WVPX-TV
WVPX-TV is a television station licensed to Akron, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland area as an affiliate of Ion Television. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongside Canton-licensed Bounce TV affiliate WDLI-TV, which transmits using WVPX-TV's full-power spectrum via a channel sharing agreement. The two stations share studios on Renaissance Parkway in Warrensville Heights and transmitter facilities on Ohio SR 261 in Norton, Ohio.
This station was signed on by S. Bernard Berk's Summit Radio Corporation as WAKR-TV, the television extension of WAKR. WAKR-TV positioned itself with a focus primarily on Akron even as it also covered the Greater Cleveland television market. From their 1953 establishment until 1996, the station was one of two primary ABC affiliates within the Cleveland market, current primary affiliate WEWS-TV being the other. Denied what would have originally been a VHF license, WAKR-TV's competitiveness was negatively impacted throughout this era by financial shortfalls and continuous ratings issues, even with a move from channel 49 to channel 23 in 1967, and eventual market-wide carriage on cable systems. Becoming WAKC-TV in 1986 after WAKR was sold, the station remained in the hands of the Berk family until 1994, when it was sold to home-shopping broadcast chain ValueVision. Under ValueVision, the station retained local programming and its ABC affiliation. A subsequent sale to Paxson Communications resulted in all newscast production ceasing immediately upon consummation on February 28, 1996, and disaffiliation from ABC at years' end; these moves made Akron the largest city in Ohio without a traditional television network affiliate or commercial television newscast.
Renamed WVPX-TV, the station became an owned and operated station for Paxson's Pax TV network on August 31, 1998. When Paxson filed an application to replace WVPX's transmitter with one capable for high-definition television, Akron City Council demanded Paxson restore local news on the station or invest in a television news service for the city; the permit was granted after Paxson made a one-time payment to the city. As part of a larger partnership between Paxson and minority investor NBC, WKYC owner Gannett took over WVPX's operations in 2001 and began producing a daily half-hour Akron newscast. When NBC withdrew their involvement in Paxson in 2005, the newscast was moved to local cable and Paxson resumed operating WVPX. Ion Media was sold to WEWS owner E. W. Scripps Company in 2021, resulting in WVPX and WDLI being spun off to Inyo Broadcast Holdings.
WAKR-TV (1953–1986)
Frozen out of VHF
In early December 1947, Summit Radio Corporation, the family-owned business of S. Bernard Berk and owners of WAKR and WAKR-FM —and Allen Simmons, owner of radio station WADC —filed competing applications with the Federal Communications Commission for what was initially seen as the lone television channel assigned to Akron, originally intended as a VHF license on channel 11. The applications were filed at the same time WEWS-TV had commenced operations as the first television station in Ohio. Both applications remained under review and went before a commission hearing on July 15, 1948, and WAKR had gone so far as to make a purchase order for VHF transmitting equipment from RCA, before the FCC implemented a freeze on any additional television licenses that September 30, while it studied the possibility of adding additional channels via the UHF band.After the release of the FCC's Sixth Report and Order lifted the freeze in 1952, the Commission reassigned the proposed Akron license from a VHF signal to one of two potential UHF signals, as channel 11 was no longer available in order to protect what would become WTOL in Toledo and WIIC-TV in Pittsburgh. Moreover, the Commission collapsed both Akron and Canton into the Cleveland market and now limited the combined market to three existing VHF signals—channels 3, 5 and 8. Summit Radio was awarded the permit for WAKR-TV on channel 49 by September 4, 1952; a coin flip determined the winning bid between Summit and WADC as the other frequency available, channel 65, was not considered operable at the time.
With WAKR already housed at the First Central Tower in the city's downtown, a UHF mast was affixed to the top of the building to much fanfare, with onlookers watching from the ground level during the multi-day process, and pictures of the tower installation published on the front page of the Akron Beacon Journal several times. Test transmissions began on June 7, 1953, that consisted solely of a test pattern card featuring the call sign and an illustration of the tower, while appliance stores in the city ran advertisements promoting either new television sets—or converter equipment to upgrade existing sets—concurrently promoting the station's upcoming launch. These signal tests continued on a regular set schedule until WAKR-TV formally signed on the air on.
In contrast to the tower construction, the studio operations at the First Central Tower were temporary, as Summit Radio had acquired the former Copley Theatre as a permanent home for the WAKR stations; the building operated as a theater between March 1947 and October 1952. As part of the renovations of the theater, a second floor was added solely for office space, while one of the two TV studios featured a large steel turntable floor for set changing purposes; at the time, it was the only such turntable custom-built for a television studio. S. Bernard Berk's wife, Viola Berk, drafted the architectural plans for the new studios, scrapping plans drawn by a professional architect as being "pretty, but not practical". Formally opened that December as the "WAKR Television Center", the complex boasted an ultra-modern front lobby and interior designed by Viola Berk, and a second floor viewing room with windows where advertisers could watch programs being produced in the studios below.
Focused on Akron
WAKR-TV became an ABC-TV affiliate when they signed on, owing to WAKR radio's existing ABC Radio affiliation; Berk attributed the recent merger with United Paramount Theaters to create American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres as a determining factor for the affiliation. At the same time, ABC-TV was in an aggressive push to sign up as many affiliates as possible to compensate for their lack of competitiveness against CBS-TV, NBC-TV and DuMont. When WAKR-TV launched, ABC-TV had only secondary affiliations in the Cleveland market on both WXEL, then a primary DuMont affiliate, and WEWS-TV, then a primary CBS-TV affiliate. WXEL attained the market's CBS affiliation on March 1, 1955, resulting in WEWS becoming a primary ABC-TV affiliate alongside WAKR-TV.Due to both the station's permanent studios still being under construction and ABC not yet programming on a full-time basis, WAKR-TV acquired a film package consisting of high-profile Republic Pictures and United Artists releases to fill airtime via a nightly "double-feature" showcase. WAKR-TV itself was able to join ABC officially on September 15, 1953, after Ohio Bell Telephone Company technicians completed the installation of receivers for the Bell System-operated relay network. An additional film package of 20th Century-Fox, Columbia Pictures and David O. Selznick releases was purchased by the station in 1956 and utilized in afternoons and prime time as an early form of counterprogramming against television network fare; owing to WAKR-TV's flexible schedule, these movies usually ran in complete form, with minimal edits for time. Milton F. Komito, a director for WMAL-TV in Washington, D.C., who also had produced and directed programs on NBC-TV and ABC-TV, was hired to direct all local productions for the station. Komito left in 1955 for a management role at WTAP-TV in Parkersburg, West Virginia, eventually returning to the WAKR stations in 1963 as sales manager. Robert I. Bostian, who replaced Komito as production director, was promoted to program director two months after having joined; Bostian would remain a part of WAKR-TV and Summit Radio management through the late 1980s as station vice president and once summed up the station's purpose by saying, "Our local programming is geared to giving Akron what it wants—news, advertising, announcements and local shows all about Akron."
From the beginning, WAKR-TV eschewed the Cleveland market proper in favor of Akron and Canton, boasting the only television newscast that focused specifically on both cities, sharing resources with WAKR, which had earned the distinction of being one of the first radio stations in the United States to house an active news department at its 1940 establishment. WAKR personalities began appearing on the television side, including long-time radio staffers Jack Fitzgibbons, Bill Murphy and Bob Wylie; indeed, the first live programs over WAKR-TV were a local newscast anchored by Bill Murphy, followed by a Bob Wylie-headlined sportscast. Jack Fitzgibbons would become the station's lead anchorman and news director alongside his daily radio news reports, positions he held until leaving broadcasting in 1969 to become Akron's deputy mayor. Future progressive rock radio personality Scott Muni, who was WAKR's evening host from 1956 to 1958, presented the nightly weather report at 6:55 p.m. on WAKR-TV featuring a unique setup allowing him to write the forecast on a pane of glass, then reversed by a mirrored camera, this would directly lead in to his radio program that started at 7:15 pm. Long-time WAKR midday host Jack Ryan—despite having no background in meteorology—later served as WAKR-TV's lead weatherman throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.
Live events and sports coverage heard on WAKR would find itself shown on WAKR-TV. Six days after the station's launch, the station's first live telecast of an outdoor event occurred with coverage of Akron's Sesquicentennial Parade. The following week, the station broadcast film of the 1953 Beacon Journal Soap Box Derby and All-American Finals in prime time, with Bob Wylie providing play-by-play. Wylie in particular soon became known as the "Voice of the Zips", thanks to the station's broadcasts of Akron Zips football and basketball. WAKR-TV also touted itself as having broken news of the armistice agreement which formally suspended the Korean War well before any of the Cleveland market stations reported the news. Another alliance existed with the Akron Beacon Journal, as publisher Knight Newspapers—a forerunner of Knight Ridder—held a minority stake in Summit Radio from 1946 to 1977.