Editing WFTC (section)

==History==
===Early history===
The station signed on air in October 1982 as WFBT (for "Family Bible Television"). Channel 29 originally maintained a schedule offering [[rerun]]s of classic family-oriented series and [[Christianity|Christian]]-based [[religious programming]]. The station was started by a group led by Danny Koker, a gospel musician and father of Danny Koker II, star of [[History (American TV channel)|History]]'s ''[[Counting Cars]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://obits.reviewjournal.com/obituaries/lvrj/obituary.aspx?n=danny-koker&pid=142269857|title=Danny Koker Obituary|newspaper=Las Vegas Review-Journal|date=2008}}</ref> It first operated from studio facilities located on Aspen Lane North in [[Brooklyn Park, Minnesota]]. On May 6, 1984, the station was sold to the [[Beverly Hills Hotel]] Corporation, headed by prominent arbitrageur [[Ivan Boesky]], who changed its call letters to KITN-TV (which although it actually stood for "Independent Twenty-Nine", colloquially meant "[[Kitten]]" as in, "The KITN That Roars!"). At that time, it transitioned into the market's second mainstream [[independent station]] (and first on the [[UHF]] dial), airing syndicated programs such as ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'', ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]''. It also acquired broadcast rights to the [[NHL]]'s [[Minnesota North Stars]], as well as [[University of Minnesota]] [[Minnesota Golden Gophers football|college football]] games. In 1985, BHHC sold the station to [[Nationwide Communications]], the broadcasting subsidiary of [[Columbus, Ohio]]–based [[Nationwide Insurance]].

===As a Fox affiliate, then becoming a UPN station===
In 1988, [[KMSP-TV]] ended its affiliation with [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]], disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings that were bogging down the station's otherwise successful general entertainment lineup. Fox then shifted its affiliation to KITN, which adopted the moniker "Fox 29". The station again changed its [[Call signs in the United States|call sign]] to WFTC on October 1, 1994 (for "We're Fox Twin Cities"), with the additional change using the "W" first-letter identifier over the "K", allowed for by its [[transmitter]] location on the eastern side of the [[Mississippi River]]. The station later relocated its operations to a new studio located on Broadway Street Northeast in Minneapolis. 

Until 1998, it served as the ''de facto'' Fox affiliate for almost all of Minnesota; the state's other two markets, [[Duluth]] and [[Rochester, Minnesota|Rochester]], did not have Fox affiliates of their own until [[KXLT-TV]] in Rochester joined the network in 1998, and [[KQDS-TV]] debuted in Duluth one year later. Most areas in western Minnesota received Fox programming from [[Fargo, North Dakota]]'s [[KVRR]] or [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]]'s [[KTTW]].

As part of its liquidation of its broadcasting interests, Nationwide Communications sold the station to Clear Channel Communications (now [[iHeartMedia]]) in 1993 (it was the last remaining television station under Nationwide's ownership, the company having sold its other three stations, all of which were affiliated with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], to [[Young Broadcasting]] the year before). In 2001, Clear Channel traded the station to Fox Television Stations for KMOL-TV (now [[WOAI-TV]]) in [[San Antonio]] and [[KTVX]] in [[Salt Lake City]]. Both stations were acquired by Fox through its purchase of [[Chris-Craft Industries]]' broadcast properties, which included then-[[UPN]] affiliate KMSP-TV. WFTC became the third station in the area to be owned-and-operated by a major network, but since KMSP had higher ratings and a stronger signal than WFTC, Fox switched the affiliations of the two stations on September 8, 2002: Fox programming returned to KMSP, while WFTC affiliated with UPN.

===Switch to MyNetworkTV===
[[File:WFTC Minneapolis.jpg|thumb|right|Logo used as ''My29'' from 2006 until 2017]]
On January 24, 2006, [[CBS Corporation]] and [[WarnerMedia|Time Warner]] announced that UPN and [[The WB]] would shut down and be replaced by a new network that would carry programs from both networks, The CW.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Seid |first=Jessica |date=2006-01-24 |title='Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown' |url=https://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/news/companies/cbs_warner |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=money.cnn.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/business/media/24cnd-network.html?bl|title=UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 24, 2006|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Despite affiliating with most of CBS Corporation's UPN stations and [[Tribune Broadcasting]]'s WB stations, Fox's UPN affiliates were not included in the new network. Although The CW did not sign its Twin Cities' affiliate until May 2006 (when KMWB-TV, which changed its calls to WUCW by the network's launch in September, was announced as the network's local affiliate-through an affiliation deal by its parent, [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]]), WFTC joined other Fox-owned UPN stations in scrubbing all UPN branding the following day, becoming branded as simply "WFTC 29". It also stopped promoting UPN programming outside of network hours. On February 22, less than a month after the announcement of The CW, Fox announced that it would (in conjunction with its syndication division [[Twentieth Television]]) launch a new network called [[MyNetworkTV]], with WFTC and the other Fox-owned UPN stations (plus included in this deal is [[KDFI|a Fox-owned independent station in Dallas-Fort Worth]]) as the nuclei.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/102922-News_Corp_Unveils_My_Network_TV.php|title=News Corp. Unveils My Network TV|magazine=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|date=February 22, 2006}}</ref> On June 2, 2006, WFTC officially changed its branding to "My29", following its impending switch to the newly launched Fox-owned network.

Although MyNetworkTV announced its launch date to be September 5, UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some UPN affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV aired the final two weeks of UPN's programming outside its regular prime time slot, the Fox-owned stations (including WFTC) dropped the network entirely on August 31, 2006. On September 9, 2006, WFTC began carrying the [[4Kids TV]] lineup for the first time since 2002, when the station was a Fox affiliate airing what was then [[Fox Kids]]. The station continues to air the ''[[Weekend Marketplace]]'' [[infomercial]] block on Saturday mornings while sister station KMSP aired ''[[Xploration Station]]'' which started in the fall of 2014.

On August 11, 2017, WFTC rebranded as "Fox 9+", as a brand extension of KMSP-TV, and debuted a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tvnewscheck.com/uncategorized/article/fox-rebrands-wftc-adds-7-p-m-newscast/|title=Fox Rebrands WFTC, Adds 7 P.M. Newscast|first=Mark K.|last=Miller|website=TVNewsCheck|date=August 28, 2017|accessdate=July 15, 2024}}</ref>