WFXW

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WFXW
Terre Haute, Indiana
Branding	Fox 38
Channels	38 (UHF) analog, 39 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Mission Broadcasting (Nexstar Broadcasting Group)
Founded	June 8, 1973
Call letters meaning	W FoX Wabash
Former callsigns	WBAK-TV (1978-2005) WIIL-TV (1973-1978)
Former affiliations	ABC (1973-1995)
Transmitter Power	2140 kW/299 m
Website	www.mywabashvalley.com

WFXW is a television station in Terre Haute, Indiana, broadcasting locally on channel 38 as an affiliate of the Fox television network. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, but is operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group through a local marketing agreement. Nexstar also operates local NBC affiliate WTWO. The station's transmitter is located in Farmersburg, Indiana.

[edit] History

The station signed on the air on June 8, 1973 as WIIL-TV, a full-time affiliate of ABC, of which some programming was previously seen off-hours on NBC affiliate WTWO. Originally assigned to broadcast on UHF channel 66, the station eventually gained permission to broadcast on UHF channel 38.

The original owner, Alpha Broadcasting, poured money into the new operation, including a weeknight newscast, the "WiiL-TV Evening News". However, the local market situation led the station immediately into the red. Viewers had been entrenched with watching the longer-established VHF stations WTWO and WTHI, and were not as familiar with the then-weaker ABC network lineup. By 1974 the newscast had been cancelled and the station itself nearly signed off the air for good, however the station remained on the air.

In 1978, Cy N. Bahakel purchased the station, renaming it WBAK-TV (after his last name). Local news returned in the form of "News 38", which was largely composed of former employees of local CBS affiliate WTHI-TV. This incarnation of local news, which ran as a single newscast daily, folded in 1981. Local morning programming of a sort continued in the form of "Good Morning Terre Haute", which consisted of taped interviews and a weather forecast. "Faith to Live By", a short daily devotional program that previously aired on WTWO, was seen weekday mornings immediately after sign on.

In 1995, WBAK-TV changed affiliation to the Fox network, citing low ratings from the then-overabundance of (stronger rated) outlying ABC affiliates. Originally, most cable companies in the market carried ABC affiliates WRTV Indianapolis, WTVW Evansville, IN; or WAND-TV Dectaur, IL, in addition to WBAK-TV. In addition to cable, over the air reception of WTVW in particular was very strong in the southern half of the Terre Haute DMA, while the eastern half was covered fairly well by WRTV.

The outlying ABC affiliates themselves went through changes. In 1996 WTVW switched to the Fox network, leaving many viewers in the southern half of the DMA without ABC programming (new Evansville ABC affiliate WEHT suffered from a weaker UHF signal). In 2005 WAND in Decatur switched to NBC. ABC was then picked up by WICD Champaign, IL; which replaced WAND-TV on cable systems in the western half of the Terre Haute market. Over the air viewers actually benefited from this switch, as WICD's transmitter tower is closer to the Terre Haute DMA than that of WAND's, and provides a stronger signal.

While leaving the Terre Haute, Indiana DMA without an over-the-air ABC affiliate, the network switch gave the market the market it's first Fox network affiliate; which had previously been available through cable only either via the defunct Foxnet or Indianapolis station WXIN. The switch to Fox and the introduction of a primetime local newscast helped the ratings of the station, which had previously languished for years as an ABC affiliate.

At the same time that WBAK-TV switched to Fox programming, an agreement was reached with local CBS affiliate WTHI-TV to provide a 10:00 p.m. primetime newscast for the newly christened "Fox 38".

The station's morning interview program, "Good Morning Terre Haute", continued for a short period as the retitled "Valley Focus on Fox 38". This ended in 1996, as did the devotional program "Faith To Live By". "Valley Point of View", a weekly public affairs program produced by Leadership Terre Haute, continued on the station until 2004.

The WTHI-TV newscast lasted until December 31, 2003, some time after local NBC affiliate WTWO had taken control of WBAK under a joint sales agreement. WBAK had been sold by Bahakel to Mission Broadcasting, which had immediately entered into the JSA with WTWO owner Nexstar Broadcasting Group.

In mid 2004, WTWO premiered it's own 10pm newscast, entitled "NewsChannel 2 Prime Edition". This broadcast utilized the same talent and resources as WTWO's 6pm and 11pm weeknight newscasts.

WBAK's call letters were changed to "WFXW" on July 1, 2005. On the same day, the 10pm newscast was rebranded to "Fox 38 News at Ten" for a brief period, then later to "WFXW Prime Edition". As of April 2007, WFXW's 10pm newscast has been rebranded again to "WTWO Prime Edition on WFXW", and now features a separate news anchor from WTWO's regular evening newscasts.

Aside from the stand-alone live 10pm weeknight newscast, WFXW also airs rebroadcasts of WTWO's morning news at 7am EST and evening news at 7pm EST. Due to the Terre Haute DMA covering two time zones (Eastern and Central), the WTWO news rebroadcasts are actually seen an hour earlier during 'traditional' newscast times in the Central Time Zone, (6am CST and 6pm CST, respectively).

[edit] Syndicated programming on WFXW

• Divorce Court
• Dr. Keith Ablow
• Friends
• Judge Alex
• Judge Joe Brown
• King of the Hill
• Malcolm in the Middle
• The People's Court
• Seinfeld
• The Tyra Banks Show
• Cristina's Court
• Scrubs
• That '70s Show
• The Simpsons
• Maury Povich

[edit] External links

• WFXW home page, shared with WTWO
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WFXW

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Indiana
WTVW 7 (Evansville) - WSJV 28 (South Bend) - WFXW 38 (Terre Haute) - WFFT 55 (Fort Wayne) - WXIN 59 (Indianapolis)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, UPN, WB, Religious and Other stations in the state of Indiana