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WXPX-TV
Television station in Bradenton, Florida From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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WXPX-TV (channel 66), branded The Spot Tampa Bay 66, is an independent television station licensed to Bradenton, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area. Its second subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of Ion Television. WXPX-TV is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Tampa-licensed ABC affiliate WFTS-TV (channel 28). The two stations share studios on North Himes Avenue on Tampa's northwest side; WXPX-TV's transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
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Channel 66 went on the air as WFCT on August 1, 1994. It broadcast programming from The Worship Network and infomercials. Programmed from the start by Paxson Communications Corporation, forerunner to Ion Media, it changed its call sign to WXPX in 1998 as part of the launch of Pax TV, later Ion Television. Scripps acquired Ion Media in 2020 and, upon gaining television rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team in 2025, split WXPX off as an independent station.
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History
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Construction
In 1987, a group filed to build a station on the unused channel 66 allocation at Bradenton, Florida, just before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) froze most licensing activity in top-30 markets to study digital television channel needs.[2] Eleven applicants filed,[3] and seven remained in the running when FCC administrative law judge Richard Sippel selected Bradenton Broadcast Television Co. Ltd., run by Anita F. Rogers, in an initial decision handed down in April 1989.[4]
Channel 66 received its permit as WTGB in 1992. Rogers was introduced to Lowell Paxson, who had left the Home Shopping Network to found Christian Network, Inc. This firm funded channel 66, which would air programming from the Paxson-owned The Worship Network.[5] Christian Network formed part of a strategy by Paxson to have commercial and Christian stations in each of Orlando, Tampa, and Miami.[6] When channel 66 began broadcasting as WFCT on August 1, 1994, it aired infomercials for 12 hours a day, two hours of Worship programming in prime time, and overnight sacred music.[7] When Paxson Communications Corporation launched its Infomall TV infomercial network the next year, WFCT was one of its first stations.[8]
Pax, i, and Ion
Paxson Communications Corporation exercised its options to directly acquire Christian Network–owned WFCT and WCTD in Miami in August 1997.[9] On August 31, 1998, under new WXPX-TV call letters, the station became a launch outlet for the new Pax TV network.[10] In 2000, WXPX signed a joint sales agreement with Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-TV (channel 8) that included WFLA selling WXPX advertising and WXPX sharing WFLA newscasts.[11] Initially, WFLA produced live 7 and 10 p.m. newscasts for WXPX, which was the only station in the network to rebroadcast NBC Nightly News and one of three to offer live news. The 7 p.m. news was scrapped and changed to a rebroadcast in October 2001,[12] while the 10 p.m. followed in early 2002 after Pax opted not to keep paying to produce it.[13] Beginning in 2003, WXPX was the television home of Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball, airing 65 to 67 games a season between 2003 and 2008.[14][15] Two cable-only regional sports networks, Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports, split rights beginning in 2009.[16]
After changing its name to i: Independent Television in 2005, the network became known as Ion Television in 2007.[17] The E. W. Scripps Company, owner in Tampa Bay of ABC affiliate WFTS-TV (channel 28), acquired Ion Media in 2020.[18][19]
The Spot
On May 14, 2025, it was announced that WXPX would become an independent station, branded as "The Spot, Tampa Bay 66", on July 1. The new format will be anchored by Scripps Sports's acquisition of regional rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, whose games will air on WXPX.[20]
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Technical information and subchannels
WXPX-TV's transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.[1] The station's signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WXPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 66, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[22] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42, using virtual channel 66.
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