Wikipedia
WFTV, virtual channel 9 ( UHF digital channel 39), is the ABC- affiliated television station located in Orlando, Florida, United States. The station is owned by the Cox Media Group division of Cox Enterprises, and is part of a duopoly with independent station WRDQ (channel 27). The two stations share studios on East South Street ( SR 15) in downtown Orlando, and its transmitter is located between Bithlo and Christmas. WFTV is also carried on cable providers in Lakeland, which is part of the Tampa Bay market.
WFTV Channel 38 was the first television station in Duluth, Minnesota.
The station signed on in 1953 carrying programming from all four TV networks of the time, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the DuMont Television Network. It shared office space with WEBC radio and transmitted from the former WEBC-FM tower on Duluth's Observation Hill.
WFTV faced challenges from the beginning, being a UHF station in an era when television sets only included VHF tuners. A converter box was required to receive the station. In March 1954, VHF stations KDAL-TV and WDSM-TV - both co-owned with other radio stations in the market - signed on and took the NBC and CBS affiliations. WFTV could not compete and left the air shortly thereafter.
Duluth would be a two-station market until WDIO-TV signed on in 1966. The market would not get another major UHF station until 1999 when KQDS-TV upgraded and affiliated with the FOX network.
The bottom portion of the tower used by WEBC-FM and WFTV still stands, and is used today for telecommunications. Channel 38 is currently occupied by the digital signal of WDSE, but will be empty again in 2009 when WDSE moves digital operations to channel 8.
The WFTV callsign was adopted by the ABC affiliate on Channel 9 in Orlando, Florida, which was previously WLOF, in 1963.