A construction permit for a new television station on analog channel 33 in Utica was granted in 1982 and issued the call letters WTUV; construction began in the spring of 1983. The new station attempted to affiliate with CBS, but the network refused, citing that the new station would not attract new viewers, and that the area was sufficiently covered by Syracuse-based WTVH. A petition filed by WTUV's owner, Mohawk Valley Broadcasting, against both the network and WTVH was rejected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1984. (Utica would not receive a local CBS affiliate until November 22, 2015 when rival NBC affiliate WKTV, channel 2, affiliated its second digital subchannel with the network.) WTUV finally signed-on October 12, 1986 as an affiliate of the then-new Fox network, and has been with Fox ever since. However, as with other Fox affiliates, WTUV considered itself an independent station until Fox began its prime-time schedule in April 1987. The station adopted the current call sign WFXV on February 1, 1990 in reference to the network. The call letters can also be interpreted as FoX Vtica ("U"tica) since the "V" looks like "U". Channel 33's studios were originally located on Greenfield Road in Rome.