WFXT
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Template:Infobox Broadcast 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, Massachusetts and studios in Dedham, Massachusetts. WFXT is one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada to subscribers of the Bell ExpressVu satellite service.
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History
Channel 25 signed on as WXNE-TV (for "Christ <b>(X) for New England") on October 10, 1977. The station was originally owned by the Christian Broadcasting Network. The early format consisted of religious programming such as the 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 AM and 7 PM 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 FM 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 PM 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.
 WXNE branding logo 1983-84 |
 WFXT logo from 1997 to 2003 |
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
- FOX25 Morning News - 5:00 AM to 9:00AM. Hosted by Gene Lavanchy and Kim Carrigan (Premiered on September 22, 2003).
- FOX25 News at 5 - 5:00 PM to 6:00PM.
- FOX25 News at Ten - 10:00 PM to 11:00PM. Hosted by David Wade and Maria Stephanos.
Saturday
- FOX25 News at Ten - 10:00 PM to 11:00PM. Hosted by Bianca de la Garza and Dan Jaehnig.
Sundays
- FOX25 News Sunday - 9:00 AM to 10:00AM.
- FOX25 News at Ten - 10:00 PM to 11:00PM. Hosted by Maria Stephanos and David Wade.