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WFXW

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(Redirected from WXVT)
For the television station in Terre Haute, Indiana, that held the call sign WFXW on channel 38 from 2005 to 2011, see WAWV-TV.

WFXW
CityGreenville, Mississippi
Channels
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
November 7, 1980 (44 years ago) (1980-11-07)
Former call signs
WXVT (1980–2017)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 15 (UHF, 1980–2009)
  • Digital: 17 (UHF, until 2009)
  • CBS (1980–2016)
  • UPN (secondary, 1995–2006)
  • Silent (2016–2019)
  • Ion Television (2019–2020)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID25236
ERP190 kW
HAAT269 m (883 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°39′27″N 90°42′17.2″W / 33.65750°N 90.704778°W / 33.65750; -90.704778
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.tct.tv

WFXW (channel 15) is a religious television station in Greenville, Mississippi, United States, owned and operated by Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter is located northeast of Shaw, Mississippi.

History

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In December 1974, plans were announced for a new television station to broadcast on channel 15, following a channel allocation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The proposed station would operate with a signal strength of 100,000 watts and be broadcast from a 1,500-foot (457 m) tower, which would have been the tallest broadcast tower in the area at the time. It was intended to serve the Greenville area. Although the specific timeline for launching the station was not disclosed, preliminary plans aimed for it to begin broadcasting and serving the Delta area by 1976, with studios located in Greenville and the transmitter positioned northeast of the city.[2] On October 1, 1976, an application was submitted to operate a new television station on channel 15 in Greenville. The studios were to be located on US 82 East in Greenville, while the transmitter would be positioned 1.9 miles (3.1 km) southeast of O'Reilly, Mississippi. The height of the transmitter was reduced due to a dispute with the town of Cleveland with concerns about potential hazards for planes approaching the Bolivar County Airport. In January 1980, the station was announced to become the new CBS affiliate for the Delta area, with a tentative launch date set for September 1980.

Its first broadcast was on November 7, 1980,[3] under the call sign WXVT. It had been a CBS affiliate for its entire existence. Before this, WJTV in Jackson had served as the default affiliate. The station was originally owned by Big River Broadcasting. Future sister station WABG-TV (channel 6, now a dual ABC/Fox affiliate) was the Delta's original CBS affiliate when it launched back in October 1959. However, a few months later, WJTV complained that WABG was encroaching on its service area. This is because WABG's signal reaches the far northern fringes of the Jackson market. Big River Broadcasting sold the station to Lamco Communications in 1984. Lamco then sold WXVT to Greenville Television, Inc. in 1991. Saga Communications purchased WXVT in 1999.

On May 4, 2012, an application was filed with the FCC to transfer ownership of WXVT from Saga Communications to H3 Communications. H3 Communications was owned by the adult children of Charles Harker, president of Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, which owned WABG and NBC affiliate WNBD-LD (channel 33). On January 28, 2013, the FCC granted the sale of WXVT, and it was completed two days later.[4][5] Commonwealth then took over WXVT's operations, effectively bringing all of the Delta's Big Three network stations under the control of one company.

H3 Communications agreed to sell WXVT to Cala Broadcast Partners for $3.7 million on October 30, 2015;[6] concurrently, Cala would purchase WABG-TV, WNBD-LD, and WFXW-LD from Commonwealth Broadcasting Group.[7] Cala was jointly owned by Brian Brady (who owned several other television stations, mostly under the Northwest Broadcasting name) and Jason Wolff (who owned radio and television stations through Frontier Radio Management).[7] On November 30, 2015, Cala assigned its right to purchase WXVT to John Wagner for $100,000.[6] The sale was completed on August 1, 2016;[8] on that date, the station went off the air, with Wagner stating in a filing with the FCC that it was looking for new programming.[9]

The licenses were separated into two on June 26, 2017, with a low-powered CBS affiliate carrying WXVT's former intellectual unit, and a station on channel 15 that was still dark. The latter license changed its call letters to WFXW on July 25.

On July 29, 2019, WFXW returned to the air as the new Ion Television affiliate for the Greenwood–Greenville area. The Ion affiliation was previously held by Cleveland-licensed WHCQ-LD (Channel 8) from 1998 until 2011 before dropping it for MyNetworkTV.

In February 2019, Reuters reported that Apollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intends to merge with Cox Television (which Apollo is acquiring at the same time) and stations spun off from Nexstar Media Group's purchase of Tribune Broadcasting, once the purchases are approved by the FCC.[10] In March 2019 filings with the FCC, Apollo confirmed that its newly-formed broadcasting group, Terrier Media, would acquire Northwest Broadcasting, with Brian Brady holding an unspecified minority interest in Terrier.[11] In June 2019, it was announced that Terrier Media would instead operate as Cox Media Group, as Apollo had reached a deal to also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses.[12] The transaction was completed on December 17.[13]

Donation to Tri-State Christian Television

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On March 9, 2020, it was announced that John Wagner would donate WFXW to Radiant Life Ministries, an affiliate company of Tri-State Christian Television.[14] The transaction was completed on June 12, making WFXW an owned-and-operated station of the TCT network and the first full-power religious station in the Delta area.[15] It would also become a sister station to WWJX in Jackson.

On June 26, 2020, WFXW began airing TCT programming on 15.1. As a result, the Ion affiliation was moved to a subchannel of WFXW on 15.2.

On June 5, 2023, an application was submitted to the FCC seeking a modification of the licensed facility to reduce the power output from 330 kW to 176 kW, which also led to a decrease in the coverage area. This modification was necessitated by a new construction permit to replace the main transmitter that had been damaged. In an amended application filed on August 25, 2023, the power output was increased to 190 kW. Finally, on March 18, 2024, a license to cover for the current construction permit was submitted to the FCC.

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WFXW[16]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
15.1 1080i 16:9 WFXW HD TCT
15.2 480i ION Ion Television
15.3 SBN Sonlife
15.4 DEFY Defy TV
15.5 INFO CH Infomercials

Analog-to-digital conversion

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WFXW (as WXVT) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations were to transition from analog to digital television under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 17 to UHF channel 15.

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WFXW". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Article clipped from The Delta Democrat-Times". The Delta Democrat-Times. December 8, 1974. p. 12. Retrieved May 18, 2025.
  3. ^ Television & Cable Factbook 1988 Edition (PDF). 1988. p. A-587. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ "CDBS Print".
  6. ^ a b "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License (WXVT)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 3, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License (WABG-TV)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 3, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  8. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, August 1, 2016, Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  9. ^ Wagner, John (August 12, 2016). "Suspension of Operations and Silent Authority of a DTV Station Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  10. ^ "EXCLUSIVE-Apollo nears $3 billion deal to buy Cox TV stations -sources" Archived February 20, 2019, at the Wayback Machine from CNBC (February 10, 2019)
  11. ^ Jessell, Harry A. (March 6, 2019). "Cox TV Valued At $3.1 Billion In Apollo Acquisition". TV News Check. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  12. ^ Jacobson, Adam (June 26, 2019). "It's Official: Cox Radio, Gamut, CoxReps Going To Apollo". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  13. ^ "Cox Enterprises Announces Close of Cox Media Group Sale to Affiliates of Apollo Global Management", prnewswire.com, December 17, 2019, Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  14. ^ WFXW Donation Agreement
  15. ^ "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, June 15, 2020, Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  16. ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WFXW". RabbitEars. Retrieved May 18, 2025.
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