WTOV-TV
  
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Steubenville, Ohio / Wheeling, West Virginia United States |
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| Branding | WTOV 9 (general) News 9 (newscasts) |
| Slogan | WTOV (or News) 9 Is Everywhere. |
| Channels | Digital: 9 (VHF/PSIP) |
| Subchannels | |
| Affiliations | |
| Owner |
Sinclair Broadcast Group (WTOV Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | December 24, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning |
We're Television for the Ohio Valley |
| Sister station(s) |
WPGH-TV WPNT |
| Former callsigns | WSTV-TV (1953–1979) |
| Former channel number(s) | 9 (VHF analog, 1953–2009) 57 (UHF digital, 2002–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
CBS (1953–1980) ABC (secondary, 1953–2000) |
| Transmitter power | 23 kW |
| Height | 282 m |
| Facility ID | 74122 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°20′33″N 80°37′14″W / 40.34250°N 80.62056°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | wtov9 |
WTOV-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Steubenville, Ohio, covering the Upper Ohio Valley, including Wheeling, West Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter in Mingo Junction, Ohio. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Red Donley Plaza in Steubenville.
The station went on air as WSTV-TV (for STeubenVille) on December 24, 1953. It was owned by Rust Craft Broadcasting along with WSTV radio (AM 1340, which went off the air in 2011, and FM 103.5 (now WOGH). When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened bidding for the channel 9 license, Rust Craft and CBS emerged as the favorites. CBS planned to move the station's license to Pittsburgh in order to get its own station in what was then the sixth-largest market. However, the FCC turned CBS' bid down. The major cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band, and the FCC had opted not to issue any more VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give Wheeling/Steubenville and the other smaller markets in the area a chance to get on the air. The Wheeling/Steubenville TV market, despite its very close proximity to Pittsburgh and overlapping signals, remains a separate market today.
Channel 9 was originally a CBS affiliate, but also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC, sharing that network's programming with NBC affiliate WTRF-TV. It changed its call letters to WTOV (standing for "We're Television for the Ohio Valley") on June 1, 1979 after Rust Craft merged with Ziff Davis and sold off the radio stations. The call letters had been previously used for a Virginia TV station that is now WGNT. During its time as a CBS affiliate, the station struggled in the ratings due to the presence of Group W powerhouse KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, which to this day remains widely viewable in the area both over-the-air and available on cable. The station began phasing out ABC in the 1970s, but continued to carry a few ABC programs in off-hours for many years. Channel 9 had little need to air many ABC shows, however, as Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV was widely available on cable.
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Wikipedia