Branding ION Television | ||
Slogan Positively Entertaining Subchannels 69.1 - Ion HD (720p)69.2 - qubo (480i)69.3 - Ion Life (480i)69.4 - Ion Shop (480i)69.5 - QVC69.6 - HSN Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.(Ocean State Television, LLC) | ||
WPXQ-TV is a television station in the Providence, Rhode Island market in the USA. The station is owned and operated by Ion Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications) as an affiliate of the Ion Television network. It is licensed to Block Island, Rhode Island on digital UHF channel 17, but was never carried by former cable operator Block Island Cable TV, despite being the city of license.
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Occasionally, the NBC affiliate WJAR broadcasts its Sunday 6pm newscast on WPXQ, due to runover of NBC Sports coverage past that time.
History
The FCC was persuaded to allocate channel 69 (WPXQ's original analogue frequency) to Block Island by Ted Robinson, an island resident, who claimed during the allocation filing process in 1984-85 that an independent TV station providing niche programming from there would serve the public interest better. Robinson subsequently ran into local opposition to tower siting, and sold out his interest to Ray Yorke, who obtained the initial construction permit. The station began broadcasting a few hours of old movies daily in 1992 using the call WOST-TV (meaning Ocean State Television, the original owners). By 1996, the station was owned by Paxson Communications, which had implemented their infomercials (via their inTV network) and religious programming. The station became WPXQ in 1998, and in August of that year began to run programming from the Pax TV network (now Ion Television).
Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WPXQ-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 69, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 69, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.