WYPX-TV

WYPX-TV is a full-service television station, licensed to Amsterdam, New York, as the affiliate of the Ion Television (formerly PAX and i) network in the New York state's Capital District and Mohawk Valley. The station's broadcast is digital-only on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter located near New York State Route 30 near the Montgomery/Fulton County line, and is carried on Time Warner Cable in much of the Albany market on channel 20. WYPX can also be seen on the eastern fringes of the Utica market. Its original analog assignment was UHF channel 55, but the station ceased broadcasting in analog in September 2007.

History

WYPX signed on the air in 1987 as an independent station under the call letters WOCD. It was owned by Amsterdam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Coit Services of San Francisco, California, and was leased to Christian Community Television (CCT) of Schenectady, New York. CCT faced financial troubles from the outset and they soon fell behind on their payments, so Amsterdam Broadcasting resumed control of the station.^[1] The station went dormant in 1989, but in 1991, Coit struck a deal to sell the station to Tennessee TV executive Wade Griffith for $1.8 million (US). Griffith would have relaunched the station as WNSI, but the deal fell through, and WOCD was sold to Cornerstone Television, a religious broadcaster, for $375,000 (US) in 1992.^[2] The second incarnation of WOCD had problems getting cable carriage in much of the market which combined with the looming conversion to digital television led the station to be sold again.

In 1997, Paxson Communications bought WOCD from Cornerstone, moved the station's offices from Scotia, New York to Guilderland, and made the station an outlet for the Infomall Television Network (inTV).^[1] The call sign was changed to WYPX on January 13, 1998; however, the new calls confused some people as there was a radio station with a similar call sign in the Albany market.^[3] Eventually, the station became a charter station for the PAX-TV network. From 2001 until 2004, WYPX was run in a shared services agreement with NBC affiliate WNYT which included WNYT selling time for WYPX and replays of news and public affairs programming.

Digital television

In early 2005, WYPX-DT signed on the air on UHF channel 50 and broadcasts at 450 kW from the same transmitter site. On April 12, 2007, WYPX requested permission from the FCC to shut down their analog signal on channel 55 so that the bandwidth could be used for Qualcomm's MediaFLO service. Qualcomm had made deals with other stations on channel 55, including WLNY of Riverhead, New York, to shut down analog so that they could launch their new multimedia offering. On September 6, 2007, WYPX was granted permission by the FCC to shut down its analog broadcast, surrender its analog license, and operate as a digital-only station on channel 50. As of September 28, 2007, WYPX has closed its analog signal, becoming a digital-only station.^[4]

Cable and satellite carriage

WYPX is carried on the following cable and satellite systems within the Albany/Schenectady/Troy market:

External links

• Ion Television website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WYPX
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WYPX-TV

References