WPXA-TV (channel 14) is a television station licensed to Rome, Georgia, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Atlanta area. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and maintains offices on North Cobb Parkway (US 41) in Marietta; its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, near the Cherokee–Bartow county line. Despite Rome being WPXA-TV's city of license, the station maintains no physical presence there. The station's broadcast range extends into parts of Alabama and Chattanooga, Tennessee and even the southwest corner of North Carolina. However, terrain shielding not accounted for in radio propagation models prevents this from regularly occurring, due to the north Georgia mountains. History The station was issued a construction permit in 1984 on Channel 14 as WZGA, but never made it to air. The station went on-air February 29, 1988 as WAWA, with studios on Shorter Avenue in Rome and transmitter on nearby Mount Alto. The station was owned by Sudbrink Broadcasting of West Palm Beach, Florida, and had a general entertainment format of low-budget shows, public domain movies, and local newscasts. It also aired several ABC, CBS and NBC shows that WSB-TV (channel 2), WAGA-TV (channel 5) and WXIA-TV (channel 11) turned down. In 1990, the station changed its calls to WTLK-TV and moved its studios to Marietta and transmitter to Bear Mountain (west of Canton). Rebranding as "Talk TV", it featured national talk shows like Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael. It also aired local shows (with TV studio audiences) with WSB's Neal Boortz, former Miss America Suzette Charles, Hosea Williams, Michael Young, WVEE's Mike Roberts, WGST's Brian Wilson and others, while also continuing to air some preempted network programs. However, the station never took off in metro Atlanta during the days before the must-carry rules for cable systems. The other independent on the fringe of the market, Athens-licensed WNGM-TV (channel 34, now WUVG), had the same problem. Later in the 1990s, WTLK ran blocks of country music videos along with infomercials. In 1996, the station was sold to Paxson Communications. The must-carry rules for cable systems took effect about the same time. WTLK, WNGM and WATC would be added to most metro cable systems immediately. The station's format consisted of infomercials by day and the Worship Network at night. Pax TV was launched in 1998 and WTLK became WPXA as a charter