is the
FOX television affiliate in
Albany, New York . The station serves the
Capital District ,
Adirondacks , Upper
Hudson Valley ,
Mohawk Valley , and much of western
New England . It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 23 at an
ERP of 3,675 kilowatts from a transmitter located in the
Helderberg Mountains in
New Scotland, New York .
WXXA signed on the air on
July 30 ,
1982 as the market's first independent station; before this, the channel 23 position existed for many years as a construction permit (originally as WPTR-TV) and prior to sign-on was rumored to get the
NBC affiliation shed by
WRGB prior to NBC affiliating with
WNYT . In
1987 , WXXA became one of the sign-on affiliates of the fledgling
FOX network and was sold from its original local owners to Heritage Broadcasting. In
1994 , Heritage sold the station to
Clear Channel Communications , preceding its radio entry into the market and its sizeable expansion of TV assets in the Northeast by several years.
From
January 2000 to
August 2003 , WXXA operated ''
UPN4 '' (WEDG-TV), a cable-only
UPN affiliate seen on the
Time Warner and
Charter cable systems in the market, as well as the independent Mid-Hudson Cablevision. UPN4 signed off concurrent with the sign-on of broadcast UPN affiliate
WNYA .
WXXA-DT signed on the air in December
2005 and broadcasts at 10 kW ERP on
VHF channel 7. The transmitter for the digital station is located adjacent to the analog transmitter. A combination of objections from analog co-channels in
New York City ,
Boston and
Watertown, New York , all of which with signals at the fringes of the Albany market, is the primary reason for the late (and oft-delayed) sign-on.
In the 6:00 PM news was cancelled. WXXA is currently the only station in Albany to offer a 10 PM newscast. In recent years, the station has made waves by putting a significant investment in its product, and in 2005 became one of the first TV stations to offer podcasts
as well as the first worldwide to provide video podcasts [http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2005/12/12/daily30.html .
On (and future
My Network TV ) affiliate
WNYA began airing an extension of
WRGB 's weekday morning newscast from 7-8 AM on
April 17 ,
2006 . It remains to be seen if WNYA will try to start a 10 PM newscast.
- ''FOX 23 News at 5'' (5:00 PM to 5:30 PM)
- ''FOX 23 News at 10'' (10:00 PM to 11:00 PM)
- ''FOX 23 News at 10'' (10:00 PM to 10:30 PM)
- ''FOX 23 High School Sports Show'' (Friday 11:00-11:30 PM/Saturday 10:30-11:00 PM, September-March)
- ''FOX 23 FastTrack'' (Sunday 10:30-11:30 PM, April-October)
- Rich Becker (Sports Director)
- Noah Francis (Chief Meteorologist and the last remaining talent from the launch of news in 1996)
- John Gray (Weekday anchor/consumer reporter)
- Rebecca Hall(Weekend anchor)
- Ann Hughes (Weekday anchor/health reporter)
- Brent Martineau (Weekend sports)
- Jill Montag (née Ringer) (Key fill-in anchor)
- Scott Morlock (Fill-in sports and co-host of ''FOX 23 Fast Track'')
- Dan Bazile (Former reporter/fill-in anchor, now weekend morning anchor at WNYT)
- Greg Floyd (Original lead anchor and managing editor, downgraded to weekends upon John Gray's arrival, left for WRGB in December 2005)
- Molly Line (Reporter and fill-in anchor in the early 2000s, now is a reporter at Fox News Channel )
- Natalie Martinez (Weeknight co-anchor from 1998 to 2001, now a reporter and fill-in anchor at WMAQ in Chicago )
- Marci Natale (Former reporter, now weekend morning anchor at WRGB)
- Allison Seymour (Original co-anchor, now early morning anchor at WTTG in Washington DC )
- David Wade (Original weekend anchor, now weeknight anchor at WFXT in Boston )
Outside the realm of news, a few other personalities in WXXA-TV's past could be considered notable
- "Ranger Danger": Played by veteran radio DJ Gary Locatelli (better known as "Uncle Vito" of WPYX ), the character of Ranger Danger was a cartoon host/children's show caracter who developed a cult following until the show was cancelled upon Clear Channel's purchase of the station.
- John Mulrooney , by then working for WPYX as morning show sidekick, briefly was a host of the station's late night comedies in 2001.
- ''Here Come Da Judge'' - Weekdays 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
- ''Dysfunction Junction'' - Weekdays 5:30 PM-8:00 PM
- ''Dysfunction After Dark'' - Weeknights 11:00 PM-1:00 AM
