WTTG

The station traces its history to May 19, 1945, when television set and equipment manufacturer Allen B. DuMont founded W3XWT, the second experimental station in the nation's capital (after NBC's W3XNB, forerunner to WRC-TV). Later in 1945, DuMont Laboratories began a series of experimental coaxial cable hookups between W3XWT and its other television station, WABD (now WNYW) in New York City. These hookups were the beginning of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first commercial television network. DuMont began regular network service in 1946. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a 90-day commercial license – the first in the nation's capital – to WTTG that November 29, and the first program that aired on the station was a Washington Lions hockey game from Uline Arena on December 10, sponsored by the U.S. Rubber Company.[5] It continued using the experimental 5 kW transmitter of W3XWT until late in 1947, when work had progressed enough on its final transmission site to move there at low power; DuMont did not complete construction and begin full-time, full-power operation until June 1949.[6]

The station was named for Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr.,[2] the DuMont Network's chief engineer and a close friend of Dr. DuMont.[1]

Like WABD and DuMont's other owned-and-operated station, WDTV in Pittsburgh, WTTG was far more successful than the network as a whole. In 1956, after DuMont shut down network operations, WTTG and WABD became independent stations and were spun off from DuMont Laboratories as the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation (WDTV was sold to Westinghouse Electric Corporation the previous year; it is now CBS owned-and-operated station KDKA-TV). DuMont later changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting in order to distance itself from its former parent company.[1]

In 1958 Washington investor John Kluge bought controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting from Paramount Pictures and installed himself as its chairman. He changed the company's name to Metromedia in 1961. Goldsmith sat on Metromedia's board of directors for over a quarter-century.[2] Channel 5 gained a sister station on radio when Metromedia purchased WASH (97.1 FM)[7] in 1968. At first, WTTG ran on a low budget. However, in the late 1960s, it benefited from Metromedia's aggressiveness in acquiring top syndicated programming, giving it a significant leg up on WDCA, which signed on in 1966.

By the 1970s WTTG was one of the leading independent stations in the country, running a broad lineup of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, first-run syndicated shows, older movies, local newscasts and locally produced programs. During this time period, and well into the early 1990s, WTTG was the flagship station for the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team[1] as well as Big East Conference men's basketball.[8] Its main claim to fame was Panorama, an afternoon talk show hosted by Maury Povich[9] and John Willis.[10]

When cable television began in the 1970s, WTTG became a regional superstation. At one point it appeared on every cable provider in Maryland and Virginia, as well as most of Delaware and in parts of West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania.[1]

WTTG's station logo from 1997 to 2006.

Metromedia owned the station until 1986 when Rupert Murdoch, after buying 20th Century Fox, purchased the Metromedia television stations to form the nucleus of the Fox network. WTTG became one of Fox's six original owned-and-operated stations when the network launched on October 9, 1986, all the while retaining consistently high ratings, a rarity for a Fox station in its early years of operation at the time, and continuing to easily out-rate WDCA and new competitor WCQR (channel 50, now WDCW). Initially, its programming was similar to what it had run as a true independent station, since Fox only programmed for a few hours on weekends in its early years (the network would not have a full seven-day schedule worth of programs until 1993).

As channel 5 transitioned to an O&O and more independent stations signed on, it lost much of its cable audience. Though not distributed as widely as it once was, it is still available on several cable providers in Maryland and Virginia outside the D.C. metro area. For instance, it is still carried on cable in Charlottesville, Virginia, even though the city has had its own Fox affiliate, WAHU-CD, since 2005; both stations are carried on basic cable in the Charlottesville area. It also served as the default Fox affiliate for Salisbury, Maryland until the debut of new default Fox affiliate, "Fox21 Delmarva", a subchannel of WBOC-TV, on August 21, 2006.

During the 1990s the station added more syndicated talk shows and reality shows. It continued to air afternoon cartoons from Fox Kids until the fall of 2001, when the block moved to WDCA (only to be reduced to just Saturdays nationwide in 2002); WTTG reacquired Fox children's programming from WDCA later on in 2003, under the banners of FoxBox and 4Kids TV, and aired that block until it ended in December 2008. On October 29, 2001, Fox bought WDCA from Viacom's Paramount Stations Group, creating a duopoly with WTTG. The station continued to run top rated off-network sitcoms in the evenings.

From 1999 to 2006 WTTG utilized the "X-2 Package" for its theme music,[11] but switched to the "O&O Package" in 2006, which they still use today.[12]

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC (affiliated network of WJLA-TV, channel 7), announced its intent to buy WTTG's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WTTG and sister station WDCA as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation.[13][14]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

WTTG shut down its analog signal over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 36.[16] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5.

On April 4, 2017, the FCC announced that sister station WDCA was a winner in the 2016–17 spectrum reallocation auction, and in return, received $118,834,183 for the frequency.[17] WDCA was scheduled to stop broadcasting its own signal over channel 35 no later than January 23, 2018, and continue over-the-air coverage by sharing WTTG's channel 36. The channel-sharing arrangement required WDCA and WTTG to drop one or more of their combined five subchannels; WDCA obtained a three-month extension from the original off-air deadline in order to avoid doing so for as long as possible.[18] The deadline was later extended by 90 additional days, to July 22, 2018, which was the longest delay allowed by FCC rules; WDCA moved channels on July 18.[19]

WTTG has been the primary station for the Washington Football Team since 1994, when Fox obtained the rights to air NFL games in which a team from the National Football Conference (which the team formerly known as the Redskins are part of) played a road game. WTTG airs all of the team's Sunday afternoon games, unless the game is instead covered by the NFL's contract with CBS (in which case WUSA airs the game). This relationship is limited to network coverage of regular season and postseason games, since WRC-TV and NBC Sports Washington are the official broadcast partners for the team's ancillary programming; beginning in 2018, with Fox's purchase of the package, all Thursday Night Football games are aired on WTTG. Prior to 1994, when the Fox network established its sports division, WTTG aired the Redskins' preseason games and training camp scrimmages during the majority of the 1980s into the early 1990s. Since the league suspended its blackout policy in 2015, WTTG has never blacked out the team's home games, despite the team's issues since the mid-2010s with maintaining sellouts at FedExField.

The station also airs Washington Nationals games when they are featured on Fox's Major League Baseball telecasts, including the team's victory over the Houston Astros in the 2019 World Series, which marked the Fall Classic's return to the nation's capital after 86 years. Additionally, Channel 5 carries any Maryland Terrapins football and men's basketball games selected for broadcast by Fox through its agreement with the Big Ten Conference, plus Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball via the Big East Conference.

• Angie Goff

• Brian Bolter - anchor (1999–2013)
• Steve Buckhantz - sports anchor (1987–2001); was most recently a Washington Wizards play-by-play commentator with NBC Sports Washington until the end of the 2018-19 NBA season
• Connie Chung - reporter (1970–71); was most recently with MSNBC until 2006
• Jack Conaty - reporter (1986–87); was most recently at Chicago sister station WFLD until 2009
• Dave Feldman - sports anchor (2000–12); now with NBC Sports Bay Area
• Michael Gargiulo - morning anchor (2000–06); now at WNBC/New York City
• Brett Haber - sports anchor/reporter (1997–2000); later with WUSA, now with the Tennis Channel
• Hillary Howard (Statter) - meteorologist (1990s–2000); now at WTOP-FM
• Gus Johnson - weekend sports anchor/reporter (1991–92); now a play-by-play commentator with Fox Sports
• Morris Jones - anchor/reporter (1983–2001); was most recently at NewsChannel 8 (now WJLA 24/7 News) until his departure from that station on May 31, 2016
• Pat Mitchell - anchor/Panorama host (1977–79)
• Maury Povich - anchor/reporter/Panorama host (1967–76 and 1983–86); now hosting the syndicated talk show Maury
• Amy Robach - anchor/reporter (1998–2003); now with ABC News
• Al Roker - weather anchor (1976–78); now with NBC News' Today
• Bob Schieffer - reporter (1969–77); now contributor for CBS News and former host of Face the Nation from 1991 to 2015
• Bob Sellers - anchor (2006–08); was most recently at fellow Fox affiliate WZTV in Nashville until 2016
• Sara Underwood - reporter; now at WFXT (WTTG's now-former sister station) in Boston
• Tim White - morning anchor (1990–93); was previously at WKYC in Cleveland until 2008, now president of Lives and Legacies Films, Inc.
• Brian Williams - anchor/reporter/Panorama host (1985–86); anchor/managing editor for NBC Nightly News from 2004 to 2015, now at MSNBC
• Brian Wilson - anchor/reporter (1996–2000); formerly with Fox News Channel, later with WMAL