WWPX-TV

WWPX-TV is the Ion Television (formerly PAX and i) affiliate licensed to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and serving the northwestern portion of the Washington, DC television market. The station is owned by ION Media Networks, and broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 12, displayed as virtual channel 60. It is currently a relay of the main Ion affiliate for the Washington area, WPXW-TV.

History

Channel 60 signed on in 1991 as WYVN, a Fox affiliate. A news department was quickly set up, and offered more news than other stations in the area. However, Flying A Communications, the owner, found itself in financial trouble, due to this local news commitment and relatively poor ratings (partially caused by its location on cable, which was higher than other stations), leading to the station shutting down two years later, in 1993, after a sale to Benchmark Communications (who would have converted the station to a CBS affiliate for Winchester, Virginia and Hagerstown, Maryland under the WUSQ-TV callsign) fell through. A few months later, WYVN returned as an independent station, owned by Green River. The station tried to restore some local programming (including the newscast and a new talk show hosted by Gay Dawson), but further financial trouble caused this era to also end up being short-lived, abruptly ending in 1994.