| Norfolk, Virginia | |
|---|---|
| Branding | ION Television |
| Channels | Digital: 46 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Ion Television |
| Owner | Ion Media Networks, Inc. (Ion Media License Company, LLC) |
| First air date | May 29, 1989 |
| Former callsigns | WJCB (1989-1998) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 49 (1989-2009) |
| Former affiliations | religious independent (1989-1997) inTV (1997-1998) Pax TV (1998-2005) i (2005-2007) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 360 m |
| Facility ID | 67077 |
| Website | www.ionline.tv |
WPXV-TV is the Ion Television owned and operated station for the Hampton Roads area, licensed to Norfolk, Virginia. The station is owned by ION Media Networks, and operates on UHF digital channel 46.
Contents |
Before WJCB now WPXV-TV signed on the air on May 29, 1989, WJCB was first licensed or had a construction permit for a television station on August 9, 1985.[1] WJCB became DWJCB on January 23, 1987 as an possible indication that the WJCB license or construction permit was going to be deleted by the Federal Communications Commission or the FCC.[1] The Federal Communications Commission restored DWJCB back to the WJCB calls on October 6, 1987 about almost two years before WJCB signed on the air thus granting WJCB the construction permit and to broadcast as an over the air television station.[1]
WPXV-TV signed on the air on May 29, 1989 as WJCB. The former WJCB call letters stood for W Jesus Christ Broadcasting.[2] WJCB now WPXV-TV was initially owned by Tidewater Christian Communications.[2] During its years as WJCB the station aired either religious programing and infomercials or shopping programing. In April 1997 WJCB went under new ownership when Tidewater Christian Brodcasting sold WJCB to Lockwood Broadcasting of Hampton, Virginia.[3] Lockwood Broadcasting paid Tidewater Christian Broadcasting $6.75 Million dollars to buy and own WJCB.[3][4] In December 1997 WJCB went under new ownership again when Lockwood Broadcasting sold WJCB to Paxson Communications of which is now ION Media Networks.[3] Paxson Communications of which is now ION Media Networks paid Lockwood Broadcasting $14.75 Million dollars to buy and own WJCB thus making WJCB now WPXV-TV into a PAX Owned and Operated station.[3][4]
Paxson Communications change the WJCB calls letters from WJCB to WPXV on March 2, 1998 possibly to reflect the station's new ownership with Paxson Communications now ION Media Networks and the pending affiliation with the PAX Network of which the PAX Network now the ION television Network has not yet launched as an over the air broadcast television network.[1] Religious programing and infomercials as well as shopping programing continued to air on WPXV until August 31, 1998 when the station started airing PAX programing with infomercials and religious programing during the day with the launch of the then new PAX Network now ION Television.[2] WPXV aired rebroadcasts of WAVY-TV's 6 P.M. and 11 P.M. weeknight newscasts at 7 P.M. and 11:30 P.M. weeknights from 1999-2001. WPXV possibly had a Local Marketing Agreement with WAVY-TV in airing repeats of WAVY-TV's weeknight newscasts but, presumably ended the Local Marketing Agreement with WAVY-TV since repeats of WAVY-TV's weeknight newscasts left WPXV's weeknight schedule.[2] There was no weekend repeats of WAVY-TV's weekend evening 6 P.M. and 11 P.M. newscasts on WPXV at 7 P.M. and 11:30 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday nights. WPXV became a I Television Network owned and operated station on June 28, 2005 when the PAX Network changed its name to The I Television Network. Sometime in 2006 Paxson Communications of which owns WPXV and the then I Television Network change its name from Paxson Communications to the current ION Media Networks name. On January 29, 2007 WPXV-TV became a ION Television owned and operated station after the I Television Network changed its name to the current ION Television Network name possibly in order to reflect is ownership with ION Media Networks.[2] WPXV call letters remains unchanged from the PAX Network era, even after the change from the PAX Network name to I Television Network and its current name to ION Television Network. On June 12, 2009 between the hours of 7 A.M. to 9 A.M in the morning WPXV had to shut down their analog transmitter broadcasting on analog channel 49 and continued to broadcast on their post digital transition channel 46 because the Federal Communications Commission mandated all full power stations nationwide or in the United States like WPXV to broadcast only on digital transmitters and shut down their analog transmitters.[2] Three days later on June 15, 2009 after WPXV shut down the analog transmitter of which was broadcasting on analog channel 49, changed the call letters to the WPXV-DT digital signal broadcasting on digital channel 46 from WPXV-DT to the current WPXV-TV call letters.[1][2]
WPXV-TV broadcasts Qubo on its second digital subchannel as well as Ion Life on its third digital subchannel along with its main ION Television programing on its first digital channel.[2] There used to be The Worship Network on WPXV-TV's fourth digital subchannel [2] however, ION has dropped The Worship Network on all ION owned and operated stations on January 31, 2010 at midnight.[5]
| Channel | Network |
|---|---|
| 49.1 | Main WPXV-TV programming / ION |
| 49.2 | Qubo |
| 49.3 | Ion Life |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||