. not to be confused with wfxt or wxft dt . wtaf redirects here . for wp wtaf see wikipedia write the article first . this 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 wtxf tv philadelphia pennsylvania united states branding fox 29 general fox 29 news newscasts slogan the power to lead primary news the newscast you deserve secondary news we are fox 29 general channels digital 42 uhf virtual 29 psip translators 38 uhf allentown affiliations .1 fox o & o .2 movies .4 buzzr owner fox television stations fox television stations inc. first air date may 16 1925 ; 91 years ago 1925 05 16 call letters meaning see article former callsigns wibf tv 1965 1969 wtaf tv 1969 1988 former channel number s analog 29 uhf 1925 1996 former affiliations independent 1925 1986 transmitter power 1000 kw height 282.3 m 926 ft facility id 51568 transmitter coordinates 40 2 26 n 75 14 19 w 40.04056 n 75.23861 w 40.04056 ; 75.23861 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox29.com wtxf tv channel 29 is a fox owned and operated television station located in philadelphia pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the fox television stations subsidiary of the 21st century fox . wtxf s studios are located on market street in center city and its transmitter is located in the roxborough section of the city . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 translators 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 cable and satellite carriage 5.1 out of market coverage 5.2 2010 cablevision carriage dispute 6 references 7 external links history edit the station signed on the air on may 16 1965 as independent station wibf tv originally owned by brothers william irwin and benjamin fox . the fox brothers had already been operating wibf fm 103.9 fm 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 located 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 tv channel 17 and wkbs tv channel 48 both making their debuts 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 family sold the station to cincinnati based taft broadcasting . 1 taft already owned abc affiliated wnep tv channel 16 in scranton whose signal area also included coverage of the lehigh valley which is part of the philadelphia market ; indeed wnep has operated a translator there for years . 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 . 2 3 taft later opted to sell wnep tv in late 1973 to nep communications a group composed of the station s executives and employees . wtaf tv logo under taft ownership c. 1985 . the 29 dates from the early 1970s and was retained until 1995 long after the station became wtxf . taft assumed control of channel 29 in mid 1969 and changed the calls to wtaf tv which stood for taft . under taft s ownership wtaf soon established itself as a local powerhouse . it 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 carried on several cable providers 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 . 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 abc station wpvi tv channel 6 and then nbc affiliate kyw tv channel 3 preempted in favor of local programming . on october 9 1986 wtaf tv became a charter affiliate of the fledgling fox television network . 4 however channel 29 s schedule didn t change that much since fox didn t air a full week of programming until 1993 ; for all intents and purposes it was still an independent . taft sold its independent and fox affiliated stations including wtaf to the norfolk virginia based tvx broadcast group in february 1987 . 5 6 on june 1 1988 the new owners replaced the a in the call letters with an x changing it to 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 . 7 paramount pictures purchased a majority stake in tvx in 1989 . 8 the following year after branding itself as tv 29 for many years the station changed its on air branding to fox 29 . in 1991 paramount acquired the remaining stock in tvx that it did not already own and the company s name was changed to the paramount stations group with wtxf as its largest station by market size . 9 in the late summer of 1993 fox shockingly announced its intention to purchase rival independent wgbs tv channel 57 now wpsg and move its programming there in april 1994 . 10 as staffers at wtxf tv continued to reel in the aftermath of that announcement its corporate parent was undergoing a transition of its own . only one month later in september the original viacom agreed in principle to merge with paramount . 11 not long after that home shopping giant qvc mounted a competing bid and the two firms entered into an intense bidding war 12 in which viacom ultimately prevailed in february 1994 with the deal closing on march 11 . 13 meanwhile in late october 1993 paramount announced plans to create a new network the united paramount network which it would co own with chris craft industries . the initial affiliation plans called for wtxf which was set to lose fox to wgbs becoming the philadelphia outlet for the new network which was targeted to launch in january 1995 . 14 however fox s purchase of wgbs fell through in early 1994 making it increasingly unlikely that paramount would want to drop fox programming from channel 29 particularly after fox acquired the rights to show games from the nfl s national football conference including most philadelphia eagles games ; 15 nonetheless during the spring wtxf gradually de emphasized its fox affiliation changing its branding to simply 29 . several months later the shoe dropped on the biggest affiliation shuffle in philadelphia television history . in the summer of 1994 westinghouse broadcasting owners of kyw tv entered into a longterm affiliation agreement with cbs . this resulted in kyw tv dropping nbc in favor of cbs which would then sell its longtime owned and operated station wcau tv channel 10 . 16 several months earlier fox entered into a multi station multi year partnership with new world communications . 17 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 also joined the bidding for wcau in case new world s bid failed . however paramount viacom changed its philadelphia plans and decided to sell wtxf to fox making wtxf a fox o & o. 18 almost simultaneously viacom bought wgbs and made it a upn o & o. both transactions involving viacom and fox closed on the same day august 25 1995 . soon after fox restored the network s name onto the station branding as fox philadelphia similar to how chicago sister station wfld was branded as fox chicago with the channel number used sparingly and the call letters mostly limited to legal ids ; this was because wtxf to this day is normally not on channel 29 on area cable systems though for the first few months it was merely branded as fox with the call letters below a color changing fox logo in promos . 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 to satellite television providers as the east coast fox feed most notably on primestar . in 2003 wtxf rebranded back to fox 29 for the first time since 1994 to create a consistent use of the fox channel number branding across all fox owned stations . wtxf also underwent a major overhaul of its studio facilities 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 to be used for the station s morning newscast . it is a historical irony that the station originally owned locally by the fox family as wibf is now owned by los angeles based fox broadcasting . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 19 29.1 720p 4 3 wtxf dt main wtxf tv programming fox 29.2 480i movies movies 20 29.4 4 3 buzzr buzzr 21 wtxf tv has plans for a mobile dtv feed of subchannel 29.1 . 22 23 analog to digital conversion edit wtxf tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 29 on october 8 1996 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 42 . 24 25 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 29 . translators edit call letters channel city of license transmitter location wtxf tv 38 allentown atop south mountain in allentown on december 29 2014 wtxf tv announced the launch of their allentown translator to allow northern tier viewers to better receive and watch fox 29 and its sub channels . news operation edit fox 29 news at 10 open until november 2012 . wtxf presently broadcasts 50 hours 5 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week 9 hours on weekdays 3 hours on saturdays and 3 hours 35 minutes on sundays ; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming it is the highest local newscast output among the philadelphia market s broadcast television stations and highest in the commonwealth of pennsylvania in general . in areas of central new jersey where the philadelphia and new york