WFXT

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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. The station also operates a studio on Beacon Hill in downtown Boston. WFXT is one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada to subscribers of the Bell ExpressVu satellite service.

This station could become a secondary affiliate to My Network TV, owned by the same company, because Boston does not yet have an affiliate for the network, which is scheduled to launch on September 5, 2006.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

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. 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, News Corp., 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.

In 1995 Fox purchased WFXT for a second time. (News Corp. had sold the Boston Herald in the previous year.) Though the network was pushing for more news-intensive formats for its stations, channel 25 moved slowly in building its own news department. The station did not broadcast its own primetime 10 p.m. newscast until 1996 (however, for a brief period during Celtics ownership the station aired a newscast produced by New England Cable News). 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. 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. By 2003, the station added a morning talk/news/entertainment block along with an evening 5-6 (weekdays only) newscast.

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 MyFox interface as of May 23, 2006, which will become standard on all Fox O&O station sites in the next few months. However, the new site did not become the station's official website until July 12, 2006.

The station is "tentatively planning" to air News Corp.-owned My Network TV from 1 p.m.-3 p.m weekdays if the new network cannot find an affiliate in Boston, though WZMY and WMFP (which Scripps-Howard will put up for sale after Shop at Home becomes defunct) are being considered. [link] At present, Boston is the largest market without a My Network TV affiliate.

Logos

Image:WXNE70s.jpg|WXNE logo from 1977 to around 1983 Image:Boston25.jpg|WXNE branding logo 1983-84 Image:WFXT80s.jpg|WFXT logo from 1987 to 1993 Image:WFXT90s.jpg|WFXT logo from 1993 to 1996 Image:WFXT logo 97-2003.gif|WFXT logo from 1997 to 2001 Image:WFXT.gif|Current WFXT logo, used since 2001 Image:Fox25news.png|Fox 25 News logo to be used when WFXT adopts new look, based on O&O logo redesigns

Trivia

WFXT's newscasts and reports were commonly seen in a fictional sense on David E. Kelley's Boston-set shows Ally McBeal and The Practice, which were both produced by Fox division Twentieth Television. This was despite The Practice airing on ABC.

Newscasts

WFXT currently has three newscasts Monday through Friday, one on Saturdays, and two on Sundays.

Weekdays

• Fox 25 Morning News - 5:00 to 9:00 a.m., anchored by Gene Lavanchy and Kim Carrigan (Premiered on September 22, 2003).
• Fox 25 News at 5 - 5:00 to 6:00 p.m..
• Fox 25 News at Ten - 10:00 to 11:00 p.m., anchored by David Wade and Maria Stephanos.

Saturday

• Fox 25 News at Ten - 10:00 to 11:00 p.m., anchored by Bianca de la Garza and Dan Jaehnig.

Sundays

• Fox 25 News Sunday - 9:00 to 10:00 a.m..
• Fox 25 News at Ten - 10:00 to 11:00 p.m., anchored by Maria Stephanos and David Wade.

Staff

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
• Dan Jaehnig, 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
• Glenn Jones, Reporter
• Doug Meehan, Weekday Morning Traffic Reporter
• John Monahan, Reporter
• Debbi Rodman, Reporter
• Susan Tran, Reporter
• Bob Ward, Reporter and host of New England's Unsolved
• Butch Stearns, Sports Director
• Mark Ockerbloom, Sports

References

• [WFXT-TV (3-27-2005). The Boston TV Dial].

External links

• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WFXT]

 

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