WPXS (channel 13) is a religious television station licensed to Mount Vernon, Illinois, United States, serving the St. Louis area. The station is owned and operated by the Daystar Television Network. WPXS' transmitter is located on Five Forks Road near New Athens, Illinois. Although Mount Vernon is part of the Paducah, Kentucky–Cape Girardeau, Missouri–Harrisburg, Illinois television market, WPXS is assigned by Nielsen to the larger St. Louis market.
History
Southern Illinois's independent
Channel 13 at Mount Vernon—the last VHF television allocation in southern Illinois, added in 1970 after a years-long fight that depleted the resources of the aspiring station owners—emerged as a bone of contention when the Southern Illinois Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of Evans Broadcasting, was granted a construction permit in 1979. Southern Illinois Broadcasting had been one of three competing applicants for the channel, alongside a group of local businessmen and Bill Varecha, owner of Murphysboro radio station WTAO, under the name Pyramid Broadcasting Corporation. Evans fueled a prolonged legal fight that prompted Varecha to reach a settlement agreement. However, opposition arose because Evans Broadcasting owned St. Louis independent station