WFXT - News Operation

News Operation

WFXT broadcasts a total of 40 hours of local news a week (seven and a half hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and an hour and a half on Sundays). During weather segments, the station uses live National Weather Service radar data, which originates from the Local Forecast Office in Taunton.

One of the few productive moves WFXT made under the Boston Celtics' ownership tenure was commissioning the regional cable news channel New England Cable News (NECN) to produce a 10 pm newscast, which was launched on September 7, 1993. Fox 25 News at 10 aired for a half-hour, and was initially anchored by Heather Kahn, with Tim Kelley on weather. Kahn lasted a year and a half in this role before transferring to ABC affiliate WCVB-TV; Lila Orbach replaced her on the newscast. Starting in September 1994, the 10 pm newscast was joined by a 12:30 pm newscast, which was subsequently canceled.

WFXT opted not to renew its contract with NECN in September 1995, with the final broadcast airing October 1; the next day, NECN moved the newscast to WSBK. For the next year, there was no local news on WFXT, and news programming consisted primarily of national Fox News updates that aired during the day. During this time, the station built an in-house news department from scratch, culminating in the September 9, 1996 launch of a new 10 pm broadcast, initially branded as Fox News Boston before reviving the Fox 25 News title. It was the second-to-last Fox-owned station to make such a launch.

Over the next decade, channel 25 expanded its news operation gradually. On June 4, 2001, WFXT added a 4:30 pm, female-targeted newscast anchored by Jodi Applegate. By fall 2002, the program was moved to 5 pm, and on September 22, 2003, it was expanded to an hour and began using the same anchors and a similar format as the 10 pm broadcast, as Applegate became co-anchor, along with former WHDH-TV sports director Gene Lavanchy, of a three-hour weekday morning newscast from 6 to 9 am, which launched the same day. A year later, Applegate left WFXT for sister station WNYW's Good Day New York and was replaced by former WHDH and WBZ-TV anchor Kim Carrigan. The station added an hour-long Sunday morning newscast at 9 am on September 12, 2004; it was dropped in July 2009. A Sunday-Friday night 11 pm newscast, which immediately follows the 10 pm news, was added on November 5, 2007; the weekday morning newscast has also expanded since its launch, and has aired from 4:30 to 10 am since September 20, 2010. The 5 pm newscast, which consistently placed fourth in its timeslot, was discontinued in favor of a half-hour 6 pm newscast on September 14, 2009. The 6 pm newscast was expanded to one hour with the launch of an additional half-hour newscast at 6:30 pm on March 14, 2011; the new newscast is the only local newscast in the Boston market in the 6:30 pm timeslot. Due to the shifts in its early evening newscast schedule, WFXT is the only Fox O&O with a 6 pm newscast, but no 5 pm newscast. WFXT is also one of only three Fox O&Os without a midday newscast (along with WNYW in New York City and WOFL in Orlando). On June 13, 2012, WFXT announced it will launch an hour-long 6 p.m. newscasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings, starting July 7, and an additional half-hour (at 4 a.m.) added to the weekday morning newscast, starting on July 9, boosting its news total to six hours each weekday. With the expansion, WFXT will offer 47 hours of local news a week.

Concurrent with the debut of the morning newscast, WFXT unveiled a 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) newsroom similar to that of WHDH, which also serves as 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 claims its 10 pm news is currently the top-rated late newscast in the Boston market. WFXT began using new music, graphics, and "Fox 25" logos (all based on that of its sister cable network, Fox News Channel) in all newscasts on September 3, 2006; these elements have also been used on the other Fox-owned stations.

On May 19, 2009, WFXT and CBS duopoly WBZ-TV/WSBK-TV announced a content sharing agreement between them. The stations will share video for general market news, along with a helicopter for traffic reports and breaking news. On June 14, 2009, starting with its 10 pm newscast, WFXT became the last station in the Boston market to launch news in high definition. The station also adopted a new graphics package, also used by the other Fox-owned stations.

WFXT's newscasts were commonly seen in a fictional sense within the universe of David E. Kelley's Boston-set shows Ally McBeal, Boston Public, and The Practice. They were all produced by Fox's television production division 20th Century Fox Television. This was despite The Practice airing on ABC.