WPXW-TV

WPXW-TV
Manassas, Virginia/Washington, D.C.
United States
City Manassas, Virginia
Branding ION Television
Slogan Positively Entertaining
Channels Digital: 34 (UHF)
(to move to 35 (UHF))
Virtual: 66 (PSIP)
Subchannels 66.1 - Ion HD (720p)
66.2 - qubo (480i)
66.3 - Ion Life (480i)
66.4 - Ion Shop (480i)
66.5 - Home Shopping Network
66.6 - QVC
Affiliations Ion Television
Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.
(Ion Media Washington License, Inc.)
First air date March 26, 1978 (1978-03-26)
Call letters' meaning PaX Washington, D.C.
Sister station(s) WWPX-TV
Former callsigns WTKK (1978–1994)
WVVI (1994–1998)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
66 (UHF, 1978–2009)
Former affiliations Religious Ind. (1978–1994)
ValueVision (1994–1997)
inTV (1997–1998)
Transmitter power 1000 kW
Height 258 m (846 ft)
Facility ID 74091
Transmitter coordinates 38°57′01″N 77°04′47″W / 38.95028°N 77.07972°W / 38.95028; -77.07972Coordinates: 38°57′01″N 77°04′47″W / 38.95028°N 77.07972°W / 38.95028; -77.07972
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.iontelevision.com

WPXW-TV is an Ion Television (formerly Pax TV and i) owned-and-operated television station serving the American capital city of Washington, District of Columbia, that is licensed to nearby Manassas, Virginia. Owned by ION Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications), the station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 34 (remapped to former analog channel 66 via PSIP). WPXW's studios are located in Fairfax Station, Virginia, and its transmitter is located in the tower complex near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and 41st Street NW in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington.

History

Channel 66 signed on as WTKK, an independent religious station, in 1978. The call letters stood for Witnessing The King of Kings. In 1982 they added some classic sitcoms and very old movies to the lineup but by 1986 they reverted to mostly religious. In 1994, the station was purchased by ValueVision, a shopping network, and on June 6, 1994, the call letters were changed to WVVI. Paxson Communications purchased the station in 1997 and on January 13, 1998, the call letters were changed to the current WPXW. The station was an all-infomercial channel ("inTV") from the time that Paxson bought the station until the PAX Network began on August 31, 1998. The station had the rights to the 2005 season of Baltimore Orioles games in the Washington area that were produced by MASN. It was formerly known as PAX66, before the PAX network switched its name to Ion.

WWPX-TV in Martinsburg, West Virginia, serves as a full-time satellite of WPXW.

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Network
66.1 720p 16:9 ION Ion Television
66.2 480i 4:3 qubo Qubo
66.3 IONLife Ion Life
66.4 Shop Ion Shop
66.5 HSN HSN
66.6 QVC QVC

[1]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPXW-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 66, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 34.[2] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 66, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

On April 20, 2009, it was announced that Washington, D.C., would be the first market to get free mobile digital television via cell phones and other mobile devices through Mobile DTV. WPXW began testing mobile television on June 13, 2009, and was one of the first stations in the country to launch this new platform.

Like all of the D.C.-area Mobile DTV broadcasters, WPXW-TV commenced ATSC-M/H broadcasting on February 27, 2011. WPXW-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 66.2, labelled "Qubo", with six encrypted video feeds of MSNBC (66.4), CNBC (66.5), MTV (66.6), Nickelodeon (66.7), and Comedy Central (66.8), broadcasting at 3.67 Mbit/s. This is the highest number of encrypted television signals of any D.C.-area television station mobile feed.[3][4]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.