WXXA-TV - History

History

The station signed-on July 30, 1982 and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 23. It was the market's first new commercial station to launch in the Capital District in 29 years. A construction permit had been issued for channel 23 in the 1950s with the calls WPTR-TV; that permit was canceled in 1960. Rumors had previously abounded that NBC would move its programming to the new channel 23 after WRGB switched to CBS in 1981. However, the network ended up affiliating with WNYT.

The station's parent company was Albany TV 23, Inc., which was owned at the time by a group of investors led by Founding President and Station Manager Jim Boaz, Hollywood Director Arthur Penn, and former FDIC director William Seidman, with financial backing from movie production company Orion Pictures. On October 6, 1986, it became a charter affiliate of Fox and was sold from its original local owners to Heritage Broadcasting. The station became a secondary affiliate with Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) in 1993.

In 1994, Heritage sold the station to Clear Channel Communications preceding its entry into the radio market and sizable expansion of television assets in the Northeast in the following years. Clear Channel soon moved WXXA from its original studios on Central Avenue/NYS Route 5 in Albany (now a car dealership) to an expanded facility on Corporate Circle. When UPN launched on January 16, 1995, WXXA dropped PTEN and added the new network as a secondary affiliation. The station aired programming from UPN off-hours on weekends.

Cable viewers in virtually the entire market were also able to watch the shows in-pattern on WSBK-TV from Boston, Massachusetts. WXXA's secondary affiliation ended at the start of the 1997-1998 television season when UPN affiliated with low-powered WVBG-LP in Greenwich. The network was picked up again by WXXA after this station, in partnership with Time Warner Cable, launched cable-only affiliate "WEDG-TV" in January 2000. Eventually known on-air as "UPN 4" after its channel location, the station signed-off in August 2003 concurrent with the sign-on of over-the-air UPN affiliate WNYA which was operated by WRGB.

WXXA-DT began airing on VHF channel 7 on December 20, 2005. A combination of objections from analog co-channels WABC-TV (in New York City) and WWNY-TV (in Watertown), both of which have signals at the fringes of the Albany area, was the primary reason for the late and delayed sign-on. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to Providence Equity Partners' Newport Television (the deal closed in March 2008). In January 2007, Clear Channel launched a digital-only network known as The Variety Channel. The service aired classic television shows (similar to the Retro Television Network), auto showcase programming and various home improvement programs.

WXXA-DT2 dropped the The Variety Channel on January 5, 2009 after the service was shut down replacing it with Untamed Sports TV. This programming service billed itself as the only outdoor adventure sports channel offering a multitude of risk-taking sports to those daring enough to explore a superb voyage in the great outdoors. WXXA turned-off analog transmissions on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States. It remained on its pre-transition channel 7 but remains on virtual channel 23 using PSIP. WXXA is the only commercial television station in Albany that has never changed its primary network affiliation or call letters. On April 15, 2011, WXXA-DT2 dropped Untamed Sports TV in favor of TheCoolTV.

On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of 22 of its 27 stations to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Cox Media Group. While most of WXXA-TV's New York State sisters are being sold to Nexstar, that company opted not to pursue the purchase of WXXA because it would then own too many stations in New York State. Sinclair could not purchase WXXA-TV because it already owned CBS affiliate WRGB and The CW affiliate WCWN. While Nexstar and Sinclair passed on buying WXXA, the station eventually found a new owner on July 27, 2012 when Newport Television announced the sale of the station to Shield Media, LLC (owned by White Knight Broadcasting vice president Sheldon Galloway) for $19.2 million. Shield plans on entering into certain shared service and joint sales agreements with Young Broadcasting, owners of ABC affiliate WTEN. On October 23, the FCC granted the transaction.