WACX


WACX, virtual channel 55, is a religious independent television station serving Orlando, Florida, United States that is licensed to Leesburg. The station is locally owned by Associated Christian Television System, Inc. WACX's studios are located in Altamonte Springs, and its transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.
WACX operates on a commercial license, even though it, like most religious stations, is viewer supported. Its schedule consists primarily of national and local religious programming.
The station's owner, Associated Christian Television System, Inc. is not the same entity as either American Christian Television Services, owner of WTLW in Lima, Ohio, or the defunct cable network the American Christian Television System.

History

WACX first signed on the air on March 6, 1982 as WIYE, operating on analog channel 55. However, it has roots in a local Christian cable station begun by Claud and Freeda Bowers in 1977.
Channel 55's signal originally didn't make it too far out of Lake County. However, the station had grown enough that by 1987 it was able to move to a new transmitter capable of 5 million watts of power, boosting its coverage area to the entire Central Florida area. It became WACX in 1988, and began branding itself as "SuperChannel 55" because at the time it was the only station airing at the maximum power allowed for a UHF station.
From the 1990s through September 2006, WACX was affiliated with TBN, regularly airing select programs from the network; this affiliation ceased after TBN acquired its own station in the market. Since then, the station has regularly featured programming from The Inspiration Network and periodically from God TV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
55.1480iWACX-D1Main WACX programming
55.2480iWACX-D2
55.3480iWACX-D3GEB America
55.4480iWACX-D4SonLife
55.5480iWACX-D5Vida Vision
55.6480iWACX-D6Believer's Voice of Victory Network
55.7480iWACX-D7Aliento Vision
55.8480iWACX-D8CBN News
55.9480iWACX-D9Faith USA
55.10480iWACX-D10
55.11480iWACX-D11QVC2

Analog-to-digital conversion

WACX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 55, in March 2006. The station's digital signal continued to be broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 40. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Relays

WACX operates two low-power translators and satellites that rebroadcast its programming:
In addition, WACX's programming is streamed on its website.
Previously, WACX operated an additional translator, WLWA-LP channel 14 in Lakeland, but that station signed off on June 15, 2006 after losing its transmitter site; its license was revoked by the Federal Communications Commission on April 24, 2009. Additionally, WACX-LD replaced analog translator W69AY.
At one point, WACX controlled the SuperChannel TBN channel on the Sky Angel religious satellite service, but this was replaced with the national TBN service in 2006.
In August 2011, it was announced that Restoration Place, Inc. will be acquiring WACX-LP Tallahassee, in which the station will become WWRP-LP.
The station previously operated a translator in Madison, W03AO channel 3. This translator has since closed down and is no longer listed in the FCC database.

Majesty Building

In 2001, Claud Bowers, the general manager of WACX, began construction of the Majesty Building, an 18-story office building in Altamonte Springs. However, no work was done on the building for over a decade, and is dubbed "The I-4 Eyesore" by many locals in the area. Construction largely resumed in 2018.