The name change is minor. The force behind it is enormous.
On Tuesday, KOOG Channel 30 became KUPX. The Ogden television station, purchased last summer by Paxson Communications, is one of 39 stations nationwide that will get new call letters in the largest changeover in the history of the Federal Communications Commission.In August, as many as 72 stations will launch programming of PaxNet, which will become the nation's seventh-largest broadcast network, reaching 68.5 percent of American households. PaxNet will fall just behind UPN and WB in coverage area.
PaxNet will program a few hours a week of new, original shows and will fill out the schedule with reruns of proven family hits. Shows will include Utah-produced "Touched by an Angel" and "Promised Land."
KOOG/KUPX general manager Tom Camarda said the Ogden station is upgrading facilities and staff to prepare for PaxNet's summer debut.
Camarda is pleased with his station's new call letters.
"We were lucky," he said. "We were able to get the "PX' for PaxNet and a "U' for Utah."
KUPX will terminate its WB affiliation as soon as contracts allow, which will be when another station can take over WB broadcasts. That station will be KZAR Channel 16, a UHF station that plans to build facilities in Provo.