WUPX-TV

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WUPX-TV
Richmond/Lexington, Kentucky
United States
CityRichmond, Kentucky
ChannelsDigital: 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 67
BrandingIon
Programming
Affiliations67.1: Ion Television
67.2: Grit
67.3: Court TV Mystery
67.4: Newsy
67.5: Laff
67.6: Defy TV
67.7: TrueReal
Ownership
OwnerInyo Broadcast Holdings
(Inyo Broadcast Licenses LLC)
History
FoundedOctober 1993 (1993-10)
First air date
June 1, 1998 (23 years ago) (1998-06-01)
(in Morehead, Kentucky; license moved to Richmond in 2018[1])
Former call signs
WAOM (1998–2001)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
67 (UHF, 1998–2009)
Digital:
21 (UHF, 2002–2019)
UPN (1998–2001)
The WB (secondary, 1999−2001)
Call sign meaning
KentUcky's PaX
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID23128
ClassDT
ERP465 kW[2]
HAAT354.11 m (1,162 ft)[2]
Transmitter coordinates37°47′18″N 84°40′49″W / 37.78833°N 84.68028°W / 37.78833; -84.68028[2]
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websiteiontelevision.com

WUPX-TV, virtual channel 67 (UHF digital channel 25), is an Ion Television-affiliated station serving Lexington, Kentucky, United States that is licensed to Richmond. The station is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings. WUPX-TV's transmitter is located on High Bridge Road north of Bryantsville, Kentucky.

History[]

A construction permit for WAOM was issued in October 1993.[3] Originally licensed to Morehead, Kentucky, the station signed on the air on June 1, 1998, with low-powered UPN affiliate WBLU-LP (channel 62) signing on a year later. Both stations simulcast programming from UPN and The WB as well as infomercials until WAOM was sold off in 2001. After WAOM was sold, WBLU-LP lost both The WB and UPN in 2003 and 2004, respectively, to become independent, and at some point became affiliated with MyNetworkTV and RTV. WBLU-LP is no longer broadcasting as it went dark in 2009 after its parent company went bankrupt.

In 2001, WAOM-TV was sold to Paxson Communications (now Ion Media), became a Pax TV owned-and-operated station and changed its callsign to the current WUPX-TV. Pax TV became i: Independent Television in 2005, and then Ion Television in 2007.

On December 11, 2018, the FCC granted WUPX-TV's petition to change its city of license from Morehead to Richmond, Kentucky. The move was conditioned upon the station providing continued service to Morehead.[1]

Near sale to Scripps; sale to Inyo Broadcast Holdings[]

On September 24, 2020, the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company announced that it would purchase Ion Media for $2.65 billion, with financing from Berkshire Hathaway. With this purchase, Scripps will divest 23 Ion-owned stations, but no announcement was made as to which stations that Scripps would divest as part of the move. However, on October 16, 2020, it was announced that WUPX-TV would be one of the stations that Scripps would spin off as part of the merger. The buyer, revealed in an October 2020 FCC filing to be Inyo Broadcast Holdings, has promised to maintain the stations' Ion Television affiliations after the purchase. The proposed divestitures will allow the merged company to fully comply with the FCC local and national ownership regulations. This would have made it a sister station to NBC affiliate WLEX-TV (channel 18) if Scripps had decided to keep WUPX-TV, but Lexington has fewer than eight independently owned and operating full-power television stations, not enough to permit a duopoly in any case.[4][5][6] The transaction was finalized and closed on January 7, 2021.[7][4][5][6][8][9][10][11]

Technical information[]

Subchannels[]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[12]
67.1 720p 16:9 ION Ion Television
67.2 480i Grit Grit
67.3 Mystery Court TV Mystery
67.4 Newsy Newsy
67.5 Laff Laff
67.6 Defy Defy TV
67.7 True TrueReal

Analog-to-digital conversion[]

WUPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 67, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 21.[13] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 67, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

TV spectrum repack[]

WUPX moved its channel allocation from digital channel 21 to channel 25 in 2019, but it remained on virtual channel 67.[14] The station relocated its transmitter to a tower southwest of Lexington formerly used by Fox affiliate WDKY-TV (channel 56).[2]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Amendment of Section 73.622(i), Digital Television Broadcast Stations Morehead and Richmond, Kentucky" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 11, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d "Amendment to a Modification of a DTV Station Construction Permit Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  3. ^ WUPX-TV MOREHEAD, KY @ RabbitEars.Info
  4. ^ a b http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2020/09/24/scripps-creates-national-television-networks-business-with-acquisition-of-ion-media-395300/20200924scripps01/
  5. ^ a b Cimilluca, Dana. "E.W. Scripps Agrees to Buy ION Media for $2.65 billion in Berkshire-Backed Deal". Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  6. ^ a b E.W. Scripps scales up with $2.65 billion Berkshire-backed deal for ION Media
  7. ^ January 2021, Jon Lafayette 07. "E.W. Scripps Completes Acquisition of Ion Media". Broadcasting Cable. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
  8. ^ "Scripps creates national television networks business with acquisition of ION Media," press release from Scripps.com, September 24, 2020
  9. ^ E.W. Scripps Co (SSP) SEC Filing 8-K Material Event for the period ending Wednesday, September 23, 2020 on Last10K.com (accessed 10/15/2020)
  10. ^ https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1821615
  11. ^ tvnewscheck.com/business/article/scripps-completes-acquisition-of-ion-media
  12. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WUPX
  13. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  14. ^ http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WUPX

External links[]

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