WIPX-TV
Channels
BrandingIon Television
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
  • Inyo Broadcast Holdings
  • (Inyo Broadcast Licenses LLC)
WCLJ-TV
History
First air date
December 27, 1988 (1988-12-27)
Former call signs
WIIB (1988–1998)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 63 (UHF, 1988–2009)
  • Digital:27 (UHF, until 2019)
  • HSN (1988–1995)
  • inTV (1995–1998)
Call sign meaning
Indianapolis Pax
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID10253
ERP175 kW
HAAT310.7 m (1,019 ft)
Transmitter coordinates39°24′12″N 86°8′50″W / 39.40333°N 86.14722°W / 39.40333; -86.14722
Links
Public license information
Websiteiontelevision.com

WIPX-TV (channel 63) is a television station licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, serving the Indianapolis area as an affiliate of Ion Television. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongside Bounce TV affiliate WCLJ-TV (channel 42, also licensed to Bloomington). WIPX-TV and WCLJ-TV share offices on Production Drive (near I-465) in southwestern Indianapolis; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WIPX-TV's spectrum from an antenna on SR 252 in Trafalgar, Indiana.

Channel 63 went on air at the end of 1988 as WIIB, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and broadcasting Home Shopping Network programming. It dropped HSN for Infomall TV (inTV) at the start of 1996. Sinclair sold controlling interest to a related entity in 1996; the station was then sold to an affiliate of Paxson Communications Corporation in 1998, coinciding with the launch of the Pax network, forerunner to Ion. Inyo Broadcast Holdings acquired WIPX-TV and WCLJ-TV in 2020 as part of the acquisition of Ion by the E. W. Scripps Company.

History

In 1983, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated three applications seeking channel 63 for hearing, from Channel 63, Inc. (what is now Sinclair Broadcast Group); Hoosier Tele-Media; and Channel 63 Limited, later Bloomington 63 Limited.[3] Hoosier Tele-Media, whose owners included the manager of Bloomington radio station WBWB, withdrew when it became clear that the connection to the radio station would hurt it in the comparative hearing process.[4] An administrative law judge's initial decision, released in September 1984, found in favor of Bloomington 63 because it did not own other broadcast properties.[5] Sinclair appealed the decision to the FCC review board, which then overturned a settlement agreement and granted it the construction permit because of what one board member called "the watermarks of a visible pattern" in obtaining settlements in TV license cases on behalf of one of the company's principals.[6]

Little progress was made on the station in the next three years; it was not until June 1988 that a permit to build the tower came before Johnson County zoning board members. By that time, Sinclair opted to affiliate WIIB with the Home Shopping Network (HSN) instead of assembling a general-entertainment independent lineup. It did so because of two events affecting the Indianapolis independents: the 1987 bankruptcy of Bloomington's WTTV and the sale at a low price of WXIN in Indianapolis.[7] The station went on the air December 27, 1988, with HSN programming.[8] Its non-home shopping programming was extremely limited, including public affairs shows produced by Indiana University.[9]

On January 1, 1996, WIIB changed to the Infomall TV (inTV) infomercial service; the general manager had come away from an HSN affiliates conference believing that Barry Diller was about to convert HSN to a cable-only service.[10] That same year, it acquired River City Broadcasting, owner of WTTV. As Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at that time forbade the common ownership of two full-power commercial television stations in the same market, and after originally announcing their plans to sell channel 63, the Smith brothers changed their ownership interests in WIIB to non-attributable status and sold controlling interest to David C. McCarus.[11]

WIIB joined the Pax network, forerunner of Ion, upon its launch on August 31, 1998.[12] Channel 63, Inc., then sold the station for $35 million to RDP Communications (also known as DP Media), a company controlled by other members of the Paxson family.[13] DP Media's six stations were absorbed by Paxson Communications Corporation in 2000, though Paxson had already been brokering their airtime to run Pax programming.[14]

In January 2001, in conjunction with a joint sales agreement that Paxson had signed with NBC affiliate WTHR (channel 13), WIPX-TV began airing rebroadcasts of that station's 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts on an hour tape delay on weeknights. WTHR's sales department also began selling WIPX-TV's advertising inventory.[15] By this time, a translator, WIPX-LP 51, had been established in Indianapolis to improve the station's signal;[16] the station remained associated with WIPX-TV until it was donated to Word of God Fellowship, parent company of the Daystar network, in 2014.[17]

WIPX and WCLJ were included among Ion Media stations spun off to Inyo Broadcast Holdings in 2020, as the E. W. Scripps Company could not own those stations and WRTV.[18]

Technical information

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WIPX-TV[19]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
63.1 720p16:9IONMain WIPX-TV programming / Ion Television
63.2 480iCourtTVCourt TV
63.3 SCRIPPSScripps News
63.4 MysteryIon Mystery
63.5 Defy TVDefy TV
63.6 JewelryJewelry TV
63.8 QVC2QVC2

WIPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 63, 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 broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 27, using virtual channel 63.[20] WIPX–WCLJ relocated its signal from channel 27 to channel 28 on October 18, 2019, as a result of the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction.[21]

References

  1. ↑ Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application
  2. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WIPX-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ↑ Claflin, Blair (December 18, 1983). "Groups to square off in Washington to start new TV station". Sunday Herald-Times. pp. A-1, A-18. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Gibson, Jeremy (February 19, 1984). "Radio must serve diverse audience: Bloomington market a challenge". Sunday Herald-Times. p. F-5. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "TV Station Granted Permit". The Star Press. Associated Press. September 6, 1984. p. 22. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Washington Watch: Bloomington grant" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 22, 1985. p. 103.
  7. ↑ Hutson, Jeff (June 4, 1988). "New TV station planned here". The Daily Journal. p. 1. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ MacNair, Andrea (January 15, 1989). "Cable subscribers are seeing 'ghosts'". The Republic. p. D3. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "WIIB to offer public affairs shows". Sunday Herald-Times. November 5, 1989. p. D1. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "WTLC fails to broadcast King show". The Indianapolis Star. January 17, 1996. p. F5. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Rathbun, Elizabeth A. (November 4, 1996). "Change of plans in Indianapolis" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. p. 48.
  12. ↑ Jordan, Chris (August 30, 1998). "WIIB-63 begins airing PAX NET". The Indianapolis Star. p. TV 2. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. September 21, 1998. p. 89.
  14. ↑ Paxson Communications Corporation (June 6, 2000). "Paxson Completes Acquisition of Six Television Stations -- Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Indianapolis, Raleigh-Durham, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids-Battle Creek" (Press release). Business Wire. ProQuest 445954753 – via ProQuest.
  15. ↑ "Sales pact connects WTHR and WIPX". The Indianapolis Star. January 11, 2001. p. 56. Retrieved May 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Davis Hudson, Eileen (February 19, 2001). "Indianapolis". Mediaweek. pp. 14–17. ProQuest 213630571.
  17. ↑ "APPLICATION FOR TRANSFER OF CONTROL OF A CORPORATE LICENSEE OR PERMITTEE, OR FOR ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE OR PERMIT OF TV OR FM TRANSLATOR STATION OR LOW POWER TELEVISION STATION (WIPX-LP)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 23, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Station Trading Roundup: 2 Deals, $45,450,000". TVNewsCheck. October 20, 2020.
  19. ↑ "TV Query for WIPX". RabbitEars.
  20. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  21. ↑ "FCC TV Spectrum Phase Assignment Table" (CSV). Federal Communications Commission. April 13, 2017. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
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