| ATSC 3.0 station | |
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| WNAB,WZTV | |
| History | |
First air date | February 18, 1984 (41 years ago) (1984-02-18) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers | Analog: 30 (UHF, 1984–2009) |
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Call sign meaning | Station was an affiliate ofUPN |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 9971 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 413 m (1,355 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°15′49.8″N86°47′38.9″W / 36.263833°N 86.794139°W /36.263833; -86.794139 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | mytv30web |
WUXP-TV (channel 30) is atelevision station inNashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated withMyNetworkTV. It is owned bySinclair Broadcast Group alongsideWZTV (channel 17), a dual affiliate ofFox andThe CW, as well asWNAB (channel 58), which Sinclair manages on behalf of Tennessee Broadcasting. The stations share studios on Mainstream Drive along theCumberland River; WUXP-TV's transmitter is located alongI-24 inWhites Creek.
Channel 30 in Nashville began broadcasting in February 1984 as WCAY-TV. Built by theTVX Broadcast Group, the station competed as Nashville's secondindependent outlet with WZTV for most of the 1980s. It was the Fox affiliate in Nashville from 1986 to 1990 before selling most of its programming inventory to WZTV amid a competitive market. Renamed WXMT in 1989 after being purchased by MT Communications, the station remained the second independent in Nashville and affiliated withUPN in 1995. WZTV began managing channel 30's operations in 1996, a year in which the license was sold and the station renamed WUXP-TV. Sinclair assumed control of the station in 1998, when it acquired WZTV, and purchased it outright in 2000; when UPN folded in 2006, the station switched to MyNetworkTV. WUXP-TV and WNAB are Nashville's twoATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) stations.
In November 1981, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) designated 13 competing applications for UHF channel 30 in Nashville forcomparative hearing.[2] The very large field featured names well-known in other cities, includingCarolina Christian Broadcasting,Golden West Broadcasters, and American Television and Communications (the cable TV division ofTime, Inc.). By January 1982, only five of the applicants were still seeking for the construction permit: Television Corporation of Tennessee, a company headquartered inNorfolk, Virginia, in which mayorRichard Fulton became a minority investor; Music City Thirty, owned primarily by Methodists; Satellite Broadcasting Systems ofTulsa, Oklahoma; Nash Broadcasting; and Page Broadcasting.[3]
The FCC granted the construction permit to Television Corporation (TVX, later known simply asTVX Broadcast Group) in August 1983. By that time, the call letters of WCAY-TV had been selected, as had a tower site.[4] Meanwhile, the Nashville market—already having WZTV, an independent in service since 1976—gained a second independent station with the launch ofWFYZ inMurfreesboro on December 31.[5] What was once a mid-April launch target moved up to February as TVX signed for studio space at Third Avenue South and Peabody Street.[6]
WCAY-TV began broadcasting on February 18, 1984.[7] It immediately entered into a money-losing competition with WFYZ; however, TVX outlasted the Murfreesboro station, with its limited financial resources. In September 1984, WFYZ executed the first of several rounds of cutbacks.[8] That station, sold and renamed WHTN in 1985,[9] exited the battle by converting to a Christian format in May 1986.[10]
In January 1986, TVX—already having relegated WHTN to the status, per company chairman J. Timothy McDonald, of showing "freebies no one else wants"—refocused its attack on WZTV, Nashville's leading independent. While TVX's independents had mostly risen to lead their markets, WCAY-TV was the exception.[11] The station became affiliated that fall with the newFox network,[12] but TVX continued to need to devote additional attention to improving channel 30's ratings against WZTV, hiring new management and increasing its promotional efforts.[13]
Despite the fact that WCAY-TV was not TVX's most successful station, the company expressed its resolve to stick with the Nashville market.[14] However, financial circumstances combined to change that policy. In 1987, TVX acquired five major-market independent stations fromTaft Broadcasting. This purchase left TVX highly leveraged and highly vulnerable. TVX's bankers,Salomon Brothers, provided the financing for the acquisition and in return held more than 60 percent of the company.[15] The company was to pay Salomon Brothers $200 million on January 1, 1988, and missed the first payment deadline, having been unable to lure investors to itsjunk bonds even beforeBlack Monday.[16] As a result, TVX sought buyers for some of its smaller stations to reduce its debt load. That May, TVX announced the sale of WCAY-TV to SouthWest MultiMedia Corporation ofHouston for $6 million.[14] However, this deal fell apart over the intervening months.[17]
In the wake of the SouthWest MultiMedia sale effort stalling, TVX found another buyer for WCAY-TV: MT Communications, the company of Michael Thompson. Thompson already had a history with independent television in Nashville; he had been one of WZTV's executives when it went back on the air in 1976.[18] The call letters were changed to WXMT in October 1989 as part of the insertion of "MT" into the call signs of its stations.[19]
MT Communications assumed the challenge TVX had faced in its entire history running channel 30: passing WZTV in the ratings. As MT was buying WCAY-TV,Act III Broadcasting acquired WZTV. Act III would make a reputation as a consolidator of independents in medium markets. In 1988, Act III simultaneously acquiredRichmond, Virginia, independentWRLH-TV and the programming of competitorWVRN-TV, incorporating the latter's programming and physical assets into the former as the latter went off the air permanently.[20] The next year, it agreed to acquireWUTV inBuffalo, New York, along with the programming inventory of competitorWNYB-TV, which then was sold to a Christian broadcaster; the deal was not completed until June 1990 owing to ownership complications in the market.[21] Act III clearly coveted the Fox affiliation of WXMT; vice president Bert Ellis stated in 1989 that "we bought ZTV figuring it would eventually get a Fox affiliation", even though Fox's vice president of affiliate relations for the central region characterized such a move as "very unlikely".[22]
Two factors worked in favor of Act III. The Nashville market was not large enough at the time to support what were essentially two competing independents; like most early Fox affiliates, WXMT was mostly programmed as an independent. Additionally, Fox had a clause in its TVX affiliation agreements, inherited by MT Communications, that allowed it to review its affiliation status after one year of the station being sold. Fox was known to prefer to affiliate with the top-rated independent in a market, and speculation arose as to how long WXMT could maintain the Fox affiliation in Nashville.[23] Negotiations began in 1989, originally with the intent that WXMT buy WZTV's inventory, but that deal fell apart. On February 6, 1990, after negotiations that had been in progress for a week, Act III acquired the Fox affiliation and the vast majority of WXMT's programming inventory from MT Communications. With immediate effect, Fox programming,The Disney Afternoon,Cincinnati Reds baseball, and syndicated programs includingThe Arsenio Hall Show andStar Trek: The Next Generation moved to WZTV; WXMT, which was initially to surrender all of its programming inventory,[23] maintained some children's programs and filled much of its air time with theHome Shopping Network.[24] Nashville became the first of four markets, all in the South, where Fox moved its affiliation during 1990; of the other three, two (Little Rock, Arkansas, andMemphis) involved ex-TVX stations, with the Memphis station losing its Fox affiliation also owned by MT.[25]
In the subsequent years, WXMT rebuilt itself. From 1992 to 1994, it airedThe Scene at 9, a prime time newscast produced by NashvilleNBC affiliateWSMV-TV and the first such broadcast in the market. The station made an early commitment to the United Paramount Network (UPN), signing on to become an affiliate in November 1993—more than a year before it began programming in 1995.[26]
In 1996, Sullivan Broadcasting, which had purchased WZTV from Act III the year prior,[27] entered into alocal marketing agreement—with an option to buy—to run most of the operations of WXMT, concurrent withMission Broadcasting acquiring WXMT's license assets.[28][29] The call letters were changed that August to WUXP-TV, reflecting the UPN affiliation.[30] In 1998, Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired Sullivan Broadcasting, including WZTV and its agreement to manage WUXP-TV.[31] In 1998, Sinclair announced its intent to purchase Sullivan outright; the LMA with WUXP was included in the deal.[32] Two years later, after the FCC legalized outright duopolies, Sinclair acquired WUXP-TV from Mission as well as three other stations it had been programming.[33] Sinclair began managingWNAB (channel 58) in 2002.[34]
In 2006, UPN andThe WB merged to formThe CW. Sinclair was first a partner of MyNetworkTV, and WUXP was signed as its Nashville affiliate in early March, shortly after MyNetworkTV was announced in late February.[35][36] Two months later, Sinclair signed an affiliation agreement covering eight markets with The CW in May; this included WNAB.[37]
WUXP-TV airsComments with Dr. Haney, a local interview program featuring retiredTennessee State University professor Dr. James Haney, on Saturday mornings. The station has no dedicated newscasts but does air morning and late evening blocks ofThe National Desk, Sinclair's national news service.[38]
WUXP-TV began airing aThursday Night Lights package of localhigh school football games in 2008.[39] This expanded to include weekly high school basketball telecasts in 2014;[40] that same year, the football package shifted to Fridays under the labelFriday Night Rivals.[41] In 2013, WUXP-TV began airing the state championship football games of theTennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) as part of a statewide network.[42]
From 2018 to 2022, spanning the team's shift from theUnited Soccer League toMajor League Soccer, WUXP-TV was the primary broadcaster ofNashville SC matches, an arrangement that only ended whenApple assumed all local and national television rights in MLS.[43][44]
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on themultiplexed signals of other Nashville television stations:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WUXP-MY | MyNetworkTV | WKRN-TV |
| 30.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Quest | Quest | WZTV |
| 30.3 | 16:9 | Comet | Comet | WSMV-TV |
From its transmitter alongI-24 inWhites Creek,[1] WUXP-TV broadcasts these subchannels inATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) format:
| Channel | Res. | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 1080p | WTVF | CBS (WTVF) |
| 8.11 | WNPT-VC | PBS (WNPT) | |
| 17.1 | 720p | WZTV | Fox (WZTV) |
| 17.10 | 1080p | T2 | T2 |
| 17.11 | PBTV | Pickleballtv | |
| 17.2 | 720p | CW | The CW (WZTV) |
| 30.1 | WUXP | MyNetworkTV |
WUXP-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009, which was intended to be the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The deadline was moved to June 12, 2009, but WUXP decided to convert on the original deadline.[50] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 21, usingvirtual channel 30.[51]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofTennessee | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Tennessee | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofKentucky | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Kentucky | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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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. | ||||||||||||||||||
