WPTD (channel 16) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, serving the Miami Valley as a member of PBS. The station broadcasts from studios in downtown Dayton and a transmitter near South Gettysburg Avenue in the Highview Hills neighborhood in southwest Dayton. Its signal is relayed by translator station W25FI-D in Maplewood, Ohio, which broadcasts to Celina, Lima, and Wapakoneta.

WPTD and WPTO (channel 14), licensed to Oxford but primarily broadcasting to greater Cincinnati and providing secondary public TV service in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas, form ThinkTV (stylized as Think^TV). ThinkTV, legally Greater Dayton Public Television, and WCET in Cincinnati are separate subsidiaries of Public Media Connect; master control for all three stations is located in Dayton.

Channel 16 in Dayton was originally allocated for educational use, but this changed in 1965. A commercial station—WKTR-TV, owned by Kittyhawk Television and licensed to nearby Kettering—was built on channel 16 in 1967. It operated as a money-losing independent station for nearly all of its four-year history, with one major exception. On January 1, 1970, in a surprise, WKTR was announced as the new ABC affiliate for Dayton. 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. Less than two months later, it was revealed that Kittyhawk management had bribed an ABC official in exchange for affiliation with the network, a scandal that led to a conviction, the resignations of two other network employees, and a federal investigation into bribery at the major networks. ABC also moved to revoke the affiliation agreement with WKTR-TV effective that August. In May, a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by WKEF ordered ABC to supply its prime time programming to that station; WKTR-TV aired ABC's daytime shows until August 31, 1970, when all ABC programming moved to WKEF. 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.

Plans already existed at that time to activate an educational television station in Dayton. The Ohio Educational Television Network Commission, a state agency coordinating educational broadcasting activities, used funds initially intended for new station construction to acquire the WKTR-TV license and transmitter; channel 16 began broadcasting again on April 24, 1972, as WOET-TV. WOET-TV initially served to simulcast WMUB-TV (the now-WPTO) in Oxford. In 1975, the commission transferred the license to University Regional Broadcasting—a consortium of Miami University, Central State University, and Wright State University. The station changed its call letters to WPTD in 1977; University Regional Broadcasting renamed itself Greater Dayton Public Television in 1982. After previously having offices spread in multiple locations, the station consolidated into new downtown Dayton studios in 1988. WPTO became a separately programmed secondary station in 1992.

Ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 16 was the originally allocated reserved channel for educational television in Dayton. However, early exploration of activating the channel proved fruitless. In September 1953, a study group ceased activities, stating that starting such a station was "beyond the ability of this area". Interest increased in 1961 when the Miami Valley Educational Television Foundation was formed.

However, in 1965, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reallocated UHF television channels nationwide. The educational reservation was shifted to channel 45, and channel 16 became available for use by a commercial station. That June, Kittyhawk Broadcasting Corporation announced it would file to build channel 16 as an independent station and the fourth commercial outlet in the region; the station would be located in nearby Kettering. The FCC approved Kittyhawk's application and granted a construction permit at the start of December. 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. However, work was delayed while Kittyhawk petitioned the FCC for a taller tower than originally proposed; a start date of January 1968 was set.

Delayed by weather and supply issues, WKTR-TV went on the air on March 20, 1967. Eight hours of programming a day were planned, including locally produced news, educational programs for the Kettering area, and a country and western music program, though the lineup was dominated by syndicated shows and movies. At the time of launch, the company announced its reorganization at Kittyhawk Television and claimed that it could be profitable in six months. Citing strong advertising sales, WKTR moved in September to extend its broadcast day from 8 to 15 hours a day, including shows pre-empted by local network affiliates. 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.

WKTR-TV continued to operate at a loss in 1968, and in January, negotiations were held with the ABC television network over a possible sale of channel 16, with ABC employees visiting Kettering to examine the station. It would have been the first UHF television station owned by ABC; the network already owned the maximum of five stations on the very high frequency (VHF) band and could own up to two UHF stations such as WKTR-TV. John Campbell, president of the owned-and-operated stations division of ABC, admitted on January 31 that the network was interested in the station. The possibility of WKTR-TV affiliating with ABC posed the possibility of major changes in local television. Even though Dayton had three stations, ABC programs were split between WLWD (channel 2) and WKEF (channel 22), with the latter seeking a full affiliation and not getting it. WKEF aired 70 percent of the network's output in the Dayton area.