WPGX (channel 28) is a

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 Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with the

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 ...

network. The station 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 ...

, and maintains transmitter facilities on Blue Springs Road in unincorporated

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

, Bay County. Its studios are located on West 23rd Street/ SR 368 in Panama City, though most of its on-air

master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...

operations originate from

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 ...

's WBRC in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, its former sister Fox affiliate until the start of 2019.

History

The station, originally owned by Family Group Broadcasting, began operations on May 1, 1988, and aired an analog signal on

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 28. Its previous owner, Waitt Media, sold WPGX to Raycom Media in 2003. At one point under Raycom ownership, WPGX previously maintained its facilities in Panama City on Luverne Avenue in a building (known as the "Fox Television Center") shared with a Suntrust Bank branch. In May 2010, it launched a website for the first time under Raycom's control. It mainly serves as an advertorial web address with various promotions from Panama City businesses and has limited station-related content, including FCC public file and EEO disclosures.

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based

announced its acquisition of Raycom on June 25, 2018; Gray immediately put WPGX on the market, as it already owned WJHG-TV (channel 7). On August 20, 2018, Gray announced that WPGX, along with fellow Fox affiliates WTNZ 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 ...

, 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 ...

, 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 Dotha ...

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, ...

, would be sold to

. The sale was completed on January 2, 2019.

Programming

Syndicated programming on the station includes '' TMZ on TV'', '' Two and a Half Men'', ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'', and '' Judge Judy'' among others. WPGX broadcasts a local hour block of programming weekday mornings at 6:30,
The Panhandle Outdoor Show
' and ''Ask the Master Auto Technician''. The former is hosted by outdoorsman Winston Chester, with the latter produced by the James Auto Center and carrying car care tips and other topics of interest to the host, James Morris.

News operation

At one time in the 1990s, WJHG produced a 9 p.m. newscast for WPGX. This was very short-lived, and Panama City was one of the few places in the country (and a very select group of Fox affiliates) not to have a prime time newscast of any kind. In January 2010, local ABC outlet

WMBB WMBB (channel 13) is a television station in Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Harrison Avenue/US 231 in downtown Panama City, and its transmitter is l ...

(then owned by Hoak Media) began producing local

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

cut-ins for this station (recorded in advance) through an arrangement. Although there was speculation this agreement would eventually be expanded into a prime time newscast at 9, these plans never came to fruition at the time. The weather segments ceased airing at some point and this Fox affiliate resumed taped weather forecasts produced by WeatherVision, which had produced them before the arrangement with WMBB was made. On June 1, 2020, WPGX debuted an hour-long weeknight 9 p.m. newscast produced by WMBB, titled ''Fox 28 News at 9:00''. This happened alongside fellow sister station WDFX in Dothan terminating their existing arrangement with former sister station WSFA. Like in Panama City, Lockwood contracted with Nexstar-owned WDHN to produce a locally-based 9 p.m. newscast in Dothan.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: WPGX-DT2 was a charter affiliate of

The Tube Music Network The Tube Music Network, Inc., or The Tube, was an American digital multicast television network. The network was a fully owned subsidiary of The Tube Media Corp., an independent company that was founded by David Levy in 2003. The Tube focused cl ...

before its ended operations in October 2007. The subchannel was relaunched in 2013 to carry Bounce TV, with Grit joining WPGX on its third subchannel in September 2014 and Court TV joining WPGX on its fourth subchannel in May 2019.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPGX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, 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

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 9. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as its former UHF analog channel 28.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wpgx Television channels and stations established in 1988 PGX Fox network affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Grit (TV network) affiliates Lockwood Broadcast Group 1988 establishments in Florida