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| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 31 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator | Marquee Broadcasting |
| WSWG,WSST-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | February 14, 1982 (43 years ago) (1982-02-14) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | "We're Fox Albany" |
| Technical information[4] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 70815 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 253 m (830 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 31°19′53″N83°51′43″W / 31.33139°N 83.86194°W /31.33139; -83.86194 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wfxl |
WFXL (channel 31) is atelevision station inAlbany, Georgia, United States, serving as theFox affiliate forSouthwest Georgia. Owned bySinclair Broadcast Group, the station is operated underjoint sales and shared services agreements byMarquee Broadcasting, owner ofCBS affiliateWSWG (channel 44) andMyNetworkTV affiliateWSST-TV (channel 55).[5] The three stations share offices on Slappey Boulevard in Albany; WFXL's transmitter is located east ofDoerun along theColquitt–Worth county line.
The station signed on February 14, 1982, as WTSG-TV, Southwestern Georgia's firstindependent station. It was founded by Black physician Carl Gordon Jr. The station's original studio facilities were located on North Slappey Boulevard/US 82 in Albany. It became a charter Fox affiliate on October 9, 1986. However, the station itself still operated as ade facto independent because the Fox network only had one program in its lineup until April 1987 and even then, would not expand to seven nights of programming per week until 1993. Prior to that time, the station itself aired movies on nights where Fox had no scheduled programming. Gordon sold the station to NewSouth Broadcasting in 1987. The station changed its call letters to the current WFXL in 1989.
Clarion Broadcasting purchased the station in 1996. Clarion then sold WFXL to the Wicks Broadcast Group (which also owned fellow Fox affiliatesKCIT inAmarillo, Texas,KJTL inWichita Falls, Texas–Lawton, Oklahoma, andWPGX inPanama City, Florida as well asNBC affiliateKMTR inEugene, Oregon). in 1998. In March 1999, Waitt Broadcasting bought the station from Wicks.Raycom Media acquired the outlet in December 2003 through its purchase of most of Waitt Media's stations. In March 2006, Raycom announced the sale of WFXL and eleven other stations toBarrington Broadcasting to meetFederal Communications Commission (FCC) rules regarding station ownership. The company had just acquired theLiberty Corporation, owner ofNBC affiliateWALB, which it decided to keep.[6]
On June 1, 2006, aMH-47 Chinook military chopper traveling fromHunter Army Airfield inSavannah, Georgia, toFort Rucker inAlabama for a training mission hit a guy wire connected to WFXL's 1,000-foot-tall (300 m) tower resulting in a crash. While the tower and WALB's one nearby remained standing other than some guy wires, the stations were forced to temporarily cease over-the-air signals; broadcasts oncable were not affected. If the WFXL tower had collapsed, this could have also caused WALB's to topple as both were only 150 feet (46 m) apart.[7][8][9] As a result, Raycom (which at that time still operated WFXL while the sale to Barrington awaited FCC approval) acquired auxiliary transmitters and antennas for both WFXL and WALB which were installed at a backup tower at WALB's studios in Albany.[10]
On June 7, the WFXL tower was demolished, but in doing so one of the tower's guy wires wrapped around one for WALB's tower, as feared. As a result, that station's tower collapsed in an incident shown on live television. Since both stations were already transmitting their signals from the tower at the WALB studios they were still on the air but atlow-power. Thirteen months later, a new tower for both WFXL and WALB was constructed and began broadcasting on July 3 at 11:35 pm.[11][12][13]
On February 28, 2013, Barrington Broadcasting announced the sale of its entire group, including WFXL, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[14] The sale was completed on November 25.[15] The station's seconddigital subchannel began carrying programming from Sinclair'sAmerican Sports Network syndication package starting with its inaugural broadcast on August 30, 2014.[16] As a result of subsequent acquisitions by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, WFXL is sister to company-owned station clusters inPensacola, Florida–Mobile, Alabama,Gainesville, Florida, andTallahassee, Florida.
In 2024, Sinclair andMarquee Broadcasting, owner ofWSWG andWSST-TV in the Albany market, entered into joint sales and shared services agreements allowing Marquee to provide sales, programming, and other services to WFXL-TV.[5]
As a typical Fox affiliate with a weeknight prime time newscast, WFXL airs five hours of local news a week. Along with WALB, WFXL is one of two stations in Albany to produce local news that actually focus on the city (WSWG, themarket'sCBS affiliate, began to produce market-specific newscasts in 2019, but had for most of its existence carried the newscasts of former sister stationWCTV in theTallahassee, Florida market as a semi-satellite of that station).
To offer comprehensivesevere weather coverage, WFXL purchased the most technologically advanced and powerful computerized weather system available in 2007. This included access to liveDopplerweather radar capabilities from theNational Weather Service site atMoody Air Force Base and an automated severe weather warning system.
In September 2008, WFXL gave its newscasts a new look by means of updating it graphic package and the construction of a new set. At the same time, it added a half-hour to its weeknight prime time news at 10.[17] It had aired, at one point, a weeknight newscast at 6:30 that competed with the national news shows on thebig three stations. However, on September 19, 2011, WFXL replaced this newscast with a two-hour comedy block of syndicated programming. On October 24, 2011, it added a fourth hour to its weekday morning show which can now be seen from 5 until 9 a.m.
On January 22, 2016, WFXL dropped its four-hour morning show and replaced it with syndicated and E/I programming.[18] This was followed in April 2016 with the cancellation of the station's half-hour weekend newscasts.[19] Concurrently, production of the station's weeknight primetime newscasts were shifted toMacon sister stationWGXA; all news and weather duties are now handled at WGXA, while local reporters are still assigned to Albany to provide coverage of the Southwestern Georgia area.
As of February 2023, WFXL has shuttered its news operation. No local news originates from WFXL or its Macon sister station WGXA. The Sinclair-produced showThe National Desk airs weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. and nightly from 10 p.m. to midnight.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WFXLDT | Fox |
| 31.2 | 480i | WFXLTBD | Roar | |
| 31.3 | WFXLCMT | Comet | ||
| 31.4 | WFXLCHG | Charge! |
WFXL shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 31, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12, usingvirtual channel 31.[21]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the U.S. state ofGeorgia | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
