Альбани қаласының WXXA телеарнасы

Fox affiliate in Albany, New York

WXXA TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Albany, New York, United States, serving the Capital District as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a shared services agreement (SSA) by Nexstar Media Group, owner of ABC affiliate WTEN (channel 10, also licensed to Albany). The two stations share studios on Northern Boulevard in Albany's Bishop's Gate section; WXXA TV's transmitter is located on the Helderberg Escarpment west of New Salem. WXXA TV is the only commercial television station in Albany that has never changed its primary network affiliation or call letters.

WXXA signed on July 30, 1982 and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 23. It was the Capital District's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station to launch in the market since WTRI (channel 35), forerunner of WNYT (channel 13), launched 28 years earlier. The Capital District had a fairly long wait for an independent station, considering its size. On paper, it had been large enough to support an independent since the late 1960s. However, the Capital District is a fairly large market geographically, stretching across a large swath of east central New York, as well as portions of southwestern Vermont and western Massachusetts. Much of this area is very mountainous, particularly in the northern portion. UHF stations have never covered large areas or rugged terrain very well. By the late 1970s, cable and satellite—then as now, a must for acceptable television in much of this market—had gained enough penetration for an independent to be viable. 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 (channel 6) switched to CBS in 1981. However, the network ended up affiliating with WNYT. The station was owned by Albany TV 23, Inc. a group of investors led by president and station manager Jim Boaz, Hollywood director Arthur Penn, and former FDIC director William Seidman. Through Penn, it was able to secure financing from movie production company Orion Pictures. WXXA was a typical general entertainment independent airing cartoons, movies, sports, and first run syndicated programs. The station also carried business news programming from the Financial News Network. In July 1986, WXXA TV agreed to become a charter affiliate of Fox, which launched on October 9. Initially, WXXA TV still programmed itself as an independent, since Fox only aired one program (The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers) until April 1987 and even then would not present an entire week's worth of programming until the 1993–94 season. Shortly after Fox's launch, Albany TV 23 sold the station to Heritage Broadcasting Group (a Detroit based company, unrelated to the similarly named Heritage Communications and Heritage Media, that was also in the process of acquiring WWTV in Cadillac, Michigan) for $10.1 million. The station picked up programming from the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) block in 1993. In 1994, Heritage sold the station to Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) for $25.5 million, predating Clear Channel's 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 in Albany's Dunes section). When UPN launched on January 16, 1995, WXXA aired programming from UPN off hours on weekends. Cable viewers in virtually the entire market were also able to watch UPN in pattern on WSBK TV in Boston, which had been available on cable in the area for decades. WXXA's secondary affiliation ended in 1998, when UPN signed WYPX (channel 55) as its new secondary affiliate and low powered WVBG LP (channel 25) as a primary affiliate. The network was picked up again by WXXA after Clear Channel, 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, "WEDG" signed off in August 2003 concurrent with the sign on of over the air UPN affiliate WNYA (channel 51), 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), whose signals reach 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). 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 were sold to Nexstar, that company opted not to buy channel 23; Sinclair could not purchase WXXA TV because it already owned WRGB and CW affiliate WCWN (channel 45). 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 then entered into a shared services agreement with Young Broadcasting, then owners of WTEN. The FCC granted the transaction on October 23, and it was finalized on December 14. After consummation of the sale, WXXA moved from its Corporate Circle facility into WTEN's studios on March 23, 2013. On November 8, 2013, Media General shareholders approved the company's merger with New Young Broadcasting, which was completed on November 12. The merged company kept the Media General name, and continued its agreements with Shield Media. More than two years later, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. The operations of WXXA and outright ownership of WTEN became part of "Nexstar Media Group." Upon the sale's closure on January 17, 2017, the deal reunited WXXA with its former Newport sister stations that were sold to Nexstar in 2012. On August 21, 2020, it was announced that Mission Broadcasting would acquire WXXA. The acquisition was completed on November 23.

WXXA's second digital subchannel has had a number of affiliations over the years. 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. The service was shut down on January 5, 2009, with WXXA switching over to Untamed Sports TV. This was followed by a switch on April 15, 2011, to the music video network TheCoolTV, which was then dropped sometime in 2012 for ZUUS Country. Finally on January 1, 2015, Shield leased the channel to Capital District Off Track Betting for their internally originated network, Capital OTB TV.

WXXA TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, on June 12, 2009, the official date on 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 VHF channel 7, using virtual channel 23. During the 2019 digital television repack, WXXA moved from VHF channel 7 to channel 8.