The two stations share studios on East South Street (SR 15) in downtown Orlando; WFTV's primary transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.

A wide range of issues came under discussion, including what Mid-Florida knew about the ex parte contact; what preference should be given to minority ownership of broadcast stations; and the character of a lawyer who was partially paralyzed in a murder-suicide and indicted on gambling charges in the same week.

Under a court order, Mid-Florida ceded operational control of WFTV in 1969 to Channel Nine of Orlando, Inc., a consortium of the five companies vying for the full-time broadcast license.

After enduring a fatal collapse of its tower in 1973 and returning to full power in 1975, WFTV rode the rising fortunes of the ABC network in the late 1970s to become the top-rated station in Central Florida.

The five companies agreed to a settlement, approved in 1981, that gave all of them varying shares of the station and ended what was then the longest proceeding in FCC history, filling 55 volumes.

[5] In November 1953, WLOF was sold to a group led by Joseph Brechner and John Kluge, and its original application for channel 9 was replaced by one filed by the new ownership under the name Mid-Florida Television Corporation.

[8] WHOO's owner, Ed Lamb, became caught up in a proceeding questioning his loyalty to the American government and alleged associations with communist groups.

[15] With a final decision from the FCC pending, in January 1957, Washington businessman Harris H. Thomson moved to buy a controlling interest in WLOF radio but not Mid-Florida Television.

[16] On June 7, 1957, the FCC voted to grant channel 9 to Mid-Florida Television, the WLOF group, reversing the 1955 Cooper initial decision in favor of WORZ.

In January 1958, syndicated columnist Drew Pearson published a column alleging that FCC commissioner Richard Mack, a Florida native, had been influenced to switch the approval of channel 10 in Miami to a company affiliated with National Airlines.

[31] Cunningham's initial decision, released in September, recommended that Mid-Florida be stripped of the right to broadcast on channel 9 due to what he called "improper influences" by Dial on Mack.

[32][33] Mid-Florida asked for an appeal by the full FCC and blasted Cunningham's decision as based "on suppositions and conjecture",[34] a move WORZ characterized as a "fantastic and frantic" stall tactic.

It ordered the commission to hold oral argument to determine whether the grant should be continued for WFTV, go to WORZ, or possibly be reopened for new applicants for the channel.

Pat Valicenti, attorney for the bureau, noted that the record had "grown stale" because of changes in ownership of Mid-Florida in the intervening years, particularly as the expertise of the original principals had been a major factor in the 1957 grant.

[41] The commission did not take up the Broadcast Bureau's call, disagreeing that the record was so stale as to not be useful, and in June 1964, it affirmed the grant and awarded a three-year full-term license to Mid-Florida Television Corporation for WFTV, allowing the station to stop operating under program test authority as it had for more than six years.

The unsigned decision stated:[43] ...[T]his case has been beset throughout by a variety of dubious circumstances which, at best, have prolonged the ultimate choice an unconscionably long period beyond the assembling of the facts upon which that choice must of necessity be based, and which, at worst, leave a nagging uncertainty as to whether so vital a community facility as is involved here should not be exposed to what may possibly be wider interests than those represented by these two applicants.After the Supreme Court denied review of this decision on a petition from Mid-Florida,[44] new applicants began filing for channel 9 in late 1965 and early 1966.

[53] Though the Murrells initially filed with their new company, in September, they withdrew their application to permanently run channel 9 after 14 years of legal wrangling under WORZ, Inc., and Orange Nine.

The Murrells made the decision because they believed the FCC had no intention of forcing Mid-Florida to cease broadcasting on channel 9 or set a hearing on the matter "in the near future".

[58] While rejecting some of the proposed conditions, the FCC awarded interim operating authority to Consolidated Nine (consisting of Central Nine, Florida Heartland, Orange Nine, and TV-9) on January 10, 1969.

[64] In early June 1970, FCC examiner Herbert Sharfman released his initial decision in the WFTV case, a document described as "book-length" by Broadcasting magazine.

Two Black men each held seven percent of Comint, and the court ordered the FCC to consider and prioritize minority ownership when it would be "likely to increase diversity of content, especially of opinion and viewpoint".

[62] Per David Wilkening of the Sentinel Star in 1975:[62] In the public reference room of the FCC headquarters [in Washington], the file on Channel 9 covers 37 volumes, each as thick as a New York telephone book.The new comparative hearing round ended with administrative law judge Daniel Kraushaar issuing an initial decision in December 1977.

Yet again, Mid-Florida emerged as the most qualified applicant to run channel 9, dismissing the Segal line of argument and favoring the Brechner group because of its high integration of ownership and management.

[85][86] The collapse had a substantial impact on ratings for the three local stations: an unaffected WESH took the lead in news, while leader WDBO sank to second and WFTV remained in third.

Comint's Black stockholders would also receive the option to buy an additional 14 percent three years after approval,[91] while the United Church of Christ was reimbursed by Channel Nine of Orlando for nearly $35,000 in legal fees.

[103] In 1995, WFTV signed a time brokerage agreement with former reporter Marsha Reece, holder of a construction permit for WZWY (channel 27), which it proposed to program.

[89] Several efforts were made by station management to improve the situation; one such attempt in 1975 saw John Tesh, later host of Entertainment Tonight, become the main anchor of its Eyewitness News newscasts.

[89] Jordan, who had three separate stints as WFTV news director (1976–1981, 1982–1986, 2002–2012), also hired some of the station's most recognizable personalities in the decades that followed, including anchor Bob Opsahl.

[120] However, the lead for WFTV has narrowed at times since the turn of the millennium with more vigorous competition from WKMG-TV and WESH, which pulled closer particularly in late news.

[b][127][128] Rehiring Salt turned out to be a successful move in reversing WFTV's flagging ratings fortunes; she spent 16 years at the station, the last few as the noon anchor, before retiring in 2019.