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|---|---|
| City | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 9 Plus |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, LLC |
| KMSP-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | October 11, 1982 (42 years ago) (1982-10-11) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | "We're Fox Twin Cities" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 11913 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 389 m (1,276 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°3′30″N93°7′28″W / 45.05833°N 93.12444°W /45.05833; -93.12444 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
| Satellite of WFTC | |
| KFTC | |
| Channels | |
| History | |
First air date | June 20, 1999 (25 years ago) (1999-06-20) |
Former channel number(s) |
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| |
Call sign meaning | "Fox Twin Cities" |
| Technical information[2] | |
| Facility ID | 83714 |
| ERP | 4.5 kW |
| HAAT | 156 m (512 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 47°33′21″N94°48′5″W / 47.55583°N 94.80139°W /47.55583; -94.80139 (KFTC) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
WFTC (channel 9.2) is atelevision station licensed toMinneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting theMyNetworkTV programming service to theTwin Cities area. It isowned and operated byFox Television Stations alongsideFox outletKMSP-TV (channel 9). The two stations share studios on Viking Drive inEden Prairie; WFTC'stransmitter is located inShoreview, Minnesota.
WFTC rebroadcasts its signal on full-powersatellite station KFTC (channel 26) inBemidji (with transmitter near Lake Bemidji State Park) and severallow-powerrepeaters across Minnesota, including theMankato market (via K23MF-D in nearbySt. James[3] through the localmunicipal-operated Cooperative TV (CTV) network of translators[4][5]), as that area does not have a MyNetworkTV affiliate of its own.[6]
The station signed on air in October 1982 as WFBT (for "Family Bible Television"). Channel 29 originally maintained a schedule offeringreruns of classic family-oriented series andChristian-basedreligious programming. The station was started by a group led by Danny Koker, a gospel musician and father of Danny Koker II, star ofHistory'sCounting Cars.[7] It first operated from studio facilities located on Aspen Lane North inBrooklyn Park, Minnesota. On May 6, 1984, the station was sold to theBeverly Hills Hotel Corporation, headed by prominent arbitrageurIvan Boesky, who changed its call letters to KITN-TV (which although it actually stood for "Independent Twenty-Nine", colloquially meant "Kitten" as in, "The KITN That Roars!"). At that time, it transitioned into the market's second mainstreamindependent station (and first on theUHF dial), airing syndicated programs such asThe Beverly Hillbillies,Batman andStar Trek. It also acquired broadcast rights to theNHL'sMinnesota North Stars, as well asUniversity of Minnesotacollege football games. In 1985, BHHC sold the station toNationwide Communications, the broadcasting subsidiary ofColumbus, Ohio–basedNationwide Insurance.
In 1988,KMSP-TV ended its affiliation withFox, disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings that were bogging down the station's otherwise successful general entertainment lineup. Fox then shifted its affiliation to KITN, which adopted the moniker "Fox 29". The station again changed itscall sign to WFTC on October 1, 1994 (for "We're Fox Twin Cities"), with the additional change using the "W" first-letter identifier over the "K", allowed for by itstransmitter location on the eastern side of theMississippi River. The station later relocated its operations to a new studio located on Broadway Street Northeast in Minneapolis.
Until 1998, it served as thede facto Fox affiliate for almost all of Minnesota; the state's other two markets,Duluth andRochester, did not have Fox affiliates of their own untilKXLT-TV in Rochester joined the network in 1998, andKQDS-TV debuted in Duluth one year later. Most areas in western Minnesota received Fox programming fromFargo, North Dakota'sKVRR orSioux Falls, South Dakota'sKTTW.
As part of its liquidation of its broadcasting interests, Nationwide Communications sold the station to Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia) in 1993 (it was the last remaining television station under Nationwide's ownership, the company having sold its other three stations, all of which were affiliated withABC, toYoung Broadcasting the year before). In 2001, Clear Channel traded the station to Fox Television Stations for KMOL-TV (nowWOAI-TV) inSan Antonio andKTVX inSalt Lake City. Both stations were acquired by Fox through its purchase ofChris-Craft Industries' broadcast properties, which included then-UPN affiliate KMSP-TV. WFTC became the third station in the area to be owned-and-operated by a major network, but since KMSP had higher ratings and a stronger signal than WFTC, Fox switched the affiliations of the two stations on September 8, 2002: Fox programming returned to KMSP, while WFTC affiliated with UPN.
On January 24, 2006,CBS Corporation andTime Warner announced that UPN andThe WB would shut down and be replaced by a new network that would carry programs from both networks, The CW.[8][9] Despite affiliating with most of CBS Corporation's UPN stations andTribune Broadcasting's WB stations, Fox's UPN affiliates were not included in the new network. Although The CW did not sign its Twin Cities' affiliate until May 2006 (when KMWB-TV, which changed its calls to WUCW by the network's launch in September, was announced as the network's local affiliate-through an affiliation deal by its parent,Sinclair Broadcast Group), WFTC joined other Fox-owned UPN stations in scrubbing all UPN branding the following day, becoming branded as simply "WFTC 29". It also stopped promoting UPN programming outside of network hours. On February 22, less than a month after the announcement of The CW, Fox announced that it would (in conjunction with its syndication divisionTwentieth Television) launch a new network calledMyNetworkTV, with WFTC and the other Fox-owned UPN stations (plus included in this deal isa Fox-owned independent station in Dallas-Fort Worth) as the nuclei.[10] On June 2, 2006, WFTC officially changed its branding to "My29", following its impending switch to the newly launched Fox-owned network.
Although MyNetworkTV announced its launch date to be September 5, UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some UPN affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV aired the final two weeks of UPN's programming outside its regular prime time slot, the Fox-owned stations (including WFTC) dropped the network entirely on August 31, 2006. On September 9, 2006, WFTC began carrying the4Kids TV lineup for the first time since 2002, when the station was a Fox affiliate airing what was thenFox Kids. The station continues to air theWeekend Marketplaceinfomercial block on Saturday mornings while sister station KMSP airedXploration Station which started in the fall of 2014.
On August 11, 2017, WFTC rebranded as "Fox 9+", as a brand extension of KMSP-TV, and debuted a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast.[11]
Upon the team's founding in 1989, the station acquired the broadcast rights to theMinnesota Timberwolves, carrying a select number of games along withKSTP-TV (channel 5) as well as NBC affiliateKARE (channel 11). The team's relationship with the station would end after the1993–94 season, when the team's over-the-air broadcasts moved to KLGT-TV (channel 23, nowCW affiliateWUCW). With the Fox networkgaining rights toNFL games (NFC games, and with it,Minnesota Vikings games) in the1994 season, channel 29 succeededWCCO-TV as the unofficial home station of the team. It would hold this role until the end of the2001 season (since2002, most games are broadcast on KMSP-TV).
In fall 2023, WFTC became the official media outlet for theUniversity of St. ThomasTommies athletics teams. The station broadcasts select home competitions for the football, men's and women's basketball, and men's and women's hockey teams.[12] TheWestern Collegiate Hockey Association also reached an agreement with WFTC to carry a package of regular season games and the conference championship series; these games are simulcast withBig Ten Plus.[13][14]
In February 2025, WFTC will air matches from theCoachella Valley Invitational preseason tournament featuringMinnesota United FC ofMajor League Soccer.[15]
Clear Channel started a news department for the station shortly before selling the station to Fox. As a Fox affiliate, WFTC launched an hour-long prime time newscast at 9 p.m. on April 23, 2001, where it faced competition from KMSP's established hour-long news program. After Fox assumed control of the station, the station's news department was integrated with that of KMSP, and its late newscast was moved to 10 p.m. and shortened to 30 minutes. Though this move protected new sister station KMSP, WFTC now faced stiff competition from late evening newscasts onKARE, KSTP-TV and WCCO-TV. Channel 29's 10 p.m. newscast was eventually canceled due to low ratings, airing its final edition on June 30, 2006; the timeslot was then replaced by syndicated programming. The 10 p.m. news program was then moved to KMSP as part of an expanded late news block. Some members of WFTC's on-air staff were retained by KMSP's news department.
In February 2022, WFTC began simulcasting programming fromFox Weather. This programming airs from 10 to 11 a.m. on weekdays, and from 8 to 10 a.m. on Saturdays.[16]
The signal of KMSP-TV contains six subchannels, while WFTC's signal contains four. Through the use ofvirtual channels, WFTC's subchannels are associated with channel 9.
| Channel | Station | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | WFTC | 720p | 16:9 | FOX-9 | Fox (KMSP-TV simulcast) |
| 9.2 | FOX9 + | MyNetworkTV | |||
| 9.3 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | ||
| 9.4 | KMSP-TV | 480i | 16:9 | BUZZR | Buzzr |
| 9.5 | QVC | QVC | |||
| 9.6 | CATCHY | Catchy Comedy | |||
| 9.7 | WFTC | 720p | 16:9 | FoxWX | Fox Weather |
| 9.8 | KMSP-TV | 720p | 16:9 | Stories | Story Television |
| 9.9 | Fox 9 | Fox | |||
| 9.10 | FOX 9+ | MyNetworkTV (WFTC simulcast) |
In November 2009, KMSP began broadcasting astandard definition simulcast of WFTC on its second subchannel (virtual channel 29.2), with WFTC's adding a standard definition simulcast of KMSP on its second subchannel (virtual channel 9.2) in turn. This ensures the reception of both stations, even in cases where thedigital channels that KMSP and WFTC operate are not actually receivable.
On June 19, 2014, KMSP-TV announced plans that, effective June 24, 2014, they would broadcast their 9.1 virtual channel via RF channel 29 (with RF channel 9 mapping to 9.9) to take advantage of its broader coverage area and allow viewers with UHF-only antennas to receive the station in high definition.[19] The Minneapolis–St. Paul market is unique in that all three television duopolies in the market, which besides KMSP/WFTC, includeTwin Cities PBS stations KTCA/KTCI andHubbard Broadcasting's KSTP andKSTC, have merged their various signals onto the same VHF channel slots for easier viewer reference (with all but KMSP-TV transmitting on UHF). KMSP and WFTC unified all of their over-the-air channels as virtual subchannels of KMSP. As a result, the virtual channels of WFTC changed to 9.
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26.1 | 720p | 16:9 | FOX-9 | Fox (KMSP-TV simulcast) |
| 26.2 | FOX9 + | MyNetworkTV (WFTC simulcast) | ||
| 26.3 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | |
| 26.7 | 720p | FOXWX | Fox Weather |
On February 5, 2009, WFTC's Bemidji-based satellite station KFTC began broadcasting its signal in digital only. WFTC shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 29, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 21 to former UHF analog channel 29 for post-transition operations,[21] while KFTC (which did not receive a companion digital channel prior to the digital transition) flash-cut to digital on its former analog channel assignment of UHF channel 26.
In addition to the main transmitter in Shoreview and full-power KFTC-DT1 in Bemidji, KMSP/WFTC's signal is relayed to outlying parts of Minnesota through a network oftranslators.
The following translators rebroadcast WFTC:
The following translators rebroadcast KMSP-TV:
The following translators rebroadcast KFTC: