WRGT-TV

WRGT-TV

Dayton, Ohio United States
Branding	Fox 45 (general) Dayton's News Source My TV Dayton (on DT2)
Slogan	It's Where You Live!
Channels	Digital: 30 (UHF)
Subchannels	45.1 Fox 45.2 MyNetworkTV & This TV
Owner	Cunningham Broadcasting (operated through LMA by Sinclair Broadcast Group) (WRGT Licensee, LLC)
First air date	September 23, 1984
Call letters' meaning	The WRiGhT brothers (who were from Dayton)
Sister station(s)	WKEF Cincinnati: WSTR-TV Columbus: WSYX, WTTE
Former channel number(s)	45 (UHF analog, 1984-2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1984-1986)
Transmitter power	425 kW
Height	351 m
Facility ID	411
Transmitter coordinates	39°43′28.2″N 84°15′17″W
Website	fox.daytonsnewssource.com

WRGT-TV, virtual channel 45, is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Miami Valley area of Ohio, which is licensed to Dayton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 from a transmitter at its Broadcast Plaza studios near the New Chicago section of the city. It can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 8 and in high definition on digital channel 1008. Owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, WRGT-TV is operated though a local marketing agreement (LMA) by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, that company effectively owns the station due to Cunningham's ownership structure. It shares studios with and is sister to ABC affiliate WKEF. Syndicated programming on WRGT-TV includes: The Office, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, and Divorce Court.

Digital programming

It operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel and Time Warner digital channel 995. Known on-air as My TV Dayton, this channel also airs programming from This TV.

Channel	Programming
45.1	Main WRGT-TV programming / Fox
45.2	WRGT-DT2 "My TV Dayton" & "This TV Dayton"

History

WRGT-TV's logo from 1986. The fonts are very similar to the ones used by stations owned by the Meredith Corporation. However, that company never owned this station.

WRGT-TV signed on as an independent station on September 23, 1984, owned by Act III Broadcasting. It ran a general-entertainment format consisting of cartoons, classic sitcoms, recent off network sitcoms, old movies, drama shows, and sports. On its sign on date, WRGT-TV broadcast 2001: A Space Odyssey with a stereo simulcast of the audio over WTUE-FM 104.7. WRGT-TV was Act III's second station following WVAH-TV in Charleston, West Virginia two years earlier. Act III founded WRGT-TV following a high stake "in-contest" competition among four potential owners in the late-1970s. Dayton Telecasting Inc. became the founder of the station with its first slogan "Off To a Flying Start" featuring an animated Wright "B" Flyer used in its first promos (the "WRGT" calls are a reference to the Wright brothers).

Prior to its sign on, the only source of non-network programming in Dayton (aside from WXIX-TV, WIII-TV now WSTR-TV in Cincinnati, and WTTE in Columbus), which all reach portions of the Dayton market, was WTJC (now WBDT) a mostly religious station. However, Act III persuaded WTJC's owner, Miami Valley Christian Television, to sell most of that station's non-religious programming to WRGT-TV. For all intents and purposes, it was now the only general-entertainment station in Dayton and the first independent since the demise of WKTR-TV in 1970 (now public station WPTD) and WSWO-TV in Springfield in 1972 (now WBDT after being WTJC from 1980 to 1988 following eight years of being silent).

Despite the competition from larger-market stations and with WXIX and WSTR being available on cable, WRGT-TV prospered. It would not have any real competition in Dayton until 1999 when WBDT became a WB affiliate (it was briefly a PAX affiliate before then). After Fox launched on October 6, 1986, Act III signed an affiliation deal with the network. All of its stations, including WRGT-TV, became charter affiliates of the fledgling network. Act III merged with Abry in 1994. A few months later, Abry merged with Sinclair but sold WRGT-TV to Sullivan Broadcasting. However, Sullivan outsourced WRGT-TV's operations to Sinclair.

By 1999, more reality and talk shows would be in the station's mix. In 1998, Sullivan's managing partner Sinclair bought WKEF (then an NBC affiliate). In 2001, Sinclair purchased most of Sullivan's other stations but could not buy WRGT-TV for two reasons. The Dayton market has only seven full-power stations which are not enough to legally permit a duopoly. Also, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. With this in mind, WRGT-TV was sold to Glencairn, Ltd. However, nearly all of Glencairn's stock was controlled by trusts in the name of the Smith family who were founding owners of Sinclair. This effectively gave Sinclair a duopoly in Dayton. Glencairn later changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting. There is undeniable evidence that Glencairn/Cunningham are merely shell corporations used to circumvent FCC ownership rules.

Sinclair and Fox finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates including WRGT-TV in mid-2006. Its affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. WRGT-TV is also considered an alternate ABC affiliate airing that network's programs when WKEF is unable to do so such as during a breaking news emergency or local special. WRGT-TV, along with CBS affiliate WHIO-TV, are the only two stations in the area who have not changed their network affiliations even through the swaps of 2004.

In August 2006, it was confirmed that Fox's new sister network, MyNetworkTV, would air on a new second digital subchannel of WRGT-TV. On September 16, 2006, Time Warner Cable added WRGT-DT2 to its digital cable lineup. In November 2008, WRGT-DT2 was a launch-day affiliate of This TV (a joint operation between MGM and Weigel Broadcasting).

WRGT-TV ended its analog broadcast on UHF channel 45, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. It remained on its digital channel, 30, using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 45.

Around November 11, 2010, Sinclair announced that when carriage agreements expired at the end of the year, it planned to pull all of its owned and/or operated TV stations in the United States, including WRGT-TV and WKEF, from Time Warner Cable, in a dispute over "retransmission fees". Negotiations began between the two parties. Around December 6, Time Warner announced that it would continue to provide Fox network programming on its systems (presumably via video on demand services), under a deal reached with Fox earlier in 2010; syndicated and local programs on Sinclair's Fox affiliates would not be seen. On December 31, Time Warner reached an agreement with an out-of-market station, presumably Cincinnati's WXIX-TV, to provide Fox network programming at least through the end of February. Later that same day, Sinclair and Time Warner extended talks for another two weeks, with continued cable carriage of Sinclair's stations, through January 14, 2011. On January 15, 2011, after a 24 hour extension of the previous deadline, Time Warner and Sinclair reached a tentative settlement. After further negotiations, a final agreement was reached on February 2, 2011, keeping WRGT-TV and WKEF on Time Warner.

Newscasts

Nightly news open.

In 1998, WRGT-TV started its nightly 10 o'clock newscast, now known as Fox 45 Dayton's News Source at 10, using sister station WKEF's existing news team. In the February 2006 sweeps period, the station's 10 o'clock news was the fastest growing local broadcast in the Dayton market, on certain nights, sometimes winning the time slot. Until 2007, there was direct 10 o'clock news competition from WHIO-TV's Time Warner Cable-only Miami Valley Channel. There was no over-the-air competition until August 18, 2007, when NBC affiliate WDTN began to produce a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on CW affiliate WBDT; this beat WRGT-TV's show in Dayton's metered market household ratings on the 26th day of its broadcast. On June 12, 2006, WKEF began airing a weekday morning program from 5 to 7, called ABC 22 Good Morning. On the same day, WRGT-TV began airing Fox 45 in the Morning from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays.bIn August 2008, Fox 45 Dayton's News Source at 6:30 was added to the station, airing on weeknights against the national news broadcasts on the "Big Three" channels.

Anchors

• Meghan Mongillo - weekday morning news and reporter
• Shannon Sims - weeknight news and reporter
• Don Hammond - weekend news and reporter
• Jeffrey Booth (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weeknight meteorologist
• Andrew Michael - weekday morning meteorologist and severe weather videographer
• TBD - weekend meteorologist
• Nathan Baker - weeknight sports
• Luke Notestine - weekend sports and sports reporter

Reporters

• Rhonda Moore - "Your Community" segment producer
• Amber Watson - weekday mornings
• Elyse Coulter - weeknights at 6:30
• Wale Aliyu - New Media Producer
• Liza Danver - weeknights
• Jackie Couture
• Chris Cerenelli

External links

• WRGT-TV "Fox 45"
• WRGT-TV mobile
• WRGT-DT2 "My TV Dayton"
• WRGT-DT2 "This TV Dayton"
• WKEF "ABC 22"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRGT-TV