Some details that I remember about the launch of the, now defunct, Pax TV network back in 1998

[Route66Fan]

Ever since I was little, I've had an interest in Over-the-Air TV (TV station operations & such.) & would pay as much attention as I could, at the time, to stuff like network affiliation switches & broadcast TV history. I remember hearing, around 1996, that a religious independent TV station, in my area (KYFC-TV, Ch. 50 in Kansas City, MO.), was being sold to Paxson Communications & having it's callsign changed to KINB (It was also picking up Paxson's "InfoMall", later named InTV, network.). Later, on November 19, 1997, Lowell "Bud" Paxson (Owner of Paxson Communications.) announced the creation of "PAX NET". Later in early 1998, KINB changed it's callsign to KPXE-TV, in preparation for the August 31, 1998 launch of the new network. At around that same time, in an afternoon, I remember flipping around through the channels & coming across KPXE-TV & seeing them airing a 30min informercial about the new, then upcoming network, still being referred to as PAX NET. The informercial had an interview with Lowell "Bud" Paxson & was done in a "Charlie Rose" style (The studio background was dark.), also the show featured a PAX NET logo, in the bottom right corner that was, I think, in the Times New Roman font with the "PAX" on the top & the "NET" on the bottom, with an outline of a dove above the word PAX (One thing, that I didn't remember, that is mentioned on the Wikipedia page for Ion Television, PAX TV's predecessor, is that actor Richard Thomas was the host of the informercial.). The logo & network name would change to PAX TV (Making the "PAX NET" logo seen in the informercial a prototype.) shortly before the August 31, 1998 launch. I've tried searching for this informercial online & can't find it. I think that is because it may have only aired on the TV stations that were going to carry PAX TV & because most of those TV stations were low rated UHF TV stations, not many saw the informercial let alone recorded it. Sorry for the long post. I was just wondering if anyone else, on here, may have seen the informercial back then & or has a copy of it? I think that it may be lost media. I would like to see it again.
Clipping from a December 1997 issue of the Palm Beach Post that shows the original "PAX NET" logo seen during the informercial:

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I knew PAX Network originally had their affiliates located on religious/Informercial stations like KPXN Los Angeles and KKPX San Jose/San Francisco this network is now known as Ion Television by EW Scripps and is carrying subchannels for the Scripps owned stations.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I can remember in the late 90's and early 2000's that PAX would carry Contemporary Christian music programming on Friday and Saturday late nights, but later they dropped it and went more dollar a holler with their Christian programming, including people like Gens Scott and later his wife, until becoming i and later Ion.

 

[ftballfan]

I knew PAX Network originally had their affiliates located on religious/Informercial stations like KPXN Los Angeles and KKPX San Jose/San Francisco this network is now known as Ion Television by EW Scripps and is carrying subchannels for the Scripps owned stations.

And many of them got very low if any ratings. A notable exception was WZPX in Grand Rapids/Lansing, which saw its low ratings rise a little bit after picking up a secondary WB affiliation (day-behind) after WGN dropped the WB from its Superstation feed. Lansing had a WB 100+ affiliate while Grand Rapids never had a full-time WB affiliate despite being a top 40 market at that time

 

[CommunicationsMajor]

I can remember in the late 90's and early 2000's that PAX would carry Contemporary Christian music programming on Friday and Saturday late nights, but later they dropped it and went more dollar a holler with their Christian programming, including people like Gens Scott and later his wife, until becoming i and later Ion.

I used to watch those music videos they used to play some secular stuff like Weezer and Jimmy Eat World.

 

[RFCCRadioAudio]

The one thing I remember from launch week was the E/I block...Cloud Nine was a good concept, but they should've gotten some better shows for that block. The Get-Along Gang? Are you kidding me? Couldn't find any Flying House or Superbook reruns lying around?

 

[Jman8606]

Remember, the short-lived game show The Reel to Reel Picture Show filmed from Universal Orlando where I was living at the time and it was the original home of Woman's Day the TV show before it moved to TNN and reruns of Eight is Enough and The Hogan Family

 

[Route66Fan]

The one thing I remember from launch week was the E/I block...Cloud Nine was a good concept, but they should've gotten some better shows for that block. The Get-Along Gang? Are you kidding me? Couldn't find any Flying House or Superbook reruns lying around?

One of the writers on the Get Along Gang (Mark Evanier) went on to be the head writer on Garfield & Friends. He has said that he hated working on the Get Along Gang & that the characters of the Buddy Bears, on Garfield & Friends, were parodies of the characters from the previous show & other shows like it that were very preachy.

 

[CommunicationsMajor]

The one thing I remember from launch week was the E/I block...Cloud Nine was a good concept, but they should've gotten some better shows for that block. The Get-Along Gang? Are you kidding me? Couldn't find any Flying House or Superbook reruns lying around?

The block was produced by Dic so they showed Dic cartoons.

 

[Gregg.]

May I suggest to Route 66 Fan that he uses paragraphs. I don't think I'm alone to see a post with 20 continuous lines of type and, as much as the topic may interest me, seems like trying to eat an elephant one bite at a time.

 

[Route66Fan]

May I suggest to Route 66 Fan that he uses paragraphs. I don't think I'm alone to see a post with 20 continuous lines of type and, as much as the topic may interest me, seems like trying to eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Sorry about that. Thanks for the suggestion. I guess that I was in a little bit of a hurry when I typed that out.