| Callsign: | WPXA-TV |
| City: | Rome, Georgia |
| Branding: | Ion |
| Digital: | 16 (UHF) |
| Virtual: | 14 |
| Location: | Rome–Atlanta, Georgia |
| Country: | United States |
| Callsign Meaning: | Pax TV Atlanta |
| Owner: | Ion Media |
| Licensee: | Ion Television License, LLC |
| Erp: | 687 kW |
| Haat: | 5960NaN0 |
| Facility Id: | 51969 |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
WPXA-TV (channel 14) is a television station licensed to Rome, Georgia, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Atlanta area. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and maintains offices on North Cobb Parkway (US 41) in Marietta; its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, near the Cherokee–Bartow county line.
Channel 14 went on the air February 29, 1988, as WAWA-TV. The station was built by Sudbrink Broadcasting, which had acquired the permit from American Communications & Television prior to launch. After operating for two and a half years as a general-entertainment independent station with local news for the Rome area, Sudbrink moved the station into the Atlanta market with a new transmitter facility, new WTLK-TV call letters, and a prime time lineup of local and national talk shows. Neal Boortz, Suzette Charles, and Hosea Williams were among WTLK-TV's lineup of hosts. The station suffered from an inability to gain channel space on Atlanta's cable systems and by 1993 was mostly airing reruns and country music videos. It was acquired by Paxson Communications, forerunner to Ion Media, in 1994 and became an infomercial station; these stations formed the core of the Pax network, predecessor to Ion, in 1998.
In March 1984, after an agreement among four applicants with the channel, American Communications & Television (AC&T) of Gainesville, Florida, won the construction permit to build channel 14 in Rome, the city's first station since what was then WROM-TV on channel 9 moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, as WTVC in 1957.[1] AC&T selected the call sign WZGA and proposed a conventional general-entertainment independent station, but it prioritized constructing KOOG-TV in Ogden, Utah, deferring the construction to late 1985 after deciding to move the tower from Mount Alto to a site on Vineyard's Mountain in Bartow County so the station to extend its signal into Cobb County.[2] AC&T sold the construction permit to Sudbrink Broadcasting of West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1986.[3] Sudbrink elected to proceed with the original Mount Alto site; in November 1987, Sudbrink bought a building on Shorter Avenue to house the station's studios.[4]
Channel 14 began telecasting as WAWA-TV on February 29, 1988.[5] The station offered talk shows, movies, sitcoms, and two local newscasts each day.[6]
Soon after launching, Sudbrink sought to move WAWA-TV into the much larger Atlanta television market. On February 1, 1990, zoning officials in Cherokee County approved the construction of a new tower on Pine Log (or Bear) Mountain, northwest of Canton;[7] Sudbrink also planned to build a second studio in Cherokee County, in Woodstock;[8] its later decision not to do so led to a lawsuit with the county zoning board. The new transmitter facility, constructed at a cost of $2 million, was activated in December 1990. Shortly prior, the station changed its call sign to WTLK-TV ahead of its plan to implement a 24-hour talk-show format.[9] [10]
In March 1991, WTLK-TV signed a lease for studio facilities in Marietta,[11] en route to a planned June 1 launch of its all-talk format, and picked up two NBC game shows not aired by local affiliate WXIA-TV.[12] It also announced that it would discontinue its Rome-area local newscasts but retain the Shorter Avenue studios and offices.[13] The initial phase was intended to bring talk programming to prime time during the week with planned expansion later.
The new local talk shows debuted on June 17, 1991. Five nights a week, the station presented Talk of the Town with former Miss America Suzette Charles and Michael Young, previously of ESPN, as well as Talk at Nite, hosted by WGST's Brian Wilson. Two other shows alternated: The Mike Roberts Show, hosted by WVEE's morning host, and Boortz!, hosted by Neal Boortz (then also of WGST). The prime time lineup was finished out with two national syndicated shows: Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael.[14] [15] In debuting its ambitious new programming, WTLK-TV immediately ran into a major problem. Must-carry rules for local stations on cable systems were not then in effect, and Atlanta cable providers were not adding WTLK to their lineups. After failing to land a slot on any local cable system, Sudbrink conducted a round of layoffs in September 1991, including Young.[16] Suzette Charles departed effective December 1, finding the operation "not up to my professional standards".[17] At one point, Boortz was telling his radio listeners that WTLK would end all of its talk shows on January 17, 1992, with no cable slot in sight.[18] Boortz departed in March 1992, and the next month, Wilson lost his job hosting Talk at Nite when he engaged in an on-air tirade prompted by technical miscues.[19] Hosea Williams came aboard as a weekly shot host after their departures.[20] That August, WTLK added CBS This Morning, which local CBS affiliate WAGA-TV was preempting to air a local morning show.[21]
By 1993, WTLK-TV's schedule consisted mostly of CBS This Morning, country music videos, and reruns.[22] That year, Joel Babbit almost bought the station with plans to expand its talk lineup to 24 hours, with a broader topic mix including home improvement and gardening shows and a model of selling a sponsorship for each talk hour.[23] Babbit abandoned the plan when he became an executive at Whittle Communications less than two months later.[24]
In 1994, Sudbrink sold WTLK-TV to Paxson Communications Corporation, which initially proposed a Christian format.[25] It was Paxson's second television station that it owned, after WPBF serving West Palm Beach, and alongside a station it managed in Miami.[26] Shortly after the acquisition, Atlanta's major cable systems finally added WTLK to their lineups; previously, it had only been on some smaller suburban systems.[27] During this time, the station became the new television home of Atlanta Knights minor-league hockey.[28] Paxson announced the creation of its Infomall TV infomercial network in January 1995 and included WTLK-TV among its first stations.[29]
On August 31, 1998, the Paxson-owned stations formed the nucleus for the new Pax TV network.[30] The station's call sign had been changed that January to WPXA-TV.[31] In the early 2000s, WPXA-TV entered into a joint sales agreement with WXIA-TV, under which the latter station sold channel 14's local advertising and WPXA rebroadcast two of WXIA-TV's newscasts.[32] WPXA also aired the Atlanta Falcons coach's show as part of WXIA-TV's partnership with the NFL team.[33] After changing its name to i: Independent Television in 2005, the network became known as Ion Television in 2007.[34]
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14.1 | ION | Ion Television | ||
| 14.2 | CourtTV | Court TV | ||
| 14.3 | Laff | Laff | ||
| 14.4 | Mystery | Ion Mystery | ||
| 14.5 | IONPlus | Ion Plus | ||
| 14.6 | Grit | Grit | ||
| 14.7 | Jewelry | Jewelry TV | ||
| 14.8 | HSN2 | HSN2 |
WPXA-TV began digital broadcasts on channel 51 on January 5, 2002.[35] The digital signal remained on channel 51 until 2014, when its channel was changed to 31 to eliminate interference with wireless communications service on adjacent frequencies.[36] In September 2019, WPXA-TV moved from channel 31 to 16 as a result of the spectrum incentive auction.[37]