WTTG, channel 5, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C.. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, and is part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WDCA (channel 20). The station's studios/office and transmitter facilities are co-located on Wisconsin Avenue in the Friendship Heights neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington.

The station's signal is rebroadcast on a low-powered translator station, W46BR-D, in Moorefield, West Virginia (which is owned by Valley TV Cooperative, Inc.).

History

Early years

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 (channel 5, later WNEW-TV and now WNYW) in New York City. These hookups were the beginning of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first licensed commercial television network. DuMont began regular network service in 1946. Almost a year later on January 3, 1947, W3XWT received a commercial license – the first in the nation's capital – as WTTG. The station was named for Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr., the DuMont network's chief engineer and a close friend of Dr. DuMont.