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WOPX-TV
WOPX-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Melbourne, Florida, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Orlando area. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains offices on Grand National Drive in Orlando, and its transmitter is located on Nova Road east of St. Cloud.
After its original permittee could not secure funding for construction, channel 56 began broadcasting on May 19, 1986, as WAYK. It was an independent station focusing on the Melbourne and Vero Beach area with an emphasis on sports programs, including baseball. An attempt to boost its viewership by merging with channel 26 in Daytona Beach failed to get the station on cable television systems in the Orlando area. Never financially successful, it filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 1990. During the process, the Daytona Beach station went off the air and was split off in bankruptcy court. Robert Rich, who had already been managing the station, bought it and changed its call sign to WIRB. As WAYK and again as WIRB, the station attempted producing a local newscast for Brevard and Indian River counties.
Christian Network, associated with Paxson Communications Corporation, bought WIRB in 1995 and replaced its programming with infomercials. Like other Paxson stations, it was one of the launch stations for the Pax network—forerunner to today's Ion—in 1998.
In January 1981, Don Sundquist, owner of Broadcast Production and Management Corporation, announced his plans to apply to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to activate channel 56 in Melbourne. Sundquist proposed a format emphasizing business news programming; he owned a company called Market Report, which was already airing such a show over WKID-TV in Fort Lauderdale. A second application was filed by a Chattanooga, Tennessee, woman, but the FCC held a comparative hearing and awarded Sundquist's group the construction permit in September 1982. At the time, Sundquist declared plans to launch the station in 1983. While the full-power user of channel 56 was being determined, the channel was used by WESH to rebroadcast its signal into southern Brevard County, where reception had sometimes been poor.
By 1984, Sundquist had given up on building the station and another permit he owned in Key West, Florida. The early 1980s recession had caused a potential financier of the venture to go out of business, television networks were uninterested in offering affiliation, and he could not secure funding from banks. He attempted to sell the station—designated WSCT—to the SFN Companies, which had just acquired Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV and hoped to use it as a satellite station with local news inserts. The transaction fell through when ABC denied WFTV permission to rebroadcast its signal.
In 1985, William Varecha assumed control of the channel 56 permit. He planned to focus the station on Brevard and Indian River counties, which he felt were underserved by the nearest television stations. Construction was delayed multiple times in late 1985 and early 1986 as the venture faced studio construction delays, short legs on one section of the 1,000-foot (300 m) tower, and a faulty transmission line.
WAYK made its first broadcast on May 19, 1986, days after WESH discontinued its use of the South Brevard translator. A local news program debuted shortly after the station's first broadcast.
Varecha's plans for channel 56 were complicated by Melbourne's other television station, WMOD (channel 43). WMOD, unlike WAYK, sought to penetrate the Orlando television market. In 1985, it won an FCC ruling declaring Brevard County to be part of the Orlando television market. This had a negative effect on WAYK, because it forced the station to compete for programming at higher rates and without the signal coverage that WMOD had. WAYK's transmitter, near the Indian River–Brevard line, was further south than that of WMOD. Varecha went as far as petitioning the FCC to reverse the previous FCC ruling. One of the ways WAYK tried to compensate for this difficulty, as well as its lack of presence on Orlando-area cable systems, was by investing in syndicated sports. In 1987, the station scheduled telecasts of some 200 Major League Baseball games, as well as several syndicated college sports packages. While most Orlando-area cable systems, particularly the large CableVision of Central Florida, shunned WAYK, the sports programming got it on the smaller Storer Cable system in southern Seminole County.
WOPX-TV
WOPX-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Melbourne, Florida, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Orlando area. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains offices on Grand National Drive in Orlando, and its transmitter is located on Nova Road east of St. Cloud.
After its original permittee could not secure funding for construction, channel 56 began broadcasting on May 19, 1986, as WAYK. It was an independent station focusing on the Melbourne and Vero Beach area with an emphasis on sports programs, including baseball. An attempt to boost its viewership by merging with channel 26 in Daytona Beach failed to get the station on cable television systems in the Orlando area. Never financially successful, it filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 1990. During the process, the Daytona Beach station went off the air and was split off in bankruptcy court. Robert Rich, who had already been managing the station, bought it and changed its call sign to WIRB. As WAYK and again as WIRB, the station attempted producing a local newscast for Brevard and Indian River counties.
Christian Network, associated with Paxson Communications Corporation, bought WIRB in 1995 and replaced its programming with infomercials. Like other Paxson stations, it was one of the launch stations for the Pax network—forerunner to today's Ion—in 1998.
In January 1981, Don Sundquist, owner of Broadcast Production and Management Corporation, announced his plans to apply to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to activate channel 56 in Melbourne. Sundquist proposed a format emphasizing business news programming; he owned a company called Market Report, which was already airing such a show over WKID-TV in Fort Lauderdale. A second application was filed by a Chattanooga, Tennessee, woman, but the FCC held a comparative hearing and awarded Sundquist's group the construction permit in September 1982. At the time, Sundquist declared plans to launch the station in 1983. While the full-power user of channel 56 was being determined, the channel was used by WESH to rebroadcast its signal into southern Brevard County, where reception had sometimes been poor.
By 1984, Sundquist had given up on building the station and another permit he owned in Key West, Florida. The early 1980s recession had caused a potential financier of the venture to go out of business, television networks were uninterested in offering affiliation, and he could not secure funding from banks. He attempted to sell the station—designated WSCT—to the SFN Companies, which had just acquired Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV and hoped to use it as a satellite station with local news inserts. The transaction fell through when ABC denied WFTV permission to rebroadcast its signal.
In 1985, William Varecha assumed control of the channel 56 permit. He planned to focus the station on Brevard and Indian River counties, which he felt were underserved by the nearest television stations. Construction was delayed multiple times in late 1985 and early 1986 as the venture faced studio construction delays, short legs on one section of the 1,000-foot (300 m) tower, and a faulty transmission line.
WAYK made its first broadcast on May 19, 1986, days after WESH discontinued its use of the South Brevard translator. A local news program debuted shortly after the station's first broadcast.
Varecha's plans for channel 56 were complicated by Melbourne's other television station, WMOD (channel 43). WMOD, unlike WAYK, sought to penetrate the Orlando television market. In 1985, it won an FCC ruling declaring Brevard County to be part of the Orlando television market. This had a negative effect on WAYK, because it forced the station to compete for programming at higher rates and without the signal coverage that WMOD had. WAYK's transmitter, near the Indian River–Brevard line, was further south than that of WMOD. Varecha went as far as petitioning the FCC to reverse the previous FCC ruling. One of the ways WAYK tried to compensate for this difficulty, as well as its lack of presence on Orlando-area cable systems, was by investing in syndicated sports. In 1987, the station scheduled telecasts of some 200 Major League Baseball games, as well as several syndicated college sports packages. While most Orlando-area cable systems, particularly the large CableVision of Central Florida, shunned WAYK, the sports programming got it on the smaller Storer Cable system in southern Seminole County.