A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's surface to any number of tuned receivers simultaneously.
100-672: WFXT (channel 25) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts , United States, affiliated with the Fox network and owned by Cox Media Group . Its studios are located on Fox Drive (near the Boston-Providence Turnpike ) in Dedham , and its transmitter is located on Cabot Street in Needham . WFXT is the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the network, although it
200-404: A barter in some cases. The Late Show (1986 TV series) The Late Show is an American late-night talk show and the first television program broadcast on the then-new Fox Network . Hosted by comic actress Joan Rivers , it debuted on October 9, 1986, under the title The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers . It is also the first late-night show hosted by Arsenio Hall . The talk show
300-487: A 4:30 p.m. newscast (making it the first Fox-owned station to have produced a newscast during the 4 p.m. hour) that was anchored by Jodi Applegate and was targeted at a female audience. By September 2002, the program had moved to 5 p.m., and on September 22, 2003, it was expanded to an hour and began using the same anchors and a similar format as the 10 p.m. broadcast, as Applegate became co-anchor, along with former WHDH-TV sports director Gene Lavanchy , of
400-437: A confidential memo between top NBC executives listing about 10 possible successors in the event of Carson's retirement the next year was leaked. Rivers was shocked to see that she was not on the list. In an article she wrote for People magazine, Rivers said that NBC offered her only a one-year contract in 1985 as permanent guest host while Carson's contract had been renewed for two years, which signaled to her that her future
500-488: A guest following an accurate earthquake prediction in Los Angeles during October 1987. When problems developed with Wilton North , Fox attempted to bring back Hall – but it was too late. Wilton North debuted on December 11, 1987, and was a disaster on all fronts. Fox canceled it after only 21 episodes on January 8. It started airing Late Show repeats with both Hall and Rivers on January 11, 1988, and scrambled to revive
600-496: A half-hour midday newscast at 12:30 p.m. for channel 25, which was subsequently canceled. In September 1995, WFXT announced that the contract with NECN would not be renewed, with the final broadcast airing on October 1. The next day, NECN moved the newscast to WSBK, which was more willing to commit to a longer-term deal with the channel, as channel 25 was planning to eventually replace the NECN production with its own news operation. For
700-534: A handful of Fox affiliates that does not use "Fox" in its branding. In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting 's stations. Although the group planned to operate under the name Terrier Media, it was later announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and retain the Cox Media Group name. The sale
800-599: A moderate start, ratings for the talk show soon sagged. The ratings struggles also made it hard for Fox to attract affiliates for its primetime launch on April 5, 1987. Some prospective affiliates, such as Milwaukee 's WCGV-TV , would only sign with the network if they did not have to carry The Late Show. KPTM in Omaha refused outright out of loyalty to Carson, who hailed from Corning, Iowa , east of Omaha and started his career on local radio and television. The network acquiesced to allow some stations out of that obligation so that
900-415: A much shorter wavelength, and thus requires a shorter antenna, but also higher power. North American stations can go up to 5000 kW ERP for video and 500 kW audio, or 1000 kW digital. Low channels travel further than high ones at the same power, but UHF does not suffer from as much electromagnetic interference and background "noise" as VHF, making it much more desirable for TV. Despite this, in
1000-493: A period, following Apollo Global Management's acquisition of Cox Media Group, of reduced investment in the station (with an unnamed staffer telling the Boston Business Journal that half of the station's staff had turned over since 2019), as well as a cyberattack against Cox that June. WFXT airs half-hour In Depth news specials at 10:30 p.m. on Fridays. These are compilations of special reports often unified by
1100-608: A radio sister station, as the Celtics also purchased WEEI (then at 590 AM, now WEZE ; now at 850 AM ) at the same time. The Celtics did not have the financial means to compete as a broadcaster. Nonetheless, under Celtics ownership, WFXT finally began to acquire stronger programming, becoming a serious competitor to WSBK and WLVI for the first time. In 1990, among securing the rights to several new, high-profile rerun syndication packages, WFXT managed to buy rights to The Cosby Show , reruns of which had been airing on WCVB-TV (channel 5) for
SECTION 10
#17328516601261200-564: A reduced power output of 78 kilowatts from an antenna mounted below one of the tines of the Candelabra tower in Needham. WFXT's vice president of engineering Bill Holbrook stated publicly that the digital signal would not reach full power until August 2009, when installation of a new antenna and transmitter was expected to be completed. However, the signal upgrades were completed in April 2009, giving WFXT
1300-530: A signal considered to be on par with the Boston market's other full-power stations. The new antenna and transmission feedline had been replaced two weeks earlier. The license to cover was filed on April 23, 2009. Television station The Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow ( TV Station Paul Nipkow ) in Berlin , Germany , was the first regular television service in the world. It was on the air from 22 March 1935, until it
1400-492: A single theme. The station's signal is multiplexed : WFXT's analog signal began malfunctioning on November 1, 2008, as a result of a failing transmission line, forcing the station to reduce its power. By December 9, 2008, the transmission line had deteriorated to the point that the station's effective radiated power was reduced to levels where viewers could then only receive the station via cable, satellite or its digital signal in most areas. The station then began to state that
1500-505: A staple of WFXT's schedule for well over a decade. By 1992, WFXT was carried on many cable providers in areas of New England where there was no locally-based Fox affiliate station. Locally, however, the station was still rated in third place (though not as distant as the CBN or early Fox days), behind WSBK and WLVI. Still, for a while under the Celtics' watch, WFXT was perceived to be in danger of losing its Fox affiliation. As early as March 1993, Fox
1600-416: A three-hour weekday morning newscast from 6 to 9 a.m. that launched the same day. One year later, Applegate left WFXT to become co-anchor of Good Day New York on then-sister station WNYW and was replaced by former WHDH and WBZ-TV anchor Kim Carrigan. Concurrent with the debut of the morning newscast, WFXT unveiled a 90,000 square feet (8,400 m) newsroom similar to that of WHDH, which also serves as
1700-943: A true independent. While the station was carried only on cable providers in the Greater Boston market, WXNE-TV held a solid third place among the area's independent stations, behind the longer-established WSBK-TV (channel 38) and WLVI-TV (channel 56), and sixth in the ratings among the market's commercial television stations. In April 1986, WXNE and the other two CBN-owned stations— KXTX-TV in Dallas and WYAH-TV (now WGNT ) in Portsmouth—were put up for sale. That August, News Corporation announced that it would purchase channel 25, with plans to make it an owned-and-operated station of its Fox Broadcasting Company . Fox had been in preliminary negotiations to secure an affiliation with either WSBK or WLVI, but ended its pursuit of both outlets. Until
1800-425: A variety of ways to generate revenue from television commercials . They may be an independent station or part of a broadcasting network , or some other structure. They can produce some or all of their programs or buy some broadcast syndication programming for or all of it from other stations or independent production companies. Many stations have some sort of television studio , which on major-network stations
1900-467: A year, usually when the team plays host to an NFC team at Gillette Stadium . However, the institution of the NFL's new 'cross-flex' rules in 2014 (in which Patriots games involving an AFC opponent are moved from WBZ-TV), along with Fox's broadcasting rights to Thursday Night Football starting in 2018 , has given the station more opportunities to air regular season Patriots games. The station has aired five of
2000-496: Is non-commercial educational (NCE) and considered public broadcasting . To avoid concentration of media ownership of television stations, government regulations in most countries generally limit the ownership of television stations by television networks or other media operators, but these regulations vary considerably. Some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs . In those countries,
2100-470: Is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as a TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate , respectively. Because television station signals use the electromagnetic spectrum, which in the past has been a common, scarce resource, governments often claim authority to regulate them. Broadcast television systems standards vary around
SECTION 20
#17328516601262200-463: Is common with Fox stations that carry early evening newscasts on weekends, the newscast may be subject to delay or preemption due to network sports telecasts overrunning into the timeslot. On October 7, 2013, WFXT relaunched its 5 p.m. newscast after a four-year hiatus. Under Cox ownership, a number of significant changes began to occur within WFXT's news department. On November 13, 2014, Doug Goudie, who
2300-792: Is often used for newscasts or other local programming . There is usually a news department , where journalists gather information. There is also a section where electronic news-gathering (ENG) operations are based, receiving remote broadcasts via remote pickup unit or satellite TV . Outside broadcasting vans, production trucks , or SUVs with electronic field production (EFP) equipment are sent out with reporters , who may also bring back news stories on video tape rather than sending them back live . To keep pace with technology United States television stations have been replacing operators with broadcast automation systems to increase profits in recent years. Some stations (known as repeaters or translators ) only simulcast another, usually
2400-473: Is the only Boston television station that has never changed its network affiliation, as it has been with Fox since the network's prime time expansion; it wasn't until 1993 that Fox had programming on all seven days of the week). Over the next few years, WFXT, for the most part was unable to acquire the better syndicated programs and continued to only acquire shows that WSBK, WLVI, and the market's network affiliates passed on. In addition to Fox programming, most of
2500-457: Is through a compulsory content arrangement with Fox News Edge, which supplies national and international news footage, and reports from FNC correspondents to Fox stations for potential but not mandatory inclusion in their local newscasts). In February 2018, the station dropped the "Fox 25" branding entirely and began referring to itself as "Boston 25" full time, including in promotions for syndicated and Fox network programming, making WFXT one of only
2600-556: The Boston Herald . On April 21, 1988, Rupert Murdoch , who had earlier stated his intention to retain the Herald , announced that WFXT would be put up for sale. In 1989, Fox proposed placing WFXT in a trust company as it sought to find a buyer willing to meet its $ 35 million asking price; on April 26, the FCC ruled that the trust would be required to sever all of the station's ties to Fox, including
2700-527: The Boston Bruins that were selected to air on the NHL on Fox were aired on WFXT. WFXT presently broadcasts 64 1 ⁄ 2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10 1 ⁄ 2 hours each weekday, 5 1 ⁄ 2 hours on Saturdays and 6 1 ⁄ 2 hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to locally produced newscasts, it was the largest newscast output of any station in
2800-579: The Cox Media Group , in exchange for the San Francisco duopoly of Fox affiliate KTVU and independent station KICU-TV . The trade was completed on October 8, 2014. Following this deal, CBS-owned WBZ-TV and Telemundo-owned WNEU briefly became the only network O&O stations in the Boston area (prior to the launch of NBC Boston in January 2017), and also made WFXT the largest Fox affiliate not owned by
2900-511: The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 1990. The Arsenio Hall Show launched on January 3, 1989. Hall had sealed a deal with Paramount Television to launch his own show and was able to clear it on many Fox affiliates throughout the country. He essentially reclaimed his old time period, though not in the network. Ross Shafer went on to host a revival of Match Game for ABC in 1990. The title of The Late Show
3000-484: The Late Show Band". Guests tended to be third-string actors, with performances by lesser-known bands such as The Williams Brothers (Los Angeles) and The Amazing Pink Things (Seattle). One noteworthy guest during Hall's era was Bob Barker , then in his fifteenth year as host of the long-running game show The Price is Right . World-famous "Earthquake Astrologer from KROQ and KFOX ", Farley Malorrus, appeared as
3100-493: The Tonight Show again during the remainder of Carson's tenure after 1986 or during that of his successors (in this case, Jay Leno and subsequently, Conan O'Brien ) until February 17, 2014, when she appeared in a cameo on Jimmy Fallon 's first show , by which point Carson had been dead for nine years. Rivers spoke highly of Carson on the night he died (January 23, 2005), but revealed that he never spoke to her again. After
WFXT - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-405: The broadcast range , or geographic area, that the station is limited to, allocates the broadcast frequency of the radio spectrum for that station's transmissions, sets limits on what types of television programs can be programmed for broadcast and requires a station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages . Another form of television station
3300-534: The electricity bill and emergency backup generators . In North America , full-power stations on band I (channels 2 to 6) are generally limited to 100 kW analog video ( VSB ) and 10 kW analog audio ( FM ), or 45 kW digital ( 8VSB ) ERP. Stations on band III (channels 7 to 13) can go up by 5 dB to 316 kW video, 31.6 kW audio, or 160 kW digital. Low-VHF stations are often subject to long-distance reception just as with FM. There are no stations on Channel 1 . UHF , by comparison, has
3400-487: The "Fox 25" branding was retained as a generalized identity restricted to WFXT's entertainment programming and station promotions (the move followed a similar split branding structure that Cox Media Group employed when it operated KTVU as a Fox affiliate between 1986 and 2014, in which references to the Fox network were omitted from use within that station's local news programs). General manager Tom Raponi told The Boston Globe that
3500-690: The 1990s progressed, WFXT began phasing in more talk and reality programs. It continued running cartoons (including the Fox Kids block) each weekday—later becoming the last station in the market that had run a morning children's program block—and sitcoms during the evening hours. WFXT served as the television flagship of the Boston Red Sox for three seasons from 2000 to 2002 (before that and since then, WFXT only carried Red Sox games that were televised by Fox itself, including games from its four World Series victories in 2004 , 2007 , 2013 , and 2018 ). In
3600-599: The Boston market and in New England until January 1, 2017, when WHDH-TV lost their NBC affiliation and became a news-intensive independent outlet by increasing their weekly news output to over 70 hours. During weather segments, the station utilizes live National Weather Service radar data originating from a radar site at the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Norton . One of the few productive moves that WFXT made under
3700-575: The FCC's network non-duplication rule by WNAC-TV , the Fox affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island , leaving only channel 25's syndicated programs and newscasts available in that area. On July 31, 2008, Charter Communications ' system in Westport also became subject to the blackouts, this contributed to WFXT's eventual removal from that system on September 23, 2008. On June 24, 2014, Fox announced that it would trade WFXT and Memphis sister station WHBQ-TV to
3800-553: The Patriots' Super Bowl appearances ( XXXI , XXXVI , XXXIX , XLII and LI), including the team's championship victories (XXXVI, XXXIX, and LI). The station also airs any Boston Red Sox games that are part of Fox's Major League Baseball telecasts . Owing to Fox's exclusive coverage of the World Series since 2000, WFXT has carried every Red Sox championship in the television era ( 2004 , 2007 , 2013 , and 2018 ). It also served as
3900-627: The U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking another large portion of this band (channels 52 to 69) away, in contrast to the rest of the world, which has been taking VHF instead. This means that some stations left on VHF are harder to receive after the analog shutdown . Since at least 1974, there are no stations on channel 37 in North America for radio astronomy purposes. Most television stations are commercial broadcasting enterprises which are structured in
4000-412: The audio portion of The Late Show in the interim. When the sale to News Corporation was completed on December 31 , 1986, WXNE-TV, renamed WFXT on January 19, 1987, became the seventh Fox-owned property and the first to be acquired separately from News Corporation's 1986 purchase of Metromedia 's six television stations that served as the foundation for the new network. Besides adding The Late Show to
4100-472: The change was made to eliminate a perception that WFXT's newscasts leaned conservative , which the station attributed to an internal survey taken in 2015 in which 41% of Boston area news viewers that were polled associated its newscasts with the national Fox News Channel , rather than its sister broadcast network (as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, WFXT's only association with Fox News
WFXT - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-610: The deal, as well as Fox's concurrent purchase of WTXF in Philadelphia, encountered objections from NBC, alleging that Fox's interest in SF Broadcasting , in connection with the Boston and Philadelphia purchases, would put Fox over the FCC's twelve-station ownership limit; NBC subsequently filed a separate petition concerning Fox's ties to the then-Australian-based News Corporation. NBC withdrew its petitions on February 17, 1995, allowing Fox to retake control of channel 25 on July 7. As
4300-638: The default Fox affiliate for the New Hampshire side of the Portland market, while Foxnet provided the network's programming throughout Maine. At one point in 2006, the station was "tentatively planning" to carry programming from News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV (a sister network to Fox) on weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. if the new network was unable to find an affiliate in the Boston market. On July 21, 2006, News Corporation announced that Derry, New Hampshire –based WZMY-TV (channel 50, now WWJE-DT ) would become
4400-458: The extent that the station estimated its analog signal was only reaching 3% of its former coverage area, with no signal at all at the station's Dedham studios), WFXT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 25, on February 27, 2009, becoming the second English-language major network station in Boston to exclusively transmit a digital signal (WZMY terminated its analog signal in December 2008) and
4500-487: The fall of 2001, WPXT (which served as the over-the-air Fox affiliate for the Portland area since the network launched) disaffiliated from Fox due to a payment dispute between Pegasus Broadcasting (the station's owner at the time) and the network. This left Portland and the entire state of Maine without a Fox affiliate until then- Pax TV affiliate WMPX-TV switched to the network in April 2003; during this time, WFXT served as
4600-460: The format on Monday through Saturday nights, while the Sunday edition aired for a half-hour in order to accommodate a sports highlight program, Sports Sunday on Fox ; Sports Sunday ended its run on May 16, 2004, with the Sunday edition of the 10 p.m. newscast expanding to an hour the following week. Over the next decade, channel 25 gradually expanded its news operation. On June 4, 2001, WFXT added
4700-420: The highest point available in the transmission area, such as on a summit , the top of a high skyscraper , or on a tall radio tower . To get a signal from the master control room to the transmitter, a studio/transmitter link (STL) is used. The link can be either by radio or T1 / E1 . A transmitter/studio link (TSL) may also send telemetry back to the station, but this may be embedded in subcarriers of
4800-401: The job at a salary higher than what NBC was paying. She accepted and Carson was blindsided by the news when he saw the press conference on television. Moments later, when Rivers called him at home, he refused to take the call. Carson was furious when he found out about Rivers going to Fox. Carson stated that he felt betrayed by Rivers – not because she dared to compete with him, but because she
4900-457: The last public appearances of well-known celebrities: Edgar Rosenberg , Rivers's husband and the show's producer during her tenure, committed suicide on August 14, 1987, three months after Rivers and he were fired, and shortly after the couple separated . Rivers made the first of several career comebacks with the debut of The Joan Rivers Show in daytime on September 5, 1989. The show was nominated for numerous Emmy Awards with Rivers winning
5000-511: The last station in the Boston market at the time to begin broadcasting its newscasts in high definition (NBC owned-and-operated station WBTS-LD signed on in HD on January 1, 2017). WFXT launched a Sunday through Friday 11 p.m. newscast on November 5, 2007; the weekday morning newscast has also expanded since its launch, and has aired from 4 to 10 a.m. since July 9, 2012. The 5 p.m. newscast, which consistently placed fourth in its timeslot,
5100-405: The lead-in to A Current Affair , until selling the show back to WHDH-TV (the former WNEV) in 1990. WFXT has again aired ET since 2015. As the FCC prohibited the common ownership of a television station and a newspaper in the same market , in purchasing channel 25, News Corporation had to apply for and was granted a temporary waiver in order to retain WFXT and the newspaper it had also published,
SECTION 50
#17328516601265200-400: The local television station has no station identification and, from a consumer's point of view, there is no practical distinction between a network and a station, with only small regional changes in programming, such as local television news . To broadcast its programs, a television station requires operators to operate equipment, a transmitter or radio antenna , which is often located at
5300-419: The main broadcast. Stations which retransmit or simulcast another may simply pick-up that station over-the-air , or via STL or satellite. The license usually specifies which other station it is allowed to carry. VHF stations often have very tall antennas due to their long wavelength , but require much less effective radiated power (ERP), and therefore use much less transmitter power output , also saving on
5400-738: The market's MyNetworkTV affiliate when the network began operations on September 5, 2006. Channel 50 ended its affiliation with MyNetworkTV in September 2011, shortly after changing call letters to WBIN-TV; WSBK (a CBS -owned sister station to WBZ-TV that had shunned the network at its formation) took over the affiliation at that time. Before MyNetworkTV became a programming service consisting solely of reruns, WFXT occasionally promoted that network's programming. On October 12, 2007, Comcast began blacking out Fox prime time and sports programming from WFXT on its systems in Bristol County due to an invocation of
5500-464: The market. By this point, Fox held a 25-percent convertible interest in WFXT, and indicated it was seeking to expand this interest. That October, Fox obtained a 10-year option to repurchase the station as early as 1995, and immediately announced that it would not seek a waiver to own both channel 25 and the Herald ; News Corporation sold the newspaper to its publisher, Pat Purcell, in February 1994, clearing
5600-522: The ministry's founder Pat Robertson . Religious programs ran for about six hours a day during the week, and throughout the day on Sundays. The station also carried the daily and Sunday Mass from the Boston Catholic Television Center . Secular programming consisted of westerns , older movies , family-oriented drama series , old film shorts , and classic television series. For several years under CBN ownership, Tim Robertson served as
5700-620: The monologue of his final appearance as host, Hall stated that the reason he had agreed to only do 13 weeks was because that was as long as he was able to stay, as he had plans "to do other things." Clint Holmes continued as announcer while Mark Hudson remained as band leader. However, the band's name changed from "Mark Hudson and the Party Boys featuring the Tramp" – as it had been known during Rivers's tenure, with "the Tramp" referring to baritone sax player Beverly Dahlke-Smith – to simply "Mark Hudson and
5800-497: The network (prior to the completion of the swap, KTVU held that title). In November 2014, shortly after the closure of the sale, WFXT was briefly pulled from Verizon FiOS in the Boston area for a week due to a discrepancy in contract negotiations. On October 27, 2015, WFXT dropped the Fox O&;O-style branding and introduced a new logo and on-air appearance; the logo was criticized by some viewers for its simplified appearance—omitting
5900-576: The network affiliation. That September, Fox agreed to sell the station to the Boston Celtics ' ownership group for $ 20 million; the sale was completed on May 11, 1990. As part of the deal, News Corporation was given the opportunity to eventually buy back a 37.5-percent stake in the station. The Celtics made WFXT the NBA team's flagship station starting with the 1990–91 season , following the expiration of its existing contract with WLVI-TV. The station also gained
6000-497: The network decided not to put the Stern show on the air. Paul Noble, the former executive producer for WNYW, was never told of Fox's decision. "By today's standards, they were absolutely tame." He also said, "They were not the kind of thing that a local New York television station was prepared to get involved with at that time. It was more like off-the-wall radio." Fox had originally cancelled The Late Show , but executives were stunned by
6100-490: The network launched in primetime with as many affiliates as possible, at the cost of ratings and access to The Late Show . For instance, at the time the show launched Fox had not closed on its purchase of its Boston station, WXNE-TV (now WFXT ). That station's previous owners, the Christian Broadcasting Network , objected to the show's content and refused to clear it. As a result, until Fox took control of
SECTION 60
#17328516601266200-419: The new channel 25 to begin operations within one year. However, various delays in obtaining both a studio and transmitter location resulted in a wait of over five years for the station to finally sign-on. WXNE-TV's early programming format was targeted at a family audience, consisting of older syndicated reruns and a decent amount of religious programming —including CBN's flagship show, The 700 Club , hosted by
6300-515: The next year, the only news programming on WFXT consisted primarily of national updates supplied by Fox News that aired during the day. During this time, Fox Television Stations created an in-house news department for the station, culminating on September 9, 1996, with the launch of a new 10 p.m. broadcast, initially branded as Fox News Boston before reviving the Fox 25 News title the following year. The 10 p.m. newscast has aired as an hour-long program since its inception, originally airing in
6400-432: The only Fox-owned station to shut down its analog signal prior to the new June 12 transition date. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 31, using virtual channel 25. Many Boston area residents complained about poor reception from WFXT's digital signal compared to the market's other major television stations. This was due to the fact that the transmitter previously operated at
6500-558: The ownership of the Boston Celtics was entering into a news share agreement with regional cable news channel New England Cable News (NECN) to produce a prime time newscast at 10 p.m., which debuted on September 7, 1993. The half-hour Fox 25 News at 10 was initially anchored by Heather Kahn, with Tim Kelley on weather. Kahn lasted a year in this role before she was hired by ABC affiliate WCVB-TV (channel 5); Lila Orbach replaced her as anchor. In September 1994, NECN began to produce
6600-446: The past two years. WCVB, which had lost a lot of money airing The Cosby Show in weekend blocks only, retained a small portion of the show's syndication rights for weekends and occasional airings in prime time (in the event that they chose to preempt an ABC network program). WFXT, meanwhile, began airing Cosby Show reruns on weekdays in the fall of 1990; aside from a couple of years off between 1994 and 1996, The Cosby Show would remain
6700-416: The possibility existed that its analog signal might have to be shut down ahead of the analog-to-digital transition deadline for full-power stations, which at that time was scheduled for February 17, 2009. In the end, the station's analog signal remained on the air even after that date (a result of the transition being delayed to June 12, 2009). However, due to the continued failure of the transmission line (to
6800-496: The program was renamed The Late Show and featured rotating guest hosts including Suzanne Somers , Richard Belzer , and Robert Townsend . After firing prospective guest host Frank Zappa , producer John Scura replaced him with Arsenio Hall, who made his debut as a talk show host. Eventually, Hall was named the permanent replacement host in mid-1987. On April 16, 1987, a meeting was held between Howard Stern and management of WNYW , Fox 's flagship television station. The network
6900-476: The programmes seen on its owner's flagship station, and have no television studio or production facilities of their own. This is common in developing countries . Low-power stations typically also fall into this category worldwide. Most stations which are not simulcast produce their own station identifications . TV stations may also advertise on or provide weather (or news) services to local radio stations , particularly co-owned sister stations . This may be
7000-482: The sale was completed, channel 25, upon the Fox network's startup on October 9, 1986, did not air the network's inaugural program and what was then its lone offering, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers , a late-night talk show that aired opposite The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 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 WMEX ) to carry
7100-621: The schedule, airings of The 700 Club were cut to once a day, and the daily broadcast of the Roman Catholic Mass was moved to an earlier timeslot. The station also began airing the syndicated, Fox-produced tabloid magazine A Current Affair on weeknights; WFXT was the second station, after producing station and Fox flagship WNYW in New York City , to air the program. WXNE staff announcer Chris Clausen had already been let go in late 1986 (promptly joining WNEV-TV in January 1987) in favor of
7200-538: The services of Fox affiliate voiceover Beau Weaver , who would remain with both the station and Fox Television Stations for over a decade. The station's schedule, however, was largely unchanged at the outset, aside from the removal of several older sitcoms that soon resurfaced on WQTV (channel 68, now WBPX-TV ). The Sunday evening religious program block was finally discontinued on April 5, 1987, when Fox launched its prime time lineup, which initially aired only on Sundays before expanding to Saturdays that July (as such, WFXT
7300-455: The show could only attract newsmakers and human interest-style guests; this led to a format change in the summer to focus on tabloid and ripped-from-the-headlines stories. Fox canceled the show effective October 28, 1988, getting out of late night until 1993, when it launched the ill-fated The Chevy Chase Show . Despite the show's low ratings by 1988, Shafer's tenure as host produced six notable episodes. These are especially notable for being
7400-507: The show moved production from WNAC-TV's studios, in bowling lanes that were built in the basement of the facility, to the now-defunct Wal-Lex Lanes in Waltham . After only a few months as host, Petrocelli was ousted in favor of the program's original host when it aired on WNAC-TV, Bob Gamere , who remained on Candlepins until it ended its run on channel 25 in 1983. During this time, the station rebranded itself as "Boston 25", as it converted into
7500-527: The shows added to WFXT's schedule were low-budget, first-run syndicated programs and cartoons . However, in 1988, the station did manage to buy two popular weekday syndicated shows away from WNEV— Hollywood Squares (the then-current John Davidson version) and Entertainment Tonight —when the CBS affiliate phased them off its schedule, due to other programming commitments. WFXT aired Squares through its 1989 cancellation; it carried ET weeknights at 7 p.m., as
7600-625: The standard Fox network logo in favor of an italicized Helvetica logotype—and received national attention when Larry Potash, anchor of the Morning News on WGN-TV in Chicago , criticized the change as a move by station-hired consultants to help bring in viewers who defected from WFXT's newscasts following the departure of longtime evening anchor Maria Stephanos earlier that year (Stephanos would join WCVB-TV in 2016). Prior to Super Bowl LI in February 2017,
7700-451: The station began downplaying the Fox name from its overall branding; this was reflected in a promo that aired prior to and during the game (which itself used the same music, tagline, and overall format as a 2014 image promotion made by Australia 's Seven Network ) that referred to the news operation as " 25 News ". On April 13, 2017, the station announced that it would rebrand its newscasts as Boston 25 News on April 24, 2017; from then on,
7800-553: The station in January, its audio feed aired on a low-rated AM station. The behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives quickly eroded and Rivers was fired in May 1987. For the final show, which aired May 15, 1987, the set was vandalized with toilet paper, slime, and shaving cream. Her guests were Howie Mandel , Pee-Wee Herman , then-fledgling comedian Chris Rock , Wendy O. Williams , and show stage manager Michelle Aller as her alter-ego Mavis Vegas Davis. Soon afterward
7900-456: The station's news set; it remains in use to this day. Channel 25 also opened a news bureau on Beacon Hill near the State House in downtown Boston, which serves as an interview location for Massachusetts lawmakers as well as a home base for weekday morning commentator Doug "V.B." Goudie. The station debuted an hour-long Sunday morning newscast at 9 a.m. on September 12, 2004; the program
8000-442: The station's program director, appointed by his father, Pat Robertson. The station began adding more cartoons, made-for-TV movies , and off-network sitcoms and family dramas during the early 1980s. Most notably, in 1980, WXNE took over production of the weekday bowling program Candlepins for Cash , which had just been canceled by CBS affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 7, now WHDH ) after seven seasons. With new host Rico Petrocelli ,
8100-492: The success of Hall, who was performing well among adults 18–49. In return, Hall was given a 13-week deal to host the show – however, a replacement program entitled The Wilton North Report was already in pre-production and scheduled, which meant that the deal would not be extended beyond that. Further, Hall would not be available in any event, as he was committed to filming the Eddie Murphy feature Coming to America . During
8200-497: The talk show. The show came back with a new group of unknown guest hosts, including comedians Jeff Joseph and John Mulrooney ; Daniel Rosen took over as announcer, while Jack Mack and the Heart Attack became the new house band. Ultimately, none of the tryout hosts would work out, and the network turned to Seattle TV personality Ross Shafer to take over The Late Show . By the time Shafer began hosting, ratings were so low that
8300-512: The team's primary over-the-air broadcaster for three seasons from 2000 to 2002 as the flagship station of the "Fox 25 Red Sox Television Network". WFXT also carried a package of weekday afternoon Red Sox spring training games, produced by NESN , in 2018 and 2019. As mentioned above, it carried Celtics games under the team's ownership in the early 1990s. When Fox held the NHL 's U.S. over-the-air broadcast contract from 1995 to 1999 , any games involving
8400-530: The way for a potential purchase of WFXT. The Celtics also moved their games off their own station, shifting the team's over-the-air broadcast rights to WSBK-TV in a five-year deal that began with the 1993–94 season ; this move followed WFXT's increasing difficulty in scheduling Celtics telecasts around the Fox lineup. WFXT's Fox affiliation again came into question in 1994, in the wake of the network's affiliation deal with twelve New World Communications stations, when reports emerged that then-CBS affiliate WHDH-TV
8500-509: The weekend morning newscasts in September 2015. The station would also focus less on hard news in favor of a slightly softer format with an abundance of human interest stories , which the station's website termed as "uplifting" stories. In September 2021, the station laid off several staffers, including sports director Tom Leyden, as part of a series of cuts that also saw the cancellation of WFXT's 4 p.m. newscast (which had launched in 2016) and its Saturday evening newscasts. The cuts followed
8600-455: The world. Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel , but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well. Television stations usually require a broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements and limitations on the station. In the United States, for example, a television license defines
8700-421: Was a direct attempt at competing against NBC 's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , where Rivers had been Carson's permanent guest host since 1983. The show was initially broadcast live. Many in 1986 , including top executives at NBC, thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987, as it was such a logical cut-off point. In spring 1986,
8800-423: Was a major source of NBC profits; thus Carson had been completely unaware of Rivers' problems with NBC. When other performers launched competing shows (such as David Brenner , Alan Thicke , Joey Bishop , and Pat Sajak ), Carson always had them on The Tonight Show beforehand to wish them luck – and again after he had forced their show into cancellation by maintaining superior ratings . Rivers did not appear on
8900-557: Was again considering the purchase of a Boston television station, even though News Corporation still owned the Boston Herald , and entered into preliminary discussions with Boston Celtics Communications about reacquiring WFXT; the Celtics subsequently said, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that Fox had warned the company that it could pull its affiliation from the station if it were to acquire another property in
9000-783: Was canceled in July 2009. On May 19, 2009, WFXT and the CBS-owned duopoly of WBZ-TV/WSBK-TV entered into a Local News Service agreement, which allows the stations to share local news footage, along with a helicopter for traffic reports and breaking news. The helicopter originally used as part of the sharing agreement (which WFXT and WBZ/WSBK stopped using in 2013) was involved in a crash that killed two people in Seattle on March 18, 2014, while on loan by Helicopters, Inc. for use by KOMO-TV during technical upgrades to that station's own helicopter. On June 14, 2009, starting with its 10 p.m. newscast, WFXT became
9100-506: Was completed on December 17, 2019. On February 22, 2022, as part of Standard General 's acquisition of Tegna Inc. , as well as Cox Media Group's acquisition of the four Standard Media television stations, along with WFAA , KMPX , KVUE , KHOU and KTBU , Cox announced that it would sell WFXT to an affiliate of Standard General. The deal was canceled on May 22, 2023. Through the NFL on Fox , WFXT typically airs two New England Patriots games
9200-492: Was considering Stern as replacement to The Late Show . Five one-hour pilots titled The Howard Stern Show were recorded at a cost of about $ 400,000. They featured rock guitarist Leslie West of Mountain fame as band leader and Steve Rossi as announcer and singer. By early June, air dates were yet to be scheduled; the pilots were instead being tested among focus groups in California . With no formal announcement, in July,
9300-526: Was considering a switch to Fox. After Westinghouse Broadcasting signed a deal that July to affiliate all of its stations, including WBZ-TV (channel 4), with CBS, WHDH was given the opportunity to choose between Fox and the NBC affiliation being vacated by WBZ; it elected to sign with NBC in August 1994, keeping Fox on WFXT. On October 5, 1994, Fox announced it would exercise its purchase option and buy WFXT. That November,
9400-403: Was discontinued in favor of a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast on September 14, 2009. That program was expanded to one hour with the launch of an additional half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m. on March 14, 2011, which competes against the national network newscasts airing in the timeslot on WBZ, WHDH and WCVB. On July 7, 2012, WFXT expanded the 6 p.m. newscast to Saturday and Sunday evenings; as
9500-526: Was not honest with him beforehand about her intentions and did not ask him for advice and his blessing. For her part, Rivers was adamant that her problem was with NBC and not with Carson, who was like a father figure to her. She stated that she didn't want to tell Carson before the announcement was made because she was afraid Fox would cancel the deal if word leaked out. She had previously been ordered by Carson's producers and lawyers not to go to him with her problems, as they kept Carson completely insulated since he
9600-468: Was previously owned by Fox on two occasions (1987–1990 and 1995–2014). The station first signed on the air on October 10, 1977, as WXNE-TV (standing for "Christ (X) in New England"); originally operating as an independent station , it was founded by the then– Portsmouth, Virginia –based Christian Broadcasting Network . After being awarded a construction permit to build the station from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in June 1972, CBN targeted
9700-570: Was shut down in 1944. The station was named after Paul Gottlieb Nipkow , the inventor of the Nipkow disk . Most often the term "television station" refers to a station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station. A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers as their content
9800-462: Was uncertain as her previous one year contracts had run the same length as Carson's. In addition, Rivers noted numerous snubs from NBC executives over the years, such as not being invited to the annual Carson party until recently, and taking the fall for a controversial joke that management approved during rehearsal. Rivers had received higher-paying offers from other networks in prior years but declined them out of her loyalty to Carson, but in 1986 as NBC
9900-591: Was unwilling to give assurances on her future and negotiations were fruitless, this was the impetus for Rivers to seriously consider the Fox offer. Fox was looking for a host for a late-night talk show for the network's launch in October 1986. Through its purchase of Metromedia , it had been airing The Merv Griffin Show (a syndication stalwart for two decades) but opted to drop that program (leading to its cancellation) to make room for its own show. The new network offered Rivers
10000-498: Was well known for his commentary segments during the station's morning show, was released from the station; he stated that his presence did not align with Cox's "philosophy", since they "aren't big on opinions." The removal of "V.B." came as part of a retooling of the Morning News into a conventional newscast, rather than a morning show emphasizing light talk and interview segments (such as Goudie's "Heavy Hitters"). The station restored
#125874