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| City | Greenville, Mississippi |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | November 7, 1980 (44 years ago) (1980-11-07) |
Former call signs | WXVT (1980–2017) |
Former channel number(s) |
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| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 25236 |
| ERP | 190 kW |
| HAAT | 269 m (883 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°39′27″N90°42′17.2″W / 33.65750°N 90.704778°W /33.65750; -90.704778 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WFXW (channel 15) is areligioustelevision station inGreenville, Mississippi, United States,owned and operated byTri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter is located northeast ofShaw, Mississippi.
Its first broadcast was on November 7, 1980,[2] under the call sign WXVT. It had been aCBS affiliate for its entire existence. Before this,WJTV inJackson had served as the default affiliate. The station was originally owned by Big River Broadcasting. Future sister stationWABG-TV (channel 6, now a dualABC/Fox affiliate) was actually 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 Jacksonmarket. Big River Broadcasting sold the station to Lamco Communications in 1984. Lamco then sold WXVT to a local ownership group in 1991. Saga Communications purchased WXVT in 1999.
On May 4, 2012, an application was filed with theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to transfer ownership of WXVT from Saga Communications to H3 Communications. H3 Communications is owned by the adult children of Charles Harker, president of Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, which owns WABG andNBC affiliateWNBD-LD (channel 33). On January 28, 2013, the FCC granted the sale of WXVT, and it was completed two days later.[3][4] Commonwealth then took over WXVT's operations, effectively bringing all of the Delta'sBig 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;[5] concurrently, Cala would purchase WABG-TV, WNBD-LD, andWFXW-LD from Commonwealth Broadcasting Group.[6] Cala is jointly owned by Brian Brady (who owns several other television stations, mostly under theNorthwest Broadcasting name) and Jason Wolff (who owns radio and television stations through Frontier Radio Management).[6] On November 30, 2015, Cala assigned its right to purchase WXVT to John Wagner for $100,000.[5] The sale was completed on August 1, 2016;[7] 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.[8]
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 and returned programming from Ion Television to the Greenville–Greenwood market for the first time since 2011 after former affiliate WHCQ-LD (channel 8) dropped the affiliation for MyNetworkTV.
In February 2019,Reuters reported thatApollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intends to merge withCox Television (which Apollo is acquiring at the same time) and stations spun off fromNexstar Media Group's purchase ofTribune Broadcasting, once the purchases are approved by the FCC.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] The transaction was completed on December 17.[12]
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.[13] The transaction was completed on June 12, making WFXW anowned-and-operated station of the TCT network and the first full-powerreligious station in the Delta area.[14]
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.
The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:
| 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 |
WFXW (as WXVT) shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 15, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations were totransition 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.