From the Overmyer-built transmitter facilities and a studio site at 801 West Eighth Street in Cincinnati, WXIX-TV debuted on the afternoon of August 1, 1968. Cincinnati's first commercial independent station featured a schedule consisting primarily of movies, sports, and syndicated programs, though it also produced a local daytime children's program hosted by puppeteer Larry Smith.
1970–1972[]
LOGO MISSING
In March 1971, the company suspended operations at its stations in Atlanta and San Francisco, and channel 19 had cut back its broadcast day in the second half of 1970. WXIX-TV came close to joining them in silence. On August 5, 1971, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Communications had asked the FCC for permission to take channel 19 and WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh off the air. The two stations, however, got a reprieve because they had instead attracted potential buyers.
In 1982, Metromedia entered into an agreement to buy WFLD-TV in Chicago. This $136 million deal required it to divest of one of its two UHF stations, WXIX or KRIV in Houston, under the ownership limits of the day that allowed one company to own as many as five VHF and two additional UHF television stations. Metromedia decided to sell WXIX, which the station was in the smallest market of any in which the firm owned TV properties, and it also sold WTCN-TV in Minneapolis (which was sold to Gannett, predecessor of present owner Tegna) to finance the purchase. The buyer was Cleveland-based Malrite Communications Group. The $45 million sale was approved by the FCC in December 1983.
The station moved into what was renamed "19 Broadcast Plaza" in December 1995; at the same time, it dropped its "19XIX" moniker used for a decade and became known as "Fox 19".
In 1998, Raycom Media purchased Malrite Communications and its five stations, three of them in Ohio. Under Raycom, the station made a series of news expansions and analyzed leaving 19 Broadcast Plaza for a larger building that could be owned rather than leased.