WDCA (channel 20), branded Fox 5 Plus, is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the local outlet for the MyNetworkTV programming service.

WDCA and WTTG share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland, and are broadcast on the same multiplex from a tower on River Road nearby.

Channel 20 served as Washington's second-rated independent behind WTTG for decades and as a longtime home for local sports coverage and children's programming.

[2] WGMS won the permit in 1954,[3] but it returned it in 1956, with company president N. Robert Rogers having "regretfully concluded" that the station would not be viable.

[4] On November 19, 1962, Capital Broadcasting Company applied to build a new television station on channel 20 in Washington, D.C.[5] By May, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had received a second application, from Automated Electronics, Inc. of Dallas, which proposed to install the station in nearby Arlington, Virginia.

[16] Despite its claims that WDCA-TV had become profitable sooner than projected, Capital Broadcasting had lost "substantial sums" on channel 20.

[26] The Captain 20 Club, wrapped around afternoon cartoons ranging from Bugs Bunny to Ultraman, also included regular monkey races.

Due to inflation, a strong market for TV stations, and the length of time the deal took to approve, Taft raised its price to $15.5 million.

[37] At issue was an infrequently enforced and commonly waived FCC policy restricting the number of TV stations that one group could own in the top 50 markets.

[45] Tony Vinciquerra, who later became the president of Fox Networks Group, served as WDCA-TV's general sales manager from 1985 to 1986.

[47][48] TVX implemented budget cuts, laying off about 15 percent of the staff at the acquisitions; in Washington, 11 employees were immediately laid off—of a planned reduction of 18 personnel—and the production of local children's and public affairs programming was canceled.

TVX's bankers, Salomon Brothers, provided the financing for the acquisition and in return held more than 60 percent of the company.

[49] The company was to pay Salomon Brothers $200 million on January 1, 1988, but missed the first payment deadline, having been unable to lure investors to its junk bonds even before Black Monday.

[51] While TVX recapitalized by the end of 1988,[52] Salomon Brothers reached an agreement in principle in January 1989 for Paramount Pictures to acquire options to purchase the investment firm's majority stake.

[61] The FCC approved the deal in August 2001 on the condition that Viacom sell one of its San Francisco radio stations.

[64][65] On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation (which had been created as a result of the split of Viacom at the start of the year) announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.

[66][67] In unveiling the merged network, while WB and UPN affiliates owned by WB minority stakeholder Tribune Broadcasting (including WBDC-TV in Washington) and by CBS Television Stations were announced as charter outlets, none of the Fox-owned UPN stations—many of which were competitors to these stations—were chosen.

[71] On April 4, 2017, the FCC announced that WDCA was a winner in the 2016–17 spectrum reallocation auction and in return received $119 million for the frequency.

[77] WDCA began airing an 8 p.m. prime time newscast, Fox 5 News on the Plus, on July 17, 2017, as a half-hour broadcast on weekdays and a full hour on weekends.