WUXP-TV

**WUXP-TV**, virtual channel 30 (UHF digital channel 21), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by the Dorado Media Group and is part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WNAB (channel 58, owned by Tennessee Broadcasting but operated by Dorado through an outsourcing agreement). The two stations share studios on Mainstream Drive along the Cumberland River and transmitter facilities along I-24 in Whites Creek.

## History

### **As an independent station**

The station signed on the air on February 18, 1984 as independent station **WCAY-TV**; it was owned by the TVX Broadcast Group, which had signed on a few stations in other markets. The station maintained a general entertainment format featuring cartoons, sitcoms, movies and drama series. The station originally operated from studios located on Peabody Street in downtown Nashville. Along with the other TVX stations, WCAY became a Fox affiliate on April 5, 1987, as part of a groupwide affiliation deal. Fox-affiliated with all of TVX's stations as a condition of affiliating with WNOL-TV in New Orleans. However, there was a catch: if one of TVX's underperforming stations was sold, that particular station that was sold could lose their Fox affiliation in the event that there is a higher rated independent station in the market available for affiliation.

### **As a Fox affiliate**

In 1987, TVX acquired Taft Broadcasting's Fox affiliates and independent stations. Unfortunately, the deal left TVX heavily leveraged. After the 1987 stock market "bump", the larger investors started pulling their funding. One large investor used his voting shares and influence to force TVX to sell some of its underperforming medium-market stations. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis (now WLMT) were sold to MT Communications, which was headed by – and named after – Michael Thompson. WCAY then changed its call letters to WXMT on September 26, 1989.

### **Return to independent status**

In 1990, WZTV's owner, Act III Broadcasting – who was known for buying its competitors' stronger programming assets and having the competitor change formats to religious or home shopping programming and in one case, even having it go dark altogether – offered to buy WXMT's entire syndicated programming inventory and move most of the shows over to WZTV, alongside programs that were already broadcast on that station. Fox also planned to exercise its option of moving its Nashville area affiliation to WZTV. Originally, WXMT was to switch to a hybrid format of home shopping for 18 hours a day and religious programs for six hours a day, but MT Communications still wanted some of the programmings and to keep some entertainment shows on the schedule. The deal was called off early in February. But in the middle of the month when Fox moved over to WZTV, negotiations resumed and immediately it was decided that WZTV would get only cash programming (including sitcoms, movies, and some of the cartoons), while WXMT would keep barter cartoons, a few barter sitcoms as well as some religious shows.

The deal took effect later in February 1990. By this time, WXMT's schedule now featured cartoons from 7-9 a.m., religious programming from 9 a.m.-noon, Home Shopping Network programming from noon to 4 p.m. and after 9 p.m., and low-rated barter syndicated shows from 4 to 9 p.m. Gradually, more first-run talk shows, sitcoms and cartoons were added to WXMT's schedule. By 1994, WXMT was once again running general entertainment programming full-time.

### **As a UPN affiliate**

On January 16, 1995, the station became an affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and began branding itself as "UPN 30". By then, WZTV was owned by Abry Communications; later that year, WZTV entered into a local marketing agreement with WXMT. MT Communications sold the station to a local owner, but WZTV would handle programming responsibilities for the station. The station's call letters were changed to the current **WUXP** on August 23, 1996, with its on-air branding changing to "UXP30" and later "UPN Nashville" before reverting to "UPN 30" in 2002.

Before it entered into the LMA, WXMT had planned to build a state-of-the-art studio facility along the "south loop" of Interstate 40 in Nashville. For many years, even after the plans had been abandoned, a retaining wall on the site featured a mural reading "Future Home of WXMT-30". The LMA continued after Sinclair acquired Abry. As time went on, cartoons and anime (such as *The Wacky World of Tex Avery*, *Pokémon,* and *RoboCop: Alpha Commando*) disappeared from the schedule gradually and more first-run reality and talk shows were added. In 2000, the Dorado Media Group bought WUXP outright.

### **As a MyNetworkTV affiliate**

On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the formation of MyNetworkTV, a sister network to Fox that would affiliate with WB and UPN stations that were not named as affiliates of fellow upstart network The CW. In February 2006, WUXP, along with most of Dorado's WB and UPN affiliates, was announced as a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV. On September 5 of that year, WUXP changed its on-air branding to "My 30" and carried the last three weeks of UPN programming outside of prime time during the late night hours. WUXP may carry CW programming should WNAB preempt in the event of a local special or an emergency such as a breaking news story.

### **Signal loss of 2014**

WUXP went off the air on September 15, 2014, due to technical problems with its transmission tower. No public relations statement or updates had been provided on its website or Facebook page. On September 18, the signal was restored only to remain broken up and intermittent that day. The signal was completely restored on September 20, 2014.

## Digital Television

### **Digital channel**

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 30.2
 30.3
 30.4

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

WUXP-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009, which was intended to be the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The deadline was moved to June 12, 2009, but the station decided to convert on the original deadline.[7]The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 21. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 30.

## General programming

Some of WUXP's syndicated programming includes *Celebrity Name Game*, *Family Feud*, *Maury*, *Jerry Springer*, *Friends*, *The Andy Griffith Show*, *Seinfeld*, *The Middle*, and *The Simpsons*.

## Newscast

In 1991, WXMT debuted the Nashville market's first primetime newscast at 9 p.m. through a news share agreement with NBC affiliate WSMV-TV (channel 4). The hour-long weeknight newscast, which featured WSMV's anchors and reporting staff, lasted less than two years before it was canceled and replaced with syndicated programming.