WUXP-TV, virtual channel 30 (UHF digital channel 21), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, it is part of a virtual triopoly with Fox affiliate WZTV (channel 17, also wholly owned by Sinclair) and CW affiliate WNAB (channel 58, owned by Tennessee Broadcasting but operated by Sinclair through an outsourcing agreement). The three stations share studios on Mainstream Drive along the Cumberland River and transmitter facilities along I-24 in Whites Creek.
History[]
The station first signed on the air on February 18, 1984 as independent station WCAY-TV. WCAY-TV was owned by the TVX Broadcast Group, which had signed on a few stations in other markets. The station maintained a general entertainment format featuring cartoons, sitcoms, movies and drama series, operating from studios located on Peabody Street in downtown Nashville. Along with the other TVX stations, WCAY became a Fox affiliate on April 5, 1987 as part of a groupwide affiliation deal. Fox affiliated with all of TVX's stations as a condition of affiliating with WNOL-TV in New Orleans.
In 1987, TVX acquired Taft Broadcasting's Fox affiliates and independent stations. The deal left TVX heavily leveraged. After the 1987 stock market "bump", investors started pulling their funding, forcing TVX to sell some of its underperforming medium-market stations. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis (now WLMT were sold to MT Communications. WCAY then changed its call letters to WXMT on September 26, 1989.
In 1990, WZTV's owner, Act III Broadcasting, who were known for buying its competitors' stronger programming assets, offered to buy WXMT's entire syndicated programming inventory and move most of the shows over to WZTV, alongside programs that were already broadcast on that station. Fox also planned to exercise its option to moving its Nashville area affiliation to WZTV. Originally, WXMT was to switch to a hybrid format of home shopping for 18 hours a day and religious programs for six hours a day, but MT Communications still wanted some programming and entertainment shows on the schedule. The deal was called off early in February. When Fox moved over to WZTV later that month, negotiations resumed and immediately it was decided that WZTV would get only cash programming (including sitcoms, movies, and some of the cartoons), while WXMT would keep barter cartoons, a few barter sitcoms, and some religious shows.
The deal took effect later in February 1990. By this time, WXMT's schedule now featured cartoons from 7 to 9 a.m., religious programming from 9 a.m. to noon, Home Shopping Network programming from noon to 4 p.m. and after 9 p.m., and low-rated barter syndicated shows from 4 to 9 p.m. Gradually, more first run talk shows, sitcoms and cartoons were added to WXMT's schedule. By 1994, WXMT was once again running general entertainment programming full-time.
On January 16, 1995, the station became an affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and began branding itself as "UPN 30". By then, WZTV was owned by Abry Communications; later that year, WZTV entered into a local marketing agreement with WXMT. MT Communications sold the station to a local owner, but WZTV would handle programming responsibilities for the station. The station's call letters were changed to the current WUXP on August 23, 1996 with its on-air branding changing to "UXP30" and later "UPN Nashville" before reverting to "UPN 30" in 2002.
Before it entered into the LMA with WZTV, WXMT had planned to build a state-of-the-art studio facility along the "south loop" of I-40 in Nashville. For many years, even after the plans had been abandoned, a retaining wall on the site featured a mural reading "Future Home of WXMT-30". The LMA continued after Sinclair acquired Abry. As time went on, cartoons and anime (such as The Wacky World of Tex Avery, Pokémon and RoboCop: Alpha Commando) disappeared from the schedule gradually and more first-run reality and talk shows were added. In 2000, Sinclair Broadcast Group bought WUXP outright.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the formation of MyNetworkTV, a sister network to Fox that would affiliate with WB and UPN stations that were not named as affiliates of fellow upstart network The CW. In February 2006, WUXP, along with most of Sinclair's WB and UPN affiliates, was announced as a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV. On September 5 of that year, WUXP changed its on-air branding to "My 30" and carried the last three weeks of UPN programming outside of prime time during the late night hours. WUXP may carry CW or Fox programming should WNAB or WZTV preempt in the event of a local special or an emergency such as a breaking news story.
On September 15, 2014, WUXP went off the air due to technical problems with its transmission tower. No public relations statement or updates had been provided on its website or Facebook page. On September 18, the signal was restored only to remain broken up and intermittent that day. The signal was completely restored on September 20, 2014.
Gallery[]
| TV stations in Tennessee |
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| WUXP, Nashville |
| TV stations in Middle Tennessee, including Nashville, Murfreesboro and Clarksville |
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| WKRN 2 (ABC) WSMV 4 (NBC) WTVF 5 (CBS) WRTN-LP 6 (Daystar) WNPT 8 (PBS) WETV-LP 11 (Ind) WIIW-LP 14 (Silent → Ind) WZTV 17 (Fox) WCKV-LD 21 (The Walk TV) WCTE 22 (PBS) WNPX-LP 24 (Silent → Daystar) WNTU-LP 26 (Daystar) WNPX 28 (Ion) WUXP 30 (MNTV) WJDE-LD 31 (H&I) WJNK-LD 34 (3ABN) WHTN 39 (CTN) WKUW-LD 40 (Buzzr) WLLC-LP 42 (UNI) WJFB 44 (TCT) WPGD 50 (TBN) WNAB 58 (Dabl) |