WXVT-LD

WXVT-LD (channel 17) is a low-power television station licensed to Cleveland, Mississippi, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Delta area. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside Greenwood-licensed dual ABC/Fox affiliate WABG-TV (channel 6) and Grenada-licensed low-powered NBC affiliate WNBD-LD (channel 33). The three stations share studios on Washington Avenue in Greenville; WXVT-LD's transmitter is located near O'Reilly, Mississippi.

WXVT-LD
CityCleveland, Mississippi
Channels
BrandingDelta CBS (general)
The Delta News (newscasts)
Programming
AffiliationsCBS
Ownership
Owner
WABG-TV, WNBD-LD
History
First air date
November 7, 1980 (1980-11-07) (as WXVT)
June 26, 2017 (2017-06-26) (as WXVT-LD)
Last air date
August 1, 2016 (2016-08-01) (35 years, 268 days; as WXVT)
Former call signs
W17DI-D (2010−2011)
WFXW-LD (2011−2017)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 15 (UHF, 1980–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 15 (UHF, until 2017)
  • Virtual:
  • 15 (until 2017)
Call sign meaning
We're XV (Roman numeral 15; former channel number) Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID181144
ClassLD
ERP15 kW
HAAT251.3 m (824 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°39′26″N 90°42′18″W
Links
Public license information
LMS
Websitewww.deltanews.tv

History

Its first broadcast was on November 7, 1980,[2] on channel 15 under the call sign WXVT. It was a CBS affiliate for its entire existence. Before this, WJTV in Jackson had served as the default affiliate. The station was originally owned by Big River Broadcasting. Future sister station WABG was actually the Delta's original CBS affiliate when it launched back in October 1959 until dropping CBS to become a full-time ABC affiliate in November 1966.[3][4] Big River Broadcasting sold the station to Lamco Communications in 1984. Lamco then sold WXVT to a local ownership group in 1991. Saga Communications purchased WXVT in 1999. David Cavileer became the VP/General Manager and remodeled the station and news set.

The current WXVT-LD began as W17DI-D on February 25, 2010. On December 12, 2011, it was changed to WFXW-LD.

On May 4, 2012, an application was filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to transfer ownership of WXVT from Saga Communications to H3 Communications. H3 Communications is owned by the adult children of Charles Harker, president of Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, which owns WABG and WNBD. On January 28, 2013, the FCC granted the sale of WXVT, and it was completed two days later.[5][6] Commonwealth then took over WXVT's operations, effectively bringing all of the Delta's Big Three network stations under the control of one company.

In 2015, WXVT and WABG appeared in a TruTV reality series Breaking Greenville. It premiered January 29, 2015 and ended on March 26, 2015.

H3 Communications agreed to sell WXVT to Cala Broadcast Partners for $3.7 million on October 30, 2015;[7] concurrently, Cala would purchase WABG-TV, WNBD-LD, and WFXW-LD from Commonwealth Broadcasting Group.[8] Cala is jointly owned by Brian Brady (who owns several other television stations, mostly under the Northwest Broadcasting name) and Jason Wolff (who owns radio and television stations through Frontier Radio Management).[8] On November 30, 2015, Cala assigned its right to purchase WXVT to John Wagner for $100,000.[7] The sale was completed on August 1, 2016; on that date, the station went off the air, with Wagner stating in a filing with the FCC that it was looking for new programming.[9] This resulted in the WXVT intellectual unit, including CBS programming, being moved to a digital subchannel of sister station and NBC affiliate WNBD-LD and mapped to WXVT's former channel 15.

On January 1, 2017, Cable One (now Sparklight) removed channels owned by Northwest Broadcasting (WXVT, WABG-TV, WABG-DT2 and WNBD-LD) after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. On February 1, 2017, the channels were restored to Cable One's lineup under a new carriage deal.

On June 26, 2017, the station became low-powered, re-licensed to Cleveland, and moved to RF channel 17. It changed its call sign to WXVT-LD on July 7. In 2020, channel 15 would be sold to Tri-State Christian Television, where it continues to operate as WFXW.

In February 2019, Reuters reported that Apollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intends to merge with Cox Media Group (which Apollo is acquiring at the same time) and stations spun off from Nexstar Media Group's purchase of Tribune Broadcasting, once the purchases are approved by the FCC.[10] In March 2019 filings with the FCC, Apollo confirmed that its newly-formed broadcasting group, Terrier Media, would acquire Northwest Broadcasting, with Brian Brady holding an unspecified minority interest in Terrier.[11] In June 2019, it was announced that Terrier Media would instead operate as Cox Media Group, as Apollo had reached a deal to also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses.[12] The transaction was completed on December 17.[13]

On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell WXVT-LD, WNBD-LD, WABG-TV and 15 other stations to Imagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of the INSP cable channel, for $488 million;[14] the sale was completed on August 1.[15]

Subchannel
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming[16]
17.11080i16:9WXVT-TVMain WXVT-LD programming / CBS

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for WXVT-LD". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. Television & Cable Factbook 1988 Edition (PDF). 1988. p. A-587. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  3. Daily Democrat Times, November 24, 1966, Page 13
  4. "More Power for WABG-TV," Daily Democrat Times, October 15, 1966, Page 5
  5. http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1538748.pdf%5B%5D
  6. "CDBS Print".
  7. "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License (WXVT)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 3, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  8. "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License (WABG-TV)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 3, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  9. Wagner, John (August 12, 2016). "Suspension of Operations and Silent Authority of a DTV Station Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  10. "EXCLUSIVE-Apollo nears $3 billion deal to buy Cox TV stations -sources" Archived 2019-02-20 at the Wayback Machine from CNBC (February 10, 2019)
  11. Jessell, Harry A. (March 6, 2019). "Cox TV Valued At $3.1 Billion In Apollo Acquisition". TV News Check. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  12. Jacobson, Adam (June 26, 2019). "It's Official: Cox Radio, Gamut, CoxReps Going To Apollo". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  13. "Cox Enterprises Announces Close of Cox Media Group Sale to Affiliates of Apollo Global Management", prnewswire.com, 17 December 2019, Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. Venta, Lance (March 30, 2022). "Cox Breaks Up Combined Radio/TV Cluster In Tulsa As Part Of Twelve Market Divestiture". RadioInsight. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  15. Winslow, George (August 1, 2022). "Cox Media Group, INSP Close Deal for Sale of Cox TV Stations to Imagicomm". TVTechnology. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  16. RabbitEars TV Query for WPTZ
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