WFVX-LP - History

History

A construction permit for a low-power station on channel 22 in Bangor was granted on January 12, 1995, and was assigned the call letters W22BU. Following the death of original owner Dale Buschow in 1998, the station was acquired by MS Communications on January 3, 2001; its license to cover was issued on March 1. MS Communications had plans to establish wireless cable networks, but never broadcast anything other than test patterns on its stations. MS sold W22BU to Rockfleet Broadcasting, owner of WVII-TV, in 2003. Rockfleet put the station on the air as a Fox affiliate on April 13, 2003; the following day, the call letters were changed to WFVX-LP. The WFVX call letters were transferred from what is now WFUP, the Vanderbilt, Michigan satellite of then-sister station and fellow Fox affiliate WFQX-TV in Cadillac, Michigan.

Before WFVX went on the air, Fox programming was seen on cable from WPXT in Portland, then from Foxnet after WPXT switched to The WB; Fox Sports programming was also available in Bangor at various points via WABI-TV (channel 5), WBGR-LP (channel 33), and WCKD-LP (channel 30). WCKD was WVII's first venture into low-power broadcasting in Bangor; it signed a local marketing agreement with James McLeod, owner of channel 30 (then known as W30BF, the former Bangor transmitter for Maine Public Television Plus) and WBGR, in 2000, and relaunched it as a UPN affiliate in 2001. WCKD had tried to become a full Fox affiliate that October to coincide with WPXT's affiliation change, but was blocked from doing so by UPN; this did not stop the station from continuing its existing relationship with Fox Sports. After WFVX's sign on, Rockfleet moved all of WCKD's syndicated and local programming (including a 10 p.m. newscast from WVII and the morning talk show So Goes the Nation), but not the UPN affiliation, to channel 22.

On December 6, 2006, WFVX added a secondary affiliation with Fox's new sister network MyNetworkTV. The network was not available in Bangor in its first three months on the air.

As a low-power station, WFVX was exempt from the digital transition on June 12, 2009; however, on February 17, WVII added a new second digital subchannel to carry WFVX's programming. WFVX has a construction permit to perform a "flash-cut" from analog to digital on the channel 22. When the conversion is completed, the station's call letters will be modified to WFVX-LD ("LD" stands for low-powered digital).