WQPX-TV (channel 64) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to Northeastern Pennsylvania. Owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station has offices on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton, and its transmitter is located on Bald Mountain, northwest of Scranton and I-476.
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 (before its own sign-on) 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 (the forerunner to Ion).
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 (channel 22). WQPX dropped UPN in 1999.
The New York Times Company, then-owner of ABC affiliate WNEP-TV, announced plans to take over WQPX's advertising sales through a joint sales agreement in October 2000; the agreement came after negotiations with NBC affiliate WBRE-TV (channel 28) fell through. The arrangement with WNEP ended on June 30, 2005, after Paxson Communications terminated all joint sales agreements involving its stations.
Newscasts
From 2001 to 2005, WQPX aired rebroadcasts of newscasts from ABC affiliate WNEP-TV (channel 16) instead of airing newscasts from NBC affiliate WBRE-TV (channel 28).
Technical information
Subchannels The station's signal is multiplexed: +Subchannels of WQPX-TV Channel Res. Short name Programming 64.1 720p ION Ion Television 64.2480i Bounce Bounce TV 64.3 CourtTV Court TV 64.4 Grit Grit 64.5 IONPlus Ion Plus 64.6 BUSTED Busted 64.7 GameSho Game Show Central 64.8 HSN HSN 64.9 QVC QVC
Analog-to-digital conversion WQPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 64, on June 12, 2009, the official date on 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, using virtual channel 64.
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