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| Programming | |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| History | |
First air date | March 19, 1989 (36 years ago) (1989-03-19) |
Former call signs | WCCL (1989–1998) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | "Pax Louisiana" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 21729 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 311.2 m (1,021 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 29°58′58″N89°56′58″W / 29.98278°N 89.94944°W /29.98278; -89.94944 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | iontelevision |
WPXL-TV (channel 49) is atelevision station inNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States, broadcasting theIon Television network. It isowned and operated by theIon Media subsidiary of theE. W. Scripps Company, and maintains offices on Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Cleary Avenue inMetairie; its transmitter is located off Paris Road (LA 47) near theOrleans–St. Bernard parish line.
After a string of delays, channel 49 first signed on the air on March 19, 1989, as WCCL; it originally operated as anindependent station with a general entertainment format, along with numerousCBS programs preempted byWWL-TV (channel 4), includingCBS This Morning.[2][3] Owned by Black woman Barbara Lamont, WCCL failed to show in the ratings with poor programming and a lack of cable carriage. By the end of 1989, it had filedChapter 11 bankruptcy due to a hostile creditor that sought to evict it from its tower at Algiers.[4] The station had begun work on its own tower at Bywater which would prevent blockage of channel 49's signal by passing ships on theMississippi River, but a battle with neighbors who wanted its height reduced left the site unfinished and unusable by the station.[5] The hostile creditor—Lodestar Towers—was successful in obtaining an order to repossess WCCL's equipment, forcing the station off the air on May 23, 1990.[6]
While Lamont spent two years trying to rebuild the station's transmitter facility elsewhere,[7] she gave up in May 1992, when her Chapter 11 reorganization case was converted toChapter 7 liquidation.[8] Flinn Broadcasting Corporation purchased the station'slicense out of bankruptcy and returned channel 49 to the air on May 25, 1994, carrying programming from theHome Shopping Network.[9]
The station changed its call letters to WPXL-TV on August 31, 1998; that same day, the station became a charter affiliate of the family-oriented network Pax TV (now Ion Television). As part of the affiliation deal with Pax TV, Flinn Broadcasting entered into atime brokerage agreement with Pax TV owner Paxson Communications to operate the station. On July 30, 2001. Paxson entered into a joint sales agreement with Hearst-Argyle Television (nowHearst Television), owner ofNBC affiliateWDSU (channel 6), to provide advertising and marketing services for WPXL.[10]
In early September 2005, shortly afterHurricane Katrina made landfall in southern Louisiana, WPXL partnered with WDSU, whose transmitter building inChalmette was damaged due to flooding caused by the storm, to simulcast channel 6's programming.[11] The station also added programming fromThe Worship Network and the signals of theTribune Broadcasting-ownedduopoly ofABC affiliateWGNO (channel 26) andCW affiliateWNOL-TV (channel 38) assubchannels on its digital signal for New Orleans area residents that had television sets with built-indigital tuners.
On March 29, 2008, almost a month after WGNO and WNOL resumed digital transmissions over WNOL's digital allocation on UHF channel 15, WPXL began to carry the Ion-owned children's networkQubo and lifestyle networkIon Life on digital channels 49.2 and 49.3; both networks had launched a year-and-a-half after Katrina hit the area.
On August 21, 2007, Ion Media announced that it would purchase WPXL-TV andMemphissister stationWPXX from Flinn Broadcasting outright for $18 million.[12] The sale was completed on January 2, 2008, with WPXL becoming an Ion owned-and-operated station.[13]
In September 2001, as part of the JSA with that station, WPXL began airingtape delayed rebroadcasts of NBC affiliate WDSU's 10 p.m. newscasts each Monday through Friday evening at 10:30 p.m. (beginning shortly before that program's live broadcast ended on WDSU). The news share agreement ended on June 30, 2005 (coinciding with Pax's rebranding as i: Independent Television), due to Paxson Communications' decision to discontinue carriage of network affiliate newscasts as a result of Pax TV's financial troubles.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1 | 720p | 16:9 | ION | Ion Television |
| 49.2 | Grit | Grit | ||
| 49.3 | 480i | CourtTV | Court TV | |
| 49.4 | IONPlus | Ion Plus | ||
| 49.5 | Busted | Busted | ||
| 49.6 | HSN | HSN | ||
| 49.7 | QVC | QVC | ||
| 49.8 | HSN2 | HSN2 |
WPXL shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 49, 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 continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 50, usingvirtual channel 49.[15]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofLouisiana | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Louisiana | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMississippi | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Mississippi | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
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