WPTD

WPTD first signed on the air on April 24, 1972 as WOET-TV (standing for "Ohio Educational Television"); it was operated by the Ohio Educational Broadcasting Network Commission (OEB). Prior to the station's launch, the channel 16 frequency in Dayton was occupied by a commercial independent and sometime ABC-affiliated station, WKTR-TV.[3] That station was owned by Kitty Hawk Television Corporation and licensed to Kettering when it began broadcasting in April 1967. It went dark February 27, 1971, but returned to the air with a limited schedule from April until October while the license transfer to OEB was pending Federal Communications Commission approval. The FCC formally reallocated the frequency as non-commercial September 14, 1977.

WPTO began broadcasting on October 14, 1959 as WMUB-TV, operated by Miami University. The call letters matched those of then co-owned WMUB radio, and stood for "Miami University Broadcasting". It was the secondary educational station in the Cincinnati area, alongside future sister WCET.

The two stations joined forces in 1975 under the banner of University Regional Broadcasting, a consortium of Miami, Wright State and Central State universities. WMUB-TV served as the primary station for a year, until WOET-TV became the primary station in 1976. In 1977, the stations were transferred to a new community organization, Greater Dayton Public Television, and received their current callsigns, with WOET-TV becoming WPTD and WMUB-TV becoming WPTO.

From the creation of University Regional Broadcasting onward, the secondary station operated as a semi-satellite of the primary station, only rarely airing different, usually local public affairs-type, programs. This situation existed until cable television began to become widely available in Cincinnati and Dayton. As cable availability rose, Greater Dayton Public Television began to differentiate its stations' programming gradually, with the stations eventually becoming separately programmed.

The stations rebranded themselves as the ThinkTV Network in 1998, though the legal name remained Greater Dayton Public Television.

On October 31, 2008, Greater Dayton Public Television and the Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation (CET), owner of WCET, announced plans to merge their resources into one non-profit organization serving all of Southwest Ohio, while maintaining separate identities.[4] The merger completed on May 8, 2009 with the formation of Public Media Connect, Inc. Both ThinkTV and CET operate as subsidiaries under the new organization.[5] The merger resulted in the July 2010 transfer of WCET's master control operations to ThinkTV's facilities in Dayton.[2]

The ThinkTV channels and WCET were off the air (and not available through any other providers) from just after 4 p.m. on July 5 until 11:40 a.m. on July 9, 2019 due to the failure of a multiplexer in the master control power supply at ThinkTV in downtown Dayton.[6][7]

On November 15, 2019, per an agreement with Greater Dayton Public Television, WHIO-TV (channel 7), which had suffered a transmitter failure on November 5, requested special temporary authority from the FCC to transmit its main (CBS) subchannel over WPTD's subchannel 16.2, displacing the "16 Again" service.[8][9][10] On November 18, subchannel 16.2 began broadcasting WHIO-TV programming.[11] On November 21, WHIO-TV repaired its transmitter and normal content was restored to subchannel 16.2.[12]

Per FCC filings, WPTD's translator station W17AA in Celina had authorization in 2009 to flash-cut to digital operations on UHF channel 17, at a tower site near its existing analog tower. However, before this conversion could be completed, W17AA suspended operations on January 5, 2011 due to circumstances beyond Greater Dayton Public Television's control, namely a loss of site. The tower owner, the State of Ohio, has plans to dismantle the tower utilized by W17AA, and in anticipation has disconnected power to the tower site location. As a result, GDPTV was forced to suspend operations on W17AA. On January 14, 2011, GDPTV requested a six-month authorization to maintain silent (off-air) status. GDPTV then began the process of considering its options for modification of the W17AA license to allow for its resumption of service. On July 26, 2011, the FCC accepted GDPTV's surrender for cancellation of W17AA's license.

WPTD's other translator station, W63AH channel 63 in Maplewood, also had authorization in 2009 to switch to digital operations, on channel 32. However, W63AH suspended operations on March 30, 2010, also due to a loss of site, following a change in ownership for the translator station's licensed tower location. On April 5, 2010, GDPTV requested a six-month authorization to maintain silent status. On September 9, 2010, GDPTV was granted authorization to relocate its approved digital broadcast facility to a tower near Celina, with the community of license remaining Maplewood. On January 18, 2011, the station was granted "license to cover", allowing it to resume broadcasting. The station now operates digitally on channel 32, as W32DS-D (it officially took the W32DS callsign in May 2009).

W32DS-D covers both Celina and the Maplewood, Ohio, area and operates with a directional antenna towards the southeast.[23]

• Channel 14 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Channel 16 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Channel 29 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 35 digital TV stations in the United States
• List of television stations in Ohio
• List of television stations in Ohio (by channel number)
• List of television stations in the United States by call sign (initial letter W)

• Official website
• WPTD in the FCC's TV station database
• WPTO in the FCC's TV station database
• W17AA in the FCC's TV station database
• W32DS-D in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPTD-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPTO-TV