Later years (1970–present)
Triangle was forced out of broadcasting in 1970 after then-Pennsylvania Governor Milton J. Shapp complained the company had used its Pennsylvania stations in a smear campaign against him. The WNHC stations were among the first batch to be sold, going to Capital Cities Communications, along with its sister stations in Philadelphia (WFIL-TV, now WPVI-TV) and Fresno (KFRE-TV, now KFSN-TV) in a deal that would be finalized in 1971.[13][14] However, Capital Cities could not keep the radio stations because of the FCC's then-restrictions on ownership, resulting in WNHC-AM-FM being spun off to separate third parties.[15] WNHC-TV changed its call letters to the current WTNH-TV on May 1, 1971, not long after Capital Cities officially took over, with the "N" and "H" representing the cities of New Haven and Hartford.[16] The station later relocated for a second time in May 1983, into its present studio facility on Elm Street.
On March 19, 1985, Capital Cities announced its intention to buy ABC in a deal that would stun the broadcast industry.[17] As part of the deal, Capital Cities was required to sell WTNH due to a significant signal overlap with ABC's New York flagship station, WABC-TV.[18] Like the other major stations in Connecticut, WTNH's city-grade signal reaches Fairfield County, which is part of the New York City market. It also provides at least grade B coverage to most of Long Island.[19] At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas, and would not even consider granting a waiver for a city-grade overlap (the FCC began allowing common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas in 2000). As a result, WTNH was sold to Cook Inlet Television Partners, a subsidiary of Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (an Alaska Native Regional Corporation); the deal was eventually completed in January 1986.[20] During the mid-1980s, the syndicated Sally Jessy Raphael talk show originated from the WTNH studios in New Haven, until the show moved to New York City later in the decade.
Cook Inlet sold WTNH to LIN Television in 1994. When a new UHF station in New Haven, WTVU (channel 59, now WCTX) signed on in April 1995 as a WB affiliate, WTNH began operating the station through a local marketing agreement (LMA);[21] prior to WTVU's launch, WTNH held a temporary secondary WB affiliation, airing its programming (which at the time consisted solely of a Wednesday prime time lineup) Saturdays in late night.[22] In 2001, LIN TV bought WCTX outright. On May 18, 2007, the company announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could have resulted in the sale of the company.[23] On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WTNH and WCTX, in a $1.6 billion merger.[24] The merger was completed on December 19.[25]
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the Meredith Corporation for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General if the sale had been finalized. Because Meredith already owned WFSB, and the two stations ranked among the four highest-rated stations in the Hartford–New Haven market in total day viewership, the companies would have been required to sell either WTNH or WFSB to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict sharing agreements; WCTX would have been the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could legally be acquired by Meredith Media General, as its total day viewership ranked below the top-four ratings threshold.[26][27][28][29] However, on January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General (which was approved on January 17, 2017), resulting in the termination of Meredith's acquisition by Media General.[30]
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media—which has owned Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61) since 1996 and CW affiliate WCCT-TV (channel 20) since 2001—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was required to sell two of the stations (including one ranking in the top four in ratings) to a separate, unrelated company to comply with FCC ownership rules.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
On August 19, 2025, Nexstar agreed to acquire Tegna for $6.2 billion.[43] The deal was approved and completed on March 19, 2026.[44] As part of the transaction, Nexstar committed to the divestiture of WCTX within two years, along with five other stations in markets where the two companies combined held four TV station licenses.[45]
