. During this time, the station was moved onto channel 49 and into Washington itself.
Channel 49 went back on the air in 2006. It was the flagship station of the WUFO TV Network, which was on the air for nine months during 2007–2008. The network was funded and programmed by Mike Gravino. The WUFO TV Network aired an eclectic mix of "alternative knowledge" programming, including information about UFO's, crop-circles, alternative history, new science, alternative religion, environmental and social activism, human potential and sci-fi, until August 10, 2008, when the network stopped over-the-air broadcasts.
WWTD-LP was then leased to Allbritton Communications Company, who turned it into an analog relay of local ABC affiliate WJLA in late October 2008. However, that lease and the ABC transmissions ended on February 9, 2009. After WJLA's lease on WWTD expired, WWTD went dark.
Before the digital transition, WWTD-LP was granted a construction permit for a corresponding digital signal on channel 38. The station was later displaced by WMAR to channel 14, as any low-powered station must move if a full-powered station wants its channel allocation. A digital signal on that channel was signed-on on July 19, 2011. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display as channels 49.1 to 49.6.
The station added two channels from Luken_Communications beginning February 1, 2015: Retro TV on channel 49.4 and Rev'n on 49.5.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed: