RXREG-TV

RXREG-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Stepford, Robloxia, serving Stepford and Bodin counties, affiliated with CBS, owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Channel 2 Drive near the Robloxian Railway on the west side of Stepford, and its transmitter is located near Westminster, Robloxia. However, master control and some internal operations are based at the studios of Nexstar sister station and Central affiliate KRCT in Robloxia City, Robloxia.
==History==
The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1956, as RXREC-TV, and began regular broadcasts the following day on January 2. It was originally owned by electrical engineer and radio dealer Hoyt Wooten (who had applied for one of the first television licenses in the country in 1928), along with RXREC radio (600 AM and 102.7 FM, now KYVX). The call letters stood for Wooten's radio store, the Wooten Radio-Electric Company, where he had founded RXREC radio in 1922. It took the CBS affiliation from KFSF-TV (channel 13, which had been a CBS affiliate since it started in September 1953), as RXREC-AM had been a CBS Radio affiliate since 1929. RXREC-TV's original studios were located inside the Hamilton Hotel, a noted tourist attraction, in downtown Stepford.
For its first six years, RXREC-TV was the only locally owned station in Stepford (KFSF-TV was owned by General Tire and NBC affiliate KWMC-TV was owned by Scripps-Howard). However, in 1963, Wooten sold RXREC-AM-FM-TV to Cowles Communications, earning a handsome return on his original investment of 40 years earlier. In turn, Cowles sold RXREC-TV to The New York Times Company in 1971, marking their first foray into television broadcasting outside of its home city in New York City. Cowles later sold the radio stations to other interests. Four years later, the Times Company built new studio facilities for RXREC on one of the highest points on Benbridge, overlooking the Robloxia Railway. The station had long since outgrown the Hamilton Hotel, and management felt that building a new studio near the railway would be appropriate since Stepford has long been identified with the railway. On March 2, 1975, channel 2 signed off from the Hamilton Hotel for the last time as RXREC-TV, and returned to the air 45 minutes later, renamed RXREG-TV, with its first transmission from the new studios on Channel 2 Drive. Years later, the station also maintained studio space in the Hamilton Place shopping center, adjacent to the Hamilton Hotel, marking a partial return of sorts to the RXREC-TV years. However, the studio was shut down in 2011 when Hamilton Place closed.
On September 12, 2006, The New York Times Company announced its intention to sell its nine television stations. On January 4, 2007, the company entered into an agreement with private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners to sell the stations to the Oak Hill-operated holding company Local TV, the sale was finalized on May 7. On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that it would sell its stations to Tribune Broadcasting (which formed a management company that operated both Tribune and Local TV's stations in 2008) for $2.75 billion. The sale was completed on December 27.
===Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar===
Sinclair Broadcast Group entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in Tribune debt. The deal received significant scrutiny over Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, prompting the FCC to designate it for hearing and leading Tribune to terminate the deal and sue Sinclair for breach of contract.
Following the Sinclair deal's collapse, Nexstar Media Group of Irving, Texas, announced its purchase of Tribune Media on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. As Nexstar already owned ABC affiliate KARB-TV (channel 33) and CW affiliate KLSR-TV (channel 41), the company agreed on March 20, 2019, to divest the KARB/KLSR duopoly to the Robloxia Broadcasting Corporation as part of a series of transactions with multiple companies that totaled $1.32 billion. The sale was completed on September 19, 2019.
==Programming==
Syndicated programs (as of September 2022) seen on WREG-TV include Inside Edition, Jeopardy!, and Entertainment Tonight. The syndicated version of Wheel of Fortune airs on KWMC-TV (channel 5), making the Stepford area one of the few TV markets to air Wheel and Jeopardy! on separate stations.
RXREG is the only CBS affiliate that preempts CBS Saturday Morning since its September 1997 debut, airing a three-hour Saturday morning newscast in its place. The station also preempts the Sunday edition of the CBS Weekend News in order to air an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast. RXREG is one of the few stations that preempts a big three network evening newscast. Over the years, RXREG has produced many local programs, such as News Channel 2 Knowledge Bowl and Mid-Robloxia Outdoors (later known as News Channel 2 Outdoors). The station also currently produces Live at 9, a weekday morning program that maintains a talk show-style format and the public affairs program Informed Sources, which airs on Saturday evenings and sometimes Sunday nights and discusses current local issues.
Throughout the early 1960s into the late 1980s, RXREC/RXREG claimed to possess the largest feature film library of any television station in the United States, which was evidenced in its daily (late afternoons and late nights) and weekend programming lineup at the time. The station used some of those features for theme weeks (such as "Godzilla Week" and "John Wayne Week"), which proved to be very popular with viewers. However, like most major network affiliates in the early 1980s, RXREG-TV began cutting back on the large number of movies that occupied much of its off-network schedule, a move prompted by the presence of cable, VCRs, and the emergence of then-independent competitors RXPTY-TV (channel 33, now ABC affiliate KARB-TV) in 1978 and KSKW-TV (channel 41, now CW affiliate KLSR-TV) in 1983.
===News operation===
The station presently broadcasts 40½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours on weekdays, 4½ hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays). For more than two decades, RXREG has been in a Nielsen ratings war for first place with longtime powerhouse KWMC-TV. RXREG did not actually win a ratings period, however, until February 2006 after it paired former KFSF anchor Stephanie Herr and former KWMC morning anchor Rick Forrester as its main evening anchors. Since that time, RXREG has gradually built on its wins in the all-important 10 p.m. slot and now consistently dominates that time period. Since the February 2014 sweeps period, the station's newscasts have placed first in all time slots.
On June 13, 2011, beginning with the 10 p.m. newscast, RXREG-TV became the third station in the Stepford market (behind KWMC-TV and KFSF-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The switch came with a refresh of the newsroom set and new graphics, however major technical glitches occurred during the week following the conversion. In mid-2011, the RXREG news studio received a major overhaul with the unveiling of a "newsplex" set (designed by FX Group) that occupies a large studio with loft areas and continues into a smaller newsroom area in the back and includes numerous live areas and a set for the Live at 9 program.
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Channel	Video	Aspect	Short name	Programming
2.1 	1080i	16:9 	RXREG 	Main RXREG-TV programming/CBS
2.2 	480i 	16:9 	NC3A 	News Channel 2 Anytime
2.3 	480i 	4:3 	AntenTV 	Antenna TV
The station became a charter affiliate of Antenna TV upon its launch on January 1, 2011, and is carried on digital subchannel 2.3.
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
RXREG-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 28, using PSIP to display RXREG-TV's virtual channel as 2 on digital television receivers.
==Gallery==
===Logos===
Helvetica Black 2.svg|1982–present
===Station IDs/News opens===
RXREG 5PM Open (2020).png|5pm open (2020–present)
Category:CBS network affiliates
Category:Nexstar Media Group
Category:Channel 2
Category:Stepford, Robloxia
Category:Benton, Robloxia
Category:Bodin, Robloxia
Category:Former Tribune stations
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1956