WFXG - History

History

In July 1983, nine applications for a new TV station, channel 54 are received by the FCC. Augusta 54, LP was given approval in October 1985. The station is sold to John Pezold (then owner of Columbus based Channel 54, WXTX) in 1990. The station signs on in May 1991 affiliates with Fox and makes it first broadcast. For the 1993 and 1994 season, WFXG was also affiliated with the Prime Time Entertainment Network. Retlaw Broadcasting purchased the station in May 1998. Fisher Communications purchased WFXG along with the other Retlaw owned stations in 1999.

Fisher, based in Seattle, was looking to concentrate its broadcast properties in the Pacific Northwest and California, sold WFXG and WXTX to the Atlanta-based Galleria Broadcast Group, L.P. which purchased the two stations for $40.1 million. In December 2003, Community Newspaper Holdings acquired WFXG and WXTX as well as WSFX-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina) through its Southeastern Media Holdings subsidiary. Community planned on selling all four of its television stations to Thomas Henson in January 2011.

Henson, upon approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would then operate all four properties under a company called Southeastern Media Acquisitions. When contacted about the proposed deal, WFXG's General Manager Barry Barth stated he could not confirm the specifics of the transaction but said the request was basically a licensing switch and would not affect the station's day-to-day operations. The deal was consummated April 5, 2011. During the next month, Henson folded the Southeastern Media Acquisition stations into American Spirit Media, LLC (one of his other companies) with the merger being finalized on May 25.

At that time, Raycom exercised its option to purchase WFXG outright from American Spirit Media through a newly-created indirect subsidiary. Essentially, the station would be directly owned-and-operated by the company as opposed through a managing agreement. Raycom's acquisition of the station was completed on August 31. WFXG recently added coverage of Southeastern Conference football and basketball games as well as periodic airings of certain sporting events from Raycom Sports. The station signed-off its analog signal on February 17, 2009 in compliance with the DTV transition. It had plans to move its digital signal from channel 51 to channel 31 (formerly WRDW-DT) after the transition but ultimately remained on channel 51.