| Youngstown, Ohio | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Fox Youngstown First News |
| Slogan | The Valley's Only 10 P.M. News |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) & WKBN-DT 41.2 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | New Vision Television (NVT Youngstown Licensee, LLC) |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Call letters' meaning | Warren and Youngstown's FoX |
| Sister station(s) | WKBN WYTV |
| Former callsigns | WYFX-LP (1998-2011) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 62 (UHF, 1998-2011) WFXI-CA 17 (UHF) Mercer, Pennsylvania |
| Transmitter power | 15 kW 570 kW (WKBN-DT2) |
| Height | 553.7 m 440 m (WKBN-DT2) |
| Facility ID | 68398 73153 (WKBN-DT2) |
| Website | foxyoungstown.com |
WYFX-LD is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio, licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a low-powered digital signal UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township. Owned by New Vision Television, the station is sister to CBS affiliate WKBN-TV and ABC affiliate WYTV (along with a MyNetworkTV subchannel). The latter is owned by PBC Broadcasting, LLC but operated by New Vision Television though a shared services agreement (a.k.a. SSA). All of the channels share studios on Sunset Boulevard in Boardman Township (although the mailing address is Youngstown). Syndicated programming on WYFX includes: The Office, Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, and King of Queens.
Although WYFX does not qualify under must-carry rules due to being a low-power station, it is carried on all Mahoning Valley cable systems as part of the compensation for carrying WKBN. It is noticeably absent from Comcast systems in New Castle, Pennsylvania, which, despite being considerably closer to Youngstown, is part of the Pittsburgh market.
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WYFX-LP, along with repeater WFXI-LP (channel 17) in Mercer, Pennsylvania, were launched in 1998 as the area's first full-time Fox affiliates. (WFXI-LP shared its call letters with the Fox affiliate in Morehead City, North Carolina; both stations were owned by Piedmont Television until 2007, but were otherwise unrelated.) Previously, WYTV showed some Fox Sports events from 1994 until 1998. With digital television in its infancy at the time, WYFX and WFXI were started with their own signals as opposed to future stations WFMJ-DT2 and WYTV-DT2, which were both launched on new second digital subchannels of WFMJ-TV and WYTV respectively. This resulted in WYFX and WFXI having their own licenses with the FCC. Because of duopoly rules at the time, which would be partially repealed only two years later, both stations were launched as low-power stations (though WFXI converted to a class A license in 2002). The two were originally branded "Fox 17 / 62" for most of their first ten years.
In 2008, the stations started slowly re-branding themselves as "Fox Youngstown" in some advertisements, despite still using the "Fox 17 / 62" logo. This was done because the on-air branding of "Fox 17 / 62" would be rendered useless once they would be forced to sign-off their analog signals in 2012. Low-power and class A analog signals have a later deadline for sign-off than the June 12, 2009 sign-off for full-powered analog signals like WKBN. Additionally, WYFX and WFXI are carried on different channel positions on cable. A new logo was introduced for the start of the 2008-2009 fall season, similar to the old logo except that the "17 / 62" designation, as well as the WYFX calls, are removed. Some advertisements still used the "Fox 17 / 62" branding for some time afterward, but as of October 2008, the stations had all but fully renamed itself as "Fox Youngstown". A completely redesigned logo would debut in February 2009, matching WKBN's then-newly redesigned logo, and by that point the station was completely known by the new branding.
On February 8, 2009, WKBN did a "dual HD" test airing both college basketball on 41.1 and the Gatorade Duel (the qualifying race for the Daytona 500) on 41.2 in a possible attempt to broadcast both signals in high definition full-time. Previously, WKBN-DT2 was aired in standard definition with special sporting events (such as additional games from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship) using 41.3 in HD. WKBN had to compress both signals to the 720p format in order to make it possible. That station began broadcasting both channels in high definition full-time the next day making WKBN the eighth station nationally to broadcast two subchannels in high definition on the same signal. This continued until October 4, 2011, when New Vision moved the WYFX-HD transmission to the WYFX-LD antenna. 41.2 continues to carry a standard definition feed.[1][2]
WFXI-CA was closed down on October 1, 2009, with the license being returned to the FCC the next day.[3][4] However, current television listings continue to display WFXI-CA.[5]
On January 23, 2006, the WKBN-produced First News at 10 on Fox 17 / 62 became the area's only hour-long prime time broadcast on weeknights. With the rebranding in 2008, the news title was changed as well. There is also a two-hour long weekday morning newscast that airs while WKBN broadcasts The Early Show. All news programming on WYFX originate from a secondary set.
On Thursday, May 6, 2010, WYFX (along with sister stations WKBN and WYTV) made the switch to HD broadcasts.
First News This Morning (Weekday Mornings 7 to 9)
First News on Fox (Weeknights 10 to 11 & Weekends 10 to 10:30)
WYFX features additional news personnel from WKBN. See that article for a complete listing.
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