Technical Profile: WFGX-DT

TV Technical Profile: WFGX

Channel:: 14
Programming:: 35.1 - My Network TV / This! TV
35.2 - Story TV
35.3 - Comet
55.2 - Bounce TV
55.3 - True Crime Network
55.4 - Grit
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Between J.A. Racine Road and CR-64 in Baldwin County, just south of I-10. Co-located with WHBR-DT, WEAR-DT; FM stations WKSJ, WJTQ, WDLT and WBLX.
Power (ERP):: 1 MW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,910 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (FCCdata.org Link); [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]; [Wikipedia]
[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's Mobile Highway studios, shared with WEAR.
[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's Fort Walton Beach satellite offices, with the old WFGX aux antenna on the tower in back.; mDTV - future launch scheduled
History:: WFGX came on in the late 80's transmitting from a short tower with minimal power to Ft. Walton. At that time, the city already had one independent station (WPAN 53) losing money, so it was a forgone conclusion that this one would fail also. After being off the air for a while, it was resurrected by WEAR ABC 3, which tried to buy it. Unable to get FCC permission to do so, WEAR put the station into an LMA. This arrangement, plus affiliation from The WB network, plus cable carriage in the Pensacola area, has made it a viable operation. When WBPG came on the air in 2001, the WB affiliation moved to that station and this one switched to independent. This station picked up the Fox-owned "My Network TV" when it launched, returning to the status of network affiliate. During the digital TV shuffle, this station acquired a permit to move transmitter from the Fort Walton Beach area to one of the tall towers of Baldwin County, Alabama. The increased digital coverage will now include almost all of the market.; The new permit to transmit to both Mobile and Pensacola came on the air around 21 July 2010, however it appears that the station is not passing any programming through in HD, only SD. At debut, the station encountered an interesting problem in the Mobile area, where low power translator station W50CF has remained on the air, broadcasting an analog signal on the same channel that WFGX uses. This has led to interference issues in the Mobile area for both stations.; In September 2010 the station added "The Cool TV" to a subchannel. The new network offers music videos. In late October the station added all-country music video "The Country Network" to a third digital subchannel. At the first of March 2011, The Country Network moved from WFGX to sister station WEAR's 3.2 subchannel. At the tail end of August 2012, Sinclair dropped The Cool TV from all its stations, including WFGX. It was replaced with Sony Television's getTV network in the summer of 2014. The Comet sci-fi network debuted on Halloween, 2015.

As part of the ongoing repacking process, this station will relocate from RF channel 50 to RF channel 14. That new channel assignment signed on in the winter of 2020. Later that year, the Mobile-Pensacola market began an early sign-on of ATSC 3.0 programming. To accommodate that, some programming from WFNA-DT moved here.

As of late June 2023, the get TV channel has been dropped in favor of Weigel Broadcasting's Story Television network.