WTVO

Not to be confused with KTVO.

1953–1962	1962–1965	1965–1967	1967–1998	1967–1975	1976–1979
1979–1986	1986-1995	1995–1998	1998–2013	2013–present

1953–1962

LOGO MISSING

WTVO signed on May 3, 1953, as the market's first television outlet and is the oldest continuously operating UHF station in the northern portion of Illinois. It originally aired an analog signal on UHF channel 39 but moved to channel 17 in 1967. Sister station WQRF-TV has operated from channel 39 since first signed on in November 1978. WTVO was originally a primary NBC affiliate and shared secondary ABC status with WREX-TV (channel 13).

When WCEE-TV (channel 23, now WIFR) signed on in 1965, it took the CBS affiliation, sending ABC to WREX and leaving WTVO with just NBC. The station was owned by Winnebago Television (the station's call sign stands for "Winnebago Television Organization"), which was partially owned by the H & E Balaban Corporation (which later became Balaban Stations), until 1988 when Young Broadcasting of New York State purchased it.

1962–1965

1965–1967

1967-1998

1967–1975

SVG NEEDED

1976–1979

SVG NEEDED

1979–1986

SVG NEEDED

WTVO local sponsor

1986-1995

SVG NEEDED

1993-94 WTVO ID

1994 WTVO ID with temperature as recorded during the 1993 AFC Wild-Card Game between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Raiders

1994 WTVO text ID during promo for "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Blossom"

1995–1998

SVG NEEDED

After a 42-year run as the local NBC station, it swapped network affiliations with WREX, taking the ABC affiliation on August 14, 1995. According to Variety, ABC pulled its programming from WREX not long after Quincy Newspapers bought the station. ABC was perturbed at Quincy's decision to switch the affiliation of its South Bend station WSJV from ABC to Fox earlier that year. The replacement ABC affiliate for South Bend, W58BT (now WBND-LD), began broadcasting on October 18, two months after WTVO affiliated with ABC. The deal may also have been facilitated by the fact that ABC had bought a minority stake in Young the year before.

1998–2013

2011–2013

Eyewitness News logo (2012-2016)

Eyewitness News 2D logo (2012–present)

WTVO-DT2 (2003–2006)

WTVO-DT2 (2006–2015)

Another ownership change came on November 22, 2004, when Mission Broadcasting (a de facto subsidiary of Irving, Texas–based Nexstar Broadcasting) bought WTVO from Young for $21 million. This made the station a sister to Nexstar-owned WQRF.

2013–present

The "17" logo looks similar to the one used by WNED-TV from 1973-1997.

Variant with 2007 ABC logo

Flat gradient version

Monochrome logo

With the 2021 ABC logo

With the 1962 ABC logo, seen in news opens since 2023

Eyewitness News logo (2016–present)

WTVO-DT2 (2015–present)

External links

• Official website