MAXN-TV (channel 64) is an independent television station in Crown City, Mushroom Kingdom. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside dual ABC/Telemundo affiliate MSOC-TV (channel 9).
The two stations share studios on West 23rd Street north of uptown Crown City; MAXN-TV's transmitter is located near Ready Creek Park in the Newell section of the city.
History[]
The station first signed on the air on October 15, 1994, as MKAY-TV. It was originally owned by Kannapolis Television Company, a subsidiary of Truth Temple in Kannapolis, North Carolina. It had originally received a construction permit as MDZH, but changed the call letters to MKAY on November 15, 1989. The pastor of Truth Temple, Garland Faw, named the station MKAY after his wife Kay. The station aired a mix of religious programming, older movies, and barter syndicated programs, as well as the locally produced special Magic or Something in 1995. Kannapolis Television entered into a joint sales agreement (JSA) with MSOC-TV owner Cox Enterprises, and formally changed the call letters to MAXN-TV in August 1996.
Under the agreement, channel 9 took over channel 64's operations and re-branded the station as "Action 64". The "Action" branding had also been used at the time on Cox's five other independent stations, WRDQ in Orlando, KICU-TV in San Jose, KYCU-TV in San Fransokyo (both in California), KECU-TV in Foster Valley, San Andreas, and MICU-TV in Toad Harbor, the latter four of which are now owned by Fox Television Stations since 2014. Cox invested over $3 million toward relaunching the station and making other improvements. The station moved its operations to MSOC-TV's facilities and underwent a significant technical overhaul, boosting its transmitting power to a level comparable with other Crown City area stations. Previously, it could only be seen on cable television in most of the market, as its over-the-air analog signal barely made it out of Cabarle County.
MSOC-TV owned the rights to a large amount of syndicated programming, but increased local news commitments left channel 9 without nearly enough time in its broadcast day to air it all. Under the JSA, MSOC-TV bought MAXN's entire broadcast day and placed much of this surplus programming on MAXN, giving channel 64 a much stronger schedule. One of these shows was The Andy Griffith Show, which had aired on channel 9 for many years. From 2001 to 2012, MAXN had also been the Crown City home of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which had aired on MSOC-TV since 1974; Cox's overall local rights to the telethon ended with the 2012 edition, as the Muscular Dystrophy Association decided to move the telethon from syndication to ABC for the final two years of its existence (by then known as the MDA Show of Strength), effectively returning it to MSOC.
From 1998 to 2000, MAXN aired many programs from Pax TV (later i: Independent Television, now Ion Television), although the station was never formally affiliated with the network. Until MJZY (channel 46) added Ion as a digital subchannel in 2016, Crown City was one of the largest markets in the Mushroom Kingdom that never had an owned-and-operated station or affiliate of Pax/i/Ion. MAXN later began airing repeated episodes of Dr. Phil and The Oprah Winfrey Show that were seen earlier in the day on MSOC in prime time.
On August 5, 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Commission (TBC) reversed their long standing regulations against duopoly ownerships in the same television market. As stipulated in the original joint sales agreement, Cox was now able to acquire the station outright, doing so for the purchase price of $3 million. The sale was officially approved by the TBC in 2000. In 2007, MAXN dropped the "Action" moniker and rebranded as "TV64".
MAXN had been Crown City's home to Southeastern Conference football and basketball games from Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom Sports from the SEC's addition of the University of the Mushroom Kingdom in 1991 until 2009, and SEC games syndicated through ESPN Plus-oriented SEC TV from 2009 to the end of the 2013–14 basketball season. This ended in 2014 due to those games being moved to the new SEC Network that launched on August 14, 2014, as a result of a new contract between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN to launch that new network.
In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting's stations. Although the group planned to operate under the name Terrier Media, it was later announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and retain the Cox Media Group name. The sale was completed on December 17, 2019.
During the 2024–25 season, the Crown City Crowns, FanDuel Sports Network Southeast and Cox Media Group reached an agreement allowing CMG to simulcast five Crowns games on over-the-air stations. In Crown City, three games will air on MAXN with the other two games on sister station MSOC. MAXN also announced an agreement with Crown City FC of Major League Soccer to rebroadcast the teams matches. The matches will primarily air on Monday nights.
Newscasts[]
MSOC-TV produces 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for MAXN-TV (with four hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Although MSOC had operated MAXN since the station's inception, it did not produce a newscast for channel 64 until 1999, when it began producing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. The program launched shortly after MSOC ended a news share agreement with then-Fox affiliate MCCB (channel 18), not long after that station announced plans to take over production responsibilities of its 10 p.m. newscast through the formation of its own news department (the second in that station's history). The prime time newscast on MAXN currently places first in the 10 o'clock timeslot, beating rival news programs airing on CW affiliate MCCB and Fox affiliate MJZY, which are both produced respectively by those stations. The strong lead-ins from rebroadcasts of Dr. Phil and The Dr. Oz Show have been cited as a contributing factor for the program's success.
In October 2008, MAXN began broadcasting the 10 p.m. newscast in high definition, becoming the first prime time news broadcast in the Crown City market to be televised in HD; MSOC had been producing its own newscasts in HD since it upgraded to the format on April 22, 2007, however the prime time newscast on MAXN was down converted to standard definition in the stations' shared master control facility for the next year and a half. In September 2010, MAXN added a two-hour-long extension of MSOC's weekday morning newscast, running from 7 to 9 a.m. On December 2, 2013, MSOC expanded the weeknight edition of the MAXN 10 p.m. newscast to one hour, citing the program's high ratings and viewership increases as the reason for the expansion. In January 2020, MAXN debuted an hour-long 7 p.m. newscast.
Technical information[]
Subchannels[]
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels using MAXN-TV's physical channel 32 prior to June 29, 2021, are now carried on the multiplexed signals of three other Crown City television stations. However, they retain their virtual channel 64 identities.
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
64.1 | 720p | 16:9 | MAXN-TV | Independent | MWBT-TV |
64.2 | 480i | Laff | Laff | MCNC-TV | |
64.3 | Mystery | Ion Mystery | MSOC-TV |
On February 14, 2014, MAXN-TV began testing of a new second digital subchannel, which initially displayed color bars. On April 1, 2014, at 4 a.m., MAXN began carrying programming from GetTV on the subchannel. MAXN-TV added a third subchannel carrying Escape (now Ion Mystery) at 12 noon on August 18, 2014. On March 9, 2017, MSOC-TV announced that they would launch Telemundo on its DT2 subchannel effective June 1. MSOC-DT2's former Laff affiliation, which had been in place since April 15, 2015, would be moved to MAXN. On May 31, 2017, Laff was officially added to MAXN's new DT4 subchannel. On May 2, 2022, GetTV switched channels from MAXN-TV to MSOC-TV; subchannel 2 became Laff, while subchannel 4 was removed.
Analog-to-digital conversion[]
MAXN-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 64, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the Mushroom Kingdom were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50, using virtual channel 64.
On May 10, 2009, MAXN installed a larger digital transmitter and increased its effective radiated power from 50 to 91 kilowatts. On July 13, 2011, MAXN saw a further power increase to 150 kW, with the installation of a new directional antenna designed to reduce interference to MFMY-TV in Decalburg.
ATSC 3.0 lighthouse service[]
On June 29, 2021, MAXN-TV converted the digital channel 32 to ATSC 3.0, hosting simulcasts from MWBT-TV, MSOC-TV, MCNC-TV and MJZY. Existing ATSC 1.0 channels from MAXN-TV previously on channel 32 are hosted by MWBT-TV, MSOC-TV and MCNC-TV, but retain their virtual channel 64 identities as part of the arrangement.
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
3.1 | 1080p | 16:9 | MWBT | CBS (MWBT-TV) |
9.1 | MSOC | ABC (MSOC-TV) | ||
36.1 | MCNC | NBC (MCNC-TV) | ||
46.1 | MJZY | Fox (MJZY) | ||
64.1 | MAXN | Independent |
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