WFXQ-CD

Key takeaways

WFXQ-CD belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WFXQ-CD to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WFXQ-CD from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WFXQ-CD (channel 28) is a low-power, Class A television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a translator of dual NBC/CW+ affiliate WWLP (channel 22), owned by Nexstar Media Group. WFXQ-CD's transmitter is located at the old Mount Tom Ski Area summit in Holyoke. Its parent station maintains studios at Broadcast Center in the Sandy Hill section of Chicopee at the northwest corner of the I-391/MA 116/Chicopee Street interchange.

History The station first went on-the-air May 6, 1987, on VHF channel 11. Using the calls W11BJ, it originally aired a low-powered analog signal from the Rattlesnake Mountain transmitter site of Connecticut's Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61). The station was an independent that aired local shows to a senior retirement community in Farmington, Connecticut. It used a live skycam weather forecast which consisted of a character generator and a home video camera with shots of the window from the transmitter building. The owner of the station was the Chase family (who also owned WTIC-TV). When LIN TV bought W11BJ in 2004, there was a construction permit approved to broadcast this station on UHF channel 28 from a new transmitter on Mount Tom in Holyoke. During the building of this transmitter, WWLP temporarily put on a simulcast of Connecticut's UPN affiliate WCTX (a sister station) through an off-air pickup. In early 2006, W28CT signed-on from the top of Mount Tom and the W11BJ transmitter on Rattlesnake Mountain was shut down. Right from the start, the station began to simulcast WWLP in a full-time manner. LIN TV had initially changed the call sign to WXCW-CA in reference to The CW in anticipation of it becoming an affiliate of that network. This affiliation eventually went to cable-only WB affiliate "WBQT". As a result, the channel's call sign was changed again to WFXQ-CA referring to a possible Fox affiliation. This caused rumors on several television industry message boards that it would become an affiliate of that network. Speculation also existed that WFXQ might affiliate with Fox's new sister network, MyNetworkTV. At the time, cable television viewers in the Springfield–Holyoke market received Fox from WTIC-TV and the network's owned-and-operated station in Boston, WFXT, with MyNetworkTV coming from WCTX. On November 16, 2007, the Springfield Republican reported that ABC affiliate WGGB-TV would be launching a Fox affiliate on a new second subchannel which was expected to launch at the end of that year. This was ultimately delayed until the end of March 2008 when the new service took on a primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliation. Up to that time, Springfield held the distinction of being the largest television market without a Fox affiliate of its own. Until December 9, 2008, WFXQ's analog signal transmitted on the same frequency as CW affiliate WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a construction permit, the station "flash-cut" to digital sometime after June 12, 2009, although, at the time, the station was still assigned a "-CA" suffix. Eventually, the FCC updated its listing and this channel began using the WFXQ-CD calls. Since that point it has mainly served as a local UHF translator of WWLP for the central part of the Springfield market, including Northampton, Easthampton, and Holyoke, and most of Springfield. On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WWLP and WFXQ-CD, in a $1.6 billion merger. The merger was completed on December 19. On January 1, 2015, WWLP began to carry what had been the cable-exclusive CW affiliate WBQT as their second digital subchannel, which also applied to WFXQ-CD's second subchannel, finally fulfilling the original purpose of LIN's purchase of the station. On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the Meredith Corporation for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General once the sale is finalized. Because Meredith already owns WGGB-TV, and the Springfield-Holyoke market does not have enough full-power television stations to legally allow a duopoly in any event (WGGB and WWLP are the only full-power licenses assigned to the market), the companies would have been required to sell either WGGB or WWLP to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict sharing agreements. Meredith-owned CBS affiliate WSHM-LD (channel 3) is the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could legally be acquired by Meredith Media General, as FCC rules permit common ownership of full-power and low-power stations regardless of the number of stations within a single market. On January 27, 2016, however, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General, who subsequently abandoned its plans to purchase Meredith.

Subchannels The station's signal is multiplexed:

References

External links WWLP website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WFXQ-CD

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WFXQ-CD claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WFXQ-CD before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WFXQ-CD ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WFXQ-CD

In research: WFXQ-CD appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WFXQ-CD in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WFXQ-CD is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1987 establishments in Massachusetts, ATSC 3.0 television stations, Low-power television stations in Massachusetts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WFXQ-CD outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study WFXQ-CD in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WFXQ-CD means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WFXQ-CD out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WFXQ-CD in simple terms?

WFXQ-CD (channel 28) is a low-power, Class A television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a translator of dual NBC/CW+ affiliate WWLP (channel 22), owned by Nexstar Media Group.

Why does WFXQ-CD matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WFXQ-CD?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WFXQ-CD.