![]() Around 1958, WTVD built a 1,549-foot (472 m) tower at its present transmitter site in Auburn to increase its signal coverage for the entire Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville market at the time this was the tallest man-made structure in the U.S. On May 22, 1957, the station's original owners sold their interest in WTVD to Albany, New York-based Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, owners of WCDA-TV (now WTEN), to form Capital Cities Television Corporation (predecessor of Capital Cities Communications). During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. WNAO-TV ceased operations at the end of 1957 due to financial difficulties, and CBS moved its primary affiliation to WTVD. WRAL-TV (channel 5), based in Raleigh and locally owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company, debuted in December 1956 and took over as the Triangle's NBC affiliate, leaving channel 11 with only ABC. The station's initial studios were located in a former tuberculosis sanitorium at Broad Street in Durham, with a transmitter located atop Signal Hill in northern Durham County. Channel 11 is the Triangle's oldest surviving television station, having signed on a few months after CBS affiliate WNAO-TV (channel 28). It was originally a primary NBC affiliate, with secondary ABC and CBS affiliations. Ten months after being granted its permit, on September 2, 1954, WTVD began broadcasting with a black-and-white film of " The Star-Spangled Banner", followed by You Bet Your Life. 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. 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. 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. ![]() ![]() ![]() In December 1953, the two sides agreed to join forces and operate the station under the joint banner Durham Broadcasting Enterprises. ![]() 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. On-air branding uses ABC 11 as a station identifier, with the call letters taking a secondary role. The station's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, it maintains primary studios on Liberty Street in downtown Durham, with additional studios and news bureaus in Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville. WTVD (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Durham, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC outlet for the Research Triangle area. ![]()
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