WVPX-TV
Ion Television station in Akron, Ohio / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about WVPX-TV?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
WVPX-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Akron, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland area as an affiliate of Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, it is jointly operated with Canton-licensed Scripps News affiliate WDLI-TV (channel 17), which transmits using WVPX-TV's full-power spectrum via a channel sharing agreement.[1]
| |
---|---|
City | Akron, Ohio |
Channels | |
Programming | |
Affiliations |
|
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
WDLI-TV | |
History | |
First air date | June 7, 1953 (71 years ago) (1953-06-07) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel number(s) |
|
| |
Call sign meaning | Pax TV[2] |
Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 70491 |
ERP | 950 kW |
HAAT | 290.32 m (952 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°3′20″N 81°35′37″W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | iontelevision |
Built and signed on by S. Bernard Berk's Summit Radio Corporation, this station originally was WAKR-TV—the television extension of WAKR—and positioned itself with a focus primarily on Akron even as it also covered the Greater Cleveland television market.[4] From their 1953 establishment until 1996, the station was one of two primary ABC-TV affiliates within the Cleveland market, current primary affiliate WEWS-TV being the other.[5] Denied what would have originally been a VHF license, WAKR-TV's competitiveness was negatively impacted throughout this era by financial shortfalls and continuous ratings issues,[6] even with a move from channel 49 to channel 23 in 1967,[7] and eventual market-wide carriage on cable systems.[8] Becoming WAKC-TV in 1986 after WAKR was sold,[9] the station remained in the hands of the Berk family until 1994, when it was sold to home-shopping broadcast chain ValueVision, but retained the ABC affiliation and local programming.[10] A subsequent sale to Paxson Communications (now Ion Media) resulted in all newscast production ceasing immediately upon consummation on February 28, 1996,[11] and disaffiliation from ABC at years' end;[12] these moves made Akron the largest city in Ohio without a traditional television network affiliate or commercial television newscast.[13]
Renamed WVPX-TV, the station has been an affiliate of Ion Television since it launched under the Pax TV name on August 31, 1998,[14] and was owned and operated by the network until 2021.[15] WKYC owner Gannett operated the station from 2001 until 2005, producing a daily half-hour Akron newscast during this period. WVPX-TV and WDLI-TV currently share studios on Renaissance Parkway in Warrensville Heights and transmitter facilities on Ohio SR 261 in Norton, Ohio.[16]