WFXT

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WFXT
Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	Fox 25
Channels	25 (UHF) analog, 31 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox (since 1986)
Owner	Fox Television Stations Group
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.

Contents 1 History 2 Trivia 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Saturdays 3.3 Sundays 4 Staff 4.1 On-Air Talent 5 References 6 External links

[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. 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.

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. 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 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 News" logo in all newscasts on September 3, 2006.

At one point, the station was "tentatively planning" to air News Corp.-owned and FOX sister network MyNetworkTV from 1-3 PM weekdays if the new network could not find an affiliate in Boston. Independent stations WZMY and WMFP were both being considered. [1] On July 21, 2006, WZMY announced to their e-mailing list and on their website that they would become Boston's affiliate of MyNetworkTV.

[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 Flim 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.

[edit] Weekdays

• FOX 25 Morning News (5-9:00 AM)
• FOX 25 News at 5 (5-5:30 PM)
• FOX 25 News at 5:30 (5:30-6 PM)
• FOX 25 News at 10 (10-11 PM)

[edit] Saturdays

• FOX 25 News at 10 (10-11 PM)

[edit] Sundays

• FOX 25 Morning News Sunday (9-10 AM)
• FOX 25 News at 10 (10-11 PM)

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

[edit] References

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

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• WFXT on TV-Ark
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WFXT