WTPX-TV explained

Callsign:WTPX-TV
City:Antigo, Wisconsin
Branding:Ion
Digital:19 (UHF)
Virtual:46
Founded:May 15, 1998
Location:AntigoWausauRhinelander, Wisconsin
Country:United States
Callsign Meaning:Network's former name, Pax TV, transposed
Owner:Ion Media
Licensee:Ion Television License, LLC
Former Channel Numbers:Digital: 46 (UHF, 2002–2018)
Erp:24.5 kW
Haat:2790NaN0
Facility Id:86496
Coordinates:45.0592°N -89.4361°W
Licensing Authority:FCC

WTPX-TV (channel 46) is a television station licensed to Antigo, Wisconsin, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the WausauRhinelander market. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains transmitter facilities near Glandon, Wisconsin.

Until 2021, the station's public file was maintained at studios on North Flint Road in Glendale, where WPXE-TV, the Ion station in the Milwaukee market, was based. In October of that year with the 2019 repeal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Main Studio Rule, Ion Media officially registered its studio facility (along with most Ion-owned stations) as the Scripps Center in Cincinnati. The same month, Green Bay sister station WGBA-TV launched Ion as its fifth subchannel, with the affiliation moving from WBAY-TV.

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel! scope = "col"
Res.AspectShort nameProgramming
46.1 ION Ion Television
46.2 Grit Grit
46.3 Mystery Ion Mystery
46.4 Laff Laff
46.5 Bounce Bounce TV
46.6 Scripps Scripps News
46.7 Jewelry Jewelry Television
46.8HSNHSN
46.9QVC2QVC2

Paxson Communications/Ion Media chose to run WTPX-TV as a digital-only station upon signing on in 2001, and held no analog license for the station. Thus, WTPX-TV never had any digital transition channel, flash-cut or analog transition period. It moved from its original physical channel 46 to channel 19 during the FCC's spectrum repack in June 2018, but continues to use channel 46 as its virtual channel position.