WRIX

**WRIX**, channel 9, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Quahog, Rhode Island, United States. WRIX is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

## History

### Early years (1963 – 1977)

The station began broadcasting on January 1, 1963. Their transmitter was in a different spot than the transmitter sites used by the existing stations in the Quahog market, WQHG (channel 5) and WQUA-TV (channel 11, now WXIQ). Before cable arrived in Rhode Island in the early 1970s, viewers experienced reception problems with WRIX. This was because for its first four decades on the air, its signal was being sent from a different direction than WQHG and WQUA-TV/WXIQ. This forced viewers to mount their outdoor antennas on rotators to get a passable signal from the station. The ensuing signal problems would be the bane of channel 9's existence for 45 years.

ABC had a curious history in Quahog prior to WRIX's sign-on. In the earliest years of television in Quahog, all four networks (including DuMont) were shoehorned on primary CBS affiliate WQHG, at that time the market's only television station (WQHG carried about half of NBC's and CBS's programming, but very few ABC or DuMont shows). WTFR launched on channel 24 in 1953 as an ABC affiliate. However, it was forced off the air in 1956 due to the difficulties faced by UHF startups at the time. Since television manufacturers weren't required to include UHF tuning capability on television sets, viewers needed an expensive converter (or an all-channel set, the latter being very rare at the time) to watch WTFR, and the picture was marginal at best even with one. For the seven years prior to channel 9's sign-on, WQHG and NBC affiliate WQUA-TV cherry-picked ABC programming, usually airing it in off-hours but occasionally pre-empting their primary network's schedule. When the two stations swapped their primary affiliations on January 1, 1961, this arrangement continued.

Even though Quahog was big enough to support three full network affiliates, it soon became apparent that channel 24 would not be resurrected in the near future (prior to 1964, television sets were not required to have UHF tuning capability, and most did not).

WRIX was founded by a group that was 55-percent owned by a jewelry store owner; the remaining 45 percent was held by New England Television, the holder of the license for the old WTFR. In 1966, shortly after the jewelry store went out of business, WRIX was purchased by Steinman Stations of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. WRIX moderately preempted ABC shows, in most every case a low-rated program. This didn't pose as much of a problem as it may seem. During afternoon hours, WRIX ran a blend of cartoons and classic sitcoms, with late nights being devoted to movies.

### Switch to CBS (1977 – 1995)

On June 27, 1977, WRIX swapped affiliations with WXIQ and became a CBS affiliate after Knight Ridder Television, which had just purchased WXIQ, cut an affiliation deal that switched two of it's television stations it owned at the time to ABC. At the time, ABC was aggressively pursuing strong NBC and CBS affiliates to switch as their ratings rose during the late 1970s, and succeeded in persuading some longtime NBC and CBS stations to switch (as an example, KCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul, a longtime NBC affiliate, switched to ABC during that period).

In 1979, the Steinmans sold WRIX and their flagship station, WPDC in Lancaster, to Pulitzer Publishing. This sale reunited them with KGGM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which had been sold to Pulitzer in 1969.

Beginning in 1980, WRIX ran an afternoon movie from 4-6pm. By 1982, the station was also running a movie weekdays from 9-11am. These movies were run under the *Dialing For Dollars* promotion. WRIX also continued to preempt moderate amounts of programming, particularly whatever game show CBS ran at 10am (to accommodate the morning movie), as well as late night programming. As a result of the preemptions, some shows (including *Child's Play*, *Press Your Luck*, and *Blackout*) never aired on WRIX. Other shows, such as *Tattletales* and *Body Language* were tape-delayed and aired in the noon slot, since WRIX did not have a noon news broadcast at that time.

In 1983, Pulitzer sold WRIX to Freedom Communications. This sale was necessary because Pulitzer had acquired WYRD in Greenville, South Carolina and WSJS in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that same year, leaving the company over the FCC's ownership limit of the time. By the fall of 1988, WRIX was only running an afternoon movie weekdays and began clearing CBS' 10:00 a.m. hour. In the fall of 1989, WRIX dropped CBS' *Guiding Light*, moving the movie to 3:00 p.m. and adding more syndicated programming in the 5:00 p.m. hour; by mid-1990, the afternoon movie was dropped in favor of additional syndicated programming. In the fall of 1990, WRIX entirely dropped the CBS Saturday morning cartoons in favor of multiple movies in that time slot. In 1991, *Guiding Light* was reinstated. By 1993, the Saturday morning movies were replaced with syndicated E/I children's programs and infomercials.

### Return to ABC (1995 – present)

In 1994, due to WQHG owner New World Communications' affiliation deal with Fox, NBC was scrambling to find a new affiliate in Quahog. In response, in August of that year, WXIQ was sold to CBS, with the deal being finalized in the spring of 1995, making it a CBS owned and operated station (and one of the last such acquisitions prior to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation's purchase of the network), while automatically also disqualifying WRIX from the running (NBC eventually ended up affiliating with outgoing Fox affiliate WURI (the legal successor to the former WTFR)). As a result, at midnight on September 10, 1995, WXIQ reversed the 1977 swap with WRIX and officially rejoined CBS. WRIX then became an ABC affiliate again, and began calling itself *"ABC9"*. The four stations produced a special, "New Season, New Stations" to remind Quahog viewers of what stations were airing the Big Four's fall lineup, the first full fall season since the two affiliation swaps during the previous year. As an ABC affiliate, WRIX runs the entire ABC schedule of programming, and the Saturday morning infomercials were replaced with ABC's Saturday morning cartoons.

Early in the afternoon of May 4, 2005, WRIX's analog transmitter was knocked off the air due to a faulty section of transmission line on the tower. The transmitter had been running at 80% power due to another unrelated technical problem that occurred approximately two weeks earlier. Although Dish Network satellite and some cable systems continued to receive broadcasts through fiber optic connections, over-the-air and DirecTV satellite subscribers were left without a local ABC affiliate (DirecTV gets its signal via antenna). The WRIX transmitter was operational again late Thursday evening after 32 hours off the air.

### Sale to Global Broadcasting

In August 2006, WRIX was put up for sale. The key reason for the decision was the lack of a second station for Freedom to operate in the market that would improve synergies for the Quahog operation. On March 12, 2007, Freedom announced it was selling WRIX to Global Broadcasting, a Delaware corporation headed by Robinson Ewert and Kevin O'Brien. The FCC granted approval of this sale in mid-September and ownership was officially transferred on October 9. Freedom continued to operate WRIX's website until November 30, 2007, when control was shifted to Broadcast Interactive Media, and later WorldNow in April 2010. Global Broadcasting was not related to a Canadian network, the Global Television Network, or its parent, Canwest Global Communications.

### Financial struggles, bankruptcy

For many years, WRIX carried the syndicated shows *Dr. Phil*, *Rachael Ray*, *Entertainment Tonight*, *The Insider*, and *Inside Edition* from CBS Television Distribution. However, in mid-2009, the station was unable to reach a carriage agreement with the syndicator, successor to King World Productions and Paramount Domestic Television. At that time, the station was carrying *Dr. Phil*, *Entertainment Tonight*, and *Inside Edition*. As a result of the situation, the shows were dropped on June 5 and quickly moved to WQHG. Temporarily put in their place were *Cristina's Court*, *Family Court with Judge Penny*, a 7 o'clock newscast, and *Who Wants To Be A Millionaire*. On June 16, CBS filed a lawsuit against Global Broadcasting for failing to fully pay license fees for the shows and a breach of contract. The syndicator sought $5 million from the company.

On June 23, NewsBlues reported that Global Broadcasting co-owner Robinson Ewert had left the company amidst the dispute with CBS. He was replaced by Rob Holtzer, general sales manager at Sunrise Sports and Entertainment, owner of the NHL's Florida Panthers and the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. He is also a former national sales manager at the YES Network in New York City. Holtzer's official title at Global was vice president and director of sales.

Global Broadcasting filed for receivership (Rhode Island's equivalent to bankruptcy) on July 29, 2010 due to declining advertising revenues. Providence attorney Matthew McGowan was appointed receiver. A month later, the station was put up for sale for the second time in four years. Several groups had expressed interest in purchasing the station and a deal was projected to be reached by the end of the year. On December 13, 2010, rumors surfaced that A.H. Belo Corp. would buy WRIX. Belo itself was considered a likelier candidate due to the strength of its operations in other regions, and its operation of regional news channels much like WRIX's own *NewsChannel 6*.

On February 10, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group was chosen as the stalking horse bid in the sale of the station with a bid of $4 millon. Five other groups (including one led by the sons of then-Quahog mayor Adam West) were also interested in purchasing the station and had until March 18 to submit competing bids prior to auction. On March 17, ABC notified potential buyers that WRIX's affiliation with the network beyond March 31, 2011 is not assured, which Global Broadcasting CEO Kevin O'Brien said could depress the final price WRIX is sold for at auction. Some observers feared that this could prompt one or more of the six companies believed to be bidding for WRIX to withdraw from bidding for the station, which may have even forced it off the air if no sale was made.

### Sale to Sinclair

On March 22, Sinclair Broadcast Group was approved as the new owner of WRIX by receiver Matthew McGowan. The company met the approval of ABC, and took over station operation on May 1 under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with McGowan and Global under the name *Global Communications LLC.* until the sale was approved by the FCC, at which point Sinclair would assume full ownership. On April 5, WRIX revealed programming changes made in light of the sale, which included the returns of CBS Television Distribution shows *The Insider* and *Inside Edition*. On April 25, veteran sales manager Chris Tzianabos was named vice president and general manager of WRIX, replacing Steve Doerr. Global CEO Kevin O'Brien tried to appeal the sale in court, arguing that attorney McGowan did not try hard enough to achieve a higher sale price for the station. However, he did not succeed in his efforts, and on June 1, it was announced that the FCC had approved the license transfer, therefore finalizing the acquisition.

In September 2011, as had been promised by Sinclair upon its acquisition of the station, WRIX stopped using videotape formats and began broadcasting newscasts and syndicated programming in full high-definition. The station additionally debuted a new logo and website design, matching those of other Sinclair stations, but incorporating its previous stylized 9.

## Programming

### Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 9.2
 9.3
 9.4