WTVX

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WTVX
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = The CW West Palm
analog = 34 (UHF)
digital = 50 (UHF), returning to 34 in 2009
other_chs =
affiliations = The CW
Azteca América (on DT2)
MNTV (on DT3)
RTN (on DT4)
network =
founded =
airdate = April 5, 1966
location = Fort Pierce / West Palm Beach, Florida
callsign_meaning = disambiguation of WTVJ (which WTVX replaced at sign-on)
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Four Points Media Group
licensee = West Palm Beach Television Licensee Corporation
sister_stations = WTCN-CA
WWHB-CA
former_affiliations = Independent (1966 & 1989-1995)
CBS (1966-1989)
UPN (1995-2006)
The WB (secondary, early 2000s-2005)
effective_radiated_power = 5,000 kW (analog)
704 kW (digital)
HAAT = 454 m (analog)
438.3 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35575
coordinates = coord|27|7|20.6|N|80|23|19|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.34cwtv.com/ 34cwtv.com]

WTVX, channel 34, is the CW-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida, licensed to Fort Pierce. Its transmitter is located south of Fort Pierce and I-95 in Martin County. Owned by the Four Points Media Group, WTVX is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA and Azteca América affiliate WWHB-CA. All three stations are operated out of WTVX's studios on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in West Palm Beach. Despite WTVX's call sign, it was never owned by the TVX Broadcast Group, which coincidentally was a predecessor to the Paramount Stations Group now called the CBS Television Stations Group. Syndicated programming on WTVX includes: "Will & Grace", "Sex and the City", "Friends", and "The King of Queens". The station can be seen on Comcast cable channel 4.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed.

Post-analog shutdown

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WTVX will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 34. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101257502&formid=387&fac_num=35575 CDBS Print ] ]

History

WTVX began operations as an independent station on April 5, 1966 and soon after became a CBS affiliate. The station was originally owned by Indian River Television. Prior to the station becoming a CBS affiliate, the network was seen in the Palm Beaches via their former Miami affiliate WTVJ. WTVX also had a small news department. In 1988, NBC bought WTVJ. CBS needed a new Miami affiliate and purchased WCIX, which had a Grade B signal in Fort Lauderdale. West Palm Beach stations WPTV and WPEC had Grade A signals there. This forced CBS to switch their West Palm Beach affiliate on January 1, 1989 to WPEC leaving WTVX without network affiliation. As ABC decided to go from WPEC to new sign-on WPBF, WTVX was forced to become an independent station once again.

During the day, the station showed movies, drama shows, and talk shows. By the Summer of 1989, the station became more of a traditional independent station with sitcoms and cartoons being added to its schedule. Most of WTVX's shows were to have originally aired on WPBF before that station made the decision to affiliate with ABC. In 1990, WTVX was sold to Krypton Broadcasting and the general entertainment format remained. In 1995, Paramount / Viacom (who would eventually buy WTVX in 1997 along with CBS in 2001) joined with Chris-Craft / United Television to form the United Paramount Network, or UPN. WTVX immediately became an owned-and-operated affiliate of this network. By the late-1990s, WTVX had started to move away from cartoons and sitcoms, adding more talk / reality and court shows. In the early-2000s, they also started to carry The WB on a secondary basis. Programming from that network aired after UPN prime time. The station soon re-branded from "UPN 34" to "TVX 34" which was based on their call letters.

In the Fall of 2005, WTCN-CA (then a little-known community access channel) became the area's new WB affiliate. As a result, WTVX became a primary UPN station and returned to the "UPN 34" branding. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by FOX Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. WTVX was announced as becoming the area's affiliate of the new network because it was full-powered and owned by CBS. The CW began broadcasting on September 18. WTCN affiliated with MyNetworkTV when that network began broadcasting on September 5.

On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (including WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB), for $185 million dollars. Cerberus formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June of 2007. The group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008. Until the sale to Four Points, WTVX was one of three former CBS affiliates that later became CW stations who owned by CBS. The other two are KSTW in Seattle / Tacoma, Washington and WPCW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, both of which are still owned by CBS. During CBS ownership, WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB had some internal operations based at WFOR-TV's studios in Miami. As of February 25, 2008, these three stations are now being operated out of Four Points' hub station at KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah. WTVX added Equity Broadcasting's Retro Television Network on its forth digital subchannel as well as Comcast digital cable channel 225 and 187.

Newscasts

As a CBS affiliate, WTVX operated a news department and produced local newscasts. As some point in time, the station moved its 11 P.M. news to 10. Soon after that, the newscast died. All of WTVX's newscasts were canceled by the Summer of 1989. As a CW affiliate, the station had aired news updates under the title "CW News Now". In the Summer of 2008, WTVX created a new news department. On August 4, WTVX debuted "West Palm News at 10" which airs every night for 35 minutes (and as of September 15 in high definition). This production is the station's first news broadcast to air in nearly 20 years. It competes with the 10 o'clock news that airs on Fox affiliate WFLX and indirectly with WSVN's newscast. WTVX airs the nationally syndicated morning show, "The Daily Buzz", on weekday mornings from 7 to 9.

Logos

References

External links

* [http://www.34cwtv.com/ WTVX "The CW West Palm"]
* [http://www.rtnwestpalmbeach.com/ WTVX-DT4 "RTN West Palm Beach"]
* [http://www.34cwtv.com/content/wtcn/default.aspx WTCN-CA "My 15"]
*TVQ|WTVX