Fox affiliate in Panama City, Florida
WPGX
(channel 28) is a
television station
in
Panama City, Florida
, United States, affiliated with the
Fox
network. The station is owned by
Lockwood Broadcast Group
, and maintains transmitter facilities on Blue Springs Road in
unincorporated
Youngstown
,
Bay County
. Its studios are located on West 23rd Street/
SR 368
in Panama City, though most of its on-air
master control
operations originate from
Gray Television
's
WBRC
in
Birmingham, Alabama
, its former sister Fox affiliate until the start of 2019.
History
[
edit
]
The station, originally owned by
Family Group Broadcasting
, began operations on May 1, 1988, and aired an
analog
signal on
UHF
channel 28. Its previous owner, Waitt Media, sold WPGX to
Raycom Media
in 2003. At one point under Raycom ownership, WPGX previously maintained its facilities in Panama City on Luverne Avenue in a building (known as the "Fox Television Center") shared with a
Suntrust Bank
branch. In May 2010, it launched a website for the first time under Raycom's control. It mainly serves as an
advertorial
web address with various promotions from Panama City businesses and has limited station-related content, including FCC
public file
and EEO disclosures.
Atlanta
-based
Gray Television
announced its acquisition of Raycom on June 25, 2018; Gray immediately put WPGX on the market, as it already owned
WJHG-TV
(channel 7).
[2]
On August 20, 2018, Gray announced that WPGX, along with fellow Fox affiliates
WTNZ
in
Knoxville, Tennessee
,
WFXG
in
Augusta, Georgia
, and
WDFX-TV
in
Dothan, Alabama
, would be sold to
Lockwood Broadcast Group
.
[3]
The sale was completed on January 2, 2019.
[4]
News operation
[
edit
]
At one time in the 1990s, WJHG produced a 9 p.m. newscast for WPGX. This was very short-lived, and Panama City was one of the few places in the country (and a very select group of Fox affiliates) not to have a prime time newscast of any kind.
In January 2010, local ABC outlet
WMBB
(then owned by Hoak Media) began producing local
weather
cut-ins for this station (recorded in advance) through an arrangement. Although there was speculation this agreement would eventually be expanded into a prime time newscast at 9, these plans never came to fruition at the time. The weather segments ceased airing at some point and this Fox affiliate resumed taped weather forecasts produced by
WeatherVision
, which had produced them before the arrangement with WMBB was made.
On June 1, 2020, WPGX debuted an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast produced by WMBB, titled
Fox 28 News at 9:00
.
[5]
This happened alongside fellow sister station WDFX in Dothan terminating their existing arrangement with former sister station
WSFA
. Like in Panama City, Lockwood contracted with
Nexstar
-owned
WDHN
to produce a locally-based 9 p.m. newscast in Dothan.
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
WPGX-DT2 was a charter affiliate of
The Tube Music Network
before its ended operations in October 2007. The subchannel was relaunched in 2013 to carry Bounce TV, with Grit joining WPGX on its third subchannel in September 2014 and Court TV joining WPGX on its fourth subchannel in May 2019.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WPGX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, 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 remained on its pre-transition
VHF
channel 9,
[7]
using
virtual channel
28.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WPGX"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018).
"Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion"
.
TVNewsCheck
. NewsCheckMedia
. Retrieved
June 25,
2018
.
- ^
Aycock, Jason (August 20, 2018).
"Gray sets divestitures in eight more markets for Raycom deal"
.
Seeking Alpha
. Retrieved
August 20,
2018
.
- ^
"Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions"
,
Gray Television
, January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^
Ortega, Roly (June 11, 2020).
"Catch-up post #4… WCSH/WLBZ and WPGX/WMBB"
.
The Changing Newscasts Blog
. Retrieved
June 12,
2020
.
- ^
"RabbitEars TV Query for WPGX"
.
rabbitears.info
.
- ^
"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on August 29, 2013
. Retrieved
March 24,
2012
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
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Reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with
cable television
|
Panama City
(
Bay County
)
| Full-power
|
- WJHG-TV
(7.1
NBC
, 7.2
MeTV
,
7.3
CBS
, 7.4
Ion
, 7.5
Dabl
, 7.6
The365
, 7.7
Cozi
)
- WMBB
(13.1
ABC
, 13.2
CW+
, 13.3
Laff
, 13.4
Mystery
)
- WPGX
(28.1
Fox
, 28.2
Court
, 28.3
Grit
, 28.4
Bounce
)
- WPCT
(46.1 Beach TV, 46.2/.4
Scripps
, 46.3
Defy
, 46.5
Get
, 46.6
Newsmax 2
, 46.7
Buzzr
)
- WBIF
(51.1
Daystar
, 51.2 Espanol)
- WFSG
(56.1
PBS
, 56.2
TFC
, 56.3
Create
, 56.4
Kids
)
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Low-power
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Outlying areas
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Cable
channels
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Defunct
channels
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|
Fox
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Florida
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sorted by primary channel network affiliations
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ABC
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CBS
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The CW
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Fox
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Independent
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NBC
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- 1
These stations broadcast these networks on their digital subchannels.
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