WTXF-TV
Encyclopedia
WTXF-TV, virtual channel
29 (digital channel 42), is an owned-and-operated station of the News Corporation
-owned Fox Broadcasting Company
, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. The station has its studios located in Center City, Philadelphia and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough
section of the city, the station's signal covers the Delaware Valley
area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey
and Delaware
).
Philadelphia is the largest television market where MyNetworkTV
was not awarded to a Fox owned-and-operated station, as the affiliation is with WPHL-TV
(channel 17). As a result, WTXF does not have a secondary affiliation with the network. Along these lines, WTXF is the largest Fox affiliate/station not part of any duopoly.
(channel 17) and WKBS-TV
(channel 48) both arriving in September.
WIBF-TV struggled at first, in part because it signed on only a year after the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) required television manufacturers to include UHF tuning capability. In 1969, the Fox brothers sold the station to the Cincinnati
-based Taft Television and Radio Company
. Taft already owned WNEP-TV
(channel 16) in Scranton, a station whose signal overlapped with channel 29 in the Lehigh Valley
north of Philadelphia. Taft sought a waiver to keep both stations, since the FCC at that time normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas, even if they were in different markets. The FCC granted the waiver http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/FCCOps/1969/17F2-876.htm, but later tightened its adjacent-market ownership rules and forced Taft to sell WNEP in late 1973 as a condition of keeping Channel 29.
Taft assumed control of channel 29 in mid-1969 and changed the calls to WTAF-TV (for TAFt). Under Taft's ownership, WTAF soon established itself as a local powerhouse, and ran programs from Taft's archive, such as Hanna-Barbera
cartoons, which from 1979 onward were distributed by Worldvision Enterprises (which Taft had purchased), and later on the Quinn Martin
library. By the start of the 1980s, WTAF had passed WKBS as Philadelphia's leading independent station. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, it was also picked up on several cable systems on the New Jersey side of the New York City
market, as far north as The Oranges
.
When WKBS left the air in the late summer of 1983, the station placed advertisements in TV Guide
and local papers reminding Philadelphia viewers that channel 29 was still around and that channel 48's former audience was welcome to sample channel 29. But interestingly, the station passed on picking up any of channel 48's shows, most of which went to WPHL-TV.
WTAF-TV also became a strong sports station. At various times, it owned the broadcast rights to Major League Baseball
's Philadelphia Phillies
(Taft also owned a small portion of the team for much of the 1980s), the NHL
's Philadelphia Flyers
, and the NBA
's Philadelphia 76ers
. In the 1980s, the station also aired network shows that NBC
's then-affiliate KYW-TV
and ABC
station WPVI-TV
preempted in favor of local programming. In the fall of 1986, WTAF-TV became a charter affiliate of the fledgling Fox network.
As part of a group deal, all of Taft's independent and Fox-affiliated stations, including WTAF, were sold to the Norfolk, Virginia
-based TVX Broadcast Group
in February 1987. In 1988, the new owners changed the station's call letters to the current WTXF-TV. The Taft purchase created a large debt load for TVX, and as a result the company sold a number of its smaller stations. Paramount Pictures
purchased a minority stake in TVX in 1989. A year later, after calling itself TV-29 for many years, the station changed its on-air branding to Fox 29. In 1991, Paramount acquired the remainder of TVX which it did not own, and the company's name was changed to Paramount Stations Group
, with WTXF as its largest-market station.
Viacom
gained control of the stations as part of its purchase of Paramount Pictures in March 1994. That summer, Viacom announced plans to create a new network service, the United Paramount Network
, which it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries
. The initial affiliation plans called for WTXF dropping Fox and becoming the Philadelphia outlet for the new network, which launched in January 1995. Signs of the planned switch began showing up at the start of the 1994-95 season, when WTXF began calling itself simply "29". Though Fox received no official notification from Viacom that the affiliation would be canceled, the unofficial signs were enough for Fox to agree in principle to buy WGBS-TV (channel 57, now WPSG
) and move its programming there.
The planned move coincided with the biggest affiliation shuffle in Philadelphia television history. In the spring of 1994, CBS
and Westinghouse Broadcasting
, owners of KYW-TV, had entered into a long-term affiliation agreement, which resulted in KYW-TV dropping NBC in favor of CBS. CBS would then sell its longtime owned-and-operated station, WCAU-TV. Several months earlier, Fox entered into a multi-station, multi-year partnership with New World Communications
. New World and NBC emerged as the leading bidders for WCAU, with New World intending to switch WCAU to Fox if it emerged victorious. Fox later canceled its preliminary deal to purchase WGBS and joined the bidding for WCAU, which was eventually sold to NBC. During this time, Viacom/Paramount changed its Philadelphia plans and decided to sell WTXF to Fox. Almost simultaneously, Viacom bought WGBS and made it the market's UPN station. Both transactions involving Viacom and Fox closed on the same day—August 25, 1995. Soon after Fox restored branding the station with the network under the name Fox Philadelphia, with the actual channel 29 number identified sparingly.
As a Fox owned-and-operated station, WTXF immediately added more first run talk and reality shows to the schedule. Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, WTXF was available nationally on satellite as the east coast Fox feed, most notably on PrimeStar
.
WTXF also aired the Fox Kids
children's programming block from its inception in 1990 until 2002. At that point, it was replaced with the FoxBox
block, which later became 4Kids TV. WTXF ran 4Kids TV until 2008, when 4Kids programming moved to The CW.
In 2003 WTXF rebranded back to Fox 29 for the first time since 1994 to avert confusion with Fox News Channel
and create a consistent branding of Fox (channel number) across all of Fox's O&O stations (besides WFLD
, which has continued to identify as Fox Chicago since the early 1990s). WTXF also underwent a major overhaul of its building and studios in Old City Philadelphia, with a "Window on the World" type studio making its debut on June 6, 2005. The "Window of the World" studio was originally intended for Good Day Philadelphia. On October 1, 2006 the station became the second station in Philadelphia to broadcast its local news programs in high definition.
, digital television receivers display WTXF-TV's virtual channel
as 29.
WTXF-TV also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 29.1.
Throughout the early 1980s, WTAF aired the syndicated Independent Network News
, produced by Tribune-owned WPIX
in New York City. This lasted until 29 began its own in-house news department. In the spring of 1986, Taft Broadcasting opened WTAF-TV's news department with a nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast. It was the second attempt at a primetime newscast in the market, after WKBS-TV ran a short-lived program in the late 1970s. Channel 29's effort has been longest-running, and the most successful. On April 1, 1996, shortly after channel 29 became a Fox-owned station, morning children's programming was dropped in favor of a weekday morning newscast, Good Day Philadelphia.
In areas of central New Jersey where the Philadelphia and New York City
markets overlap, WTXF shares resources with New York sister stations WNYW
and WWOR-TV
. The stations share reporters for stories occurring in New Jersey.
On January 22, 2007, WTXF-TV overhauled its on-air look, adopting a logo, graphics & music similar to that of the Fox News Channel
. Many other Fox-owned stations have made similar imaging changes. Channel 29 also expanded its facilities to include a new studio for its newscasts, and started to broadcast its local newscast in High-definition
. With the new imaging, WTXF-TV has also expanded its news coverage.
On October 9, 2006, WTXF added a half-hour newscast at 11:00 a.m. On January 22, 2007, a new hour-long program at 5:00 p.m. debuted, enabling channel 29 to go head-to-head with two of the three other network-owned stations. On October 6, 2007, WTXF launched hour-long 6 p.m. newscasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings. From September 1, 2008 and running through November 3, 2008, WTXF aired a 2008 election-themed 11 p.m. newscast, called The Last Word, anchored by 5 p.m. anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett. On September 7, 2009, WTXF added a weekday half-hour 6 p.m. newscast. It is co-anchored by Kerri-Lee Halkett and Thomas Drayton, with John Bolaris forecasting the weather.
On November 13, 2008 Fox Television Stations and NBC Local Media reached news deal in Philadelphia to test a system that will allow Fox-owned stations and NBC-owned stations to pool their news resources ranging from shared video to any aerial video from a helicopter. WTXF and WCAU
were the first affiliates in the nation to undertake the plan as an effective way to deal with the difficulties in costs in news operations. Good Day Philadelphia expanded to five hours on September 7, 2009. The station also announced that former Good Day Philadelphia co-anchor (and former co-host of The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet) Mike Jerrick
would return to the show to anchor from 7 to 10 a.m. starting July 27, 2009. On March 29, 2010, WTXF expanded Good Day to start at 4:30 a.m. That brings the station's weekdaily news production to 8½ hours a day.
Beginning on September 8, 2010, Anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett went on a "personal leave." Some station sources indicated that Halkett had a skin rash, prompted by anxiety over her contract not being renewed by Fox. A WTXF representative said that Halkett would once again return to her job in mid-October. However, on September 23, 2010, it was announced that Halkett would officially leave the station. Her final broadcast was on October 8, 2010; and the reason given for her departure was that Halkett desired to spend more time with her child and spouse. Later, Halkett accepted a job as a reporter for NBC affiliate WVIT
(channel 30) in Hartford, Connecticut
. WTXF replaced Halkett with Lauren Cohn who took over Halkett's co-anchoring jobs with Thomas Drayton at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. on weeknights.
In 2011, WTXF switched its newscasts from the 4:3 picture format to the 16:9
letterbox
format (similar to what has been done recently by Fox News Channel
, HLN and CNN
); as a result, both the standard definition and high definition feed feature the newscasts in the 16:9 format. The standard definition channel now has black bars on the top and bottom of the screen while the high definition channel is full-screen.
On April 11, 2011, Karen Hepp began co-anchoring the 6 and 10 P.M. newscasts with Thomas Drayton while previous 6 and 10 P.M anchor, Lauren Cohn switched to 5 P.M. newscasts. On August 1,2011, Good Day Anchor Shawnette Wilson stepped down to reporter while Kerry Barrett began anchoring the 11 a.m. newscast as well as Good Day Philadelphia from 4:30-7A.M. On September 16, 2011, Kerry Barrett announced her new position as 5, 6, and 10 P.M co-anchor with Thomas Drayton. Hepp was swapped to Good Day Philadelphia from 4:30-7 A.M. while Lauren Cohn was stepped down to general assignment reporter.
Fox 29 Weather Authority
Sports team
Reporters
, Middlesex
, Monmouth
, Somerset
and Warren
counties. It is available to all customers in Ocean County
with Comcast
or Cablevision. In Southern Delaware, WTXF (along with WTTG
) is available to Mediacom
customers in the Millsboro
area. It is also carried in Cecil County, Maryland
as well. There is no satellite coverage outside of the Philadelphia market.
(who also pulled the signal of sister stations WNYW
(channel 5) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WWOR-TV
(channel 9) on Cablevision's metropolitan New York system). In addition News Corporation had pulled Fox Business Network
, Fox Deportes and National Geographic Wild
from Cablevision systems in both the Philadelphia and New York markets. The shutdown came the morning the Phillies
were set to begin play in the 2010 National League Championship Series
, and also affects Fox's regional coverage of Philadelphia Eagles
football games.
The removal of WTXF and the three Fox-owned cable channels was due to an impasse between Fox and Cablevision on a retransmission agreement renewal in which Cablevision claims that News Corporation demanded $150 million a year for access to 12 Fox channels, including those that News Corporation had removed in the dispute. On October 14, 2010 Cablevision said that it was willing to submit to binding arbitration and called on Fox not to pull the plug on the channels, though News Corporation chose to reject Cablevision's call for arbitration, stating that it would "reward Cablevision for refusing to negotiate fairly". On October 30, 2010, News Corporation and Cablevision reached a deal, ending the dispute and restoring WTXF, WNYW, WWOR, and the three News Corp-owned cable channels to Cablevision's lineup.
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
29 (digital channel 42), is an owned-and-operated station of the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. The station has its studios located in Center City, Philadelphia and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough
Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to...
section of the city, the station's signal covers the Delaware Valley
Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...
area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
).
Philadelphia is the largest television market where MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
was not awarded to a Fox owned-and-operated station, as the affiliation is with WPHL-TV
WPHL-TV
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with the News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network...
(channel 17). As a result, WTXF does not have a secondary affiliation with the network. Along these lines, WTXF is the largest Fox affiliate/station not part of any duopoly.
History
The station signed on the air on May 16, 1965 as independent station WIBF-TV, owned by brothers William, Irwin, and Benjamin Fox. The Fox brothers had already been operating WIBF-FM (103.9 MHz., now WPPZ) for several years. Channel 29's original studio was located in the Fox family's Benson East apartment building on Old York Road in the suburb of Jenkintown, north of Philadelphia. WIBF-TV was the first commercial UHF station in Philadelphia, and the first of three UHF independents in the Philadelphia market to sign-on during 1965, with WPHL-TVWPHL-TV
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with the News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network...
(channel 17) and WKBS-TV
WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)
WKBS-TV was an independent television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, which served the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area from 1965 to 1983. WKBS-TV had studio facilities located in South Philadelphia, and transmitter at the Roxborough tower farm in Philadelphia.-History:WKBS-TV began...
(channel 48) both arriving in September.
WIBF-TV struggled at first, in part because it signed on only a year after the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) required television manufacturers to include UHF tuning capability. In 1969, the Fox brothers sold the station to the Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
-based Taft Television and Radio Company
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
. Taft already owned WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for northeastern Pennsylvania licensed to Scranton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter on Penobscot Knob in Mountain Top...
(channel 16) in Scranton, a station whose signal overlapped with channel 29 in the Lehigh Valley
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...
north of Philadelphia. Taft sought a waiver to keep both stations, since the FCC at that time normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas, even if they were in different markets. The FCC granted the waiver http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/FCCOps/1969/17F2-876.htm, but later tightened its adjacent-market ownership rules and forced Taft to sell WNEP in late 1973 as a condition of keeping Channel 29.
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
cartoons, which from 1979 onward were distributed by Worldvision Enterprises (which Taft had purchased), and later on the Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
library. By the start of the 1980s, WTAF had passed WKBS as Philadelphia's leading independent station. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, it was also picked up on several cable systems on the New Jersey side of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
market, as far north as The Oranges
The Oranges
The Oranges are a group of four municipalities in Essex County, New Jersey, all of which have the word Orange in their name. All of these communities were named for the ruler of England, William III of England, also known as William of Orange...
.
When WKBS left the air in the late summer of 1983, the station placed advertisements in TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
and local papers reminding Philadelphia viewers that channel 29 was still around and that channel 48's former audience was welcome to sample channel 29. But interestingly, the station passed on picking up any of channel 48's shows, most of which went to WPHL-TV.
WTAF-TV also became a strong sports station. At various times, it owned the broadcast rights to Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
(Taft also owned a small portion of the team for much of the 1980s), the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
's Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
's Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
. In the 1980s, the station also aired network shows that NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's then-affiliate KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
station WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
preempted in favor of local programming. In the fall of 1986, WTAF-TV became a charter affiliate of the fledgling Fox network.
As part of a group deal, all of Taft's independent and Fox-affiliated stations, including WTAF, were sold to the Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
-based TVX Broadcast Group
TVX Broadcast Group
The TVX Broadcast Group was an American media company that owned a group of UHF television stations during the 1980s. Originally known as the Television Corporation, the company was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and was founded by a group of Norfolk-area businessmen led by Timothy McDonald...
in February 1987. In 1988, the new owners changed the station's call letters to the current WTXF-TV. The Taft purchase created a large debt load for TVX, and as a result the company sold a number of its smaller stations. Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
purchased a minority stake in TVX in 1989. A year later, after calling itself TV-29 for many years, the station changed its on-air branding to Fox 29. In 1991, Paramount acquired the remainder of TVX which it did not own, and the company's name was changed to Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group was a television broadcasting company that was renamed from the TVX Broadcast Group in 1991 after Paramount Pictures gained full ownership of the group. At the time, it owned several Fox affiliates and independent stations...
, with WTXF as its largest-market station.
Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
gained control of the stations as part of its purchase of Paramount Pictures in March 1994. That summer, Viacom announced plans to create a new network service, the United Paramount Network
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
, which it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly-held American corporation traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It later took on the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris-Craft Boats...
. The initial affiliation plans called for WTXF dropping Fox and becoming the Philadelphia outlet for the new network, which launched in January 1995. Signs of the planned switch began showing up at the start of the 1994-95 season, when WTXF began calling itself simply "29". Though Fox received no official notification from Viacom that the affiliation would be canceled, the unofficial signs were enough for Fox to agree in principle to buy WGBS-TV (channel 57, now WPSG
WPSG
WPSG, channel 57, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WPSG is owned by the CBS Corporation and is the east coast flagship station for the CW Television Network, which is owned jointly by CBS and Time Warner...
) and move its programming there.
The planned move coincided with the biggest affiliation shuffle in Philadelphia television history. In the spring of 1994, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and Westinghouse Broadcasting
Westinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....
, owners of KYW-TV, had entered into a long-term affiliation agreement, which resulted in KYW-TV dropping NBC in favor of CBS. CBS would then sell its longtime owned-and-operated station, WCAU-TV. Several months earlier, Fox entered into a multi-station, multi-year partnership with New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
. New World and NBC emerged as the leading bidders for WCAU, with New World intending to switch WCAU to Fox if it emerged victorious. Fox later canceled its preliminary deal to purchase WGBS and joined the bidding for WCAU, which was eventually sold to NBC. During this time, Viacom/Paramount changed its Philadelphia plans and decided to sell WTXF to Fox. Almost simultaneously, Viacom bought WGBS and made it the market's UPN station. Both transactions involving Viacom and Fox closed on the same day—August 25, 1995. Soon after Fox restored branding the station with the network under the name Fox Philadelphia, with the actual channel 29 number identified sparingly.
As a Fox owned-and-operated station, WTXF immediately added more first run talk and reality shows to the schedule. Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, WTXF was available nationally on satellite as the east coast Fox feed, most notably on PrimeStar
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
.
WTXF also aired the Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
children's programming block from its inception in 1990 until 2002. At that point, it was replaced with the FoxBox
4Kids TV
4Kids TV was a Saturday morning television programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The block was part of the Fox Network schedule...
block, which later became 4Kids TV. WTXF ran 4Kids TV until 2008, when 4Kids programming moved to The CW.
In 2003 WTXF rebranded back to Fox 29 for the first time since 1994 to avert confusion with Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
and create a consistent branding of Fox (channel number) across all of Fox's O&O stations (besides WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
, which has continued to identify as Fox Chicago since the early 1990s). WTXF also underwent a major overhaul of its building and studios in Old City Philadelphia, with a "Window on the World" type studio making its debut on June 6, 2005. The "Window of the World" studio was originally intended for Good Day Philadelphia. On October 1, 2006 the station became the second station in Philadelphia to broadcast its local news programs in high definition.
Digital television
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WTXF-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 42. However, through the use of PSIPProgram and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers display WTXF-TV's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 29.
WTXF-TV also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 29.1.
News operation
WTXF broadcasts a total of 42½ hours of local news a week (8½ hours on weekdays, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), currently the most news of any major network affiliate in the Philadelphia market.Throughout the early 1980s, WTAF aired the syndicated Independent Network News
Independent Network News (US)
The Independent Network News was a nationally-syndicated nightly news program, seen from June 1980 until June 1990. The newscast was designed to serve the same purpose as the nightly network news programs, and was produced by Tribune Company-owned station WPIX in New York...
, produced by Tribune-owned WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
in New York City. This lasted until 29 began its own in-house news department. In the spring of 1986, Taft Broadcasting opened WTAF-TV's news department with a nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast. It was the second attempt at a primetime newscast in the market, after WKBS-TV ran a short-lived program in the late 1970s. Channel 29's effort has been longest-running, and the most successful. On April 1, 1996, shortly after channel 29 became a Fox-owned station, morning children's programming was dropped in favor of a weekday morning newscast, Good Day Philadelphia.
In areas of central New Jersey where the Philadelphia and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
markets overlap, WTXF shares resources with New York sister stations WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
and WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
. The stations share reporters for stories occurring in New Jersey.
On January 22, 2007, WTXF-TV overhauled its on-air look, adopting a logo, graphics & music similar to that of the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
. Many other Fox-owned stations have made similar imaging changes. Channel 29 also expanded its facilities to include a new studio for its newscasts, and started to broadcast its local newscast in High-definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. With the new imaging, WTXF-TV has also expanded its news coverage.
On October 9, 2006, WTXF added a half-hour newscast at 11:00 a.m. On January 22, 2007, a new hour-long program at 5:00 p.m. debuted, enabling channel 29 to go head-to-head with two of the three other network-owned stations. On October 6, 2007, WTXF launched hour-long 6 p.m. newscasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings. From September 1, 2008 and running through November 3, 2008, WTXF aired a 2008 election-themed 11 p.m. newscast, called The Last Word, anchored by 5 p.m. anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett. On September 7, 2009, WTXF added a weekday half-hour 6 p.m. newscast. It is co-anchored by Kerri-Lee Halkett and Thomas Drayton, with John Bolaris forecasting the weather.
On November 13, 2008 Fox Television Stations and NBC Local Media reached news deal in Philadelphia to test a system that will allow Fox-owned stations and NBC-owned stations to pool their news resources ranging from shared video to any aerial video from a helicopter. WTXF and WCAU
WCAU
WCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
were the first affiliates in the nation to undertake the plan as an effective way to deal with the difficulties in costs in news operations. Good Day Philadelphia expanded to five hours on September 7, 2009. The station also announced that former Good Day Philadelphia co-anchor (and former co-host of The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet) Mike Jerrick
Mike Jerrick
Michael Eugene Joseph Jerrick was the co-host with Juliet Huddy of the morning program The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, which began in January 2007. The last "live" episode of the show aired on June 12, 2009...
would return to the show to anchor from 7 to 10 a.m. starting July 27, 2009. On March 29, 2010, WTXF expanded Good Day to start at 4:30 a.m. That brings the station's weekdaily news production to 8½ hours a day.
Beginning on September 8, 2010, Anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett went on a "personal leave." Some station sources indicated that Halkett had a skin rash, prompted by anxiety over her contract not being renewed by Fox. A WTXF representative said that Halkett would once again return to her job in mid-October. However, on September 23, 2010, it was announced that Halkett would officially leave the station. Her final broadcast was on October 8, 2010; and the reason given for her departure was that Halkett desired to spend more time with her child and spouse. Later, Halkett accepted a job as a reporter for NBC affiliate WVIT
WVIT
WVIT, virtual channel 30, is the NBC owned and operated television station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut....
(channel 30) in Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
. WTXF replaced Halkett with Lauren Cohn who took over Halkett's co-anchoring jobs with Thomas Drayton at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. on weeknights.
In 2011, WTXF switched its newscasts from the 4:3 picture format to the 16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
letterbox
Letterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
format (similar to what has been done recently by Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, HLN and CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
); as a result, both the standard definition and high definition feed feature the newscasts in the 16:9 format. The standard definition channel now has black bars on the top and bottom of the screen while the high definition channel is full-screen.
On April 11, 2011, Karen Hepp began co-anchoring the 6 and 10 P.M. newscasts with Thomas Drayton while previous 6 and 10 P.M anchor, Lauren Cohn switched to 5 P.M. newscasts. On August 1,2011, Good Day Anchor Shawnette Wilson stepped down to reporter while Kerry Barrett began anchoring the 11 a.m. newscast as well as Good Day Philadelphia from 4:30-7A.M. On September 16, 2011, Kerry Barrett announced her new position as 5, 6, and 10 P.M co-anchor with Thomas Drayton. Hepp was swapped to Good Day Philadelphia from 4:30-7 A.M. while Lauren Cohn was stepped down to general assignment reporter.
Newscast titles
- The Ten O'Clock News (1986–1997)
- Fox Philadelphia News (1997–2003)
- Fox 29 News (2003–present)
Station slogans
- Prime Time All the TIme TV-29 (1979–198?)
- The Delaware Valley's Only Primetime Newscast (1986–1997)
- Don't Let Fox 29 Weekends Pass You By (1987–1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
- Think Fox First (1997–2003)
- Your Local News... First (2003–2007)
- The Weather Station (2007–2009)
- The Next Generation of News (2008–2009; secondary slogan)
- So Fox 29 (2009–present; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
- The Power to Lead (2009–present; primary slogan)
- The Newscast You Deserve (2011–present; news slogan)
Current on-air staff
Anchors- Kerry Barrett - weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 pm
- Thomas Drayton - weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.
- Joyce EvansJoyce EvansJoyce Evans is an African American news anchor and reporter. She currently anchors WTXF's Fox 29 News at 6 and 10 P.M on weekends. She joined the station in 1996 as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter....
- weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter - Karen HeppKaren HeppKaren Hepp is an Anchor & Reporter at WTXF in Philadelphia.She co-anchors Good Day Philadelphia. from 4:30 to 7 A.M on weekday mornings. She joined the station in November, 2010 as general assignment reporter. Before that, she worked at WNYW-TV anchoring Good Day Wakeup...
- weekday mornings "Good Day Philadelphia" (4:30-7 a.m.) - Mike JerrickMike JerrickMichael Eugene Joseph Jerrick was the co-host with Juliet Huddy of the morning program The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, which began in January 2007. The last "live" episode of the show aired on June 12, 2009...
- weekday mornings "Good Day Philadelphia" (7-10 a.m.) - Sheinelle Jones - weekday mornings "Good Day Philadelphia" (7-10 a.m.)
Fox 29 Weather Authority
- John Bolaris - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.
- SallyAnn Mosey - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.
- Sue Serio - weather anchor; Good Day Philadelphia" (7-10 a.m.) and 11 a.m.
- Christa Quinn - meteorologist; fill-in
- Karen Thomas - meteorologist; fill-in
Sports team
- John Anderson - sports contributor
- Anthony Gargano - sports contributor
- Mike Missanelli - sports contributor
- Tom Sredenschek - sports executive producer, sports anchor and sports reporter
Reporters
- Dr. Mike Cirigliano - medical contributor
- Lauren CohnLauren CohnLauren Cohn is an American news reporter at WTXF-TV in Philadelphia.Cohn previously worked as a morning anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago in 1993. She later moved to be a general assignment reporter at WBBM-TV in 1998. Then, she worked for WFLD-TV as a general assignment and health reporter...
- general assignment reporter - Jeff Cole - investigative reporter
- Omar Fleming - general assignment reporter
- Jennaphr Frederick - morning features reporter
- Claudia Gomez - general assignment reporter
- Bruce Gordon - general assignment reporter
- Steve Keeley - morning reporter
- Dave Kinchen - general assignment reporter
- Sarah Madonna - general assignment reporter
- Chris O'Connell - general assignment reporter
- Dave Schratwieser - general assignment reporter
- Sean Tobin - general assignment reporter
- Shawnette Wilson - general assignment reporter
Notable former staff
- Howard EskinHoward EskinHoward Eskin is an American sports radio personality for WIP-FM 94.1/WIP-AM 610 in Philadelphia.-Career:After Eskin graduated from Northeast High School in Philadelphia in 1968, he got his start in local radio at WFIL-AM when evening shift disc jockey George Michael hired him to be his engineer...
(now at WIP-AMWIP-AMWIP is a Philadelphia radio station with an all-sports format. Located at 610 AM, the station adopted its current all-sports format in 1986, making it the first all-sports radio station in the United States...
) - Clayton MorrisClayton MorrisClayton Morris is a current co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend on Fox News Channel and a former co-host of the syndicated The Daily Buzz. In addition to his work at FNC, Morris runs a media consulting company called Action Now Consultant Group. Morris has also appeared as a guest host of CNET's...
(now co-host of Fox & Friends WeekendFox & FriendsFox & Friends is an American morning television show on the Fox News Channel.-History:The show begins at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time with the latest Fox News Live headlines and analyzes the news of the morning...
on Fox News ChannelFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
) - Dawn Stensland - Main 6 & 10 p.m. anchor (2001–2009)
Out-of-market coverage
WTXF is carried in central New Jersey in parts of HunterdonHunterdon County, New Jersey
Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 128,349. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Flemington....
, Middlesex
Middlesex County, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 750,162 people, 265,815 households, and 190,855 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,422 people per square mile . There were 273,637 housing units at an average density of 884 per square mile...
, Monmouth
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 630,380, up from 615,301 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous municipality is Middletown Township with...
, Somerset
Somerset County, New Jersey
Somerset County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In 2010, the population was 323,444. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Somerville....
and Warren
Warren County, New Jersey
Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 108,692. Its county seat is Belvidere...
counties. It is available to all customers in Ocean County
Ocean County, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 510,916 people, 200,402 households, and 137,876 families residing in the county. The population density was 803 people per square mile . There were 248,711 housing units at an average density of 151/km²...
with Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
or Cablevision. In Southern Delaware, WTXF (along with WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
) is available to Mediacom
Mediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
customers in the Millsboro
Millsboro, Delaware
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,360 people, 1,045 households, and 619 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,367.9 people per square mile . There were 1,153 housing units at an average density of 668.3 per square mile...
area. It is also carried in Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is part of the Delaware Valley. It was named for Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , who was the first Proprietary Governor of the colony of Maryland from 1632 until his death in 1675. The county seat is Elkton. The newspaper...
as well. There is no satellite coverage outside of the Philadelphia market.
2010 Cablevision carriage dispute
On October 16, 2010, WTXF was among the Fox-owned broadcast stations and cable channels that were taken off of Cablevision's Philadelphia-area system of as the result of a retransmission dispute between Cablevision and Fox's parent company, News CorporationNews Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
(who also pulled the signal of sister stations WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
(channel 5) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
(channel 9) on Cablevision's metropolitan New York system). In addition News Corporation had pulled Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
, Fox Deportes and National Geographic Wild
National Geographic Wild
Nat Geo WILD is a cable TV channel focused on animal-related programs. It is a sister network to National Geographic Channel and it is the latest channel to be jointly launched by the National Geographic Society and Fox Cable Networks. It first launched in Hong Kong on January 1, 2006, focusing...
from Cablevision systems in both the Philadelphia and New York markets. The shutdown came the morning the Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
were set to begin play in the 2010 National League Championship Series
2010 National League Championship Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 16, 2010 — 7:30 p.m. at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaIn one of the most touted postseason pitching matchups in recent history, two former Cy Young Award winners faced off: Roy Halladay for the Phillies and Tim Lincecum for the Giants...
, and also affects Fox's regional coverage of Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
football games.
The removal of WTXF and the three Fox-owned cable channels was due to an impasse between Fox and Cablevision on a retransmission agreement renewal in which Cablevision claims that News Corporation demanded $150 million a year for access to 12 Fox channels, including those that News Corporation had removed in the dispute. On October 14, 2010 Cablevision said that it was willing to submit to binding arbitration and called on Fox not to pull the plug on the channels, though News Corporation chose to reject Cablevision's call for arbitration, stating that it would "reward Cablevision for refusing to negotiate fairly". On October 30, 2010, News Corporation and Cablevision reached a deal, ending the dispute and restoring WTXF, WNYW, WWOR, and the three News Corp-owned cable channels to Cablevision's lineup.