WFGX
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| WFGX | |
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| Fort Walton Beach/Pensacola, Florida/ Mobile, Alabama |
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| Branding | My35 |
| Slogan | Serving the Emerald Coast |
| Channels | Analog: 35 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WFGX Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | April 7, 1987 |
| Sister station(s) | WEAR-TV |
| Former affiliations | independent (1987-1996) The WB (1996-2001) independent (2001-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 509 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 60 m (analog) 221 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 6554 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.wfgxtv.com |
WFGX is the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida television market. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and is a sister station to the market's ABC affiliate, WEAR-TV. The station is licensed to Fort Walton Beach, but its operations are housed in WEAR's studios in Pensacola.
WFGX signed on as an independent station in 1987. It became the area's WB affiliate on September 29, 1996, shortly after its previous owners signed a local marketing agreement with WEAR. Sinclair bought WFGX outright in 2001.
WFGX's analog signal is very weak (509,000 watts), resulting in marginal (at best) reception outside the immediate Fort Walton Beach area, even in Pensacola). However, it has long identified as "Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach"--unusual since the city of license is normally listed first when a station references another city in its legal ID. It must rely on cable coverage to reach the entire market. As a result, the WB opted to affiliate with the much stronger WBPG when it signed on in 2001. In 2006, WFGX increased its digital signal to one million watts, enough to provide a good signal to viewers in Pensacola. Home shopping programming from Jewelry Television airs during non-programming hours.
WFGX is unavailable on Comcast Cablevision of Mobile, the largest cable system on the Alabama side of the market. This is presumably because it cannot be seen at all over the air in that part of the market. While this did not change when MyNetworkTV debuted in September 2006, it is possible that this status may change in the future. The FCC's must-carry rules give full-powered stations the option of "retransmission consent." This option gives full-powered stations the right to request compensation from cable systems as a condition of carrying their station. In this case, Sinclair has the right to require cable systems to carry WFGX as a condition of carrying WEAR.
WFGX disappeared from Mediacom, the main cable provider for portions of the Florida side of the market (including Santa Rosa County, and Pensacola Beach) at midnight on January 6, 2007. This was due to Sinclair's dispute over compensation rights. Since no agreement could be reached in time, Mediacom pulled all of Sinclair's stations, including WFGX. Since WFGX is not available on any satellite providers' local feeds, this left a large chunk of the station's viewing area without MNTV. The dispute ended on February 2, when the two sides reached an agreement that restored WFGX to Mediacom's cable system.
[edit] External links
- WFGX website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WFGX
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WFGX-TV
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