article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message not to be confused with wxft wtxf or wftx . wfxt boston massachusetts united states branding fox 25 general fox 25 news newscasts slogan complete new england news coverage channels digital 31 uhf virtual 25 psip affiliations .1 fox .2 escape .3 laff owner cox media group cox media group northeast llc first air date october 10 1977 ; 39 years ago 1977 10 10 call letters meaning fox television former callsigns wxne tv 1977 1987 former channel number s analog 25 uhf 1977 2009 former affiliations independent 1977 1987 transmitter power 780 kw height 330 m 1 083 ft facility id 6463 transmitter coordinates 42 18 12 n 71 13 8 w 42.30333 n 71.21889 w 42.30333 ; 71.21889 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox25boston.com wfxt virtual channel 25 uhf digital channel 31 is a fox affiliated television station located in boston massachusetts united states . the station is owned by the cox media group subsidiary of cox enterprises . wfxt maintains studio facilities located on fox drive near the boston providence turnpike in dedham and its transmitter is located on cabot street in needham . wfxt is one of six boston television stations that are available in canada through satellite provider bell tv and cable provider eastlink . wfxt is the largest fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the network . contents 1 history 1.1 wxne tv 1.2 wfxt 1.3 trade to cox media group 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 on air staff 4.1.1 notable current on air staff 4.1.2 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit wxne tv edit the station first signed on the air on october 10 1977 as wxne tv standing for christ x in new england ; 1 originally operating as an independent station it was founded by the christian broadcasting network . the station s early programming format was targeted at a family audience consisting of older syndicated reruns and a decent amount of religious programming including the cbn produced program the 700 club and programs from many other televangelists . 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 . by 1980 religious programs had been reduced on sundays to 6 00 to 11 00 a.m. and 7 00 p.m. to midnight and to about four to five hours a day during the week . for several years under cbn ownership tim robertson served as the station s program director appointed by his father and cbn founder 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 later wnev tv now nbc affiliate whdh after seven seasons . with new host rico petrocelli the show moved production from wnac 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 bob gamere who remained on candlepins until it ended its run on wxne in 1983 . during this time the station rebranded itself as boston 25 as it converted into a true independent . while the station was carried only on cable providers in the greater boston market wxne 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 . the station also implemented two significant advertising campaigns in a bid to compete with the other independents boston turn new england turn everybody turn 25 today tonight from 1983 to 1985 followed by you should see us now from 1985 to 1987 and was later revived in a rearranged form during the boston celtics ownership era of wfxt as watch what happens . . now . in 1986 wxne and several other cbn stations were put up for sale . that october wxne was purchased by news corporation 2 with plans to make it an owned and operated station of its new network fox which had been unable to secure an affiliation with wsbk or wlvi . until the sale was completed channel 25 did not air fox 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 the audio portion of the late show in the interim . wfxt edit when the sale to news corporation was completed on january 19 1987 fox changed the station s call letters to wfxt and made a complete overhaul of the station s on air presentation . at the time this occurred wfxt became the seventh fox owned property and the first to be acquired separately from murdoch s 1986 purchase of metromedia s six television stations that served as the foundation for the new network later in an auction cbn spinoff international family entertainment inc. would later be sold in july 1997 to fox kids worldwide inc. a joint venture between news corporation and saban entertainment renaming itself as fox family worldwide inc. . wfxt also became the first television station in new england to serve as an owned and operated station of a commercial network . besides adding the late show to 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 . wxne staff announcer chris clausen had already been let go in late 1986 promptly joining wnev tv in january 1987 in favor of 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 primetime lineup which initially aired only on sundays before expanding to saturdays that july as such wfxt is the only boston television station that has never changed its network affiliation as it has been with fox since the network s primetime expansion . 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 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 syndication 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 00 as the lead in to a current affair until selling the show back to whdh the former wnev in 1990 . wfxt has again aired et since 2015 . as the federal communications commission 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 the boston herald . in 1989 fox placed wfxt in a trust company ; the following year it sold the station to the boston celtics who retained fox as a network affiliation while making wfxt the nba team s flagship station . the station also gained a sister station on radio as the celtics also purchased weei then at 590 am now weze ; now at 850 am at the same time . 3 the celtics however did not have the financial means to compete as a broadcaster . still under celtics ownership wfxt finally began to acquire stronger programming . 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 for 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 primetime 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 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 fox programming was not available . 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 . one of those instances was in the summer of 1994 when westinghouse broadcasting signed a deal to affiliate all of its stations with cbs which caused wbz tv channel 4 to drop its nbc affiliation and join cbs in january 1995 . existing cbs affiliate whdh tv meanwhile was deciding between affiliation offers from nbc and fox the latter of which its miami sister station wsvn had been affiliated with since 1989 . however the celtics soon began dropping hints about its intention to sell the station including the shift of the team s over the air telecasts to wsbk in 1993 though wfxt officially stated that this was due to the difficulty of scheduling telecasts around the fox lineup ; 4 furthermore that october fox obtained an option to repurchase the station as part of a larger deal . 5 news corporation sold the boston herald in february 1994 opening the door for fox to exercise the purchase option in mid 1995 . whdh ultimately signed with nbc if whdh had joined fox they would have only been allowed to carry up to two new england patriots football games each year as the team is part of the american football conference while fox has rights to the national football conference ; whdh s affiliation with nbc allowed that station to carry most patriots games from 1995 to 1997 . as the 1990s progressed wfxt began phasing in more talk and reality programs . it continued running cartoons each weekday later becoming the last station in