KUPX-TV
Ion Television station in Provo, Utah, United States
KUPX-TV (channel 16), branded as The Spot Utah 16, is an independent television station licensed to Provo, Utah, United States, serving Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Fox affiliate KSTU (channel 13). The two stations share studios on West Amelia Earhart Drive in the northwestern section of Salt Lake City; KUPX-TV's transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.
Though a construction permit was issued for channel 16 in 1985, the station was not completed for another 13 years. In that time, it was sold twice. While channel 16 was originally intended to be an affiliate of The WB, a 1998 swap with Paxson Communications Corporation saw Paxson trade channel 30 for channel 16; as a result, KUWB instead launched on channel 30 in April 1998, while channel 16 signed on to air infomercials and later the Pax/Ion network. Scripps acquired Ion Media in 2020; it moved Ion Television to a subchannel in 2023 and converted the main channel to an independent station which aired Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes hockey games in Utah. Since the 2024–25 season, it has been the broadcast home of the Utah Mammoth.
History
Construction phase
In 1984, three companies applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build channel 16 in Provo: Morro Rock Resources, San Joseph Broadcasting, and Skagit Valley Publishing Company. The parties avoided an FCC comparative hearing and instead settled: Skagit Valley was reimbursed for its expenses and withdrew, while San Joseph Broadcasting owner Jackson Dell Weaver and Morro Rock joined to form permittee Royal Television of Utah, with the latter owning 90 percent.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “KUPX-TV” is ion Television station in Provo, Utah, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through KUPX-TV, Television and station, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “ion Television station in Provo, Utah, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6339703. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1998, 2020 and 2023.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “KUPX-TV”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow KUPX-TV primary sources, KUPX-TV archive and KUPX-TV research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “KUPX-TV”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “KUPX-TV” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.