WPPX-TV (channel 61) is a television station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Philadelphia area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company and maintains offices on Main Street in Manayunk, with a transmitter in Roxborough, both sections of Philadelphia. Channel 61 in Wilmington signed on the air in 1986 as WTGI-TV, the first commercial television station in Delaware since 1958. It intended to operate as a general-market independent station but found itself with too little cash, as a result of nonexistent carriage on local cable systems, and was forced to switch to home shopping programming to generate revenue. From 1988 to 1995, the station operated as a multilingual ethnic broadcaster with Spanish-language programs from Telemundo as well as shows in Italian, Korean, and other languages. This ended when Paxson Communications Corporation, forerunner to Ion Media, acquired WTGI-TV and incorporated it into its Infomall TV network, broadcasting infomercials and paid programs; these stations formed the core of the Pax network, predecessor to Ion, in 1998. History Construction and launch Though channel 61 had been allocated to Wilmington since 1966, the channel attracted little interest for primarily economic reasons. As Wilmington is part of the Philadelphia television market, any station on the channel would have to compete with Philadelphia stations for viewers and program rights. Rollins, Inc., withdrew its application in 1971 and opted to enter the cable television business instead. However, as the 1970s ended, interest began to surge in the channel, and at least one group was conducting ascertainment studies in the community in February 1979. By September 1980, there were three applications on file for channel 61. Sixty-One Corporation proposed a subscription television outlet, HHL Broadcasting a commercial independent, and Delaware Valley Broadcasters initially pitched a station with Christian and family-oriented programming. The field had ballooned to seven by January 1982, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated the various applications for comparative hearing. Delaware Valley Broadcasters was awarded the construction permit in 1983 and initially selected the call sign WDVI. The group remained low-profile until July 1985, when it announced an October start date and some details of its proposed programming as a commercial independent. However, channel 61 would be beset by a year of delays and other changes. By September, the proposed call sign had changed to WBOT-TV (the "Best of