In 1992, the stations were both sold to Robert Rich, who added more paid programming to the channels. WAYK became WIRB, and WAYQ became WNTO. WIRB continued as a low budget independent station but also aired some NBC programs that were not cleared by WESH most notably Leeza and California Dreams. WIRB would broadcast Florida Marlins baseball, Florida Panthers hockey, and Tampa Bay Lightning hockey to Central Florida from around 1993–1996. In 1996, Christian Television Network would buy WIRB while Florida Media Broadcasters would buy WNTO. WIRB then ran religious shows in the morning, infomercials in the afternoon and evening, and Christian praise and worship music on overnights in addition to the NBC programs not cleared by WESH.
WOPX
In January 1998, Paxson bought the station from CTN and renamed it WOPX and continued with the same format until August 31, 1998. At that point, WOPX took the Pax TV affiliation along with other stations owned by Paxson. Pax TV introduced family entertainment like dramas, movies, reality shows aimed at the family, game shows and other programming. Originally, Pax TV ran from noon to midnight, but has since reduced its schedule several times. At one point, it ran from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and there are no original programs on the network, which has been renamed Ion Television. WOPX still fills the rest of its schedule with infomercials and religious shows. WOPX of recent has also carried Tampa Bay Rays baseball and Tampa Bay Lightning hockey from Ion's Tampa affiliate and produced by Fox Sports. On September 4, 2004, WOPX aired the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from California Speedway due to local NBC affiliate WESH's coverage of Hurricane Francis. Until the summer of 2005, WOPX had a JSA with WESH, which, during that time, WOPX aired a rebroadcast of WESH's 6 p.m. newscast at 7 p.m.. In July 2005, Paxson dissolved all relationships with other stations, mostly NBC stations—at that time, WESH's news repeats on WOPX ended. On December 15, 2014, Ion reached a deal to donate WOPX-TV's low-power repeater in Daytona Beach, WPXB-LD, to Word of God Fellowship, parent company of the Daystar network.
Digital television
Analog-to-digital conversion
WOPX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 48. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
