WHPX-TV

WHPX-TV, channel 26, is a television station licensed to New London, Connecticut, United States, serving as the Ion Television affiliate for the Hartford-New Haven television market. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks. WHPX's offices are located in New London, and its transmitter is located in the Oakdale neighborhood of Montville near Lake Konomoc.

History

The station began operation on September 15, 1986 as independent station WTWS. It was owned by R & R Media and ran a low-budget general entertainment format. In 1988, the station took over some programming from WHCT-TV (channel 18, now WUVN) as a result of that station's financial problems.

In 1990, the station also began to acquire programming that WTXX (channel 20, now WCCT-TV) chose not to renew. It also offered to pick up WTXX's programming inventory in 1992, but WTXX's owner (Renaissance Broadcasting) declined.

The station had added more infomercials to its lineup by 1993. Two years later, it was sold to Paxson Communications (predecssor to Ion Media Networks), and switched to Paxson's standard schedule of religious programming in the morning, infomercials in the afternoon and evenings, and worship programming overnight after affiliating with inTV. The rights to its programming were acquired by LIN Television, which placed those shows on WTVU (channel 59, now WCTX).