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WFXT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WFXT | |
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| Boston, Massachusetts | |
| Branding | Fox 25 (general) Fox 25 News (newscasts) |
| Channels | Analog: 25 (UHF) Digital: 31 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations |
| Founded | October 10, 1977 |
| Call letters meaning | 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, located 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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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 Boston radio station WMRE (now WWZN) 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 affiliation while making WFXT the basketball team's flagship. The Celtics, however, did not 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. Locally, however, 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.
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. Although the network was pushing for more news-intensive formats for its stations, channel 25 moved slowly in building its own news department. After outsourcing news programs from New England Cable News (see below), the station did not produce its own primetime 10:00 p.m. newscast until September 1996. 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. WFXT was the television flagship of the Boston Red Sox for the baseball team's 2000 through 2002 seasons.
Today, channel 25 runs about 30 hours a week of local news along with first-run syndicated programs. The station also airs some off-network sitcoms. WFXT says its 10:00 p.m. news is currently the top-rated "late newscast" in Boston. WFXT is the only Boston television station that has never changed its network affiliation, having always been a Fox affiliate since the network's inception.
The station launched a new website based on the Fox Television Stations internet division's new My Fox interface as of May 23, 2006. It became standard on all Fox owned-and-operated station websites in the next few months. However, the new site did not become WFXT's official website until July 12, 2006. WFXT began using new music and graphics and the new "Fox 25" logo designed after Fox News 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 the 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 MyNetworkTV does not air on WFXT, the station has promoted programming for the network during its newscasts.
One of the few productive moves WFXT made under the Boston Celtics' ownership tenure was commissioning the regional cable channel New England Cable News to produce a 10:00 p.m. newscast, which launched in early 1993. The original Fox 25 News at 10 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. NECN's Lila Orbach replaced Kahn on the WFXT newscast, which NECN moved to WSBK in October 1995. After the station did not renew its contract with NECN, there were no newscasts on WFXT until the 1996 launch of the in house-produced 10 p.m. broadcast, except for national Fox News updates aired during the day. From that point, channel 25 established its news operation ever so gradually.
During 2002, WFXT briefly experimented with a 4:30 p.m. newscast, co-anchored by with Jodi Applegate. By the fall of that year, the program was moved to 5:00 p.m., and in 2003, it was expanded to an hour. The station added a morning newscast, Fox 25 Morning News, that same year as well.
On the 10:00 p.m. newscast on October 9, 2007, anchors Maria Stephanos and Mark Ockerbloom announced that they are adding an 11:00 p.m. newscast as of November 5, 2007.
In addition to its main studios, WFXT operates a news bureau on Beacon Hill near the state house in downtown Boston. The bureau serves as an interview location for Massachusetts lawmakers as well as a main location for weekday morning commentator Doug "V.B." Goudie.
Anchors
- Gene Lavanchy - weekday mornings
- Kim Carrigan - weekday mornings
- Anqunette Jamison - weekday morning headline reader
- Mark Ockerbloom - weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Maria Stephanos - weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Frank Mallicoat - Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday Mornings (also reporter)
- Shirley Chan - Friday and Saturday evenings (also reporter)
Meteorologists
- Kevin Lemanowicz - Chief seen weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Cindy Fitzgibbon - weekday mornings
- A.J. Burnett - Saturdays (also fill in)
- Melissa Bell - fill in
Sports
- Butch Stearns - Director seen daily
- Ryan Asselta - sports reporter (also fill in sports anchor)
Reporters
- Joe Battenfeld - Political Editor
- Doug "V.B." Goudie - weekday morning commentator
- Mike Beaudet - investigative reporter
- Bob Ward - also fill in anchor and host of "New England's Unsolved" segment
- Doug Meehan - weekday morning traffic reporter
- Keba Arnold
- Alison Bologna
- Ted Daniel
- Martin Morenz
- Margie O'Brien
- Adam Pellerin
- Diana Rocco
- Debbi Rodman
- Sharman Sacchetti
 The first WXNE numeric logo (1977), as seen at the beginning of CBN National News updates. The multi-colored "test pattern" lines were a part of the 25 identity for the first few years. |
 The second version of the WXNE logo, featuring a "boxed" 25. Used up until the next major image change in 1983. |
 The "BOSTON 25" logo, used from 1983 until January 1987. The station campaigns "You Should See Us Now" and "Everybody Turn 25" accompanied it at this time. |
 The station became a Murdoch-owned Fox affiliate in 1986, but with the sale complete in January 1987, this first generation WFXT logo debuted (using the early Fox O&O concept). |
 FOX 25's 1990-93 logo, during most of the Celtics ownership tenure. The green-colored block of the "25" portion was an obvious indication of the team's control. The Fritz Quadrata-type FOX lettering was carried over from the early network O&O design (thus making WFXT the last of the affiliates to dispense with it). |
 FOX 25 1994-2007 Logo, use during bumper, ad's and news programming. |
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's syndicated division Twentieth Television. This was despite The Practice airing on ABC.
WFXT is the news station featured in the 2006 film Deck the Halls which was distributed by News Corporation subsidiary 20th Century-Fox.
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Local television stations Local digital television channels Concord / Keene / Manchester / Portsmouth (Southern New Hampshire) television stations Defunct television stations Local cable television channels |
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Local television stations Local digital television channels Concord / Keene / Manchester / Portsmouth (Southern New Hampshire) television stations Defunct television stations Local cable television channels |
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WFXT 25 (Boston) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in Massachusetts |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetwork TV and NBC stations in New Hampshire |
