WPXM-TV


WPXM-TV, virtual channel 35, is an Ion Television owned-and-operated station licensed to Miami, Florida, United States and also serving Fort Lauderdale. The station is owned by West Palm Beach-based Ion Media Networks. WPXM's offices are located on Northwest 14th Street in Sunrise, and its transmitter is located on Northwest 199th Street in Andover. It also shares a sales office with Lake Worth-licensed sister station WPXP-TV on Northeast 20th Avenue in North Miami. On cable, WPXM is available on Comcast Xfinity channels 16 and 437.

History

The station first signed on the air in October 1992 as WMLB-TV. Originally operating as an independent station, the station changed its call letters to WDLP-TV in 1993, before changing it again to WCTD several months later. Channel 35 was acquired by Paxson Communications in 1997. Shortly after the sale was finalized, the station became an affiliate of the Infomall TV Network, which carried an infomercial format. On August 31, 1998, the station's call letters were changed to WPXM-TV; that same date, the station became a charter owned-and-operated station of Pax TV.
From 2002 through the 2005 season, WPXM was the flagship broadcast station of the Florida Marlins, whose games also aired on sister station WPXP in West Palm Beach.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPXM-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on UHF channel 35, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. On February 18, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 26 to channel 35. WPXM was the only Miami-licensed station that applied to cease analog transmissions on the original transition date, despite the DTV Delay Act having extended the deadline to June 12.

Newscasts

From 2001 until 2005, when NBC entered a shared services agreement with Pax TV, WPXM aired rebroadcasts of NBC owned-and-operated station WTVJ 's newscasts.