WPTD (channel 16) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, serving the Miami Valley as a member of PBS.

This was vigorously contested by WKEF (channel 22), which had been airing most of ABC's programming in the market and was widely expected to become the full-time affiliate.

Facing a challenge to its broadcast license and a petition by television program distributors to force it into involuntary bankruptcy, Kittyhawk took WKTR-TV off the air beginning February 27, 1971.

The station changed its call letters to WPTD in 1977; University Regional Broadcasting renamed itself Greater Dayton Public Television in 1982.

Kittyhawk announced it would build studios on a property on Stroop Road, previously occupied by the local YMCA in Kettering and a transmitter at Moraine.

[5] However, work was delayed while Kittyhawk petitioned the FCC for a taller tower than originally proposed; a start date of January 1968 was set.

[11][12] However, this was cut back in December, when original general manager Kenneth Caywood quit and the station began broadcasting at 5 p.m. on weekdays with a schedule featuring mainly movies.

[16] On February 13, 1969, ABC's board of directors authorized Campbell to proceed with buying WKTR-TV for $1.85 million subject to FCC approval.

However, WKEF—which stood to lose all the ABC programs it carried—and parent company Springfield Television announced they would fight to block the transaction.

[18] Not wanting to endure a legal fight they predicted could last two to four years, Kittyhawk and ABC terminated the sale agreement in March.

Kaufman charged that Sullivan had told Kemper that WKTR-TV would need to pay $50,000 to a consultant by the name of John L. P. Daley Jr., which in actuality was a bribe.

[23][24] In light of the bribery case on February 26, ABC gave WKTR-TV a required six months' notice that it was ending its affiliation contract with the station effective August 30.

[25] This marked part of a blitz of cleaning house orchestrated by network vice president James Hagerty, who had been the presidential press secretary in the 1950s.

With the addition of WSWO-TV (channel 26) in Springfield, all three Dayton-area UHF stations were invited to submit proposals for ABC affiliation to the network.

When Bert Julian, another ABC regional representative whose territory then included Dayton, was found to favor WKEF, it was alleged that Kemper complained to McMahon, who in turn told Patti; shortly thereafter, Dayton was moved from Julian's purview to Sullivan's, and Sullivan then suggested the hiring of the fictitious "John L. P.

[31] On April 11, days before Kittyhawk officials were to visit New York City to present to the network, ABC notified WKTR by telegram that it was revoking its invitation to the station to present an affiliation proposal to continue with the network after August 30—leaving WKEF and WSWO-TV as the only bidders—after additional evidence was uncovered in the WKEF court case and in a private investigation conducted on ABC's behalf.

[28] On May 1, 1970, federal judge Timothy Sylvester Hogan issued an injunction ordering ABC to return to the pre-1970 status quo in Dayton within 20 days, requiring the network to move most shows off WKTR-TV and back to WKEF while the suit continued; however, WKTR-TV retained some ABC programs that WLWD had been carrying prior to 1970.

Montgomery County sued Kittyhawk Television seeking payment on $9,000 in unpaid taxes;[37] eight employees were laid off; and a sale was announced to an unspecified group of "veteran broadcasters located in the West", though this never materialized.

[40] Another creditor, a Virginia advertising firm, sued to force the appointment of a receiver for Kittyhawk;[41] four months later, three television program syndicators filed a petition seeking the placement of the business into involuntary bankruptcy.

This marked an acceleration for plans already in the works to build an educational station on channel 45, which had been the allocation since the 1965 national allotment changes.

In addition, Springfield Television asked the FCC to hold off on acting on its petition to deny the license renewal, citing the negotiations to sell channel 16 for educational use.

[45][46] Meanwhile, in the bankruptcy case, Kittyhawk denied it was bankrupt,[47] and Thomas G. Sullivan was sentenced to five years' probation for accepting the WKTR-TV bribe.

[48] Late on the evening of April 27, WKTR-TV broadcast for the first time in two months after its two-month authorization to remain off the air was believed to have ended.

This meant that Sesame Street went unseen in Dayton for a brief time, as WKEF had been airing the show and dropped it in anticipation of WKTR returning.

[56] Plans for the consortium, to be known as University Regional Broadcasting (URB), took a step forward in 1974, when WMUB-TV was added to the proposed design of the group; eventually, separate programming for the two stations was foreseen.

[57] On April 22, 1975, the FCC approved the transfer of the WOET-TV license from the Network Commission to University Regional Broadcasting, with the tri-university consortium taking over on July 1.

In March 1987, WPTD signed an agreement to relocate to 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) of space in the Transportation Center downtown, aided by a construction loan from the city of Dayton.

[72] This eventually came to pass on July 1, 1992, when WPTO began airing a secondary lineup of primarily instructional and educational programs as well as documentaries and rebroadcasts of key PBS shows in different time periods.

[79] In May 2009, after two years of discussions, Public Media Connect was formed as a merger of the two groups, with each continuing as local nonprofits and subsidiaries.

Due to interference that would be caused to a repacked WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the translator moved to channel 25 as W25FI-D in January 2020.