WPXM-TV explained

Callsign:WPXM-TV
City:Miami, Florida
Branding:Ion
Digital:21 (UHF)
Virtual:35
Owner:Ion Media
Licensee:Ion Media License Company, LLC
Location:MiamiFort Lauderdale, Florida
Country:United States
Airdate:[1]
Callsign Meaning:Pax Miami
Sister Stations:WSFL-TV
Erp:225 kW
Haat:2790NaN0
Facility Id:48608
Licensing Authority:FCC

WPXM-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, serving as the market's Ion Television outlet. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate WSFL-TV (channel 39), also licensed to Miami. WPXM-TV's offices are located on Northwest 14th Street in Sunrise, and its transmitter is located in Andover, Florida.

History

The station first signed on the air in October 1992 as WMLB-TV. Originally operating as an independent station, the station changed its call letters to WDLP-TV in January 1993, before changing it again to WCTD in December of that year. Channel 35 was acquired by Paxson Communications in 1997. Shortly after the sale was finalized, the station became an affiliate of the Infomall TV Network (inTV), which carried an infomercial format. On August 31, 1998, the station's call letters were changed to WPXM-TV; that same date, the station became a charter owned-and-operated station of Pax TV (now Ion).

From 2002 through the 2005 season, WPXM was the flagship broadcast station of the Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins), whose games also aired on then-sister station WPXP-TV in West Palm Beach.

Newscasts

From 2001 until 2005, when NBC entered a shared services agreement with Pax TV, WPXM aired rebroadcasts of NBC owned-and-operated station WTVJ (channel 6)'s newscasts.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel! scope = "col"
Res.AspectShort nameProgramming
35.1 ION Ion Television
35.2 Bounce Bounce TV
35.3 Grit Grit
35.4 Laff Laff
35.5 SCRIPPS Scripps News
35.6 HSN HSN
35.7 Jewelry Jewelry TV
35.8CourtTV Court TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPXM-TV shut down its analog signal, on UHF channel 35, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). On February 18, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 26 to channel 35.[2] WPXM was the only Miami-licensed station that applied to cease analog transmissions on the original transition date, despite the DTV Delay Act having extended the deadline to June 12.

Notes and References

  1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 15, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 25.
  2. Web site: DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the Second Rounds . https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf . dead . August 29, 2013 . PDF . March 24, 2012.