WPXV-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.

History

Before WJCB (1985–1989)

Before WJCB (WPXV-TV) signed on the air on May 29, 1989, WJCB and presumably Tidewater Christian Communications had a construction permit license for a television station on August 9, 1985.^[1] WJCB became DWJCB on January 23, 1987, as a possible indication that the WJCB construction permit license was going to be deleted by the Federal Communications Commission.^[1] The Federal Communications Commission restored DWJCB to the WJCB calls on October 6, 1987, almost two years before WJCB signed on the air, thus granting WJCB and presumably Tidewater Christian Communications the construction permit needed to build a television station for over-the-air broadcasting.^[1]

WJCB (1989-1998)

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 (WPXV-TV) was initially owned by Tidewater Christian Communications.^[2] During its years as WJCB the station aired religious programming, infomercials and shopping programming. In April 1997, WJCB went under new ownership when Tidewater Christian Communications sold WJCB to Lockwood Broadcasting of Hampton, Virginia.^[3] Lockwood Broadcasting purchased WJCB from Tidewater Christian Communications for $6.75 million.^[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] for $14.75 million, thus making WJCB (WPXV-TV) into a PAX owned and operated station.^[3][4]

WPXV and WPXV-TV (1998-present)

Paxson Communications change the WJCB calls letters from WJCB to WPXV on March 2, 1998, in order to reflect the station's new ownership with Paxson Communications (Ion Media Networks) and the pending affiliation with the PAX Network of which has not yet launched as an over the air broadcast television network.^[1] Religious programming and infomercials as well as shopping programming continued to air on WPXV until August 31, 1998, when the station started airing PAX programming in the late afternoons and evenings with infomercials and religious programming during the day, with the launch of the then new PAX Network (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 had a Local Marketing Agreement with WAVY-TV in airing rebroadcasts of WAVY-TV's weeknight newscasts however, the Local Marketing Agreement ended with WAVY-TV since rebroadcasts of WAVY-TV's weeknight newscasts left WPXV's weeknight schedule.^[2] There was no weekend rebroadcasts 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 changed its name from Paxson Communications to the current Ion Media Networks name. On January 29, 2007, WPXV-TV became an Ion Television owned and operated station after the I Television Network changed its name to the current Ion Television Network name in order to reflect is ownership with Ion Media Networks.^[2] WPXV call letters remains unchanged from the PAX Network era, even after the name change from the PAX Network 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, 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 had to 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]

Digital television^[5]

Digital channels

The Worship Network was previously seen on WPXV-TV's fourth digital subchannel ^[2] however, ION dropped The Worship Network on all ION owned and operated stations on January 31, 2010 at midnight.^[6]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPXV-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 49, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.^[7] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 46, using PSIP to display WPXV-TV's virtual channel as 49 on digital television receivers.

References

External links

• ION Television website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WPXV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for WPXV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPXV-TV