WVIF (channel 15) was 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's s ...

serving the

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

that was licensed to Christiansted,

Saint Croix Saint Croix ( ; ; ; ; Danish language, Danish and ; ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands, district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an Unin ...

. The station was owned by Corporate Media Consultants Group (CMCG), which is 49 percent owned by

Max Media Max Media is a company that owns radio stations throughout the United States. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. History Max Media was founded in 2001. Prior to this, some of the company's management had run the TVX Broadcast Group from 1 ...

. For much of its history, WVIF was silent, occasionally returning to the air as an

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

. At one time, it had planned to affiliate 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 ("brush"). Twelve species ...

network.

History

Channel 15 signed on in 2000 as Pax TV (now

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

)

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 ...

WPXO. WPXO was operated under a joint services agreement (JSA) with Alpha Broadcasting Corporation's WSVI (channel 8) in Christiansted.FCC application for WVIF license renewal, 2007
/ref> Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) sold WPXO (along with WMPX-TV, now

WPFO WPFO (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Waterville, Maine, United States, serving the Portland area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) wi ...

, in

Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. A college town, the city is home to Colby College, a New England Small College Athletic Conference, NESCAC college, and Thomas College. As ...

) to CMCG in December 2002. Soon afterward, the JSA with WSVI was dissolved due to station financial losses of over $250,000. Upon assuming control of the station in April 2003, CMCG changed the call letters to WCAV and temporarily discontinued operations, leaving channel 15 silent for 12 months less a day; the station returned to the air at 2 p.m. on April 4, 2004, as an independent station, relying largely on syndicated core programming, after having failed to obtain

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 ...

carriage and having lost its bid for the Fox affiliation (which ultimately went to WEON-LP). Shortly afterward, the station changed its call letters to WVIF (the WCAV call letters were then picked up by the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...

). The station again went silent in 2005 and remained silent throughout 2006-07 despite attempts to return to operation. Located in the

University of the Virgin Islands The University of the Virgin Islands (or UVI) is a public historically black land-grant university in the United States Virgin Islands. History UVI was founded as the College of the Virgin Islands on March 16, 1962. In 1986, it officially becam ...

Research and Technology Park, the station had two employees but, , broadcast antenna facilities had not been constructed.Consultants cash in on connections; $1 million in questionable spending, IAN MORRISON, VI Daily News, December 17th 2007
/ref> In 2007, the station's owner had estimated that construction of the necessary facilities "could take at least another year". The use of WVIF production facilities in engaging and training UVI students in various station operation tasks had also been promoted, but was never operational. As of September 2008, the station had moved to a new antenna tower, resuming analog television broadcast operation.WVIF's FCC DTV transition status report, Sep 2008
/ref> WVIF never operated a

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

station. It had intended to apply to 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) for permission to turn off any analog signals and begin broadcast of a

digital signal A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; ...

on the same channel (called a "

flash-cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive di ...

") at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations (June 12, 2009). The station never did so, and its license was canceled on March 29, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wvif 2000 establishments in the United States Virgin Islands 2009 disestablishments in the United States Virgin Islands VIF Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009 Television channels and stations established in 2000