KPPX-TV

KPPX-TV, virtual and UHF digital channel 51, is an Ion Television owned-and-operated television station serving Phoenix, Arizona, United States that is licensed to Tolleson. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks. KPPX maintains offices located on Camelback Road on the northeast side of Phoenix, and its transmitter is located atop South Mountain on the city's south side.

History

KPPX history

On December 21, 1988, the Federal Communications Commission granted a construction permit to Phoenix businessman Hector Garcia Salvatierra to build a full-power television station serving Tolleson and the Phoenix metropolitan area on UHF channel 51. The construction permit remained inactive for over six years until January 1995, when Salvatierra secured a site license to build facilities on South Mountain, and the station was assigned the call letters KAJW.

In July 1996, Salvatierra entered into an agreement with Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) to sell a 49% interest of his company to Paxson and to transfer the construction permit and site license to Paxson to build the television station under the new ownership entity America 51 L.P. The station changed its call letters to KPPX in March 1998 to reflect its pending affiliation with the new Pax TV network (now Ion Television); the station first signed on the air on February 15, 1999, broadcasting under Program Test Authority until its license was granted on April 20, 2000. Salvatierra sold the remaining interest in the company to Paxson Communications in November 2000.