york united states branding fox 23 general news 10 abc on fox 23 newscasts slogan dedicated . determined . dependable . channels digital 7 vhf virtual 23 psip subchannels 23.1 fox 23.2 capital otb tv horse racing 23.3 laff owner shield media llc wxxa tv llc operator media general first air date july 30 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 07 30 sister station s wten former channel number s analog 23 uhf 1982 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1982 1986 secondary pten 1993 1995 upn 1995 1998 dt2 variety television network 2007 2009 untamed sports tv 2009 2011 thecooltv 2011 2012 zuus country 2012 2015 transmitter power 10 kw height 434 m 1 424 ft class dt facility id 11970 transmitter coordinates 42 37 0.2 n 74 0 44.2 w 42.616722 n 74.012278 w 42.616722 ; 74.012278 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website news10.com fox23 albany wxxa tv is the fox affiliated television station for upstate new york s capital district and western new england . licensed to albany it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on vhf channel 7 or virtual channel 23.1 via psip from a transmitter in the helderberg escarpment southwest of new scotland s voorheesville section . owned by shield media wxxa is operated through joint sales and shared services agreements by media general . this makes it a sister outlet to abc affiliate wten and the two outlets share studios on northern boulevard in albany s bishop s gate section . syndicated programming on wxxa includes the big bang theory the simpsons family guy seinfeld judge judy and the people s court among others . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 wxxa dt 2.3 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 4 references 5 external links history edit its coverage area primary in dark red . wxxa was signed on july 30 1982 1 and aired an analog signal on uhf channel 23 . it was the first new commercial station to launch in the capital district in 28 years . 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 switched to cbs in 1981 . however the network ended up affiliating with wnyt . the station s original owner was albany tv 23 inc. which in turn was owned by a group of investors led by founding 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 . on october 9 1986 it became a charter affiliate of fox . shortly afterward albany tv 23 sold the station to heritage broadcasting . the station picked up programming from the prime time entertainment network pten block in 1993 . 2 in 1994 heritage sold the station to clear channel communications 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 dropped pten and 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 as its new secondary affiliate and low powered wvbg lp as a primary affiliate . the network was picked up again by wxxa after this station 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 the station signed off in august 2003 concurrent with the sign on of over the air upn affiliate wnya 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 . 3 while most of wxxa tv s new york state sisters were sold to nexstar that company opted not to buy wxxa because it already owns or controls 10 stations there . sinclair could not purchase wxxa tv because it already owned cbs affiliate wrgb and the cw affiliate wcwn . 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 certain shared service and joint sales agreements with young broadcasting owners of abc affiliate wten . 4 the fcc granted the transaction on october 23 5 and it was finalized on december 14 . 6 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 . 7 the merged company kept the media general name and will continue its shared service and joint sales 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 will become part of nexstar media group . 8 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 9 23.1 720p 16 9 wxxa hd main wxxa tv programming fox 23.2 480i 4 3 wxxa ct capital otb tv streams online 23.3 wxxa sd laff wxxa dt edit the station s dt2 service 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 . analog to digital conversion edit wxxa tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 23 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 vhf channel 7 . 10 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 23 . news operation edit on october 7 1996 the station established a news department and began airing a nightly half hour prime time newscast known as fox news at 10 . it was not the time slot s first show in the market as wmhq now wcwn launched a wnyt produced broadcast earlier in the year ; in 1998 that production was canceled due to a lack of support leaving wxxa as the only outlet for a prime time show . filling a niche in local newscasts its prime time broadcast was expanded on weeknights to an hour in early 2000 and renamed fox 23 news at 10 . since launching the newscast wxxa has been very successful in the time slot with high ratings and viewership . this can not be said for other local news offerings from the station which have consistently struggled against albany s big three stations . in late 2000 the station took on the area s big three outlets for the first time with the launch of fox 23 news at 6 30 . this show offered a local alternative to the national news broadcasts seen in the time slot . this was followed by another show weeknights at 6 that directly competed with the other stations . right from its start the broadcast struggled to gain ratings and viewership from the capital district s other long established news departments . a change in upper management led to a realignment of early weeknight shows with the 6 30 broadcast moving to 5 in september 2002 and an expansion to an hour . fox 23 news at 6 would eventually be dropped in july 2003 due to poor performance against its competitors . wxxa re focused its efforts to improve its popular prime time newscast at 10 by putting a significant investment in its news operation beginning in late 2003 . the biggest move was the signing of former wnyt news anchor john gray . additional resources and capabilities were added to the station behind the scenes as well as on the air . on april 17 2006 it was announced wnya would begin airing an hour long extension of wrgb s weekday morning show from 7 until 8 . this action could be seen as a preemptive move by wrgb to fend off a challenge by wxxa which had announced its own plans to launch a weekday morning newscast two weeks earlier . the actual launch of fox 23 news mornings occurred september 25 2006 and it initially ran for three hours from 5 until 8 . wrgb subsequently moved the sixty minute extension of its morning show from wnya to wcwn and in 2008 began producing a 10 p.m. newscast for that station giving wxxa its first challenger in the time slot in a decade . wxxa reduced its weekday morning broadcast to a two hour format from 6 until 8 in summer 2009 due to low viewership . a final addition to newscast offerings on wxxa occurred june 29 2009 when it launched a half hour broadcast weeknights at 11 following a national trend by other fox affiliates . although fox 23 news at 10 has remained popular with viewers its weekday morning show and fox 23 news at 11 continued to struggle in the ratings against long running newscasts on competing stations . fox 23 news at 5 seen on weeknights was eventually cut to a half hour for that same reason . in 2012 fox 23 news a.m. was moved to the 7 to 9 time slot . wxxa was the last remaining news department in the capital district that continued to broadcast local news in 4 3 standard definition and it never upgraded to high definition or 16 9 widescreen during the time that the newscasts were produced in house . with the consolidation of wxxa with wten the abc affiliate took over production of channel 23 s newscasts . the two stations reporting staffs were merged immediately following shield media s purchase of wxxa was completed . 11 on january 24 2013 wxxa discontinued its weeknight 5 00 and 11 00 p.m. newscasts