WFXM-TV

WFXM-TV, virtual channel 33 (UHF digital channel 18) branded on-air as WGXA+, is an independent television station licensed to Macon, Georgia. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has a duopoly with dual Fox/ABC affiliate WGXA (also licensed to Macon, Georgia). Sinclair also owns another independent station, WBGJ-TV via an SSA deal with CPN Holdings. WGXA and WFXM-TV share studios on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (GA 11/GA 22/GA 49/US 80/US 129) in Downtown Macon, and transmitters for both stations are located on GA 87/US 23/US 129 ALT (Golden Isles Highway), along the Twiggs–Bibb county line.

As a christian independent station
The station first signed on July 16th, 1985, It was initially owned by the Macon Community Church which owned former radio sister station WMCC-FM (now Hot AC station, WFXM-FM which is currently owned by Audacy). The station initially had a family-oriented format, with children's shows and cartoons in the morning and noon hours, and classic shows in the afternoon, night and evening hours. At the time of the station's launch, it was the only independent station in the Macon market. That status however would be broken in March 6th, 1986 when former WMAZ-TV satellite station, WMCZ-TV lost it's CBS affiliation, switched to a general entertainment independent station and changed it's name to WBGJ.

Fox affiliation
On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter affiliate of Fox. To reflect the new affiliation, the station changed it's call-letters to WFXM-TV. Much like many other charter Fox affiliates at that time, it was a de-facto independent station, since the network's only offering was The Late Show by Joan Rivers. That is until 1987, when Fox launched it's prime-time lineup. By 1989, the Macon Community Church realized that handling WFXM-TV and WFXM-FM proved to be difficult, mainly with WFXM-TV's affiliation with Fox providing programming that didn't fit the church's family-friendly agenda. So, the church sold both WFXM-TV and WFXM-FM to Nationwide Communications for $20.6 million dollars. WFXM-TV was famous, if not infamous in 1990 for broadcasting two competing Saturday morning blocks, Fox's nationwide Fox Kids block, and Disney syndicated The Disney Afternoon. As part of its liquidation of its broadcasting interests, Nationwide sold WFXM-TV and sister Fox affilate, WFTC-TV in Minneapolis, MN to Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) in 1993. This deal in turn separated WFXM-TV from WFXM-FM. When Fox acquired the rights to NFC football in 1994, WFXM-TV became the unofficial Macon home for the Atlanta Falcons.

UPN affiliation
In late 1993, Paramount Communications and Chris-Craft announced the launch of the United Paramount Network as a way to combat against the popularity of the Fox network. Initially, Paramount and Chris-Craft entered in a deal with KIVO Holdings to make WBGJ-TV as the charter affiliate of UPN in the Macon market. Then in December 1994, Fox announced plans to disaffiliate WFXM-TV citing the station's poor ratings as a reason. Fox would then affiliate a newly launched station in March 1, 1995, WPGA-TV as the new Fox affiliate. In response, Clear Channel entered in a deal with Paramount and Chris-Craft to make WFXM-TV the new affiliate of the UPN network when Fox ends it's affiliation with that station. On March 1, 1995, WPGA-TV signed on taking over the Fox affiliation with WFXM-TV becoming an affiliate of UPN. For the first two months of the network's existence, viewers in Macon had to watch WUPA-TV (now a CW O&O) in Atlanta or WWOR-TV in New York's super-station feed to watch UPN. On April 31st, 1997, the station entered a LMA deal with GOCOM owned WGXA in which WGXA can control WFXM's newscasts, program offerings, and locally produced shows. In 1999, the station was re-united with WFXM-FM, when Clear Channel acquired Jacor which in turn owned many former Nationwide radio stations. It also united WFXM-TV with WBGJ-AM and FM, after Clear Channel acquired AMFM in 2000 (the initial parent of those two stations).

In 2002, GOCOM acquired WFXM-TV from Clear Channel, this resulted in a duopoly with WGXA, it was and still is the only duopoly in the Macon market. Later in 2003, KIVO Holdings made a deal with GOCOM to operate WBGJ-TV, bringing the long-time rivalry of both stations to an end. As with most UPN affiliates, the station dropped many cartoons, sitcoms, classic shows in favor of talk shows, game shows, and court shows by late 2003.

Revert to independent
On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW Television Network, a joint venture between the two media companies that initially featured programs from its two predecessor networks as well as new series specifically produced for The CW. Subsequently, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a network operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television that was created to primarily to provide network programming to UPN and WB stations with which The CW decided against affiliating based on their local viewership standing in comparison to the outlet that the network ultimately chose, allowing these stations another option besides converting to independent stations.

WMAZ's parent company, Gannett announced to affiliate cable-only WBMN with The CW (via the CW Plus). On March 18, it was announced GOCOM had plans to either signup WFXM-TV as the MNTV affiliate, or relegate MyNetworkTV programs to a secondary time slot to WGXA. The latter option was chosen and WFXM reverted to an independent station on September 18. The new format for the station was a mix of syndicated programming and reruns of classic shows. Around this time, the station was rebranded from "UPN 33" to "Big 33", and stunted the switch to an independent station with a series of ads depicting an old TV set with the 2002 logo being smashed by a hammer, with the new 2006 logo (made out of stone) falling down to the ground.

By March 25, 2014 however, the format changed to a family-oriented format, being a nod to the station's origins. To reflect this the logo changed from the edgy logo used in 2006, to a more friendly logo. The station also started to rerun programs from Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel. The day before, Frontier Radio Management announced to sell WGXA and WFXM-TV to the Sinclair Broadcasting Group for $33 million, the sale was completed on September 3, 2014.

On October 16, 2018, in a move similar to Fox changing the on-air names of many MyNetworkTV affiliates to become addons to their main Fox O&Os, Sinclair Broadcasting changed the on-air name of WFXM-TV from "Big 33" to "WGXA+" and changed the station's format to a general entertainment format.