KPXG-TV

KPXG-TV, virtual and UHF digital channel 22, is an Ion Television-owned-and-operated station serving Portland, Oregon, United States that is licensed to the state capital of Salem. The station is owned by West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media Networks (the former Paxson Communications). KPXG-TV's offices are located on Southwest Naito Parkway in downtown Portland, and its transmitter is located in the Sylvan-Highlands section of the city.

KPXG-TV
Salem–Portland, Oregon–
Vancouver, Washington
United States
CitySalem, Oregon
BrandingIon Television
SloganPositively Entertaining
ChannelsDigital: 22 (UHF)
Virtual: 22 (PSIP)
TranslatorsK14LP-D Cottage Grove
Affiliations
22.7: Telemundo
OwnerIon Media Networks
LicenseeIon Media Portland License, Inc.
First air dateNovember 21, 1981 (1981-11-21)
Call sign meaningPaX TV OreGon
Former call signsKECH (1981–1986)
KWVT (1986–1987)
KHSP (1987–1988)
KBSP-TV (1988–1998)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
22 (UHF, 1981–2008)
Digital:
4 (VHF, 2004–2008)
Former affiliationsPrimary:
Independent (1981–1987)
HSN (1987–1998)
Secondary:
ONTV (1982–1984)
FNN (1982–1985)
Transmitter power1000 kW
Height510 m (1,673 ft)
Facility ID5801
Transmitter coordinates45°31′20.5″N 122°44′49.5″W
Licensing authorityFCC
Public license informationProfile
CDBS
Websiteiontelevision.com

KPXG-TV's signal is relayed on translator station K14LP-D in Cottage Grove, in the Eugene television market. KPXG-TV also reaches some portions of the Eugene market over-the-air and on cable.

History

The station first signed on the air on November 21, 1981 as KECH. It was founded by general partners Chris Desmond and Arnold Brustin; both were formerly associated with CBS.[1] It originally operated as a general entertainment independent station, broadcasting classic movies and television series, it was branded as "Catch 22". By mid-1982, the station began carrying the ONTV subscription television service in the evenings; customers would be supplied with a small yagi antenna, an amplifier if needed and a set-top box in order to receive ONTV programming.

The station reverted to a full-time general entertainment format in 1984, and changed its call sign to KWVT on October 1, 1986. Soon afterward, in 1987, the station affiliated with the Home Shopping Network; initially carried only in the overnight hours, HSN programming expanded to the midday hours later that year, and began to air full-time by 1987. At that point, the station was sold to Blackstar Broadcasting, and changed its call sign first to KHSP on September 17, 1987, and then KBSP-TV on April 21, 1988. During that year, the station carried the Oregon Megabucks drawings; the program was produced in conjunction with the Oregon Lottery, which discontinued the program by 1990.

Blackstar sold the station to Paxson Communications on January 19, 1996, and the station began to air religious programming in the morning, informercials in the afternoon and evening, and Worship Network programming during the overnight hours. On July 1, 1998, the station changed its call letters to KPXG, and upon the launch of Pax TV on August 31, the station began airing the network's programming from noon to midnight (reduced to 4 to 11 p.m. by 2003, when the network reduced its programming schedule). It remains an affiliate of the restructured Ion Television network, following the network's rebrandings from Pax TV and i: Independent Television.

Former Portland translator

KPXG-TV was formerly relayed on a fill-in translator in Portland, KPXG-LD (UHF digital channel 42). It was initially a separately operated station, signing on in the spring of 1994 as K43EK, operating on UHF channel 43. The station was formerly licensed to VVILPTV Inc., which aired home shopping programming from ValueVision for four years. In 1998, K43EK was bought by Paxson Communications, which transitioned the station into a translator of KPXG to cover areas of the Portland market that receive a rimshot signal of KPXG, and soon changed the calls to KPXG-LP. The station later moved to channel 54, and then to channel 42 upon transitioning to digital television in August 2009. Other call letters assigned to the station in the past was K60DW. On December 15, 2014, Ion reached a deal to donate KPXG-LD to Word of God Fellowship, parent company of the Daystar network.[2]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3]
22.1720p16:9IONIon Television
22.2480i4:3QuboQubo
22.3IONLifeIon Life
22.4ShopTVIon Shop
22.5QVCQVC
22.6HSNHSN
22.716:9TLMDTelemundo

Analog-to-digital conversion

KPXG-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, on December 3, 2008. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 4 to UHF channel 22.[4]

References
  1. Salem-Based TV to reach Clark County. The Columbian, November 10, 1981
  2. "APPLICATION FOR TRANSFER OF CONTROL OF A CORPORATE LICENSEE OR PERMITTEE, OR FOR ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE OR PERMIT OF TV OR FM TRANSLATOR STATION OR LOW POWER TELEVISION STATION (KPXG-LD)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 23, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  3. RabbitEars TV Query for KPXG
  4. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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