WVPX

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WVPX
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = ION Television
analog = 23 (UHF)
digital = 59 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ION Television
network =
founded =
airdate = 1953 [The "Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook" says July 19, while the "Television and Cable Factbook" says June 7.]
location = Akron-Cleveland, Ohio
callsign_meaning = PaX TV
former_callsigns = WAKR-TV (1953-1986)
WAKC-TV (1986-1998)
former_channel_numbers = 49 (1953-1967)
owner = ION Media Networks
licensee = Paxson Akron License, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = ABC (1953-1996)
inTV (1996-1998)
Pax TV (1998-2005)
i (2005-2007)
effective_radiated_power = 5000 kW (analog)
630 kW (digital)
HAAT = 296 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 70491
coordinates = coord|41|3|52.5|N|81|34|58.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.ionline.tv/ www.ionline.tv]

WVPX is the Cleveland, Ohio affiliate of the ION Television network (formerly known as Pax TV and i). It is licensed to Akron, with a transmitter located on the west side of Akron just north of Rolling Acres Mall.

The station is owned by ion Media Networks, the former Paxson Communications, and broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 23. It runs infomercials and religious programming before 5 p.m.; and sitcoms, family dramas, and movies after 5 p.m.

History

Origins of WAKR-TV

The station signed on air for the first time in 1953 as WAKR-TV, broadcasting from a transmitter located on the First National Tower in Akron on channel 49. The station was licensed to Summit Radio Corporation, the family-owned business of S. Bernard Berk, which also owned WAKR radio (AM 1590 and FM 97.5, now WONE-FM). Summit had applied to the FCC in 1947 for a television license to operate on channel 11, the only channel allocated to Akron.

However, before the license was issued, the FCC implemented a freeze on further television licenses while it undertook a study of what to do with the VHF spectrum. When the freeze was lifted in 1952, the FCC decided to collapse Akron and Canton into the Cleveland market. It limited the number of VHF channels in the Cleveland area to three—channels 3, 5 and 8 (changed from 4, 5 and 9) and to grant licenses to further stations only in the UHF spectrum. Summit was able to secure a license to operate on channel 49.

Being a UHF television station in a predominantly VHF market was extremely difficult in the 1950s. Almost all television sets sold were not capable of tuning UHF stations, and special converters and antennas were required to receive the station's signal. About half of the UHF stations in the country that started in the 1950s failed. The FCC didn't require television sets to include UHF capability until 1964.

Early years

WAKR-TV was fortunate to obtain an affiliation with ABC, which had some problems in the early 1950s obtaining clearances for its full schedule on WJW-TV, which was also a Dumont affiliate, and on WEWS-TV, which was also a CBS affiliate.

WAKR-TV also focused on Akron area programming to distinguish itself from the Cleveland stations. The station struggled, however, and Summit had to rely for its profitability on its very successful AM station. In 1961 Summit Radio declared that channel 49 had from the beginning "suffered very substantial operating losses."

When the FCC rules were changed to require all television sets to have UHF tuners, the fortunes of many UHF stations, including WAKR, began to change. Eventually, the station became moderately more successful, helped by its move from channel 49 to channel 23 in 1967.

However, WAKR's fortunes declined when WEWS became a full ABC affiliate in 1955. It was left with lower-rated syndicated programming (especially a large amount of country music and religious shows, aimed perhaps toward the area's large population of Southern expatriates), as most of the more popular shows went to the bigger Cleveland stations. It tried to focus on its unique local programming including its Akron-based newscasts using resources shared with WAKR radio and the "Akron Beacon Journal" (a part owner of WAKR-AM-FM-TV until the 1970s).

It boasted the only newscast focused on Akron and Canton news. "Our local programming is geared to giving Akron what it wants—news, advertising, announcements and local shows all about Akron," then-station manager Bob Bostian said as WAKR-TV marked its 25th anniversary in 1978 [http://12.100.23.254:8080/bj/news/2000/September/10/docs/031187.htm] .

Cleveland TV vs. Akron TV

The station also suffered from overall low ratings because it operated in the shadow of the Cleveland market. Several studies indicated that even when viewers watched WAKR, they assumed they were watching WEWS, since both stations had a large amount of common programming from ABC. Furthermore, Akron was not a separate market for ratings purposes, but was only a small part of the Cleveland market. Although WAKR's overall ratings were very poor in the Cleveland market as a whole, it trounced the Cleveland stations in Akron and Canton.

When WAKR-TV signed on, it was Akron's only network affiliate. Had even one more network station opened up around the same time, or even a network affiliate in Canton, the two cities may well have broken off from Cleveland and formed their own market. This market would have been among the top 100 markets in the country and would have probably served much of east-central and north-central Ohio, where the Cleveland stations have poor reception.

An Akron-Canton market would have been in the same situation as Baltimore, a major market in its own right even though it is only 45 minutes from Washington, D.C. Other analogous situations would have been Topeka, Kansas; which is its own market even though the Kansas City stations reach it fairly easily. It is fairly similar to St Joseph, Missouri where one channel is an ABC affiliate and the rest of the networks are provided from Kansas City.

Within WAKR-TV's home state of Ohio, similar situations existed in Dayton, where stations from Cincinnati and Columbus can be received; in Youngstown, where residents of that city can receive most Cleveland (including channel 23), and some Pittsburgh stations despite having seven stations of its own; Toledo, where most of the Detroit stations can be received fairly well, and in Zanesville, which is approximately sixty miles outside of Columbus and is home to only one station, NBC affiliate WHIZ-TV, which competes with fellow NBC station WCMH-TV.

As it was, WAKR-TV was forced to compete with the Cleveland stations with the odds stacked heavily against it, especially since it was in the shadow of WEWS, one of ABC's strongest affiliates. It was also in constant jeopardy of losing its ABC affiliation. E.W. Scripps Company, owners of WEWS, constantly suggested to ABC that it pull its affiliation from WAKR-TV, so that WEWS did not have to compete with another ABC affiliate in the same market.

Later years

Summit Radio was reorganized as Group One Broadcasting in 1965. In 1986, Group One sold off its radio stations, but kept the TV station and changed the calls to WAKC (for AKron-Canton) on November 3, 1986. In 1993 ValueVision, a company specializing in home-shopping programming, bought WAKC. Immediately speculation arose that the station would drop its newscasts. ValueVision kept the newscasts, and had WAKC re-branded as "The North Ohio News Station," though the quality was uneven at best.

Finally, in 1996, Paxson Communications -- another specialist in home-shopping shows, though of the infomercial variety (and whose founder also launched the Home Shopping Network) -- purchased WAKC. The station abruptly dropped all local news programming that April, and ended the ABC affiliation that December. Around this time, it began identifying as "Akron-Cleveland", shifting its focus to serving the entire market. WAKC became part of Paxson's new Pax TV network launched in 1998 and carried the entire Pax network schedule, with practically no local programming. The station assumed its current calls on January 13, 1998.

An Akron-based newscast was briefly resurrected in June 2001 when Paxson entered a local marketing agreement with Cleveland's NBC affiliate, WKYC-TV, as part of an overall corporate deal between Paxson and NBC. WKYC opened an Akron studio and produced a 6:30 and 10:00 p.m. newscast nightly (as "Pax 23 News"), featuring WKYC reporters assigned to stories in the Akron/Canton area. Weather reports were supplied by WKYC's meteorologists in their Cleveland studio. The newscasts were anchored by WKYC Akron bureau chief Eric Mansfield, who had been a reporter for the old WAKC newscasts from 1992 to 1994.

When the Pax TV network rebranded as "i" on June 30, 2005, WVPX dropped the newscasts. What became "Akron/Canton News" migrated to Time Warner Cable's Akron/Canton area system, where it aired until May 30, 2008.

Due to their off-core digital channel designation and signal issues with the Canadian Government (due to proximity of TVOntario's Chatham, Ontario repeater, also on channel 59), WVPX has not activated their digital signal on Channel 59. They are expected to flash-cut to digital on February 17, 2009 on channel 23.

External links

* [http://www.ionline.tv/ www.ionline.tv]
* [http://www.woub.org/tv/video-akrontv-doc.html WOUB feature on Akron news]
*TVQ|WVPX
*BIA|WVPX|TV|TV

References