History
WFXI signed-on November 1, 1989 as the area's fourth commercial television station. It immediately assumed the Fox affiliation and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 8. Due to the presence of ABC outlet WXEX-TV in Petersburg, Virginia, which transmitted on the same allotment, WFXI had to conform its signal in order to avoid interference. This resulted in a broadcasting radius that only reached the southeastern portions of the market, namely Jacksonville and New Bern.
In order to remain associated with Fox, full-time satellite WYDO was launched a few years later in the early 1990s. This station aired an analog signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter southeast of Ayden that covered the northwestern parts of the Inner Banks region. In addition to resolving reception issues for WFXI, WYDO also provided an additional opportunity for local advertising. WFXI's primary studios were originally based in Downtown Morehead City on Arendell Street/U.S. 70 at South 9th Street while WYDO operated a sales office on Old Tar Road in Winterville to primarily serve Greenville and Washington.
On April 18, 2006, a preliminary announcement was made public stating WFXI/WYDO would add new second digital subchannels in order to affiliate with MyNetworkTV, a new broadcast network and sister operation to Fox. However, officials later changed their mind, and on August 11, moved the pending affiliation to a secondary arrangement through Ion Television owned-and-operated affiliate WEPX-TV and its full-time satellite, WPXU-TV. MyNetworkTV is currently seen in the market on a second subchannel of NBC outlet WITN-TV that includes an association with Me-TV. For a time, WFXI shared its call sign with a now defunct Class A repeater of Fox affiliate WYFX-LP in Youngstown, Ohio. Although both stations were owned by Piedmont Television until 2007, the two were otherwise unrelated.
On November 6, 2007, it was announced the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale of certain WFXI/WYDO assets from Piedmont Television to the Bonten Media Group (owner of WCTI). As part of the deal, WFXI moved from its longtime home to WCTI's facility in New Bern while WYDO closed its sales office. In January 2008 after Bonten took over operation of the two stations through an SSA, they were co-branded together as "Fox Eastern Carolina" and a new logo was released. The outlets had previously been known on-air as "Fox 8/Fox 14" for many years. The web address remained in that branding until August 2010 when it was integrated into a section of WCTI's website.
WFXI/WYDO made local headlines with difficulties transmitting Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008. The outage left several thousand viewers unable to watch. A high definition feed of WYDO was launched on DirecTV on January 7, 2009 while Dish Network did the same for WFXI at the end of February. At midnight on June 13, both stations went all digital as part of the DTV transition.
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