WPXR-TV

WPXR-TV
Roanoke, Virginia
United States
Branding ION Television
Slogan Positively Entertaining
Channels Digital: 36 (UHF)
Virtual: 38 (PSIP)
Subchannels 38.1 Ion Television
38.2 qubo
38.3 Life
38.4 ION Shop
38.5 QVC
38.6 HSN
Affiliations Ion Television (O&O; 2007–present)
Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.
(Ion Media License Company, LLC)
First air date January 3, 1986 (1986-01-03)
Call letters' meaning PaX TV Roanoke
Former callsigns WEFC (1986–1998)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
38 (UHF, 1986–2009)
Former affiliations Religious (1986–1997)
inTV (1997–1998)
Pax TV (1998–2005)
i (2005–2007)
Transmitter power 700 kW
Height 623 m
Facility ID 70251
Transmitter coordinates 37°11′37″N 80°9′25″W / 37.19361°N 80.15694°W / 37.19361; -80.15694
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.ionline.tv

WPXR-TV is the Ion Television affiliate for Roanoke, Virginia. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks, and operates in digital on UHF channel 36. The station broadcasts from atop Poor Mountain. It is on channel 12 on Cox Cable in Roanoke and channel 11 on Comcast in Lynchburg.

History

The station signed on January 3, 1986 as WEFC, a religious station owned by Evangel Foursquare Church (hence the call letters). It was the first new station to sign on in Roanoke in 31 years.

Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) bought the station in 1997 and made it part of the all-infomercial inTV network. It joined Pax TV (later i and now ION) on the network's launch in 1998.

Newscasts

From September 1996 until August 1997, WDBJ produced a 10 p.m. newscast, News 7 Primetime, for WEFC; the newscast was canceled due to low ratings.[1] From 2000 to 2005, WPXR aired rebroadcasts of WSLS-TV's newscasts as part of a joint sales agreement between Paxson Communications and WSLS owner Media General.[2]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Network
38.1 720p 16:9 ION Ion Television
38.2 480i 4:3 qubo Qubo
38.3 IONLife Ion Life
38.4 Shop Ion Shop
38.5 QVC QVC
38.6 HSN HSN

[3]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPXR-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 38, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36,[4] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 38.

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.