WVPX-TV

WVPX-TV, virtual channel and UHF digital channel 23, is an Ion Television owned-and-operated television station serving Cleveland, Ohio, United States that is licensed to Akron. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks. WVPX maintains offices located on South Main Street in Akron, and its transmitter is located on the west side of the city, just north of Rolling Acres Mall. WVPX is the only full-power Ion station in the state of Ohio.

History

Origins of WAKR-TV

The station first signed on the air on June 7, 1953 as WAKR-TV, broadcasting from a transmitter located on the First National Tower in Akron. The station was owned by Summit Radio Corporation, the family-owned business of S. Bernard Berk, which also owned WAKR radio (1590 AM, and 97.5 FM, now WONE-FM). Summit had applied to the Federal Communications Commission in 1947 for a television broadcast license to operate on VHF channel 11, the only channel allocated to Akron. However, before the license was issued, the FCC implemented a freeze on further television licenses while it undertook a study of what to do with the VHF spectrum.