WPPX-TV
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HAAT | 324.13 m (1,063 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°2′39″N 75°14′25″W / 40.04417°N 75.24028°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | iontelevision |
WPPX-TV (channel 61) is a
Channel 61 in Wilmington signed on the air in 1986 as WTGI-TV, the first commercial television station in Delaware since 1958. It intended to operate as a general-market independent station but found itself with too little cash, as a result of nonexistent carriage on local cable systems, and was forced to switch to home shopping programming to generate revenue. From 1988 to 1995, the station operated as a multilingual ethnic broadcaster with Spanish-language programs from Telemundo as well as shows in Italian, Korean, and other languages. This ended when Paxson Communications Corporation, forerunner to Ion Media, acquired WTGI-TV and incorporated it into its Infomall TV network, broadcasting infomercials and paid programs; these stations formed the core of the Pax network, predecessor to Ion, in 1998.
History
Construction and launch
Though channel 61 had been allocated to Wilmington since 1966, the channel attracted little interest for primarily economic reasons. As Wilmington is part of the Philadelphia television market, any station on the channel would have to compete with Philadelphia stations for viewers and program rights.
Delaware Valley Broadcasters was awarded the
No matter its name, channel 61 was confronted with months of construction delays.
Also present at WTGI-TV's much-delayed launch were the ingredients for its near-immediate failure. Principal among these was the fact that
Home shopping and ethnic programming
On November 24, 1986, less than five months after going on the air, WTGI-TV dropped most of its existing programming inventory to air ShoppingLine, a home shopping service.
The station's programming took another major turn beginning in February 1988. On February 29, it affiliated with Telemundo and began to recast itself as a multilingual station serving the Delaware Valley's ethnic communities, branding as "Philadelphia's International Channel". The new format, inspired by KSCI in the Los Angeles area, also gave the station an opportunity to appear on more cable systems, as its programming would not duplicate home shopping channels that already paid cable companies for carriage.[26] In addition to Spanish-language output from Telemundo, the reformatted WTGI-TV offered viewers programming in Italian, Korean, Czech, Portuguese, Greek, and Ukrainian, as well as specialty programming for the Jewish and Black communities.[18][27][28] In January 1989, WTGI removed the remaining home shopping programming from its schedule,[29] and later that year, it moved its offices to Philadelphia.[28] The station turned its first-ever profit in the fourth quarter of 1990.[30]
The bankruptcy court accepted an offer by National Minority TV, Inc. (NMTV) for WTGI-TV in March 1991. However, the attempted purchase became mired in issues as to the control and ownership of the company, which claimed to be owned by minorities. Of the three members of National Minority TV, two were minorities—and one was Paul Crouch, founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. In TBN's monthly Praise the Lord newsletter, Crouch announced that the station would be affiliated with TBN.[30] The deal drew criticism from WTGI's employees, believing the loss of the station's existing programming would have a negative impact on the region. However, more significantly, questions about National Minority TV's ownership structure led to the FCC taking an interest in the case. A petition to deny was filed by one of the station's employees, and the commission responded by asking NMTV for more information about its principals; if the firm were not actually minority-owned, the purchase would be illegal for TBN to execute because it owned the then-maximum of 12 commercial TV stations, a limit that could only be surpassed by minority-controlled firms.[31] However, before the commission could act, NMTV withdrew its bid because the delays had made it impossible to meet deadlines imposed by the bankruptcy court.[32][33]
The passage of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 put must-carry rules back into place, with important impacts on WTGI. In late 1992, of the 1.8 million cable homes in the Philadelphia market, only 520,000 received the station, and attempts to increase that number were being met by "various degrees of coldness".[34] A year later, the station was promoting its addition to many cable systems as a result of the new law,[35] and it had begun production of a new local program, the health talk show Dr. Castillo y su Salud, to provide health advice to the Hispanic community.[36] Despite increased profitability, Delaware Valley Broadcasters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a second time in August 1993, per general manager Dan Slape, "to better meet our future goals and objectives".[37] As a result, the bankruptcy court ordered a sale of the station.[38] Even with a court-ordered sale looming, WTGI initiated production of a new public affairs series, Entérate (Find Out), in July.[39]
Pax/Ion ownership
In November 1994, Paxson Communications Corporation moved to acquire WTGI-TV for $10.2 million, the station having been in bankruptcy for more than seven years.
On August 31, 1998, the Paxson-owned stations formed the nucleus for the new Pax television network.[45] The station's call sign had been changed that January to WPPX.[46] After changing its name to i: Independent Television in 2005, the network became known as Ion Television in 2007.[47]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
61.1 | 720p | 16:9
|
ION | Ion Television |
61.2 | Bounce | Bounce TV | ||
61.3 | 480i | Laff | Laff | |
61.4 | Defy TV | Defy TV | ||
61.5 | SCRIPPS | Scripps News | ||
61.6 | Jewelry | Jewelry Television | ||
61.7 | QVC | QVC | ||
61.8 | HSN | HSN |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WPPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over
References
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- ^ a b Costantinou, Marianne (July 8, 1988). "TV station goes international". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 55. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022. Retrieved December 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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