It is owned by Hoffman Communications, which maintains a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Cox Media Group, owner of Fox and Telemundo affiliate WFOX-TV (channel 30), for the provision of certain services.

The two stations share studios on Central Parkway; WJAX-TV's transmitter is located on Hogan Road, both in Jacksonville's Southside section.

Further inspired by such a generous donation, Thigpenn contacted his friend Russell Linenkohl, president of the local Full Gospel Businessmen's Association.

The group decided to avoid the time and expense of litigating a challenge for that allotment and opted to file for a license to operate a station on channel 47.

He subsequently headed up the Community Ascertainment requirement as one of several exhibits needed by the FCC as part of the license application process.

While Christian Television of Jacksonville received the construction permit and eventual license from the FCC, it did not garner the expected financial donations from the community to sustain its operating costs.

After all the planning and financing, the station officially signed on the air on August 1, 1980, as WXAO-TV (standing for the Greek letters for "Christ, the Alpha and Omega").

[8] Since WTEV was also included in the deal, this would have violated FCC rules preventing common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market as defined by total-day ratings.

After the group deal closed on March 14, 2008, Newport had originally planned to sell off WAWS to another company while retaining ownership of WTEV.

However in May 2008, it agreed to sell the license assets of WTEV and five other Newport stations to High Plains Broadcasting due to ownership conflicts in the affected markets; the purchase was finalized on September 15 of that year.

On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of WAWS and WTEV-TV to Cox Media Group, in a four-station deal that also involved the Tulsa, Oklahoma sister duopoly of KOKI-TV and KMYT-TV.

[12][13] On August 26, 2014, Cox announced their intention to change WTEV's call letters to WJAX-TV, contingent on FCC approval, through a request made in July.

In an email to The Florida Times-Union, general manager Jim Zerwekh stated that the change would better associate the station with Jacksonville.

[18] In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting's stations (including the JSA with WJAX-TV).

[22] Since its 2002 affiliation switch to CBS, then-WTEV-TV became the official broadcaster of most Jacksonville Jaguars regular-season games due to the network's contract involving AFC teams.

's broadcast of the Jaguars game in London against the Buffalo Bills in October 2015, per NFL rules requiring simulcasting on over-the-air stations in the markets of the participating teams.

The stations use Doppler radar data from the National Weather Service Forecast Office near Jacksonville International Airport.

In the late 1990s, WAWS began producing a half-hour early evening newscast for WTEV titled UPN 47 News at 6:30, which aired Monday through Fridays; the 6:30 broadcast was canceled in June 2002, a couple of weeks prior to the affiliation switch.

WAWS would later break away from the unified brand and introduce its own separate graphics and music package, and logo based on those originated in the mid-2000s on Fox's owned-and-operated stations on September 19, 2010.

[24] The layoffs drew criticism from Jacksonville city council president Bill Guilford stating that Cox Media Group "exercised bad judgment" in cutting the five anchors.