WFLX, branded as Fox 29, is a Fox-affiliated television station licensed to West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Gold and Treasure Coasts of South Florida. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 28 (or virtual channel 29 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Lake Worth west of US 441/SR 7. Owned by Gray Television, the station is operated by the E. W. Scripps Company under a shared services agreement (SSA); this makes it a sister station to NBC affiliate WPTV-TV (channel 5) and the two stations share studios on South Australian Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach (mailing address says Banyan Boulevard, also known as 1st Street). On cable, WFLX can be seen on Comcast Xfinity channel 11 (in Martin, Palm Beach, Okeechobee, and southern St. Lucie counties) and channel 8 (in Indian River and northern St. Lucie counties).
History[]
WFLX was to begin operations in August 1982 but delays pushed the sign on date back to October 17, 1982 as an independent station. Originally owned by Malrite Communications, it ran a programming lineup typical of independent stations at the time—early-morning cartoons, older sitcoms later in mornings, movies in early afternoons/primetime, classic sitcoms in the late-afternoon, and current sitcoms during early/late-evenings. WFLX originally operated from studios located on West Blue Heron Boulevard/SR 708 in Riviera Beach. Unlike most independents, the amount of children's programming seen on WFLX during this time was low compared to similar stations in other markets, a trend owing to the older demographics of the West Palm Beach area.
On October 9, 1986, WFLX became one of the charter affiliates of Fox. At the time, it was the de facto affiliate of the network in all of South Florida, since WCIX (now CBS O&O WFOR-TV), the Fox affiliate in Miami, had a signal unable to reach most Broward and northern Miami-Dade county viewers. WFLX retained this Fox affiliation through a heavy South Florida affiliation swap in January 1989, but it lost most of its Miami–Fort Lauderdale market share to WSVN, which became a Fox affiliate through the swap.
As the 1990s approached, WFLX picked up Fox Kids programming in afternoons and phased out older sitcoms for talk and reality shows. After the 1993/1994 season, it was recognized as the "Fox Affiliate of the Year". In 1998, Malrite was purchased by Raycom Media. Shortly after the merge, ratings came out affirming that WFLX was one of Fox's highest affiliates in terms of network ratings and has even showed numbers in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market. In April 2002, WFLX was the first station in the West Palm Beach market to broadcast in high definition showing Fox programming in the updated format.
In April 2005, Raycom tested The Tube Music Network on this station for three weeks. Raycom then announced on April 25, 2005, it was the launch station group for The Tube affiliating 29 stations. On October 1, 2007, The Tube ceased operations due to financial issues.
WFLX discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, at noon 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 28. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 29.
In March 2011, Raycom announced that WFLX would be operated through a shared services agreement with WPTV-TV, the NBC affiliate for the Treasure Coast that is owned and operated by E. W. Scripps Company. In addition to news content, which WPTV has produced for WFLX since the beginning of 2011 (see "News operation" below), WPTV will handle technical, promotional, and online operations for WFLX, along with possible production of local content outside of news. The stations will have separate sales departments; WFLX's sales team (which will remain separate from WPTV) will lease space at WPTV's studios on South Australian Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach. It was later announced that WFLX would vacate their existing studio in Riviera Beach at the end of May.
| TV stations in Florida |
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| WSVN, Miami WTVT, Tampa |
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| TV stations in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, including Port St. Lucie, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Fort Pierce |
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| WPTV 5 (NBC) WFPI-LP 8 (Ind) WHDT 9 (COURT) WWCI-CD 10 (Ind) WPEC 12 (CBS) WTCE 21 (TBN) WPBF 25 (ABC) WFLX 29 (Fox) WXOD-LD 33 (Buzzr) WTVX 34 (CW) WSLF-LD 35 (Daystar) WXEL 42 (PBS) WTCN-CA 43 (MNTV) W47DW-D 47 (Ind) WWHB-CD 48 (AZA) WBWP-LD 57 (Ind) WFGC 61 (CTN) WBEC 63 (ETV) WPXP 67 (Ion) |