Жексон қаласының Fox телеарнасы – WDBD тарихы

Fox affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi

WDBD (channel 40) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by American Spirit Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Gray Television, owner of NBC affiliate WLBT (channel 3), for the provision of certain services; it is also sister to Vicksburg licensed MyNetworkTV outlet WLOO (channel 35). Although technically owned by Tougaloo College, WLOO is actually controlled by American Spirit through a separate joint sales agreement (JSA), with Gray providing limited engineering support. The stations share studios on South Jefferson Street in downtown Jackson, while WDBD's transmitter is located on Thigpen Road southeast of Raymond, Mississippi.

The station began broadcasting on November 30, 1984, On July 6, 1987, WDBD became the area's first Fox affiliate, although the fourth broadcast network had launched back in October 1986. For the first nine months of the network's existence, the network's only affiliate in Mississippi was Gulfport based WXXV TV, which had signed on the air in February 1987 and had a decent signal that was able to cover most of southern Mississippi, but not the city of Jackson. As a result, Fox programming was not available in a large part of Mississippi for the network's first four months of operations, although WDBD did air an episode of The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers featuring the cheerleading team of Delta State University. In 1988, while Media Central was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, Act III Broadcasting tried to acquire WDBD and sister station WZDX in Huntsville, Alabama, but the deal had fallen through. In 1989, the station was sold to Donatelli & Klein of Bethesda, Maryland, making it a sister station to WDSI in Chattanooga. Pegasus Broadcasting brought out Donatelli & Klein in 1993. On October 7, 2001, due to a payment dispute between Pegasus and Fox, WDBD became an affiliate of The WB, leaving Jackson without an over the air Fox affiliate for the next 23 months; sister station WPXT in Portland, Maine, also made the switch at the same time as Pegasus and Fox failed to agree on an affiliation agreement for the two stations. It would not be until September 2003 when WUFX (now sister station WLOO) signed on in nearby Vicksburg and became the area's second Fox affiliate. In the interim, programming from the network was provided on cable via WNTZ TV for those who lived in the Natchez area and via Foxnet for those living in the Jackson–Vicksburg area. In January and February 2006, respectively, it was announced that UPN and The WB would merge and form The CW while News Corporation (owner of Fox) made public another new programming service called MyNetworkTV would start up as well. UPN affiliate WRBJ was announced as Jackson's CW affiliate while WUFX eventually joined MyNetworkTV. In advance of switching to the latter network, WUFX and WDBD swapped affiliations. On July 3, 2006, the former picked up The WB but began identifying itself on air as "My 35" in anticipation of joining the new service. Meanwhile, WDBD rejoined Fox and became known as "Fox 40". WDBD and WUFX were sold by previous owner Jackson Television, who began operating the two stations and WXMS LP in 2003, to Roundtable Broadcasting in early 2010. However, its licensee listing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still says Jackson Television. Marc Jaromin is the station's current President/General Manager. Fellow Fox affiliate WNTZ TV in nearby Natchez technically serves the Alexandria, Louisiana, market (through a low power repeater) but shares some of its coverage territory with WDBD. WNTZ also maintains a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliation and therefore encroaches on WUFX's home territory as well. Roundtable Broadcasting filed to sell WDBD and WXMS LP to American Spirit Media in July 2012. As part of the deal, the station's operations were taken over by Raycom Media, owner of WLBT, under a shared services agreement; American Spirit also acquired WUFX and WBMS CA from Vicksburg Broadcasting, but spun off the WUFX license to Tougaloo College (though it operates that station under a joint sales agreement). The transaction was consummated on November 13.

WDBD's parent company, American Spirit Media, failed to renew its retransmission contract with DirecTV/AT&T U verse upon its expiration on August 31, 2017. After a three week extension period passed with both parties failing to agree on a new contract, American Spirit Media withdrew permission for DirecTV/AT&T U verse to retransmit the signals of its stations as of 11:59 p. m. EDT on September 21. As of January 2018, no resolution to the dispute has been reached. This dispute has been particularly frustrating for viewers in the Jackson market, as it has coincided with the beginning of the 2017–18 television season, the Major League Baseball postseason, the National Football League regular season, and the college football regular season. Viewers in WDBD's market have been unable through DirecTV to watch Fox network coverage of New Orleans Saints games, the 2017 ALCS, the 2017 World Series, and numerous college football games.

WDBD shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 40, on May 4, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre transition VHF channel 6 to UHF channel 40. WDBD upgraded the new digital signal to full power as opposed to the special temporary authority operation before the switchover. The change was needed because its previous VHF digital signal had a tough time reaching the outer suburbs of Jackson. The current UHF signal pushes well into the Monroe, Louisiana, market to the west and the Greenwood–Greenville–Cleveland market to the north.