WFXT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WFXT | |
|---|---|
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| Boston, Massachusetts | |
| Branding | Fox 25 Fox 25 News |
| Channels | 25 (UHF) analog, 31 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | Fox (since 1986) |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Call letters meaning | W FoX Television |
| Former callsigns | WXNE-TV (1977-1987) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1977-1986) |
| Transmitter Power | 1950 kW/357 m(analog) 78 kW/330 m (digital) |
| Website | myfoxboston.com |
WFXT, channel 25, is an owned-and-operated station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, based in Boston, Massachusetts. This station covers the greater Boston area, with transmitter located in Newton and studios in Dedham. WFXT is one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada to subscribers of the Bell ExpressVu satellite service.
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[edit] History
Channel 25 signed on as WXNE-TV (for "Christ (X) in New England") on October 10, 1977. The station was originally owned by the Christian Broadcasting Network. The early format consisted of older syndicated reruns which were deemed to be "family-friendly" as well as a healthy dose of religious programming such as CBN's own 700 Club and programs of many other televangelists. Religious programming ran for about six hours a day during the week and all day on Sundays. Secular programming consisted of westerns, old movies, family type drama shows, old film shorts, and classic TV shows. By 1980, the religious programming was cut back on Sundays to 6-11 a.m. and 7 p.m. to midnight, and about four to five hours a day during the week.
The station began adding more cartoons, made-for-TV movies, and off network sitcoms in the early 1980s. At the same time, the station rebranded itself "Boston 25", in the conversion to being a true independent. While the station was only on cable systems in the Greater Boston market, WXNE was a solid third among independent stations, behind WSBK-TV and WLVI-TV, and sixth among commercial television stations.
In October 1986 WXNE became Boston's affiliate for the new Fox Broadcasting Company, a precursor to a sale of the station to Fox, which was finalized on January 19, 1987. Prior to the sale to Fox, WXNE did not air The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, Fox's inaugural program and a weeknight show which aired opposite Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on NBC. The outgoing CBN ownership believed that the program did not fit its strict content guidelines. Fox instead contracted a Boston radio station to carry the audio portion of the Late Show until its purchase of WXNE was completed. When it was, Fox renamed the station WFXT and made a few on-air changes. Besides adding the Late Show to the schedule, the 700 Club was demoted to a once-a-day airing, and the daily broadcast of a Roman Catholic Mass was moved to an earlier timeslot. Fox programmed aggressively, purchasing popular off network sitcoms and syndicated fare. In April 1987, the Sunday evening religious programming block was replaced with Fox programming.
In purchasing channel 25, Fox was granted a temporary waiver of a Federal Communications Commission rule prohibiting the common ownership of a television station and a newspaper in the same market. Fox's parent company, the News Corporation, also published the Boston Herald. In 1990, Fox placed WFXT in a trust company, and in 1991, sold the station outright to the Boston Celtics, who would maintain the network relationship while making WFXT the basketball team's flagship. The Celtics, however, didn't have the financial means to compete as a broadcaster. By 1992, WFXT was on many more cable systems in areas of New England where Fox programming was not available. But locally the station was a distant third behind WSBK and WLVI. For a while under the Celtics' watch, WFXT was in danger of losing its Fox affiliation.
However, one of the few productive moves (ratings-wise) WFXT made under the Celtics tenure was commissioning the young regional cable channel New England Cable News to produce a 10PM newscast for them, which launched in early 1993. The FOX25 News at Ten was a half-hour newscast initially anchored by NECN's Heather Kahn, with Tim Kelley on weather. Kahn lasted a year and a half in this role before transferring to WCVB-TV, where she became a well-known member of their NewsCenter 5 team. NECN's Lila Orbach replaced Kahn on the WFXT newscast, and went with the 10PM news when it moved to WSBK in October 1995, as it became UPN 38 Prime News.
The News Corporation sold the Boston Herald in 1994, opening the door for its Fox subsidiary to purchase WFXT for a second time, in mid-1995. Though the network was pushing for more news-intensive formats for its stations, channel 25 moved slowly in building its own news department. After the station did not renew its contract with New England Cable News, there were no newscasts on WFXT from 1995 to 1996, save for national Fox News Updates aired during the day. During this time, WFXT was the second-to-last Fox owned-and-operated station left without any local news, as well as the last such station running a morning kids block. The station did not broadcast its own primetime 10 p.m. newscast until September 1996, and from that point established its news operation ever so gradually. WFXT was the television flagship of the Boston Red Sox for the baseball team's 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons. In 2002, WFXT actually carried more Red Sox games than NESN, the team-owned regional sports network. Also that season, FOX 25 briefly experimented with a 4:30 pm newscast with Jodi Applegate; by the fall of 2002 this became a half-hour 5pm newscast. In 2003, the station added a morning talk/news/entertainment block and the 5pm news was expanded to an hour.
Today, channel 25 runs about 30 hours a week of local news along with first-run syndicated talk, reality, and court shows. The station also airs some off-network sitcoms. WFXT's 10:00 p.m. news is currently the #1 late newscast in Boston.
The station launched a new website based on FTSG's Internet division's new My Fox interface as of May 23, 2006, which will become standard on all Fox owned-and-operated station station sites in the next few months. However, the new site did not become the station's official website until July 12, 2006. WFXT began using new music and graphics and the new Fox 25 logo in all newscasts on September 3, 2006.
At one point, the station was "tentatively planning" to air News Corporation-owned and Fox sister network MyNetworkTV from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on weekdays if the new network could not find an affiliate in the Boston market. On July 21, 2006, Derry, New Hampshire-based WZMY-TV was announced as Boston's affiliate of MyNetworkTV, which began operations on September 5, 2006. Although the MyNetworkTV programs do not air on WFXT, the station has promoted programming for the network during its newscasts. Cast members from MyNetworkTV have been interviewed by WFXT's anchors and viewers are encouraged to tune in to WZMY to see the primetime programs.
[edit] Trivia
WFXT's newscasts and reports were commonly seen in a fictional sense on David E. Kelley's Boston-set shows Ally McBeal, Boston Public, and The Practice which were both produced by Fox division Twentieth Television. This was despite The Practice airing on ABC.
WFXT is the news coverer in the 2006 Film Deck the Halls
[edit] Newscasts
The station's main studios are located in Dedham, Massachusetts, but operates a studio on Beacon Hill near the state house in downtown Boston. WFXT currently has three newscasts Monday through Friday, one on Saturdays, and two on Sundays. The weekday morning newscast premiered on September 22, 2003 as a three-hour newscast. As of 2006, it is now four hours long. The station operates a helicopter called SKY FOX.
[edit] Weekdays
- Fox 25 Morning News - 5:00-9:00 a.m.
- Fox 25 News at 5 - 5:00-5:30 p.m.
- Fox 25 News at 5:30 - 5:30-6:00 p.m.
- Fox 25 News at 10 - 10:00-11:00 p.m.
[edit] Saturdays
- Fox 25 News at 10 - 10:00-11:00 p.m.
[edit] Sundays
- Fox 25 Morning News Sunday - 9:00-10:00 a.m.
- Fox 25 News at 10 - 10:00-11:00 p.m.
[edit] Staff
[edit] On-Air Talent
- Gene Lavanchy, Weekday Morning Co-Anchor
- Kim Carrigan, Weekday Morning Co-Anchor
- Doug "VB" Goudie, Weekday Morning Commentator
- Anqunette Jamison, Weekday Morning News Reader
- Maria Stephanos, Weeknight Co-Anchor at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, and 10 PM
- David Wade, Weeknight Co-Anchor at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, and 10 PM
- Bianca de la Garza, Weekend Anchor and General Assignment Reporter
- Mark Ockerbloom, Weekend Anchor and General Assignment Reporter
- Kevin Lemanowicz, Chief Meteorologist
- Cindy Fitzgibbon, Weekday Morning Meteorologist
- A.J. Burnett, Weekend Meteorologist and General Assignment Reporter
- Jim Armstrong, General Assignment Reporter
- Joe Battenfeld, Political Reporter
- Mike Beaudet, Investigative Reporter
- Ted Daniel, Reporter
- Cara Jones, Reporter
- Shirley Chan, Reporter
- Dan Jaehnig, General Assignment Reporter
- Doug Meehan, Weekday Morning SKY FOX Traffic Reporter
- John Monahan, Reporter
- Debbi Rodman, Reporter
- Kimberly Bookman, Reporter
- Sharman Sacchetti, Reporter
- Alison Bologna , Reporter
- Martin Morenz, Reporter
- Bob Ward, Reporter and host of New England's Unsolved
- Butch Stearns, Sports Director
- Ryan Asselta, Sports Reporter
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Local television stations |
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| Local digital television channels |
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| Local and regional cable television channels CN8 - NECN 6 - NESN - FSN New England - CatholicTV - TV3 Medford - CKSH 9 (SRC, Sherbrooke) |
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WMUR 9 (ABC) - WENH 11 / WLED 49 / WEKW 52 (PBS / NHPTV) - WPXG 21 (ION) - |
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| Boston stations serving / available in Southern New Hampshire | ||
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WGBH 2 (PBS) - WBZ 4 (CBS) - WHDH 7 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) - |
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| Defunct television channels | ||
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WHED 15 / WEDB 40 (PBS / NHPTV) - WNHT 21 (Ind / CBS) - WXPO 50 (Ind) |
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| Cable television stations | ||
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NECN - NESN - CKSH (SRC, Sherbrooke) |
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