History
WYFX-LP, along with repeater WFXI-LP (channel 17) in Mercer, Pennsylvania, were launched in 1998 as the area's first full-time Fox affiliates. (WFXI-LP shared its call letters with the Fox affiliate in Morehead City, North Carolina; both stations were owned by Piedmont Television until 2007, but were otherwise unrelated.) Previously, WYTV showed some Fox Sports events from 1994 until 1998. With digital television in its infancy at the time, WYFX and WFXI were started with their own signals as opposed to future stations WFMJ-DT2 and WYTV-DT2, which were both launched on new second digital subchannels of WFMJ-TV and WYTV respectively. This resulted in WYFX and WFXI having their own licenses with the FCC. Because of duopoly rules at the time, which would be partially repealed only two years later, both stations were launched as low-power stations (though WFXI converted to a class A license in 2002).
The two were originally branded "Fox 17/62" for most of their first ten years. In 2008, the stations started slowly re-branding themselves as "Fox Youngstown" in some advertisements, despite still using the "Fox 17/62" logo. This was done because the on-air branding of "Fox 17/62" would be rendered useless once they would be forced to sign-off their analog signals in 2012. Low-power and class A analog signals have a later deadline for sign-off than the June 12, 2009 sign-off for full-powered analog signals like WKBN. Additionally, WYFX and WFXI are carried on different channel positions on cable.
A new logo was introduced for the start of the 2008-2009 fall season, similar to the old logo except that the "17 / 62" designation, as well as the WYFX calls, are removed. Some advertisements still used the "Fox 17 / 62" branding for some time afterward, but as of October 2008, the stations had all but fully renamed itself as "Fox Youngstown". A completely redesigned logo would debut in February 2009, matching WKBN's then-newly redesigned logo, and by that point the station was completely known by the new branding.
On February 8, 2009, WKBN did a "dual HD" test airing both college basketball on 41.1 and the Gatorade Duel (the qualifying race for the Daytona 500) on 41.2 in a possible attempt to broadcast both signals in high definition full-time. Previously, WKBN-DT2 was aired in standard definition with special sporting events (such as additional games from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship) using 41.3 in HD. WKBN had to compress both signals to the 720p format in order to make it possible. That station began broadcasting both channels in high definition full-time the next day making WKBN the eighth station nationally to broadcast two subchannels in high definition on the same signal. This continued until October 4, 2011, when New Vision moved the WYFX-HD transmission to the WYFX-LD antenna. 41.2 continues to carry a standard definition feed.
WFXI-CA was closed down on October 1, 2009, with the license being returned to the FCC the next day. However, current television listings continue to display WFXI-CA. Although WYFX does not qualify under must-carry rules due to being a low-power station, it is carried on all Mahoning Valley cable systems as part of the compensation for carrying WKBN. It is noticeably absent from Comcast systems in New Castle, Pennsylvania, which, despite being considerably closer to Youngstown, is part of the Pittsburgh market.
On May 7, 2012, LIN TV Corporation announced that it would acquire the New Vision Television station group for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt. Along with the outright ownership of WYFX-LD and sister station WKBN-TV, the agreement included the acquisition of New Vision's shared services agreement with PBC Broadcasting (whose station licenses would be transferred to Vaughan Media as part of the deal), giving LIN operational control of WYTV. On October 2, the FCC approved the proposed sale to LIN TV. The transaction was completed on October 12, 2012.
Read more about this topic: WYFX-LD
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