WACX

WACX (channel 55), branded SuperChannel Orlando, is a religious independent television station licensed to Leesburg, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area. Locally owned by SuperChannel Worship Ministries, Inc., the station maintains studios on W. Central Parkway in Altamonte Springs, and its transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.

WACX

Leesburg–Orlando, Florida United States
City	Leesburg, Florida
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 55
Branding	SuperChannel Orlando
Programming
Affiliations	55.1: Religious Independent for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	SuperChannel Worship Ministries, Inc.
History
Founded	October 28, 1977
First air date	March 6, 1982 (43 years ago) (1982-03-06)
Former call signs	WIYE (1982–1988)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 55 (UHF, 1982–2006) Digital: 40 (UHF, until 2020)
Former affiliations	TBN (1990s–2006)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	60018
ERP	49.2 kW
HAAT	510.5 m (1,675 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	28°35′12.6″N 81°4′57.5″W
Translator(s)	WACX-LD 32 Alachua–Gainesville WJGV-CD 48.2 Palatka
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	superchannel.com

WACX operates on a commercial license, even though it, like most religious stations, is supported through donations from viewers. Its schedule consists primarily of national and local religious programming.^[2]

History

WACX first signed on the air on March 6, 1982, as WIYE, operating on analog channel 55.^[3] However, it has roots in a local Christian cable channel begun by Claud and Freeda Bowers in 1977.

Channel 55's signal originally did not 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 in the area airing at the maximum power allowed for a UHF station. (The WIYE calls now reside at a low-power CBS affiliate in Parkersburg, West Virginia.)

From the 1990s through September 2006, WACX was affiliated with TBN, regularly airing select programs from the network; this affiliation ceased after TBN acquired WTGL-TV (channel 52) in Cocoa and changed its call sign to WHLV-TV. Since then, the station has regularly featured programming from The Inspiration Network (INSP) and periodically from God TV.

At one point, WACX controlled the "SuperChannel TBN" service on the Sky Angel religious satellite system, but this was replaced with the national TBN feed in 2006.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WACX^[4]

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
55.1	480i	16:9	WACX-D1	Main WACX programming
55.2			WACX-D2	Aliento Vision
55.3			WACX-D3	GEB America
55.4			WACX-D4	SonLife
55.5			WACX-D5	QVC2
55.6			WACX-D6	Believer's Voice of Victory Network
55.7			WACX-D7	SuperChannel Classics
55.8			WACX-D8	CBN News
55.9			WACX-D9	One America Plus
55.10			WACXD10	J.U.M.P. Global Network (JUMP Ministries)
55.11			WACXD11	Aliento Vision
55.12			WACXD12	Greater Love TV
55.13			WACXD13	NRB TV
55.14			WACXD14	One America Plus
55.15			WACXD15	QVC2

Analog-to-digital conversion

WACX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 55, in March 2006. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 40, using virtual channel 55.^[5]

Translator

WACX presently operates a digital translator station which rebroadcasts its signal into the Gainesville–Ocala area. In addition, programming from WACX's main channel is carried on a digital subchannel of WJGV-CD (channel 48) in Palatka.^[6]

City of license	Callsign	Channel	ERP	HAAT	Facility ID	Transmitter coordinates
Alachua	WACX-LD	32	15 kW	160 m (525 ft)	168091	29°37′47.″N 82°34′24″W

Former translators

Previously, WACX operated a network of analog translators which rebroadcast its signal into other parts of Florida:

Area served	City of license	Callsign	Channel	Notes
Tallahassee	Madison	W03AO	3	License canceled on September 24, 2013[7]
	Tallahassee	WACX-LP	9	Sold to Restoration Place, Inc. in August 2011 (now WWRP-LP).[8]
Tampa Bay	Lakeland	WLWA-LP	14	Went dark on June 15, 2006, after losing its transmitter site;[9] license canceled on April 24, 2009.[10]
Gainesville	Alachua	W69AY	69	Replaced with digital translator W40CQ-D (now WACX-LD);[11] license canceled on March 27, 2009.[12]

Majesty Building

Main article: 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, which has been dubbed "The I-4 Eyesore" by many locals in the area, for over two decades.^[13] Construction largely resumed in 2018.