WPXA-TV: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=JuneJanuary 20132024}}

| callsign = WPXA-TV

| city = Rome, Georgia

'''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 station|owned and operated]] by the [[Ion Media]] subsidiary of the [[E. W. Scripps Company]], and maintains offices on North [[Cobb Parkway]] ([[U.S. Route 41 in Georgia|US 41]]) in [[Marietta, Georgia|Marietta]]; its transmitter is located on [[Bear Mountain (Georgia)|Bear Mountain]], near the [[Cherokee County, Georgia|Cherokee]]–[[Bartow County, Georgia|Bartow]] county line. Despite Rome being WPXA-TV's city of license, the station maintains no physical presence there.

The station's broadcast range extends into parts of [[Alabama]] and [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], and even the southwest corner of [[North Carolina]]. However, [[terrain shielding]] not accounted for in [[radio propagation]] [[computer modeling|model]]s prevents this from regularly occurring, due to the [[north Georgia mountains]].

The station was issued a [[construction permit]] in 1984 on Channel 14 as '''WZGA''', but never made it to air. The station went on-air February 29, 1988, as '''WAWA''', with studios on [[Shorter University|Shorter]] Avenue in Rome and transmitter on nearby [[Mount Alto]]. The station was owned by Sudbrink Broadcasting of [[West Palm Beach, Florida]], and had a general entertainment format of low-budget shows, [[public domain]] [[feature film|movies]], and local newscasts. It also aired several [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], [[CBS]] and [[NBC]] shows that [[WSB-TV]] (channel 2), [[WAGA-TV]] (channel 5) and [[WXIA-TV]] (channel 11) turned down.

In 1990, the station changed its calls to '''WTLK-TV''' and moved its studios to Marietta and transmitter to Bear Mountain (west of [[Canton, Georgia|Canton]]). Rebranding as "Talk TV", it featured national [[talk show]]s like ''[[The Phil Donahue Show|Phil Donahue]]'' and ''[[Sally (1983 talk show)|Sally Jessy Raphael]]''. It also aired local shows (with TV studio audiences) with [[WSB (AM)|WSB]]'s [[Neal Boortz]], former [[Miss America]] [[Suzette Charles]], [[Hosea Williams]], Michael Young, [[WVEE (FM)|WVEE]]'s Mike Roberts, [[WBIN (AM)|WGST]]'s Brian Wilson and others, while also continuing to air some preempted network programs. However, the station never took off in metro Atlanta during the days before the [[must-carry]] rules for cable systems. The other independent on the fringe of the market, [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]]-licensed WNGM-TV (channel 34, now [[WUVG]]), had the same problem. Later in the 1990s, WTLK ran blocks of [[country music|country]] [[music video]]s along with [[infomercial]]s.

The station's [[radio tower|broadcast tower]] on Bear Mountain was also the first location for [[WCHK (AM)|WCHK]]-FM (105.5), now [[WBZY]] (105.7 FM) on [[Sweat Mountain]].

Rome also had a previous full-power TV station, WROM-TV (channel 9), from 1953 to 1957. This station later moved to Chattanooga and became what is now [[WTVC (TV)|WTVC]].

The station's digital signal is [[multiplex (TV)|multiplexed]]:

| JewelryScripps || [[JewelryScripps TelevisionNews]]

| ScrippsJewelry || [[ScrippsJewelry NewsTV]]

In August 2013, the station contracted with local [[Telemundo]] affiliate WKTB-CD (channel 47) to provide a full-market signal for the low-power station, along with probable [[retransmission consent]] to fold it in with WPXA's negotiations. This precluded WPXA from Ion's agreement to carry the over-the-air signal of [[HSN|Home Shopping Network]] on its DT6 subchannel later in the year, though HSN already was carried by [[W13DQ-D|W45DX-D]] (channel 45) over-the-air in the market.

On July 6, 2015, WPXA-TV was licensed by the FCC to shift their digital signal from channel 51 to channel 31 to allow [[T-Mobile US|T-Mobile]] to use the adjacent channel 52 frequency for [[LTE (telecommunication)|LTE]] data and voice services without interference, requiring a tuner re-scan for viewers to continue to receive the station; using [[Program and System Information Protocol|PSIP]] to display WPXA-TV's [[virtual channel]] as 14 on digital television receivers.

[[Category:Ion1988 Televisionestablishments affiliatesin Georgia (U.S. state)]]

[[Category:LaffIon (TV network)Plus affiliates]]

[[Category:DefyIon TVTelevision affiliates]]

[[Category:TrueRealLaff (TV network) affiliates]]