WZDX

WZDX, virtual channel 54 (UHF digital channel 18), is a dual Fox/MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Huntsville, Alabama, United States and serving North Alabama's Tennessee Valley. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WZDX's studios are located on North Memorial Parkway (US 72/231/431) in Huntsville, and its transmitter is located on Monte Sano Mountain in the Mountain Heights section of the city. The station is carried on channel 5 on most cable systems in the market.

WZDX
Huntsville/Decatur/Florence, Alabama
United States
CityHuntsville, Alabama
ChannelsDigital: 18 (UHF)
Virtual: 54 (PSIP)
BrandingWZDX (general)
WZDX News (newscasts)
MeTV Tennessee Valley (on DT3)
SloganPutting the Valley First
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerTegna Inc.
(Tegna Broadcast Holdings, LLC)
History
FoundedAugust 20, 1984
First air dateApril 19, 1985 (1985-04-19)[1]
Former channel number(s)Analog:
54 (UHF, 1984–2009)
Former affiliationsAnalog/DT1:
Independent (1984–1987)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID28119
ERP700 kW
522 kW (CP)
HAAT517.9 m (1,699 ft)
525.3 m (1,723 ft) (CP)
Transmitter coordinates34°44′12.8″N 86°31′58.9″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.rocketcitynow.com

History

WZDX first signed on April 19, 1985 as Northern Alabama's first independent station and the area's first new outlet to launch in nearly twenty years. The station originally broadcast in analog on channel 54. The inaugural program shown was an airing of the 1968 film Charly. The station's transmitter was on Green Mountain in Southeastern Huntsville while its studios were in the northwestern section of the city. During the first months after its beginning, WZDX used the slogan "We're Taking You to the Top!" and ran full page ads in The Huntsville Times with this tagline and with still pictures of old movies and syndicated TV shows that the station planned to air.

When the Fox network began service on October 9, 1986, WZDX initially abstained from affiliating with the network unlike many other independent TV stations across the country that had signed on with them. However, by December 5, 1987, the station started showing Fox's prime time schedule at the time, but didn't refer to themselves as a Fox affiliate until 1990. Also that year on March 29, WZDX became the first property owned by a new broadcasting group founded by Milton Grant.

In 2002, it launched the second digital signal of the market on UHF channel 41. A simulcast of cable-only WB affiliate "WAWB-TV" was then added to a second digital subchannel of WZDX. That offered non-cable viewers access to WB programming for the first time. In September 2003, the broadcast tower shared by WZDX and ABC affiliate WAAY-TV (channel 31) collapsed killing three men. Until it could be replaced, WZDX and WAAY temporarily aired from the nearby tower of CBS affiliate WHNT-TV (channel 19).

On November 6, 2013, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WZDX, for $87.5 million.[2] The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.[3] WZDX is Nexstar's second station in Alabama; it already owned WDHN, the ABC affiliate in Dothan. On January 27, 2016, it was announced that Nexstar would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. WZDX, along with WDHN, will become part of "Nexstar Media Group" and join a cluster of stations Nexstar would own in Alabama including WIAT in Birmingham and WKRG-TV in Mobile, as well as WRBL in Columbus, Georgia, which covers much of east Alabama including Opelika and Auburn. All three of these stations are CBS affiliates.

On July 15, 2018, Nexstar agreed to acquire WHDF from Lockwood Broadcast Group for $2.25 million; Nexstar concurrently took over WHDF's operations through a time brokerage agreement.[4] The sale was completed on November 9,[5] creating a duopoly with WZDX.

On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media—which has owned CBS affiliate WHNT-TV (channel 19) since December 2013—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WHNT directly or indirectly while owning WZDX, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of more than two stations in the same media market, or two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WHNT through local marketing or shared services agreements would be subject to regulatory hurdles that could delay completion of the FCC and Justice Department's review and approval process for the acquisition.) As such, Nexstar decided to sell WZDX to a separate, unrelated company to address the ownership conflict. WHDF does not rank among the top four in total-day viewership and therefore is not in conflict with existing FCC in-market ownership rules, thus, WHDF was retained by Nexstar and will merge their operations into WHNT's studios.)[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] On March 20, 2019, Tysons, Virginia-based Tegna Inc. announced it would purchase WZDX from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion; this would make WZDX the first television property in Alabama for Tegna and a sister station to NBC affiliate WBIR-TV in Knoxville and the duopoly of NBC affiliate WXIA-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL in Atlanta. WHDF was not included in the sale, with Nexstar intending to form a new duopoly involving WHNT.[16][17] The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16 and was completed on September 19, 2019.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[18]
54.1720p16:9WZDX-DTMain WZDX programming / Fox
54.2480iWAMY-DT"WAMY-TV" / MyNetworkTV
54.3MeTV-SDMeTV
54.4MysteryCourt TV Mystery

On April 17, 2012, WZDX launched a third digital subchannel on 54.3, that carries MeTV.[19]

On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it had entered into an affiliation agreement with Katz Broadcasting for the Escape (now Court TV Mystery), Laff, Grit, and Bounce TV networks (the last one of which is owned by Bounce Media LLC, whose COO Jonathan Katz is president/CEO of Katz Broadcasting), bringing one or more of the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including WZDX (Bounce TV and Grit were already available in the area on digital subchannels of WAFF-TV).[20]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WZDX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[21] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41, using PSIP to display WZDX's virtual channel as 54 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition. In order to adequately serve its area, its effective radiated power was increased to 700 kW on July 2.

Programming

Syndicated programming on WZDX includes The Big Bang Theory, Dr. Phil, Mike & Molly, and Judge Mathis among others. Syndicated programming on WZDX-DT2 includes Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Maury, and The Wendy Williams Show among others.

Newscasts
A WZDX anchor conducting an interview at the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship media day

In January 2007, WZDX launched a 30-minute prime time newscast known as Fox 54 Nine O'Clock News. Airing every night except Saturday, it was produced by the Independent News Network (INN) through an outsourcing agreement with Grant Broadcasting. News anchors, meteorologists, and sports anchors were provided by INN and other personnel from the newscast production company would fill-in as needed. WZDX maintained two locally based news reporters which would contribute content to the show. It was taped in advance and then fed to the station through satellite.

The broadcasts originated from INN's facility on Tremont Avenue in Davenport, Iowa. In a report in the Macon, Georgia Telegraph, it was announced the Independent News Network filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the company would end all news productions (including those for WZDX) by January 9, 2009.[22] However, all INN broadcasts would then be reinstated under ownership of Fusion Communications (also of Davenport) according to the newspaper. WZDX would not face local news competition until February 1, 2010 when WHNT added a nightly half-hour newscast at 9 to its Retro Television Network (RTV) subchannel (WHNT-DT2 dropped RTV for Antenna TV in 2011).

On September 20, WZDX terminated its outsourcing agreement with INN and entered into another news share arrangement with WAAY (owned by Calkins Media). This resulted in a local refocus of Fox 54 Nine O'Clock News which can now be seen every night from a secondary set at WAAY's studios on Monte Sano Boulevard Southeast. WZDX maintains separate news anchors and a meteorologist but they can report for and/or fill-in on WAAY.[23][24] In addition to its main facility, the latter also operates bureaus in Decatur (on Lee Street Northeast) and The Shoals (in Florence on North Pine Street within the University of North Alabama campus). Although the previous INN newscasts were in high definition in later years, the newscasts on WZDX reverted to pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition when WAAY took over the production. WAAY upgraded to high definition newscasts on December 12, 2011 and the WZDX shows were included.

On December 4, 2015, Nexstar announced that WZDX would launch a standalone news operation on April 4, 2016. Concurrently, the station's newscast was extended to an hour.[25]

gollark: Oh, right, you should probably ask though.
gollark: There are a bunch of projects reverse-engineering small things on the forums and whatnot, and those appear to be okay.
gollark: Well, that rule is basically just incredibly loosely enforced and used to get rid of what TJ09 doesn't like (*yes I am still annoyed*)...
gollark: (wild guessing mostly; I just doubt TJ09 would make it go up much)
gollark: I don't actually know this, but I suspect we get maybe 120 prizes a month tops now.

References
  1. "WZDX Fox 54 – Better Business Bureau Profile". www.bbb.org. Better Business Bureau. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  2. Malone, Michael (November 6, 2013). "Nexstar to Acquire Seven Grant Stations For $87.5 Million". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  3. Consummation Notice,CDBS Public Access Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  4. "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  5. "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  6. "Acquisition of Tribune Media Company" (PDF). Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018.
  7. Mark K. Miller (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Buying Tribune Media For $6.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
  8. Peter White; Dade Hayes (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Confirms $4.1B Tribune Media Acquisition To Become Leading Local TV Station Owner". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
  9. Gerry Smith; Nabila Ahmed; Eric Newcomer (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy WGN owner Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Bloomberg News.
  10. Arjun Panchadar; Sonam Rai (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Reuters.
  11. Jon Lafayette (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Announces Deal to Buy Tribune for $6.4B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
  12. Adam Jacobson (December 3, 2018). "It's Official: Nexstar Takes Tribune In Billion-Dollar Stock Deal". Radio-Television Business Report. Streamline-RBR, Inc.
  13. Harry A. Jessell; Mark K. Miller (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar To Spin Off $1B In Stations". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
  14. "Nexstar Media Group Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Tribune Media Company for $6.4 Billion in Accretive Transaction Creating the Nation's Largest Local Television Broadcaster and Local Media Company". Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  15. "Nexstar Media Group Enters Into Definitive Agreement To Acquire Tribune Media Company". Tribune Media. December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  16. "Nexstar Selling 19 TVs In 15 Markets For $1.32B". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  17. Nabila Ahmed; Anousha Sakoui (March 20, 2019). "Nexstar to Sell Stations to Tegna, Scripps for $1.32 Billion". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg, L.P.
  18. RabbitEars TV Query for WZDX
  19. Me-TV Lands Affiliations In Three More Market. TVNewsCheck, March 30, 2012.
  20. "Bounce TV, Grit, Escape, Laff Multicast Deal Covers 81 Stations, 54 Markets". Broadcasting & Cable. June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  21. List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  22. "Macon Telegraph: "Future of Macon TV station's nightly newscast uncertain", 1/5/2009". Archived from the original on 2009-01-27. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  23. http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13097072
  24. http://blog.al.com/entertainment-times/2010/09/post_21.html
  25. Kuperberg, Jonathan (December 17, 2015). "Nexstar's WZDX Expanding News, Adding Staff, Remodeling Facilities". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
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