Branding ION Television | Affiliations Ion Television | |
Slogan Positively Entertaining Channels Digital: 34 (UHF)
Virtual: 66 (PSIP) Subchannels 66.1 - Ion HD (720p)
66.2 - qubo (480i)
66.3 - Ion Life (480i)
66.4 - Ion Shop (480i)
66.5 - QVC
66.6 - HSN Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.
(Ion Media Washington License, Inc.) | ||
WPXW-TV is the Washington, D.C. area's Ion Television (formerly Pax TV and i) network affiliate, licensed to nearby Manassas, Virginia. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 34 (remapped to former analog channel 66 via PSIP). It is owned and operated by ION Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications).
Contents
History
Channel 66 signed on as WTKK, an independent religious station, in 1978. The call letters stood for Witnessing The King of Kings. In 1982 they added some classic sitcoms and very old movies to the lineup but by 1986 they reverted to mostly religious. In 1994, the station was purchased by ValueVision, a shopping network, and on June 6, 1994, the call letters were changed to WVVI. Paxson Communications purchased the station in 1997 and on January 13, 1998, the call letters were changed to the current WPXW. The station was an all-infomercial channel ("inTV") from the time that Paxson bought the station until the PAX Network began on August 31, 1998. The station had the rights to the 2005 season of Baltimore Orioles games in the Washington area that were produced by MASN. It was formerly known as PAX66, before the PAX network switched its name to Ion.
WWPX-TV in Martinsburg, West Virginia serves as a full-time satellite of WPXW.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WPXW-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 66, 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 continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 34. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 66, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
WPXW's studios are located in Fairfax Station, Virginia and the transmitter is located in the tower complex near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue, NW and 41st St., NW in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
On April 20, 2009 it was announced that Washington, D.C. would be the first market to get free mobile digital television via cell phones and other mobile devices through Mobile TV. WPXW began testing mobile television on June 13, 2009 and was one of the first stations in the country to launch this new platform.
Like all of the D.C.-area Mobile DTV broadcasters, WPXW-TV commenced ATSC-M/H broadcasting on February 27, 2011. WPXW-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 66.2, labelled "Qubo", with six encrypted video feeds of MSNBC (66.4), CNBC (66.5), MTV (66.6), Nickelodeon (66.7), and Comedy (66.8), broadcasting at 3.67 Mbit/s. This is the highest number of encrypted television signals of any D.C.-area television station mobile feed.