WPGA-TV

WPGA-TV, virtual channel 58 (UHF digital channel 32), is an Independent television station serving Macon, Georgia that is licensed to Perry. The station is locally owned by Register Communications, owners of This TV affiliate WPGA-LP (channel 50) and Perry-licensed radio stations WPGA (980 AM) and WNEX-FM (100.9 FM). The television and radio stations share studio facilities located on Forsyth Street in downtown Macon; WPGA-TV maintains transmitter facilities located on GA 87/U.S. 23/U.S. 129 Alternate (Golden Isles Highway), along the Twiggs-Bibb County line.

In addition, the station carries select programs from the digital multicast networks Me-TV and This TV, whose full schedules are carried on digital subchannels 58.2 and 58.3.

History

As a Fox affiliate

The station first signed on the air on March 1, 1995; it originally served as the Macon market's original Fox affiliate. Prior to the station's sign-on, Macon residents could only receive Fox network programing via Foxnet (the network's now-defunct national cable feed) or via Fox stations piped in from the nearby Atlanta market (network-owned WATL from the network's launch in October 1986 until December 1994, and then WAGA-TV from December 1994 until WPGA's sign-on). In addition, when Fox assumed the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference television package from CBS in 1994, ABC affiliate WGXA (channel 24) carried Fox's NFL telecasts on Sunday afternoons until December 1994.