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|---|---|
| City | Franklin, Tennessee[a] |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| WTVF | |
| History | |
| Founded | July 28, 1986 (1986-7-28) |
First air date | January 23, 1989; 36 years ago (1989-01-23) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | "Nashville Pax" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 28468 |
| ERP | 550kW[3] |
| HAAT | 364.8 m (1,197 ft)[3] |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°31′36″N86°41′14″W / 36.52667°N 86.68722°W /36.52667; -86.68722[3] |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | iontelevision |
WNPX-TV (channel 28) is atelevision station licensed toFranklin, Tennessee, United States, broadcasting theIon Television network to theNashville area. It isowned and operated by theIon Media subsidiary of theE. W. Scripps Company alongsideCBS affiliateWTVF (channel 5). WNPX-TV's transmitter is located nearCross Plains, Tennessee.
The station was signed on by Dove Broadcasting on January 23, 1989, as WMTT, anindependent station servingCookeville. On March 17, 1989, it was sold to Steven J. Sweeney.[4] The station would sign on with a general-entertainment format featuringcartoons,sitcoms,movies,religious programming, andinfomercials. InaVision Broadcasting purchased WMTT in 1993,[5] and changed its call sign to WKZX that year.[6]
WKZX became a charter affiliate ofThe WB in 1995, and would later share the WB affiliation withWNAB (channel 58), which also served Nashville and was signed on two months later. The network also aired on cable via the superstation feed ofChicago-basedWGN-TV, later brandedWGN America. In 1995, WKZX launched a nightly newscast at 6:30 p.m. (and repeated at 10 p.m.) branded asNews 28.[7] In 1997, InaVision Broadcasting sold the station toRoberts Broadcasting, a company based inSt. Louis.[8][9]
In 1998, Roberts Broadcasting sold WKZX to Paxson Communications,[10] who shut down the station's news operation. Paxson also moved and upgraded WKZX's transmitter to begin focusing the channel on the Nashville market. The station's call sign was changed to WNPX-TV. On August 31, the station ended its affiliation with The WB and began airing programming from the then-new upstart television network Pax TV, the forerunner of Ion Television.[11][12][13]
The WB would continue airing on WNAB along with the cable superstation feed of WGN. However, a year later, on January 27, 1999, network co-ownersTime Warner andTribune mutually agreed that as of September, they would cease the stopgap WB programming relay over the WGN superstation feed. As a result, WNAB became the sole WB affiliate in the Nashville market.[14][15][16][17][18]
Sometime in 2019,[when?] WNPX'scity of license was changed from Cookeville toFranklin.[1]
On September 24, 2020, theCincinnati-basedE. W. Scripps Company announced that it would purchase Ion Media for $2.65 billion with financing fromBerkshire Hathaway. With this purchase, Scripps divested 23 Ion-owned stations, but no announcement was made at the time as to which stations would be divested as part of the move. The proposed divestitures allowed the merged company to fully comply with the FCC local and national ownership regulations. Scripps agreed to a transaction with an unnamed buyer, who has agreed to maintain Ion affiliations for the stations. (The buyer was revealed in an October 2020 FCC filing to be Inyo Broadcast Holdings). It was also stated that Scripps decided to keep WNPX-TV, making it asister station toCBS affiliateWTVF (channel 5), pending approval by the FCC. The transaction was finalized and closed on January 7, 2021.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]
It was later announced on January 14, 2021, that E. W. Scripps Company would cease operations ofQubo,Ion Plus and Ion Shop on February 28, 2021, as it was reported that they would move theirKatz Broadcasting networks (which includeBounce TV,Court TV,Ion Mystery,Grit andLaff) to the former Ion Media owned-and-operated stations, but will still retain Ion as their main affiliation.[27][28][29][30] On February 27 at 5 a.m., the station transitioned the second, third and fourth subchannels, with Court TV replacing Qubo on channel 28.2, Grit replacing Ion Plus on channel 28.3, and Laff replacing Ion Shop on 28.4. Laff continued to air on sister station WTVF channel 5.3, but was replaced with Bounce TV on September 1.[31][32]WKRN-TV would replace Bounce TV with SportsGrid on channel 2.2 and Grit with Rewind TV on channel 2.4 at the same time.[33]WSMV-TV currently still continues to air Ion Mystery on 4.2 and Court TV on 4.4.[34]
On March 2, the E. W. Scripps Company announced plans to add two new networks to its digital broadcast portfolio (joining its six existing networks). Defy and TrueReal (the latter had initially been billed as Doozy), which will respectively target men and women in the 25-54 age range withfactual lifestyle andreality programming, was announced to launch on several E. W. Scripps owned-and-operated stations. There was previous speculation that the two new networks would launch on WNPX, replacing both HSN and QVC on the fifth and sixth subchannels, as this was officially confirmed on June 22, 2021.[35][36][37] On June 30, 2021, WNPX-TV replaced both QVC and HSN with previews of both Defy TV and TrueReal, previewing the programming to launch on both networks.[38][39] Both networks officially launched on July 1, 2021.[40][41] The station launched an eighth subchannel to return HSN to the area in May 2022; QVC followed suit on a ninth subchannel in August.
WNPX airs the entire Ion schedule and since the repeal of the Main Studio Rule, it carries the network without any local content outside of an hourly on-screenstation identification; the station is also not currently used by WTVF to carry preempted CBS and syndicated programming.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28.1 | 720p | 16:9 | ION | Ion Television |
| 28.2 | 480i | CourtTV | Court TV | |
| 28.3 | Grit | Grit | ||
| 28.4 | Laff | Laff | ||
| 28.5 | IONPlus | Ion Plus | ||
| 28.6 | Busted | Busted | ||
| 28.7 | GameSho | Game Show Central | ||
| 28.8 | HSN | HSN | ||
| 28.9 | QVC | QVC |
WNPX-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 28, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States were federally mandated totransition from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36,[43] usingvirtual channel 28.
In the summer of 2017, as a result of its participation in the FCC's 2016–17incentive auction, WNPX filed for a construction permit for its digital signal to relocate to UHF channel 32. On October 18, 2019, WNPX moved to channel 32 due to spectrum repacking. CBS affiliate WTVF moved its digital signal allocation to WNPX's former allocation.
Until 2015, the station also utilized ananalogtranslator,WNPX-LP on channel 20, located atWhites Creek. The translator was sold toDaystar on March 26, 2015.[44]
Until September 2023, WNPX also served as thede facto Ion outlet for theBowling Greenmedia market in southernKentucky, as that area did not have an Ion station of its own. Even withWNKY-LD (channel 35) serving as a local Ion affiliate, WNPX still provides grade B quality signal coverage in the southwestern half of the Bowling Green DMA.