WFPX-TV

WFPX-TV, virtual channel 62 (UHF digital channel 32), is an Ion Plus owned-and-operated television station licensed to Archer Lodge, North Carolina, United States and serving the Triangle region (Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill–Fayetteville). The station is owned by West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications), as part of a duopoly with Rocky Mount-licensed Ion Television owned-and-operated station WRPX-TV (channel 47). The two stations share a sales office on Gresham Lake Road in Raleigh and transmitting facilities northeast of Middlesex in unincorporated Nash County.

WFPX-TV
Archer Lodge/Raleigh/
Durham, North Carolina
United States
CityArcher Lodge, North Carolina
ChannelsDigital: 32 (UHF)
(shared with WRPX-TV[1])
Virtual: 62 (PSIP)
BrandingIon Plus
Programming
AffiliationsIon Plus (O&O; 2018–present)
Ownership
OwnerIon Media Networks
(Ion Media License Company, LLC)
Sister stationsWRPX-TV
History
FoundedSeptember 14, 1981
First air dateMarch 1985 (1985-03)[2]
(in Fayetteville, North Carolina; license moved to Archer Lodge in 2018[3])
Former call signsWFCT (1985–1993)
WFAY (1993–1998)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
62 (UHF, 1985–2009)
Digital:
36 (UHF, until 2018)
15 (UHF, 2018–2019)
Former affiliationsIndependent (1985–1994)
Fox (1994–1998)
Ion Television (as satellite of WRPX-TV, 1998–2018)
Call sign meaningFayetteville's PaX
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID21245
ClassDT
ERP170 kW[4]
HAAT563.8 m (1,850 ft)[4]
Transmitter coordinates35°49′52.8″N 78°8′42.8″W[4]
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websiteionlife.com

Originally licensed to Fayetteville, WFPX served as a full-time satellite of WRPX-TV from 1998 until 2018. WFPX's signal covered areas of south-central North Carolina that received a marginal to non-existent signal from WRPX, although there was significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. WFPX was a straight simulcast of WRPX; on-air references to WFPX were limited to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-mandated hourly station identifications during programming. Aside from its former transmitter, WFPX did not maintain any physical presence locally in Fayetteville.

History

Channel 62 signed on in 1985 as WFCT, an independent station owned by Fayetteville/Cumberland Telecasters. Attorneys Robinson and Katherine Everett of Durham, founders of WRDU-TV (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDC) in Durham, along with WJKA (now Fox affiliate WSFX-TV) in Wilmington and WGGT (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV) in Greensboro, were two of the principals in this company.

The station changed call letters to WFAY in 1993 and became a Fox affiliate in 1994; the affiliation came as part of a deal that also saw the Everetts switch their CBS affiliates, WJKA and KECY-TV in El Centro, California/Yuma, Arizona to Fox.[5] Even though WFAY was located in the same market as WLFL (a Fox affiliate at the time), it mainly focused on communities located south of Fayetteville that did not get a good signal from WLFL. Some of its non-network programming was also simulcast to the Raleigh–Durham area on WRAY-TV for a couple of years in the mid-1990s until it was acquired by the Shop at Home network.

WFAY later became WFPX and dropped Fox after being bought out by Paxson in the middle of 1998, shortly before WRAZ assumed the Fox affiliation for the Raleigh market. Later that year, newly minted Fox station WFXB out of the Florence–Myrtle Beach market expanded its signal to cover areas formerly served by WFAY. It is worthy of note that WFPX's signal was not seen at all in the northern portion of the Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville market, but covered northern portions of the Florence–Myrtle Beach market, which did not have its own Ion Television affiliate until 2015, when WBTW added Ion on a digital subchannel following a deal made with Media General.

Channel-sharing agreement with WRPX

On April 4, 2017, WFPX was identified by the FCC as receiving $62.4 million for the spectrum reallocation auction.[6] The station later entered into a channel-sharing arrangement with WRPX (as that station's signal does not reach Fayetteville, WFPX changed its city of license to Archer Lodge, North Carolina.[3]) After the channel share went into effect, WRPX-DT3, carrying Ion Life (now Ion Plus), took WFPX's 62.1 virtual channel, assuring that network market-wide must-carry over pay-TV systems.

Digital television

Digital channel
Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[7]
62.1480i4:3IONPlusMain WFPX-TV programming / Ion Plus

Analog-to-digital conversion

WFPX-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 62, at noon 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 36.[8] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 62, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Spectrum repack

WFPX-TV moved from channel 15 to channel 32 on September 11, 2019.

Out-of-market coverage

In recent years, WFPX has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the Wilmington media market.

References
  1. Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application
  2. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says March 14, while the Television and Cable Factbook says March 4.
  3. WFPX Community of License Change Exhibit
  4. "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. March 4, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  5. Flint, Joe (April 14, 1994). "CBS loses trio of affils to Fox". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  6. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 13, 2017. p. 1. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  7. RabbitEars TV Query for WFPX
  8. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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