WNPX-TV


WNPX-TV, virtual channel 28, is an Ion Television-owned-and-operated station serving Nashville, Tennessee, United States that is licensed to Franklin. The station is owned by West Palm Beach, Florida-based Ion Media Networks. WNPX-TV's transmitter is located near Cross Plains, Tennessee.
WNPX also serves as the de facto Ion outlet for the Bowling Green, Kentucky market since that area doesn't have an affiliate of its own.

History

The station was signed on by Dove Broadcasting on January 23, 1989 as WMTT, an independent station serving Cookeville. A few months later, Dove sold the station to Steven J. Sweeney. InaVision Broadcasting bought WMTT in 1993, changed its call sign to WKZX in 1994, and affiliated the station with The WB in 1995. Also in 1995, WKZX launched a nightly 6:30 p.m. newscast branded as News 28. In 1997, InaVision Broadcasting sold the station to St. Louis, Missouri-based Roberts Broadcasting. A year later, Roberts Broadcasting sold the station to Paxson Communications, who closed WKZX's news operation, moved and upgraded its transmitter to begin focusing on the Nashville market, and changed the callsign to WNPX; on August 31, 1998, the station began broadcasting programming from Pax TV, the forerunner of Ion Television.
Until 2015, the station also utilized an analog translator, WNPX-LP on channel 20, located at Whites Creek. The translator was sold to Daystar on March 26, 2015.
Sometime in 2019, WNPX's city of license was changed from Cookeville to Franklin, Tennessee.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 28.

Spectrum incentive auction results

In summer 2017, due to the station's participation in the FCC's 2016–17 incentive auction, WNPX filed for a construction permit for its digital signal to relocate to UHF channel 32. As a result, on October 18, 2019, WNPX moved to channel 32 due to spectrum repacking. CBS affiliate WTVF moved its digital signal allocation to WNPX's former allocation.