wrex shut down its analog signal, over vhf channel 13, at 12:30 p.m. on february 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to june 12, 2009). the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition uhf channel 54, which was among the high band uhf channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era vhf channel 13 for post-transition operations.