Early years
In January 1976, the Commercial Radio Institute (CRI) of Baltimore announced its intention to file for channel 28. It chose Columbus after passing on prospects in Boston and Louisville, Kentucky.[9] Shortly after, a second application was received by Christian Voice of Central Ohio, owner of Christian radio station WCVO (104.9 FM) in Gahanna, which proposed a religious and family-friendly outlet in contrast to the more traditional independent station format contemplated by the Commercial Radio Institute.[10] FCC administrative law judge David Kraushaar ruled in favor of the Commercial Radio Institute application in October 1979 because Christian Voice of Central Ohio already owned a station in the market.[11] Christian Voice appealed, expressing a desire to sell WCVO if necessary to obtain channel 28.[12] It was unsuccessful in overturning the initial decision at the FCC's review board[13] and with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[14]
Construction on the station, dubbed WTTE, finally began to move ahead in 1983 after the company secured revenue bonds from Franklin County; work to add channel 28 to WOSU-TV's tower began.[15] However, WTTE was bogged down by continual delays. By October, the station was still months away from air, even though CRI had secured a studio site at 6130 Sunbury Road.[16] Wet weather left the tower site muddy and made it impossible to maneuver heavy equipment, leading the station to scrap an April 1984 planned sign-on.[17]
WTTE began broadcasting on June 1, 1984.[18] It was CRI's third station after independent outlets in Baltimore (WBFF) and Pittsburgh (WPTT-TV). Its format—children's shows, reruns, movies, and religious programs—was familiar to those used to independent stations elsewhere in the country but not so much in Columbus.[19] It also provided an outlet for programming that the local network affiliates passed up, including sporting events not aired by NBC affiliate WCMH-TV (channel 4) and ABC station WTVN-TV (channel 6, now sister station WSYX).[20] WTTE joined the Fox network at its launch in October 1986.[21] That same year, the Commercial Radio Institute broadcasting division took the name Sinclair Broadcast Group
As early as 1989,[23] WTTE officials floated the possibility of airing a 10 p.m. newscast, either by setting up an in-house news department or by partnering with another station. In 1990, general manager Mike Quigley told Columbus Business First that the station was targeting 1991 to debut such a newscast on weeknights, though the $2 million start-up costs had resulted in delays to the plan.[24] A newscast continued to be discussed by Quigley for years. When WCMH-TV debuted a 10 p.m. newscast production on WWHO (channel 53) in 1994, observers believed it had been hurried to air to spoil a pending joint venture between WTTE and CBS affiliate WBNS-TV (channel 10), the market's leading local news station.[25]
WTTE became a secondary affiliate of UPN when the network launched in January 1995. UPN programs aired in alternative time slots to not conflict with Fox shows. Where UPN shows aired on Monday and Tuesday nights in the network's first year, WTTE presented the network on Saturday and Sunday.[26] This arrangement ended in January 1998 after WWHO was sold to Paramount Stations Group, the network's owned-and-operated stations division, and added UPN programming to its WB affiliation.[27]
Consolidation with WSYX and newscasts
In 1996, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the purchase of St. Louis–based River City Broadcasting, which in Columbus owned ABC affiliate WSYX. The deal was soon amended at the behest of federal regulators to omit WSYX, which Sinclair had originally planned to control under a local marketing agreement.[28] In spite of Sinclair not immediately buying WSYX, the station became very important to WTTE. On September 16, 1996, WSYX began producing a newscast for WTTE, Fox News at 10, from its studios.[29] The arrangement was similar to one adopted by Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WDKY-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, the year prior.[30] It was anchored by Lorene Wagner, a former reporter and anchor for WSYX and WBNS-TV.[31] While it had a dedicated set and news anchors, it drew on WSYX for weather and sports personalities.[32]
Move of Fox to WSYX subchannel
On January 1, 2021, Sinclair quietly sent a letter to cable and satellite providers saying that it had consolidated the Fox affiliations of stations in five markets where it had been on a station operated via an LMA onto Sinclair-owned stations, putting those affiliations directly in Sinclair's control. WTTE was one of the affected stations. While most markets transitioned on that day, the transition of WTTE–Fox's programming schedule onto WSYX's spectrum took place on January 7,[47] the day WWHO-TV became the market's ATSC 3.0 lighthouse station.[48] On that date, Fox 28 moved to WSYX 6.3. It was broadcast from both WSYX and WTTE until February 3, when WTTE's main signal switched to the Sinclair-owned TBD network.[49]
