Branding ION Television | Translators 49 (UHF) Waymart | |
Subchannels 64.1 Ion Television64.2 Qubo64.3 ION Life64.4 Ion Shop64.5 QVC64.6 HSN Owner Ion Media Networks, Inc.(Ion Media Scranton License, Inc.) | ||
WQPX-TV is the Ion Television affiliate for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by ion Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications).
Before WQPX signed on, the station's call sign was WSWB, first used on channel 38 in the early 1980s (before its own sign on) and currently used on that same station today.
WQPX operates its digital fill-in translator on UHF channel 49. That translator is run by NextEra Energy Resources in Waymart, PA. Windmills run by NextEra Energy Resources in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with full power television signals from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market.
WQPX started broadcasting Ion TV in HD on April 27, 2010.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WQPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 64, 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 32. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 64, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.