WIPX-TV (channel 63) is atelevision station licensed toBloomington, Indiana, United States, serving theIndianapolis area as an affiliate ofIon Television. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongsideBounce TV affiliateWCLJ-TV (channel 42, also licensed to Bloomington). WIPX-TV and WCLJ-TV share offices on Production Drive (nearI-465) in southwestern Indianapolis; through achannel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WIPX-TV's spectrum from an antenna onSR 252 inTrafalgar, Indiana.^[1]

Channel 63 went on air at the end of 1988 as WIIB, owned bySinclair Broadcast Group and broadcastingHome Shopping Network programming. It dropped HSN for Infomall TV (inTV) at the start of 1996. Sinclair sold controlling interest to a related entity in 1996; the station was then sold to an affiliate ofPaxson Communications Corporation in 1998, coinciding with the launch of the Pax network, forerunner to Ion. Inyo Broadcast Holdings acquired WIPX-TV and WCLJ-TV in 2020 as part of the acquisition of Ion by theE. W. Scripps Company.

In 1983, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) designated three applications seeking channel 63 for hearing, from Channel 63, Inc. (what is nowSinclair Broadcast Group); Hoosier Tele-Media; and Channel 63 Limited, later Bloomington 63 Limited.^[3] Hoosier Tele-Media, whose owners included the manager of Bloomington radio stationWBWB, withdrew when it became clear that the connection to the radio station would hurt it in thecomparative hearing process.^[4] An administrative law judge's initial decision, released in September 1984, found in favor of Bloomington 63 because it did not own other broadcast properties.^[5] Sinclair appealed the decision to the FCC review board, which then overturned a settlement agreement and granted it the construction permit because of what one board member called "the watermarks of a visible pattern" in obtaining settlements in TV license cases on behalf of one of the company's principals.^[6]

Little progress was made on the station in the next three years; it was not until June 1988 that a permit to build the tower came beforeJohnson County zoning board members. By that time, Sinclair opted to affiliate WIIB with theHome Shopping Network (HSN) instead of assembling a general-entertainment independent lineup. It did so because of two events affecting the Indianapolis independents: the 1987 bankruptcy of Bloomington'sWTTV and the sale at a low price ofWXIN in Indianapolis.^[7] The station went on the air December 27, 1988, with HSN programming.^[8] Its non-home shopping programming was extremely limited, including public affairs shows produced byIndiana University.^[9]

On January 1, 1996, WIIB changed to the Infomall TV (inTV)infomercial service; the general manager had come away from an HSN affiliates conference believing thatBarry Diller was about to convert HSN to a cable-only service.^[10] That same year, it acquiredRiver City Broadcasting, owner of WTTV. AsFederal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at that time forbade the common ownership of two full-power commercial television stations in the same market, and after originally announcing their plans to sell channel 63, the Smith brothers changed their ownership interests in WIIB to non-attributable status and sold controlling interest to David C. McCarus.^[11]

WIIB joined the Pax network, forerunner of Ion, upon its launch on August 31, 1998.^[12] Channel 63, Inc., then sold the station for $35 million to RDP Communications (also known as DP Media), a company controlled by other members of the Paxson family.^[13] DP Media's six stations were absorbed by Paxson Communications Corporation in 2000, though Paxson had already been brokering their airtime to run Pax programming.^[14]

In January 2001, in conjunction with ajoint sales agreement that Paxson had signed withNBC affiliateWTHR (channel 13), WIPX-TV began airing rebroadcasts of that station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts on an hourtape delay on weeknights. WTHR's sales department also began selling WIPX-TV's advertising inventory.^[15] By this time, a translator, WIPX-LP (channel 51), had been established in Indianapolis to improve the station's signal;^[16] the station remained associated with WIPX-TV until it was donated to Word of God Fellowship, parent company of theDaystar Television Network, in 2014.^[17]

WIPX and WCLJ were included among Ion Media stations spun off to Inyo Broadcast Holdings in 2020, as theE. W. Scripps Company could not own those stations andWRTV.^[18]

WIPX-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 63, 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 27, usingvirtual channel 63.^[20] WIPX–WCLJ relocated its signal from channel 27 to channel 28 on October 18, 2019, as a result of the2016 United States wireless spectrum auction.^[21]

• Official website

• Ion Television affiliates
• 1988 establishments in Indiana
• Bloomington, Indiana
• Court TV affiliates
• Ion Mystery affiliates
• Ion Plus affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1988
• Television stations in Indianapolis

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