WFXQ-CD
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WFXQ-CD (channel 28) is a low-power, Class A television station in
Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...
, United States. It is a
translator 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 ''trans ...
of dual NBC/ CW+ affiliate WWLP (channel 22), owned by
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
. WFXQ-CD's
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
is located at the old Mount Tom Ski Area summit in
Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...
. Its parent station maintains studios at Broadcast Center in the Sandy Hill section of Chicopee at the northwest corner of the I-391/ MA 116/Chicopee Street interchange.


History

The station first went on-the-air May 6, 1987, on VHF channel 11. Using the calls W11BJ, it originally aired a low-powered analog signal from the Rattlesnake Mountain transmitter site of
Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
's Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61). The station was an
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
that aired local shows to a senior retirement community in
Farmington, Connecticut Farmington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The populati ...
. It used a live skycam weather forecast which consisted of a character generator and a home
video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos, as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film. Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...
with shots of the window from the transmitter building. The owner of the station was the Chase family (who also owned WTIC-TV). When
LIN TV LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low-powered weather station in In ...
bought W11BJ in 2004, there was a
construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
approved to broadcast this station on UHF channel 28 from a new transmitter on Mount Tom in Holyoke. During the building of this transmitter, WWLP temporarily put on a simulcast of Connecticut's UPN affiliate
WCTX WCTX (channel 59) is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WTNH (channel 8), a ...
(a sister station) through an off-air pickup. In early 2006, W28CT signed-on from the top of Mount Tom and the W11BJ transmitter on Rattlesnake Mountain was shut down. Right from the start, the station began to simulcast WWLP in a full-time manner. LIN TV had initially changed the
call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
to WXCW-CA in reference to
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
in anticipation of it becoming an affiliate of that network. This affiliation eventually went to
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
-only WB affiliate " WBQT". As a result, the channel's call sign was changed again to WFXQ-CA referring to a possible Fox affiliation. This caused rumors on several television industry message boards that it would become an affiliate of that network. Speculation also existed that WFXQ might affiliate with Fox's new sister network,
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
. At the time, cable television viewers in the Springfield–Holyoke market received Fox from WTIC-TV and the network's
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, WFXT, with MyNetworkTV coming from WCTX. On November 16, 2007, the '' Springfield Republican'' reported that ABC affiliate WGGB-TV would be launching a Fox affiliate on a new
second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
subchannel which was expected to launch at the end of that year. This was ultimately delayed until the end of March 2008 when the new service took on a primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliation. Up to that time, Springfield held the distinction of being the largest television market without a Fox affiliate of its own. Until December 9, 2008, WFXQ's analog signal transmitted on the same frequency as CW affiliate WLWC in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
. After the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) approved a construction permit, the station " flash-cut" to digital sometime after June 12, 2009, although, at the time, the station was still assigned a "-CA" suffix. Eventually, the FCC updated its listing and this channel began using the WFXQ-CD calls. Since that point it has mainly served as a local UHF translator of WWLP for the central part of the Springfield market, including
Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
, Easthampton, and
Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...
, and most of Springfield. On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WWLP and WFXQ-CD, in a $1.6 billion merger. The merger was completed on December 19. On January 1, 2015, WWLP began to carry what had been the cable-exclusive CW affiliate WBQT as their second digital subchannel, which also applied to WFXQ-CD's second subchannel, finally fulfilling the original purpose of LIN's purchase of the station. On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than ...
for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General once the sale is finalized. Because Meredith already owns WGGB-TV, and the Springfield-Holyoke market does not have enough full-power television stations to legally allow a
duopoly A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly ...
in any event (WGGB and WWLP are the only full-power licenses assigned to the market), the companies would have been required to sell either WGGB or WWLP to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict sharing agreements. Meredith-owned CBS affiliate WSHM-LD (channel 3) is the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could legally be acquired by Meredith Media General, as FCC rules permit common ownership of full-power and low-power stations regardless of the number of stations within a single market. On January 27, 2016, however, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General, who subsequently abandoned its plans to purchase Meredith.


Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:


References


External links


WWLP website
{{Major U.S. TV O-O Stations 1987 establishments in Massachusetts ATSC 3.0 television stations The CW affiliates FXQ-CD NBC affiliates Nexstar Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1987 FXQ-CD