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WZDX (channel 54) 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's s ...
in
Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
, United States, affiliated with Fox and
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 ...
. Owned by
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...
, the station maintains studios on North Memorial Parkway ( US 72/ 231/ 431) in Huntsville, and its transmitter is located on
Monte Sano Mountain Monte Sano Mountain is a mountain located in Huntsville, Alabama. The name ''Monte Sano'' is Spanish for "Mountain of health". The mountain was given its name by Dr. Thomas Fern, who along with his two brothers, founded a small colony on the mo ...
. WZDX began broadcasting in April 1985 as the first
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 ...
for the Huntsville area; it became a Fox affiliate in November 1987. Its original owner, Media Central, filed for bankruptcy that year and eventually sold the station in 1990 to a consortium of
Citicorp Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...
and Milton Grant, marking the latter's return to TV station ownership after a prior bankruptcy. The station started a cable channel that served as the local affiliate of
The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
—predecessor to its MyNetworkTV subchannel—in 2001. A local newscast, produced at first out-of-state and then by local ABC affiliate WAAY-TV, began to air in 2008. The Grant stations were acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group in 2013; Nexstar brought local news production in-house by establishing its own newsroom in 2016, and it formed a duopoly in the market by acquiring
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 ...
affiliate WHDF two years later. When Nexstar acquired
Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
, owner of Huntsville CBS affiliate WHNT-TV, in 2019, it retained that station and WHDF and spun out WZDX along with other stations to Tegna.


History


Establishment and construction

In 1975, Thomas Barr and James Cleary under the name Pioneer Communications petitioned 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) to add another television channel to the Huntsville area for the purpose of building 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 the time, only four channels were assigned to Huntsville: 19, 25, 31, and 48. The FCC proposed adding channel 54, but two Huntsville stations, WAAY-TV and WYUR-TV, opposed the proposal. In 1977, the FCC suggested inserting channel 54 at
Decatur, Alabama Decatur () is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County, Alabama, Morgan County (with a portion also in Limestone County, Alabama, Limestone County) in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City," it is located in North Alabam ...
, which already had channel 23. However, unlike channel 54, channel 23 could not be used at Monte Sano—the main television transmission site in the region, resulting in low interest. Channel 54 was ultimately added to Huntsville, but there were no applications on file until C. Michael Norton, an attorney from
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, applied for it in September 1981 after seeing it on a list of unused TV allocations. Norton was soon joined by other applicants, with the FCC selecting Community Service Broadcasting, a company owned by John Pauza of
Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
, and Joel Katz of
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
. Pauza owned Media Central, which specialized in the construction of new independent stations in medium markets. For two years, Media Central missed a series of deadlines. In February 1983, after being selected for the
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 ...
, Media Central announced it intended to begin broadcasting that fall. By that fall, the target date had shifted to spring 1984. Issues with locating the station's tower impeded a launch at that time, but in late 1984, channel 54 began to take shape. A tower site was purchased in August, the call letters WZDX were assigned in September, and construction began in November. Even then, the station did not start broadcasting in 1984; the antenna was not hoisted onto the station's new tower on Green Mountain until March 1985. From studios on Mastin Lake Road in northeast Huntsville, WZDX first signed on April 14, 1985, as Northern Alabama's first independent station and the area's first new outlet to launch in 22 years. Programming consisted of syndicated reruns, movies, and short local newsbreaks. The station cost the owners between $5 million and $6 million to put on the air. When the Fox network began late-night service on October 9, 1986, WZDX initially abstained from affiliating with the network unlike many other strong independent TV stations across the country that had signed on with them, despite the network wanting the station "badly". Program director David Godbout felt that his weekend shows were already attracting ratings and that he would have to charge too much for advertising within Fox programming for it to work economically. This was a posture shared by the entire Media Central chain at the network's launch. However, after Godbout left in late 1987, WZDX joined Fox in December of that year, becoming the fifth Media Central outlet to join the network in 1987. The late 1980s were times of uncertainty for Media Central. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in July 1987, and Act III Broadcasting submitted a bid to buy WZDX and WDBD in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...
, the next year; both were among Media Central's most desirable properties. Act III's bid was rejected, as were proposals from Media Central itself and Maryland investment firm Donatelli & Klein, which did come away with WDBD and
WDSI-TV WDSI-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with True Crime Network and Comet. The station is owned by New Age Media, which also operates Cleveland-licensed dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate W ...
in Chattanooga.


Grant Broadcasting ownership

The bankruptcy court approved the acquisition of the station by a consortium of
Citicorp Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...
and Milton Grant in August 1989; the $6.1 million transaction was approved in January 1990. While WZDX represented Citicorp's first venture into broadcasting, WZDX became the first outlet in Grant's return to station ownership. Grant Communications was the successor to the original Grant Broadcasting System, a three-station chain of independent outlets that filed for bankruptcy protection in 1986 and was ultimately sold to its bondholders. Grant obtained rights to WB network programming in the Huntsville market in 1999, airing it in late night hours on WZDX; the move was a consequence of Superstation WGN ceasing carriage of WB programs. The company then announced it would launch full-time WB channels in Huntsville and two other markets where it owned stations—the
Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...
of Iowa and Illinois and
Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...
—in December 2000. "WAWB", known as "The Valley's WB", launched as a cable channel in October 2001. When The WB and UPN merged into
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 2006, the merged network selected UPN affiliate WHDF (channel 15), and "WAWB" became "WAMY", broadcasting
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 ...
. WZDX began broadcasting a digital signal on June 1, 2002. In 2004, the station moved its broadcasting equipment from Green Mountain to Monte Sano on the replacement tower for WAAY-TV, whose mast collapsed during repair work in September 2003, killing three.


Nexstar and Tegna ownership

On November 6, 2013, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WZDX, for $87.5 million. The sale was completed on December 1, 2014. Four years later, in July 2018, Nexstar agreed to acquire WHDF from Lockwood Broadcast Group for $2.25 million; Nexstar concurrently took over WHDF's operations through a time brokerage agreement. The sale was completed on November 9, creating 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 ...
with WZDX. On December 3, 2018, less than a month after closing on its purchase of WHDF, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of
Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
—owner of CBS affiliate WHNT-TV since December 2013—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. WHNT-TV and WZDX, as two of the four highest-rated stations in the market, could not be owned together, though Nexstar could own either station plus WHDF. Nexstar decided to retain the higher-rated WHNT-TV along with WHDF and sell WZDX to
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...
after finalizing the Tribune sale; WZDX was one of 19 stations disposed by Nexstar to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion. The sale of Tribune to Nexstar was approved by the FCC on September 16.


News operation

In January 2008, WZDX launched a 30-minute
prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
newscast branded as ''Fox 54 Nine O'Clock News''. It was produced by Independent News Network (INN) in
Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...
; two local reporters contributed local news stories to the news program, which was presented from Davenport. It was the second prime time newscast in the market, as WAAY had previously produced one for air on WHDF from 2000 to 2001. The INN program continued to air for two and a half years and was replaced in September 2010 with a 9 p.m. newscast produced by WAAY; WAAY news personnel were joined by Ellis Eskew, a WZDX reporter. Nexstar announced in December 2015 that WZDX would launch a standalone news operation on April 4, 2016. Concurrently, the station's newscast was extended to an hour.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's 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— ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

WZDX shut down its analog signal, over
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 ...
channel 54, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television; the station continued to broadcast on channel 41, using
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 as digits on a receiver's ...
54. It was then repacked to channel 18 in 2020.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wzdx 1985 establishments in Alabama Comet (TV network) affiliates Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates MeTV affiliates MyNetworkTV affiliates The Nest (TV network) affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Tegna Inc. Television channels and stations established in 1985 ZDX True Crime Network affiliates