KPPX-TV

Last updated
KPPX-TV
City Tolleson, Arizona
Channels
BrandingIon
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
  • Inyo Broadcast Holdings
  • (Inyo Broadcast Licenses LLC)
History
FoundedDecember 21, 1988
First air date
February 15, 1999(24 years ago) (1999-02-15)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
51 (UHF, 1988–2009)
Digital:
52 (UHF, 2002–2009)
51 (UHF, 2009–2016)
Call sign meaning
Phoenix's Pax TV (reflecting network's former branding)
Technical information
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 26655
ERP 1,000 kW
HAAT 536 m (1,759 ft)
Transmitter coordinates 33°20′3.2″N112°3′40.5″W / 33.334222°N 112.061250°W / 33.334222; -112.061250 Coordinates: 33°20′3.2″N112°3′40.5″W / 33.334222°N 112.061250°W / 33.334222; -112.061250
Links
Public license information
Website iontelevision.com

KPPX-TV (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Tolleson, Arizona, United States, serving the Phoenix area as an affiliate of Ion Television. The station is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, and maintains offices on Camelback Road on the northeast side of Phoenix; its transmitter is located atop South Mountain on the city's south side.

Contents

History

In February 1981, during an open window for low-power TV station applications, San Bernardino, California–based Community Service Television Company applied for a construction permit to build a translator station on channel 51, to serve Phoenix from atop South Mountain. [1]

Two years later, on March 28, 1983, Saul Dresner filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allot UHF channel 51 to Tolleson, Arizona, for a full power television station. He presented sufficient evidence to support the allotment and expressed interest in applying for a station, and the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on June 9. [2] On May 29, 1984, having received Mexican concurrence, the FCC allotted UHF channel 51 to Tolleson. [3]

On November 23, Great Arizona Broadcasting Co., owned in part by Dresner, submitted an application to build a full power television station on the new allocation. [4] [5] More than twenty competing applications followed, and the FCC set up a hearing before an administrative law judge to determine which applicant would be the most qualified to build and operate the new station. [6] [7] Great Arizona Broadcasting subsequently withdrew its application, and on November 18, 1987, Judge Edward Luton released a decision granting the application of Aztec Broadcasting Corp., and denying the nine applications which remained. [8] [9]

Several of the denied applicants appealed the decision, and the FCC scheduled a hearing before a Review Board on May 6, 1988, to present exceptions to the initial decision. [10] After hearing the arguments, the Review Board reversed the initial decision, and granted a permit to Hector Garcia Salvatierra instead. [11] [12] The FCC granted the construction permit on December 21, 1988. [13] More appeals followed, and on September 5, 1990, the FCC released a Memorandum Opinion and Order upholding the decision of the Review Board. [14] The decision was again appealed, this time to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and on October 7, 1991, the Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the FCC Review Board. [15]

The new station was originally proposed for bilingual operations using stereo and separate audio program, but activity on the construction permit stopped. [16] In March 1993, while the full power construction permit remained inactive, the FCC issued a construction permit for the low power translator station that had submitted an application twelve years earlier. The permit was valid until September 1994, and the new station received the call sign K51EI. [1] K51EI was not constructed in the allotted time, and shortly before the permit expired, Community Service Television Company requested a six-month extension, which was granted in December 1994. [17] However, in January 1995, Salvatierra secured a site license to build his station's facilities on South Mountain, then requested and received the call letters KAJW the following month. [18] [19] The K51EI permit was allowed to expire in June 1995, and in February 1996, the permit was canceled and call sign deleted. [20] [21] On July 31, 1996, Salvatierra entered into an agreement with Paxson Communications (now Ion Media). Under terms of the agreement, Salvatierra created a new ownership entity called America 51, L.P., sold 49% interest of the new company to Paxson for $5.4 million, transferred the construction permit and site license to Paxson to build the television station, and gave them the right to purchase the remainder of the company for $6.6 million once the TV station had been on air for one year. [18] [22] [23] Salvatierra filed the pro forma application the following week to assign the construction permit from Hector Garcia Salvatierra to America 51, L.P. [24]

The station changed its call letters to KPPX in March 1998 to reflect its pending affiliation with Paxson's new Pax TV network (now Ion), and the station signed on the air February 15, 1999, broadcasting under Program Test Authority until its license was granted on April 20, 2000. [19] [25] Salvatierra sold the remaining interest in the company to Paxson Communications in November 2000. [26] [27]

Sale to Scripps and resale to Inyo

On September 24, 2020, the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company (owner of KNXV-TV and KASW) announced that it would purchase Ion Media for $2.65 billion, with financing from Berkshire Hathaway. With this purchase, Scripps will divest 23 Ion-owned stations, but no announcement has been made as to which stations that Scripps will divest as part of the move (KPPX-TV is likely to be one of the divested outlets since Scripps already owns two stations in the Phoenix market). The proposed divestitures will allow the merged company to fully comply with the FCC local and national ownership regulations. Scripps has agreed to a transaction with Inyo Broadcast Holdings, who has agreed to maintain Ion affiliations for the stations. [28] [29] [30] Inyo closed on the station on January 7, 2021.

Pornography controversy

On March 12, 2007, during a 9 p.m. airing of an Ion Life rebroadcast of a Tom Brokaw-hosted NBC special, State of U.S. Health Care, a station employee inserted about 30 seconds of a pornographic film into the broadcast, prompting telephone calls to local news media outlets and the local cable provider, Cox Communications. [31] Parent company Ion Media Networks conducted a rigorous investigation into what they called "an intolerable act of human sabotage", and shortly thereafter, announced that the employee found to be responsible had been fired, threatening further legal action. [32]

Newscasts

From 2001 until 2005, when NBC entered into a shared services agreement with Pax TV, KPPX aired rebroadcasts of KPNX's 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. newscasts at 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KPPX-TV [33]
Channel Res. Aspect Short nameProgramming
51.1 720p 16:9 ION Ion Television
51.2 480i Bounce Bounce TV
51.3CourtTV Court TV
51.4Scripps Scripps News
51.5Defy Defy TV
51.6Grit Grit
51.7JTV JTV

Analog-to-digital conversion

In 1997, the FCC specified UHF channel 52 as the transition digital channel for KPPX-TV and granted a construction permit to build transition facilities on March 1, 2001. [34] [35] The station began digital operations pursuant to Program Test Authority on November 1, 2002, and the FCC granted the license to cover digital operations on December 20. [36] [37] Because its pre-transition digital channel was outside the range of core frequencies designated by the FCC (channels 2-51)—the high band UHF channels (52-69) being removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition—KPPX-TV chose channel 51 for its permanent digital television operations, where it would move at the end of the digital transition, which, at the time, was scheduled for February 17, 2009. Although the DTV Delay Act became law on February 11, 2009 postponing the required analog shutoff until June 12, 2009, KPPX made the decision to proceed with final conversion on February 17, which was approved by the FCC. [38]

KPPX-TV shut down its analog signal on February 17, 2009, the original target date for full-power television stations in the United States to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 51. [39] [40]

FCC spectrum repack

In January 2016, KPPX-TV submitted a petition to the FCC to change RF channel from 51 to 31 as part of an agreement to allow T-Mobile to begin service in the adjacent 700 MHz band. Finding that the petition warranted consideration, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in April, and approved the Tolleson allotment change in June. [41] [42] The following month, KPPX-TV submitted an application to change channels, which was immediately approved by the FCC. [43] The station completed the move to channel 31 in October. [44]

KPPX-TV was assigned channel 14 in the FCC Spectrum Repack, and was scheduled to change channels in Phase 10, to be completed by July 3, 2020. [45] [46] However, citing concerns of signal interference between channel 14 and the adjacent land mobile band at 460 MHz - 470 MHz, the station asserted that it was unable to construct facilities that would not cause prohibited interference. [47] The FCC agreed, and allowed KPPX-TV to request alternate facilities during the first priority filing window. [48] The station has requested to remain on channel 31. [49]

Related Research Articles

KPXC-TV is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains offices on South Jamaica Court in Aurora, and its transmitter is located in rural southwestern Weld County, east of Frederick.

WZPX-TV is a television station licensed to Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, serving as the Ion Television affiliate for West Michigan. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains offices on Horizon Drive in Grand Rapids and a transmitter on South Norris Road in Orangeville Township.

KUPX-TV is a television station licensed to Provo, Utah, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Fox affiliate KSTU. KUPX-TV's offices are located on Lawndale Drive in the southern section of Salt Lake City, and its transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.

WOPX-TV is a television station licensed to Melbourne, Florida, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Orlando area. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains offices on Grand National Drive in Orlando, and its transmitter is located on Nova Road east of St. Cloud.

WKOI-TV is a television station licensed to Richmond, Indiana, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Dayton, Ohio area. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. Transmission facilities are provided by unrelated NBC affiliate WDTN, which shares its digital channel with WKOI-TV through a channel sharing agreement, along with WDTN's sister station, Springfield, Ohio–licensed CW affiliate WBDT ; the transmitter is located on Frytown Road in southwest Dayton. For the purposes of its FCC correspondence, WKOI's official 'studio' facility is located at Scripps Center in downtown Cincinnati.

WIPX-TV is a television station licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, serving the Indianapolis area as an affiliate of Ion Television. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongside Bounce TV affiliate WCLJ-TV. WIPX-TV and WCLJ-TV share offices on Production Drive in southwestern Indianapolis; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WIPX-TV's spectrum from an antenna on SR 252 in Trafalgar, Indiana.

KPXE-TV is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains offices on Oak Street and Cleaver Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, and its transmitter is located in the city's Brown Estates section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPXD-TV</span> Ion Television station in Ann Arbor, Michigan

WPXD-TV is a television station licensed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, serving as the Ion Television affiliate for the Detroit area. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on West 11 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan.

WPXC-TV is a television station licensed to Brunswick, Georgia, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Jacksonville, Florida area. It is the only major commercial station in the Jacksonville market that is licensed in Georgia. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and has studios on Blythe Island Highway/State Route 303 in southwestern Brunswick; its transmitter is located in unincorporated southwestern Camden County, Georgia.

WPXJ-TV is a television station licensed to Batavia, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area as an affiliate of Ion Television. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station maintains offices on Exchange Street in Buffalo, and its transmitter is located in Cowlesville, New York.

WUPX-TV is a television station licensed to Richmond, Kentucky, United States, serving the Lexington area as an affiliate of Ion Television. The station is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, and maintains a transmitter on High Bridge Road north of Bryantsville, Kentucky.

WPXQ-TV is a television station licensed to Newport, Rhode Island, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Providence area. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, it shares transmitter facilities with former sister station WLWC on Champlin Hill near Ashaway.

KILM is a television station licensed to Inglewood, California, United States, broadcasting the Bounce TV network to the Los Angeles area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside San Bernardino–licensed Ion Television station KPXN-TV. KILM and KPXN-TV share offices on West Olive Avenue in Burbank; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using KPXN-TV's spectrum from an antenna atop Mount Wilson.

WSPX-TV is a television station in Syracuse, New York, United States, airing programming from the Ion Television network. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Basile Rowe in East Syracuse and a transmitter on Sevier Road in Pompey, New York.

WNPX-TV is a television station licensed to Franklin, Tennessee, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Nashville area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CBS affiliate WTVF. WNPX-TV's transmitter is located near Cross Plains, Tennessee.

WNYI is a religious television station licensed to Ithaca, New York, United States, serving the Elmira, Binghamton and Syracuse television markets as an owned-and-operated station of the Daystar Television Network. The station's transmitter is located on Quarry Road in Moravia, New York. It shares its channel and tower with co-owned WDSS-LD, a low-power translator station that previously broadcast on UHF channel 38 from a transmitter in Onondaga.

KPXL-TV is a television station licensed to Uvalde, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the San Antonio area. Owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, KPXL-TV maintains transmitter facilities off Highway 173/RM Road 689 on the Medina–Bandera county line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WFPX-TV</span> Court TV station in Archer Lodge, North Carolina

WFPX-TV is a television station licensed to Archer Lodge, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting the digital multicast network Bounce TV to the Research Triangle region. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Rocky Mount–licensed Ion Television outlet WRPX-TV. WFPX-TV and WRPX-TV share a sales office on Gresham Lake Road in Raleigh; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WRPX-TV's spectrum from a tower northeast of Middlesex, North Carolina.

WPXR-TV is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Roanoke–Lynchburg market. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and maintains a transmitter atop Poor Mountain in unincorporated southwestern Roanoke County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WDLI-TV</span> Bounce TV station in Canton, Ohio

WDLI-TV is a television station licensed to Canton, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland–Akron area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Bounce TV. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongside Ion Television affiliate WVPX-TV.

References

  1. 1 2 "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1981-02-04. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  2. ↑ "TV Broadcast Stations In Tolleson, Arizona; Proposed Changes In Table of Assignments" (PDF). 48 Fed. Reg. 28499 (June 22, 1983). 1983-06-22. p. 28499. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  3. ↑ "TV Broadcast Station Tolleson, Arizona; Changes Made In Table of Assignments" (PDF). 49 Fed. Reg. 23059 (June 4, 1984). 1984-06-04. p. 23059. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  4. ↑ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. 1984-12-10. p. 100. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  5. ↑ "Pending TV Applications" (PDF). Broadcasting Cablecasting Yearbook 1985. p. C-96. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  6. ↑ "Pending TV Applications" (PDF). Broadcasting Cablecasting Yearbook 1987. p. C-97. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  7. ↑ "Great Arizona Broadcasting et al.; Hearing" (PDF). 50 Fed. Reg. 28083 (July 9, 1985). 1985-07-09. p. 28023. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  8. ↑ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. 1985-10-21. p. 89. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  9. ↑ "2 FCC Rcd No. 23 (1987)" (PDF). University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library (UNT Libraries Government Documents Department). November 1987. pp. 6935–6948. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  10. ↑ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. 1985-04-25. p. 79. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  11. ↑ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. 1988-11-07. p. 66. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  12. ↑ "3 FCC Rcd No. 22 (1988)" (PDF). University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library (UNT Libraries Government Documents Department). November 1988. pp. 6330–6338. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  13. ↑ "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1988-12-21. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  14. ↑ "5 FCC Rcd No. 18 (1990)" (PDF). University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library (UNT Libraries Government Documents Department). September 1990. pp. 5423–5427. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  15. ↑ "Maricopa Media, Inc., Appellant, v. Federal Communications Commission, Appellee, Hector Garcia Salvatierra, Limited Partnership, Intervenor, 951 F.2d 1324 (D.C. Cir. 1991)". 1991-10-07. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  16. ↑ "Construction Permits" (PDF). TV & Cable Factbook No. 61. p. 85. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  17. ↑ "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1994-09-12. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  18. 1 2 "Purchase Agreement by and among America 51, L.P., Paxson Communications of Phoenix-51, Inc., Hector Garcia Salvatierra, L.P. and Hector Garcia Salvatierra for Television Station Channel 51 Tolleson, Arizona". TechAgreements. 1996-07-31. p. 6. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  19. 1 2 "Call Sign History". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  20. ↑ "Station Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1996-02-04. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  21. ↑ "Call Sign History". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1996-02-05. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  22. ↑ "Paxson Communications Corp. 10-K Annual Report". SEC Archives. 2000-03-04. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  23. ↑ Rathbun, Elizabeth (1997-02-03). "Station and Cable Trading" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. p. 24. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  24. ↑ "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 1996-08-07. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  25. ↑ Gabriel, Angela (1999-02-21). "New Valley television station eyes share of family market". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  26. ↑ "TVs". Broadcasting & Cable. 2000-11-27. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  27. ↑ "Application for Consent to Transfer Control of Entity Holding Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 2000-11-16. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  28. ↑ "Scripps Creates National Television Networks Business with Acquisition of ION Media". The Futon Critic. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  29. ↑ Cimilluca, Dana. "E.W. Scripps Agrees to Buy ION Media for $2.65 billion in Berkshire-Backed Deal" . Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  30. ↑ E.W. Scripps scales up with $2.65 billion Berkshire-backed deal for ION Media
  31. ↑ "Hard-Core porn interrupts Brokaw broadcast". NBC News. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  32. ↑ Malone, Michael (2007-03-21). "KPPX Sacks Porn Prankster". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  33. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KPPX
  34. ↑ "DTV Table of Allotments" (PDF). FCC Media Bureau Orders. 1997-04-03. p. B-9. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  35. ↑ "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 2001-03-01. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  36. ↑ "Application for Digital Television Broadcast Station License". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 2002-11-08. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  37. ↑ "Application Search Details". FCC CDBS Public Access Database. 2002-12-20. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  38. ↑ "Appendix B: All Full-Power Television Stations By DMA" (PDF). FCC CDBS database. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  39. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  40. ↑ "DTV Transition Status Report" (PDF). FCC CDBS Database. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  41. ↑ "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (PDF). FCC Electronic Document Management System. 2016-04-14. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  42. ↑ "Report and Order" (PDF). FCC Electronic Document Management System. 2016-06-28. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  43. ↑ "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application" (PDF). FCC Licensing and Management System. 2016-07-11. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  44. ↑ "License to Cover for DTV Application" (PDF). FCC Licensing and Management System. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  45. ↑ "Repack Plan". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  46. ↑ "Transition Schedule". FCC website. 2017-05-08. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  47. ↑ "Initial Report on Land Mobile Interference Analysis". FCC Licensing and Management System. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  48. ↑ "RE: Request for Waiver of Initial Construction Permit Filing Deadline". FCC Licensing and Management System. 2017-06-28. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  49. ↑ "Public Notice" (PDF). FCC Electronic Document Management System. 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.