WYPX-TV

Not to be confused with WPYX, an unrelated classic rock station serving the Albany and Glens Falls markets.
WYPX-TV
Amsterdam/Gloversville/Albany/Schenectady/Troy, New York
United States
City Amsterdam, New York
Branding Ion Television
Slogan Positively Entertaining
Channels Digital: 50 (UHF)
Virtual: 55 (PSIP)
Subchannels 55.1 Ion Television
55.2 Qubo
55.3 Ion Life
Affiliations Ion Television (O&O; 2007–present)
Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.
(Ion Media Albany License, Inc.)
First air date December 14, 1987 (1987-12-14)
Call letters' meaning AlbanY (or Mohawk ValleY or New York) PaX
Former callsigns WOCD (1987-1998)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
55 (UHF, 1987-2007)
Former affiliations Primary:
Independent (1987–1992)
Cornerstone (1992–1997)
inTV (1997–1998)
Pax TV (1998–2005)
i (2005–2007)
Secondary:
UPN (1998–1999)
Transmitter power 450 kW
Height 207 m
Facility ID 13933
Transmitter coordinates 42°59′4.4″N 74°10′54.1″W / 42.984556°N 74.181694°W / 42.984556; -74.181694
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.iontelevision.com

WYPX-TV is a full-service television station, licensed to Amsterdam, New York, as the affiliate of the Ion Television (formerly Pax and i) network in the New York state's Capital District and Mohawk Valley. The station's broadcast is digital-only on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter located near New York State Route 30 near the Montgomery/Fulton County line, and is carried on Time Warner Cable in much of the Albany market on channel 20. WYPX can also be seen on the eastern fringes of the Utica market. Its original analog assignment was UHF channel 55, but the station ceased broadcasting in analog in September 2007.

History

WYPX signed on the air in 1987 as an independent station under the call letters WOCD. It was owned by Amsterdam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Coit Services of San Francisco, California, and was leased to Christian Community Television (CCT) of Schenectady, New York. CCT faced financial troubles from the outset and they soon fell behind on their payments, so Amsterdam Broadcasting resumed control of the station.[1] The station went dormant in 1989, but in 1991, Coit struck a deal to sell the station to Tennessee TV executive Wade Griffith for $1.8 million (US). Griffith would have relaunched the station as WNSI, but the deal fell through, and WOCD was sold to Cornerstone Television, a religious broadcaster, for $375,000 (US) in 1992.[2] The second incarnation of WOCD had problems getting cable carriage in much of the market which combined with the looming conversion to digital television led the station to be sold again.

In 1997, Paxson Communications bought WOCD from Cornerstone, moved the station's offices from Scotia, New York to Guilderland, and made the station an outlet for the Infomall Television Network (inTV).[1] The call sign was changed to WYPX on January 13, 1998; however, the new calls confused some people as there was a radio station with a similar call sign in the Albany market.[3] The station became a charter station for the Pax TV network when it launched on August 31, 1998.[4] WYPX also added a secondary affiliation with UPN on October 5, 1998, airing the network's programming in late night hours following Pax's primetime programming.[5] WVBG-LP (channel 25), a low-power station in Albany, also joined UPN as a primary affiliate the same day; the affiliation deal with WYPX was made before the network agreed to affiliate with WVBG (as Albany had no UPN affiliate at the time, though area cable systems imported WSBK-TV from Boston).[6] WYPX retained its secondary UPN affiliation despite WVBG's affiliation;[6] however, UPN programming disappeared from channel 55 in 1999.[7]

In 2001, WYPX entered into a joint sales agreement with Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of NBC affiliate WNYT (channel 13); under this arrangement, WNYT sold advertising time on WYPX, while WYPX aired replays of WNYT's news and public affairs programming.[8] Paxson terminated all joint sales agreements involving its stations in June 2005 as part of its relaunch of Pax TV as i.[9]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal in multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[10]
55.1 720p 16:9 WYPX-DT Main WYPX-TV programming / Ion Television
55.2 480i 4:3 Qubo
55.3 Ion Life

Analog-to-digital conversion

WYPX-DT signed on the air on UHF channel 50 and broadcasts at 450 kW from the same transmitter site in early 2005. WYPX-TV requested permission from the FCC to shut down their analog signal on channel 55 so that the bandwidth could be used for Qualcomm's MediaFLO service. Qualcomm had made deals with other stations on channel 55, including WLNY of Riverhead, New York, to shut down analog so that they could launch their new multimedia offering on April 12, 2007. It was granted permission by the FCC to shut down its analog broadcast, surrender its analog license, and operate as a digital-only station on channel 50 on September 6, 2007. The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 55, on September 28, 2007. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50.[11][12] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Cable and satellite carriage

WYPX is carried on the following cable and satellite systems within the Albany/Schenectady/Troy market:

Comcast DirecTV Dish Network Mid-Hudson Cablevision Time Warner Cable Verizon FiOS
4 / *704 Bennington, VT 55 50 N/A 20 / 1218 20 / 520

References

  1. 1 2 B. Pinckney (1997-09-26). "WOCD boosts signal to build on solid base of infomercials". The Business Review (Albany). Retrieved 2007-09-06.
  2. ↑ "1992 sale of WOCD". FCC CDBS database. 1992-05-12. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
  3. ↑ "Call Sign History". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  4. ↑ "WYPX stands ready to deliver what viewers want". Albany Business Review. August 17, 1998. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  5. ↑ McGuire, Mark (September 4, 1998). "Pax TV, UPN form contradictory alliance". Albany Times-Union. p. D1. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  6. 1 2 McGuire, Mark (September 30, 1998). "Channel 25 is now affiliated with UPN". Albany Times-Union. p. D6. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  7. ↑ McGuire, Mark (August 23, 1999). "White happens to fit into `Grown Ups' role". Albany Times-Union. p. C1. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  8. ↑ McGuire, Mark (March 28, 2001). "WNYT to rerun news on WYPX". Albany Times-Union. p. D5. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  9. ↑ Navarro Clinton, Alexandra (June 29, 2005). "Pax TV changing name to `i' network". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  10. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WYPX
  11. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  12. ↑ "FCC letter" (PDF). FCC CDBS database. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
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