united states city newport kentucky branding fox 19 general fox 19 now newscasts slogan it s about time channels digital 29 uhf virtual 19 psip subchannels 19.1 fox 19.2 bounce tv 19.3 grit affiliations fox owner raycom media wxix license subsidiary llc first air date august 1 1968 ; 48 years ago 1968 08 01 call letters meaning xix is 19 in roman numerals former channel number s analog 19 uhf 1968 2009 former affiliations independent 1968 1986 transmitter power 227 kw height 290 m 951 ft facility id 39738 transmitter coordinates 39 7 19 n 84 32 52 w 39.12194 n 84.54778 w 39.12194 ; 84.54778 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox19.com wxix tv channel 19 is a fox affiliated television station licensed to newport kentucky usa and serving the cincinnati ohio television market . wxix tv is owned by raycom media and maintains studios on seventh street in downtown cincinnati ; its transmitter is located in the south fairmount neighborhood on the northwest side of cincinnati . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 5 notable alumni 6 references 7 external links history edit channel 19 s original logo in 1968 . wxix tv began operation as an independent station on august 1 1968 ; it was founded by u.s. communications corporation which also owned uhf independent stations in atlanta philadelphia pittsburgh and san francisco . 1 wxix tv was the first new commercial station in the market since 1949 and the second uhf station in the area behind pbs member station wcet channel 48 . the federal communications commission fcc had allocated one full power commercial uhf station to cincinnati channel 65 later 64 now occupied by wstr tv . however when u.s. communications found out that the fcc had dropped in a channel 19 allocation across the river in newport it sought a license for that allocation instead . the lower channel number not only allowed wxix to provide wider signal coverage at less cost but was also thought to be more marketable . while wxix was running test transmissions before its inaugural broadcast the station intermittently aired mini shows featuring the larry smith puppets that promoted the sale of uhf converters for use with pre 1964 television sets which were only equipped to receive vhf signals at the time . larry smith and his puppets a witch named battie hattie from cincinnati and her dog snarfy among other characters later hosted a daytime children s program in the weekday afternoons for several years . afterward the cool ghoul 2 played by dick vonhoene known for his weekend late night sci fi monster movie program scream in also hosted a weekday afternoon children s program . there was an afternoon show called kimberly s cartoon capers an afternoon cartoon variety hour hosted by kimberly a 13 year old teenage girl . wxix s logo from 1996 to 2001 was the station s first logo that incorporated the fox wordmark . the stylized 19 was used from 1986 to 2009 . by the early 1970s u.s. communications encountered financial difficulties largely due to poor advertising revenues and partially from the failure of a planned merger with the short lived overmyer network . the firm wound up taking its san francisco atlanta and pittsburgh stations off the air all would resume operations under different ownership and also considered the same for wxix tv . 3 instead it put the station up for sale and would find a buyer for wxix in metromedia for 3 million in 1972 . 4 5 metromedia s deep pockets helped stabilize channel 19 s entire operation and the station benefited from metromedia s aggressiveness in purchasing syndicated programming as well as developing its own first run programming . after nearly a decade on air channel 19 finally received competition in 1980 with the launch of wbti channel 64 now wstr tv which ran general entertainment and religious programing before 7 p.m. and subscription television at night . however that competition was short lived ending when wbti became a full time subscription station by 1982 . the over air subscription television phenomenon occurred in larger markets in the u.s. where cable had yet to penetrate city centers before the late 1980s . wxix logo used from 2001 to 2009 . malrite communications bought channel 19 from metromedia in december 1983 . 6 7 the station remained the leading independent station in the market even after wbti returned to full time general entertainment programming in 1985 . on october 6 1986 wxix became a charter affiliate of the upstart fox network which coincidentally used some of wxix s former metromedia sister stations as its charter owned and operated stations . the station changed its on air branding from 19xix to fox 19 in 1996 . in 1998 malrite communications merged with raycom media . around 2000 wxix operated a large open space inside the tri county mall called the fox 19 station break . 8 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 9 19.1 720p 16 9 wxix dt main wxix tv programming fox 19.2 480i 4 3 bounce bounce tv some local sports 10 19.3 16 9 grit wxix originally carried the tube music network on digital subchannel 19.2 until the network s closure in 2007 . the subchannel was reactivated in january 2009 as an affiliate of this tv which remained with the subchannel until december 2011 . 10 bounce tv replaced this tv on january 1 2012 11 the this tv affiliation was then acquired by wbqc ld for its 25.2 subchannel . the grit tv network was added as 19.3 in july 2015 . analog to digital conversion edit wxix tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 19 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 12 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 29 13 using psip to display wxix tv s virtual channel as 19 on digital television receivers . programming edit wxix tv clears the entire fox network schedule nightly primetime saturday late night and fox sports programming along with the network s saturday morning infomerical block weekend marketplace and the political talk show fox news sunday . on september 17 2012 wxix began carrying the syndicated game shows wheel of fortune and jeopardy picking up both programs from abc affiliate wcpo tv channel 9 after its owner e. w. scripps company replaced both shows with original first run syndicated programs . wxix is among seven fox affiliates to air jeopardy and wheel ; the others being located in baltimore syracuse new york new orleans green bay wisconsin lake charles louisiana and mobile alabama . 14 news operation edit fox 19 news at 10 newscast title card ; seen nightly through 2014 . in the 1980s wxix aired a primetime news brief titled the headline report with suzanne kay as the anchor . 15 16 in the early 1990s the 19xix headline news was read by hugh dermody . 17 19xix news title sequence in 1993 . the station launched its news department in 1993 with the october 18 debut of the ten o clock news ; 17 it was the first successful attempt at a primetime newscast in the cincinnati market . the station eventually expanded its news programming over time it added a three hour weekday morning newscast in 1997 ; during the mid 1990s wxix also aired a newscast at the late timeslot of midnight one of the few late night local newscasts ever attempted on u.s. television in the modern era ; it later added a midday newscast at 11 30 a.m. in the late 1990s . wxix partnered with wbqc ca channel 25 to air channel 19 s evening newscast during the cincinnati bearcats college basketball season . after cable providers in northern kentucky and southwest ohio dropped wbqc from their basic tiers these newscasts were moved to insight communications channel 6 in kentucky and time warner cable channel 2 in ohio wxix no longer broadcasts bearcat football or basketball games . paul horton joined wxix as its chief meteorologist on january 31 2007 ; he left channel 19 seven months later on august 7 to become a morning meteorologist at phoenix cbs affiliate kpho tv . steve horstmeyer left his longtime morning and noon position at cbs affiliate wkrc tv channel 12 to replace horton as chief meteorologist on august 7 2008 . 18 horstmeyer traveled to lake charles louisiana to assist sister station kplc as part of a raycom effort to cover hurricane gustav . sheila gray right interviews navy rear admiral miles b. wachendorf left on fox 19 in the morning . on august 11 2008 wxix debuted a half hour early evening newscast at 6 30 p.m. 19 which is aimed at the 18 to 54 year old demographic . the broadcast competes with national network newscasts airing at 6 30 on wlwt channel 5 wcpo tv and wkrc tv . on september 21 2009 the program was extended to a full hour with the addition of a half hour of news at 6 p.m. on september 19 2011 wxix reverted the start time of the newscast to 6 30 p.m. though retaining its one hour time length . by 2015 fox19 had cut its newscast back to a half hour starting at 6 30 . on november 4 2008 wxix became the second cincinnati television station after wcpo to begin broadcast its local newscasts in high definition . however the station continued to broadcast most field reports and weather radar imagery in standard definition . by mid december nearly all aspects of its newscasts including in studio and field footage and select video from affiliate news services were available in high definition . in december 2009 wxix entered an agreement with wcpo tv to pool videographers at press conferences . 20 on march 31 2010 wxix entered into an agreement with clear channel communications to provide hourly news and weather updates on local radio station wlw 700 am these updates began airing on wlw on april 1 . 21 this agreement expired in 2015 . on september 20 2010 wxix expanded its weekday morning newscast to 5 hours from 4 30 to 10 00 a.m. with the addition of an extension of the newscast during the 9 00 a.m. hour called fox 19 morning xtra . 22 on july 25 2011 wxix debuted a half hour weekday morning weather focused newscast at 4 00 a.m. called fox 19 first weather . 23 on august 18 2012 wxix launched two hour long saturday and sunday morning newscasts airing from 8 00 to 10 00 a.m. 24 in addition on september 10 2012 the weekday morning newscast was expanded to seven hours from 4 00 to 11 00 a.m. as the morning xtra portion of the program was expanded by one hour . 25 but as of 2013 the 4 00 a.m. half hour of the morning newscast was cut . the program is now run from 4 30 11 00 a.m. notable alumni edit maria larosa meteorologist now with the weather channel kevin frazier sports reporter anchor later a weekend host and now co host for entertainment tonight later co host of omg insider greg hoard sports writer and commentator dan hoard radio and tv sportscaster for the cincinnati bengals and cincinnati bearcats football and basketball ben swann anchor reporter 2010 2013 dick vonhoene news anchor and news director in the early days of wxix ; also known as the cool ghoul host of 19 s scream in a late night weekend horror movie show early 1970s references edit wxix tv on air aug. 1 . broadcasting august 12 1968 pg .