Durham/Raleigh/ Fayetteville, North Carolina United States |
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City | Durham, North Carolina |
Branding |
ABC 11 (general) ABC 11 Eyewitness News (newscasts) |
Slogan | Keeping you connected |
Channels |
Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 11 () |
Subchannels | 11.1 ABC 11.2 Live Well 11.3 Laff |
Affiliations | ABC (O&O) (1956–1957, 1985–present; secondary 1954–1957, 1958–1962) |
Owner |
Disney/ABC (WTVD Television, LLC) |
Founded | December 1953 |
First air date | September 2, 1954 |
Call letters' meaning | TeleVision for Durham |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 11 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 52 (UHF, until 2009) |
Former affiliations |
Primary: NBC (1954–1956) CBS (1958–1985) Secondary: NBC (1962–1971) |
Transmitter power | 45 kW |
Height | 615 metres (2,018 feet) |
Facility ID | 8617 |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°40′5″N 78°31′59″W / 35.66806°N 78.53306°WCoordinates: 35°40′5″N 78°31′59″W / 35.66806°N 78.53306°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | abc11 |
WTVD, channel 11, is an ABC owned-and-operated television station, licensed to Durham, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, a unit of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The station serves the areas of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, known as the Triangle, and Fayetteville. WTVD's main studios, offices and newsroom are located on Liberty Street in downtown Durham, along with additional studio facilities in both Raleigh and Fayetteville. The station's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina<FCC License>.
In 1952, two rival companies each applied for a construction permit to build a television station in Durham on the city's newly allotted VHF channel 11 – Herald-Sun Newspapers (publishers of the Durham Morning Herald and the Durham Sun as well as the owners of radio station WDNC) and Floyd Fletcher and Harmon Duncan, the then-owners of WTIK radio. In December 1953, the two sides agreed to join forces and operate the station under the joint banner Durham Broadcasting Enterprises. Originally christened with the WTIK-TV call letters, the station had to make a name change after the partners sold WTIK radio as a condition of the permit grant. Ownership chose WTVD and was granted the change, but they had to wait – the call sign had been used in the 1953 20th Century Fox film Taxi for a fictional television station appearing in the movie. At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed unassigned call letters to be used in fictional works for an exclusive two-year period, making them unavailable for actual broadcast use.