WXXA-TV - News Operation

News Operation

On October 7, 1996, the station established a news department and began airing a nightly half-hour prime time newscast known as Fox News at 10. It was not the time slot's first show in the market as WMHQ (now WCWN) aired a WNYT-produced broadcast which has started earlier in the year. In 1998, that production was canceled due to a lack of support leaving WXXA as the only outlet for a prime time show. Filling a niche in local newscasts, its prime time broadcast was expanded on weeknights to an hour in early-2000 and renamed Fox 23 News at 10. Since launching the newscast, WXXA has been very successful in the time slot with high ratings and viewership. This cannot be said for other local news offerings from this station which have consistently struggled against Albany's big three stations.

In late-2000, the station took on the area's big three outlets for the first time with the launch of Fox 23 News at 6:30. This show offered a local alternative to the national news broadcasts seen in the time slot. This was followed by another show weeknights at 6 that directly competed with the other stations. Right from its start, the broadcast struggled to gain ratings and viewership from the Capital District's other long-established news departments. A change in upper management led to a realignment of early weeknight shows with the 6:30 broadcast moving to 5 in September 2002 and an expansion to an hour. Fox 23 News at 6 would eventually be dropped in July 2003 due to poor performance against its competitors.

WXXA re-focused its efforts to improve its popular prime time newscast at 10 by putting a significant investment in its news operation beginning in late-2003. The biggest move was the signing of former WNYT news anchor John Gray. Additional resources and capabilities were added to the station behind the scenes as well as on-the-air. On April 17, 2006, it was announced WNYA would begin airing an hour-long extension of WRGB's weekday morning show from 7 until 8. This action could be seen as a pre-emptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by WXXA which had announced its own plans to launch a weekday morning newscast two weeks earlier. The actual launch of Fox 23 News Mornings occurred September 25, 2006 and it initially ran for three hours from 5 until 8. As a result, WRGB moved the sixty minute extension of its morning show from WNYA to WCWN in order to stay competitive and take advantage of higher ratings on the latter station. WXXA reduced its weekday morning broadcast to a two hour format (from 6 until 8) in Summer 2009 due to low viewership.

Soon after, rumors began circulated that WRGB would add prime time news at 10 on WCWN to offer a second choice in the time slot and directly compete with long-time dominant WXXA. However, the moving of a second run of Dr. Phil to 10 on WCWN temporarily put those plans on hold. WRGB eventually followed through with the plans and started producing a weeknight prime time update on WCWN. Originally airing for ten minutes, this featured top stories of the day along with an updated weather forecast. On October 18, 2010, this would be expanded to a full thirty minutes. The format on WCWN is now unique to the market in order to distinguish itself from WXXA and WRGB. It show is presented in a flashy, fast-paced format (stories are rarely more than one or two minutes in length) with an emphasis on entertainment and lifestyle features from several contributors.

A final addition to newscast offerings on WXXA occurred June 29, 2009 when it launched a half-hour broadcast weeknights at 11 following a national trend by other Fox affiliates. Although Fox 23 News at 10 has remained popular with viewers, its weekday morning show and Fox 23 News at 11 have continued to struggle in the ratings against long running newscasts on competing stations. Fox 23 News at 5 (seen on weeknights) has since been cut to a half-hour for that same reason. Eventually in 2012, Fox 23 News A.M. was moved to the 7 to 9 time slot. Since WNYT upgraded its newscasts to high definition on April 24, 2012, WXXA is now the only remaining news department in the Capital District that has yet to upgrade its local newscasts to 16:9 widescreen or full high definition level. During weather forecasts, the station features live NOAA National Weather Service Doppler radar data from four regional sites including one locally on Woodstock Road south of East Berne.