WQPX-TV


WQPX-TV, virtual channel 64, is an Ion Television owned-and-operated station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States and also serving Wilkes-Barre. The station is owned by West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media Networks. WQPX-TV's studios are located on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton, and its transmitter is located on Bald Mountain, northwest of Scranton and I-476.
WQPX-TV has a digital fill-in translator on UHF channel 49. That translator is run by NextEra Energy Resources in Waymart. Wind turbines run by NextEra Energy Resources in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with full power television signals from the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre market.

History

WQPX began broadcasting May 18, 1998 with test broadcasts; the official sign on took place June 1. Before WQPX signed on, the station's call sign was WSWB-TV, first used on channel 38 in the early 1980s and currently used on that same station today. WSWB initially planned to sign on in July 1997, but delayed its launch so that it could construct a 5,000,000-watt signal to increase its must carry reach. Initially, WQPX aired Paxson's InfoMall format of infomercials and religious programming; on August 31, 1998, the station became one of the launch stations for Pax TV.
On October 5, 1998, WQPX added a secondary affiliation with UPN as part of a group deal between Paxson Communications and UPN; the network's programming aired in late night, following Pax's prime time lineup. UPN programming had previously aired in weekend late night timeslots on CBS affiliate WYOU. WQPX dropped UPN in 1999.
From 2001 to 2005, WQPX aired rebroadcasts of newscasts from ABC affiliate WNEP-TV ; WNEP's owner, The New York Times Company, also took over WQPX's advertising sales through a joint sales agreement. The agreement was reached in October 2000 after negotiations with NBC affiliate WBRE-TV fell through; the arrangement with WNEP ended on June 30, 2005, after Paxson Communications terminated all joint sales agreements involving its stations.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

WQPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 64, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 32. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 64, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.