WPXA-TV, virtual channel 14 (UHF digital channel 31), is an Ion Television owned-and-operated television station serving Atlanta, Georgia, United States that is licensed to Rome. Owned by Ion Media Networks, the station maintains offices on North Cobb Parkway (U.S. 41) in Marietta, and its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, near the Cherokee/Bartow county line.
The station's broadcast range extends into parts of Alabama and Chattanooga, Tennessee and even the southwest corner of North Carolina. However, terrain shielding not accounted for in radio propagation models prevents this from regularly occurring, due to the north Georgia mountains.
On cable, the station is available in standard definition on channel 12 on Comcast Xfinity and channel 11 on Charter Spectrum, and in high definition on Xfinity channel 812 and Spectrum channel 711.
History[]
The station was issued a construction permit in 1984 on Channel 14 as WZGA but never went on-air. The station went on-air February 29, 1988 as WAWA with studios on Shorter Avenue in Rome and TV tower on Mount Alto nearby. The station was owned by Sudbrink Broadcasting, West Palm Beach, FL, and had a general entertainment format of low-budget shows, public domain movies, local TV news, and pre-empted network TV programs. It also aired several ABC, CBS and NBC shows that WSB-TV (channel 2), WAGA-TV (channel 5) and WXIA-TV (channel 11) turned down.
In 1990, the station changed its calls to WTLK-TV and moved its studios to Marietta and transmitter to Bear Mountain (west of Canton). Rebranding as "Talk TV", it featured national talk shows like Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael. It also aired local shows (with TV studio audiences) with WSB's Neal Boortz, former Miss America Suzette Charles, Hosea Williams, Michael Young, WVEE's Mike Roberts, WGST's Brian Wilson and others. The station never took off in metro Atlanta as WTLK was not a must-carry on cable TV. The other independent on the fringe of the market, WNGM-TV (channel 34, now WUVG) had the same problem. Later in the 1990s, WTLK ran blocks of country music videos along with infomercials.
In 1996 the station was sold to Paxson Communications. The must-carry rules for cable systems took effect about the same time. WTLK, WNGM and WATC would be added to most metro cable systems immediately. The station's format consisted of infomercials by day and the Worship Network at night. Pax TV was launched in 1998 and WTLK became WPXA as a charter affiliate. Pax TV later became i: Independent Television and is now Ion Television. During the Pax era, WPXA aired a late-night replay of WXIA's 11 p.m. newscast. Most Pax stations had similar arrangements with the NBC affiliates in their markets.
The station's broadcast tower on Bear Mountain was also the first location for WCHK-FM 105.5, now WRDA 105.7 on Sweat Mountain.
Rome also had a previous full-power TV station (ABC/CBS/NBC/DuMont) WROM-TV channel 9, from 1953–1957. That was later moved to Chattanooga and became what is now WTVC.
| TV stations in Georgia |
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| WPXA, Atlanta WCTV-DT3, Thomasville |
| TV stations in North Georgia, including Atlanta and Athens |
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| WSB 2 (ABC) WUVM-LP 4 (AZA) WAGA 5 (Fox) WGTV 8 (PBS) WXIA 11 (NBC) WPXA 14 (Ion) WGGD-LD 15 (Daystar) WYGA-CD 16 (SHOP-LC) WPCH 17 (Ind) WKSY-LD 21 (Ind) WTBS-LD 26 (ESTRELLA) WDWW-LD 28 (Ind) WPBA 30 (PBS) WGTA 32 (MeTV) WANN-CD 32 (APG) WUVG 34 (UNI) WDTA-LD 35 (Daystar) WATL 36 (MNTV) WIGL-LD 38 (TCT) WIRE-CD 40 (Info) WTHC-LD 42 (Ind) W45DX-D 45 (HSN2) WGCL 46 (CBS) WKTB-CD 47 (TLM) WAGC-LD 51 (Info) WATC 57 (Rel) WHSG 63 (TBN) WUPA 69 (CW) |