WKNX-TV (channel 7) is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...
, United States. It is owned by
Lockwood Broadcast Group
Lockwood Broadcast Group is a television broadcasting company that owns stations in several markets.
Lockwood Broadcast main offices are located in Hampton, Virginia with Operation Headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.
History
Lockwood Broadcast ...
alongside
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WTNZ (channel 43). Both stations share studios on Executive Park Drive (along
I-75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...
/
I-40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
) in Knoxville's Green Valley section, while WKNX-TV's transmitter is located on
Sharp's Ridge
Sharp's Ridge is a steep ridge in Knoxville, Tennessee, north of the city's downtown. A area of the ridge is maintained as Sharp's Ridge Memorial Park, a city park dedicated to the honor of the area's war veterans. The ridge also is the site o ...
, near the city's Oakwood section (just north of downtown Knoxville).
History
WKNX signed on the air on July 31, 2004, as WMAK-TV. It was one of the first stations in the United States to sign on exclusively as a digital station, with no full-powered analog counterpart. The station was originally owned by
South Central Communications
South Central Incorporated (Formally South Central Communications) is a privately owned company based in Evansville, Indiana, and owned and operated by the Engelbrecht family: John D. Engelbrecht (President & CEO), JP Engelbrecht (Vice-President & ...
, which also owns or operates five radio stations in the Knoxville area, and formerly owned
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate
WVLT-TV
WVLT-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Crossville, Tennessee, Crossville-licensed The CW, CW affiliate WBXX-TV (channel ...
(channel 8) from 1954 to 1989. As an independent station, WMAK ran
syndicated programs as well as recent and classic
motion pictures
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. On September 8, 2008, the station added programming from the
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...
on its second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
. This, however, would soon compromise the network's entire schedule on its main channel.
On April 27, 2009,
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
-based
religious broadcaster Daystar Television Network
The Daystar Television Network (commonly referred to as Daystar Television, often shortened to Daystar) is an American evangelical Christian-based religious television network owned by the Word of God Fellowship, founded by Marcus Lamb in 1993. ...
bought WMAK for $2 million; the deal was completed on July 14 of that year. WMAK would retain its RTV affiliation on its main channel until mid-2012, when it switched it over to Daystar, moving RTV programming to DT2.
On November 13, 2012,
Lockwood Broadcast Group
Lockwood Broadcast Group is a television broadcasting company that owns stations in several markets.
Lockwood Broadcast main offices are located in Hampton, Virginia with Operation Headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.
History
Lockwood Broadcast ...
entered into an agreement to purchase WMAK from Daystar for $2.95 million. Simultaneously with the purchase, Lockwood filed an application with the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) to change the station's call letters to WKNX-TV.
The FCC approved the sale on December 21.
On February 25, 2013, Lockwood took control of the station, which reverted to a general entertainment programming format (Daystar replaced RTV's programming on the station's second digital subchannel; at some point 7.2 was deleted); its branding was also changed to "WKNX, The Knox", although the station did not formally change its callsign until March 19 (the WKNX callsign was formerly used on
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...
's
WEYI-TV
WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services ...
from 1953 to 1972). Formal consummation of the Lockwood purchase occurred on March 4, 2013, creating the Knoxville television market's first station
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
with
CW affiliate
WBXX-TV
WBXX-TV (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Crossville, Tennessee, United States, serving the Knoxville area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Gray Television alongside dual CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WVLT-TV (channel 8). B ...
.
On October 1, 2015,
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
, owners of WVLT-TV, announced that it would acquire WBXX-TV from Lockwood, separating the station from WKNX-TV. The purchase was made as part of Gray's acquisition of the broadcasting assets of
Schurz Communications
Schurz Communications is a South Bend, Indiana-based broadband media group and cloud services provider. It owned newspapers.
History
The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the ''South Bend ...
; as part of the deal, Lockwood received
KAKE
KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
(which Gray put up for sale following the deal with Schurz), and paid $11.2 million to Gray.
Gray (through WVLT-TV, Inc.) took the operations of the station via a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
. The sale was completed on February 1, 2016.
On August 20, 2018, it was announced that Lockwood Broadcast Group would purchase WTNZ from Gray Television, as part of a series of divestures from the $3.5 billion merger of Gray Television and
Raycom Media
Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...
, as part of a group deal that also see Lockwood to buy
WFXG in
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...
,
WPGX
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 You ...
in
Panama City, Florida
Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...
, and
WDFX-TV
WDFX-TV (channel 34) is a television station licensed to Ozark, Alabama, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Dothan area. Owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Ross Clark Circle ( AL 210/US 231) in Dot ...
in
Dothan, Alabama
Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, ...
, and made WKNX another duopoly, this time with a Fox affiliate.
The sale was completed on January 2, 2019.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Former translators
WKNX (as WMAK) previously operated through two
low-power analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
translators
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
: WEZK-LP (channel 28) in Knoxville, and WJZC-LP (channel 22) in
Sevierville
Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census.
History
Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...
. These stations were sold in 2009 to Living Faith Ministries,
and now relay
Grundy, Virginia
Grundy is a town in Buchanan County, Virginia, United States, an area located within the Appalachian Mountains region. It is the county seat of Buchanan County. The town is home to the Appalachian School of Law. The population was 875 as of the ...
–based
WLFG
WLFG (channel 68) is a religious independent station licensed to Grundy, Virginia, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. The station is owned by Abingdon, Virginia–baseLiving Fait ...
(channel 68).
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wknx-Tv
Television channels and stations established in 2004
Lockwood Broadcast Group
KNX-TV
Independent television stations in the United States
GetTV affiliates
Court TV affiliates
2004 establishments in Tennessee