channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WRPX-TV's spectrum from a tower northeast of Middlesex, North Carolina
.
Originally licensed to Fayetteville, North Carolina, WFPX served as a full-time satellite of WRPX-TV from 1998 until 2018. WFPX's signal covered areas of south-central North Carolina that received a marginal to non-existent signal from WRPX, although there was significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. WFPX was a straight simulcast of WRPX; on-air references to WFPX were limited to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-mandated hourly station identifications during programming. Aside from its former transmitter, WFPX did not maintain any physical presence locally in Fayetteville.
History
Channel 62 signed on in 1985 as WFCT, an
Greensboro
, were two of the principals in this company.
WFCT temporarily carried the programming of then-
Shop at Home
network.
WFAY later became WFPX and dropped Fox after being bought out by Paxson in the middle of 1998, shortly before
Myrtle Beach market expanded its signal to cover areas formerly served by WFAY. It is worthy of note that WFPX's signal was not seen at all in the northern portion of the Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville market, but covered northern portions of the Florence–Myrtle Beach market, which did not have its own Ion Television affiliate until 2015, when WBTW added Ion on a digital subchannel following a deal made with Media General
.
Channel-sharing agreement with WRPX
On April 4, 2017, WFPX was identified by the FCC as receiving $62.4 million for the
spectrum reallocation auction.[7] The station later entered into a channel-sharing arrangement with WRPX. Since WRPX's signal does not reach Fayetteville, WFPX changed its city of license to Archer Lodge, east of Raleigh.[2] After the channel share went into effect, WRPX-DT3, carrying Ion Life (later Ion Plus), took WFPX's 62.1 virtual channel, assuring that network market-wide must-carry
over pay-TV systems.
On February 27, 2021, after the closure of Ion Plus, WFPX-TV became a Bounce TV owned-and-operated station.
WFPX-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF channel 62, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 36,[9] using virtual channel
62.
Spectrum repack
WFPX-TV moved from channel 15 to channel 32 on September 11, 2019.
Out-of-market coverage
In recent years, WFPX has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the Wilmington media market.
Notes
^The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says March 14, while the Television and Cable Factbook says March 4.
(*) – indicates station is in one of North Carolina's primary TV markets (**) – indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of North Carolina
(*) – indicates station is in one of Virginia's primary TV markets (**) – indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Virginia
