WHPX-TV


WHPX-TV, virtual channel 26, is an Ion Television owned-and-operated station licensed to New London, Connecticut, United States and serving the Hartford–New Haven television market. The station is owned by West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media Networks. WHPX-TV's offices are located in New London, and its transmitter is located on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut. WHPX-TV's facilities also serve as the main studio for Federal Communications Commission purposes for sister stations WPXQ-TV and WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island.

History

The station began operation on September 15, 1986 as independent station WTWS, with transmitter in the Oakdale neighborhood of Montville near Lake Konomoc. It was owned by C&S Broadcasting with majority owner Neil Denenberg and ran a low-budget general entertainment format. In 1988, the station took over some programming from WHCT-TV as a result of that station's financial problems.
In 1990, the station also began to acquire programming that WTXX chose not to renew. It also offered to pick up WTXX's programming inventory in 1992, but WTXX's owner declined.
The station had added more infomercials to its lineup by 1993. Two years later, it was sold to Paxson Communications, and switched to Paxson's standard schedule of religious programming in the morning, infomercials in the afternoon and evenings, and worship programming overnight after affiliating with inTV. The rights to its programming were acquired by LIN Television, which placed those shows on WTVU.
Paxson then began programming WHCT in 1997, and sold WTWS to Roberts Broadcasting. Roberts, in turn, sold the station to DP Media the following year. However, DP Media was owned by—and named for—Devon Paxson, son of Paxson Communications founder Bud Paxson. Paxson then cut its ties with WHCT and took control of WTWS. The station then affiliated with Pax TV that year, and changed its call letters to WHPX-TV to reflect its affiliation. Paxson bought DP Media in 2000.
From 2001 until 2005, WHPX re-aired newscasts produced by NBC owned-and-operated station WVIT.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

WHPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 26, on February 17, 2009, to conclude the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 34 to channel 26.
In conjunction with the repack of Connecticut television stations on August 2, 2019, WHPX now transmits on channel 28 from Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington where many Connecticut television station transmitters are located.