is the
Fox Owned And Operated Television Station for Eastern
Massachusetts and Southern
New Hampshire . Licensed to
Boston , the station broadcasts an analog signal on
UHF channel 25 and a digital signal on UHF channel 31. WFXT's transmitter is located east of
I-95 /
Route 128 in in
Needham . The station has studios located on Fox Drive in
Dedham . WFXT is one of six Boston television stations seen in
Canada to subscribers of the
Bell ExpressVu satellite service. The station is owned by
Fox Television Stations and calls itself '''''"Fox 25"'''''.
Channel 25 signed on as (for "Christ ('''X''') in '''N'''ew '''E'''ngland") 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
Televangelist s. Religious programming ran for about six hours a day during the week and all day on Sundays.
Secular Programming on WXNE consisted of westerns, old movies, family type drama shows, old film shorts, and classic television shows. By
1980 , the religious programming was cut back on Sundays to air 6:00 to 11:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. to 12:00 midnight. It also aired about four to five hours a day during the week.
The station began adding more cartoons, made-for-television 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 of
1986 WXNE became Boston's affiliate for the new Fox network. It was a precursor to a sale of the station to Fox which would be complete in a matter of months. 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 1510 AM (now
WWZN ) to carry the audio portion of the ''Late Show'' until its purchase of WXNE was completed.
Joan Rivers actually mentioned the ban of the show in Boston on her opening night (
October 9 , 1986). She poked fun at the fact by letting her WMRE radio listeners know a description of what she looked like, which was sort of exaggerated (she concluded her physical description by saying she had a
Red Sox hat on, which she did not.
When the sale of Channel 25 to Fox was finalized on
January 19 ,
1987 , Fox changed the station's call letters to 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 of 1987, the Sunday evening religious programming block was replaced with Fox programming.
In purchasing channel 25, Fox was granted a temporary waiver of a
FCC rule prohibiting the common ownership of a television station and a newspaper in the same market. Fox's parent company,
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 . The team would maintain the network relationship 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.
in 1993.]]
However, one of the few productive moves (ratings-wise) WFXT made under the Celtics tenure was commissioning the young regional cable channel as it became ''UPN 38 Prime News''.
News Corporation sold the ''Boston Herald'' in , the station added a morning newscast and the 5:00 P.M. 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 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 Fox Television Stations's 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 , 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. Cast members from MyNetworkTV's programs have been interviewed by WFXT-TV's anchors. Viewers are then encouraged to tune in to WZMY to see the primetime programs.
In addition to its main studios, WFXT operates a bureau on
Beacon Hill near the state house in Downtown
Boston . The bureau serves as an interview location for
Massachusetts law makers as well as a main location for weekday morning commentator Doug "V.B." Goudie. WFXT currently airs three newscasts during the week, one on Saturdays, and two on Sundays. The weekday morning newscast premiered on
September 22 ,
2003 as a three-hour long newscast. As of
2006 , it is now four hours long. The station operates a helicopter called ''Sky Fox.''
WFXT is one of seven Fox O&Os with a 5PM newscast, but no 6PM newscast (along with
WTTG in
Washington, D.C. ,
WHBQ in
Memphis ,
KSTU in
Salt Lake City ,
KTBC in
Austin ,
WTXF in
Philadelphia and
WOFL in
Orlando ).
July 10 ,
2007 was the last day that former weeknight co-anchor David Wade was seen on WFXT. He left amidst rumors that he is replacing Scott Wahle on
WBZ-TV . His wife , weekend anchor / weekday reporter Bianca de la Garza is expected to also leave the station.
{Link without Title} Rumors are now circulating that the two will be new anchors on WBZ.
- Gene Lavanchy - weekday mornings
- Kim Carrigan - weekday mornings
- Anqunette Jamison - weekday morning headline reader
- Doug "V.B." Goudie - weekday morning commentator
- Mark Ockerbloom - weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Maria Stephanos - weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Frank Mallicoat - Saturday evenings and Sunday Mornings (also reporter)
- Kevin Lemanowicz - Chief seen weeknights and Sunday evenings
- Cindy Fitzgibbon - weekday mornings
- A.J. Burnett - Saturdays (also fill in)
- Mark Dixon - fill in (based at WFSB in Hartford )
- Butch Stearns - Director seen daily
- Ryan Asselta - sports reporter (also fill in sports anchor)
- Joe Battenfeld - Political Editor
- Mike Beaudet - investigative reporter
- Doug Luzader - FOX Television Stations Washington DC Correspondent
- Bob Ward - also fill in anchor and host of "New England's Unsolved" segment
- Shirley Chan - also fill in anchor
- Doug Meehan - weekday morning traffic reporter
- Keba Arnold
- Alison Bologna
- Ted Daniel
- John Monahan
- Martin Morenz
- Debbi Rodman
- Sharman Sacchetti
- Margie O'Brien
- Gregg Kelley - Vice President / General Manager
- Lisa Hall - Vice Presedent / News Director
- Paul McGonagle - Assistant News Director
- Tom Luft - Managing Editor
- Jack Auresto - Planning Editor
- Linda DiStefano - Director of Human Resources
- Steve Harrington - Vice President of Engineering
- Chris Tzianabos - General Sales Manager
- Mike Troiano - Local Sales Manager
- Keith MacPherson - Local Sales Manager
- Robb Willinger - National Sales Manager
- Taylor Kimbrell - Web Sales Manager
- Kezia Lamoreaux - General Sales Assistant
- Noelle Barbosa - National Sales Assistant
- Debby Pellerin - Traffic Director
- Tricia Maloney - Director of Research and Programming
- Carrie Benabou
- David Kipp
- Joe Whalen
- Marcy Poole
- Gary Gibson
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 .
