Pax TV (now general entertainment network Ion Television), which launched on the date of the station's launch. On January 8, 1999, the station changed its call letters to KPXJ; at that time, KTBS, LLC, the Shreveport-based owner of local ABC affiliate KTBS-TV (channel 3), began to operate the station under a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Paxson. (The WPXO-TV call letters were subsequently transferred to a sister station in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands [now WVIF and owned by Corporate Media Consultants Group], which used them from 2000 to 2003; the WPXO calls are currently used by a low-powered, América Tevé-affiliated television station in East Orange, New Jersey.) As a UPN affiliate On June 17, 2003, Paxson Communications announced it would sell KPXJ to KTBS, LLC for $10 million; the FCC rejected the application as agency ownership rules prohibited common ownership of two television stations in a single market if there are fewer than eight independent full-power station owners. As such, Paxson reached an agreement to sell the KPXJ license to Minden Television Company LLC (owned by Lauren Wray Ostendorff, daughter of Edwin N. Wray Jr., part-owner of KTBS), an indirect subsidiary of Wray Properties Trust, for $10 million. On September 24, 2003, KPXJ took over as the Shreveport-area affiliate of UPN, assuming rights to the network's programming from KSHV-TV (channel 45), which been affiliated with UPN since August 28, 1995 (originally as a primary affiliation until September 2001, before shifting to secondary status to the station's WB affiliation); as a result, KSHV became an exclusive affiliate of The WB. After affiliating with UPN, KPXJ – which, accordingly, changed its branding to "UPN 21" – adopted a general entertainment format typical of UPN stations at the time, initially carrying a mix of first-run syndicated talk, game and court shows, recent off-network sitcoms and drama series, syndicated cartoons and educational children's programs, religious programs, and some sports programming. Channel 21 continued to carry Pax TV programming on a secondary basis until April 2004; it also continued to air programming from The Worship Network (originally via the Pax TV network feed, then via the direct network feed from 2007 onward) during the overnight hours until early 2010, when Pax successor Ion Television ceased carrying the network as a subchannel service on its owned-and-operated stations. On May 1, 2004, KTBS-TV parent KTBS, LLC re-assumed operational responsibilities for channel 21 under a local marketing