My wife watches WFXT in the AM for weather but leaves it on. When I hear it, all I hear is:
Local news sux.
Posted on 04/14/2017 6:05:59 AM PDT by raccoonradio
As New England One was first to report last December, WFXT FOX 25 [Boston] is dropping the "FOX" identity from its newscasts.
The change comes amid sagging ratings, and FOX 25 management is placing some of the blame on confusion with Fox News Channel.
In February, WHDH 7 came in first place at 10pm, beating WFXT for the first time since WHDH started a 10pm newscast. WHDH won again at 10pm in March.
As we first told you a few months ago, the station wants to distinguish itself from the Fox News Channel to avoid confusion that WFXT leans right. We were told that the station was flooded with emails and calls from viewers "angry" with the Fox News Channel (especially during this past election season) and Cox Media Group hopes to create some distance from the cable network with the name change.
“The perception of what our TV news station does is not what we do. They perceive us to be part of the Fox News family,” WFXT general manager Tom Raponi told The Boston Globe. The Fox 25 News brand, he said, “wasn’t built for this environment.”
The station says its research dating back more than two years found that 41 percent of Boston-area news consumers believed the local FOX 25 newscast leaned conservative. Raponi told the Globe that he believes the station has produced impartial local journalism in recent years, and attributes the conservative perception among viewers to Fox News Channel's national reputation.
Starting April 24, the station will rebrand its newscasts from "FOX 25 News" to "Boston 25 News".
We're told that the "FOX" branding will be kept for programming and sports, but it will be scrubbed from the newscasts. A source inside WFXT also told us that the "FOX 25" branding on the stations new set will be changed out as well.
The station had already removed the word "FOX" from its logo bug, and reporters stopped saying "FOX 25 News" after their reports in December 2016.
The station had called itself "25 News" during a recent promo that was produced for the Super Bowl, but it later settled on "Boston 25 News".
The Globe reports that the rebranding decision was made locally, and other Cox Media Group stations are not making a name change. A source tells New England One that its consultants who pushed the name change at the station, and not local management.
The new name will be the latest in a long list of changes that Cox has made since it acquired the station in October 2014 from Fox Television Stations.
Since then, news gathering resources at the station have significantly increased, but the station has also seen high profile departures - Maria Stephanos joined WCVB, and Shannon Mulaire joined NBC Boston, among many others.
The station was heavily criticized when it unveiled a new logo design in 2015.
In September 2016, the station debuted a new news set - which had also replaced old graphics with the new FOX 25 logo.
What this change will do to the stations image isn't yet know, but since NBC Boston started operations in January, the fight for viewers in the Boston television market is more competitive than ever.
They’re owned by Cox now (and I could make a joke about those suckers if you know what I mean...) Awhile back Fox traded some stations to Cox and vice versa, partly so they could have an owned and operated station in San Fran (49ers, what did they win one game last year?)
They laid off Doug VB Goudie who is now back at WRKO
Fox leans right?
Was Juan Williams or Marie Barf available for comment?
Don’t blame them.
I and many others have not watched FNC or FBN one minute since they shamelessly tried to derail the Trump campaign. In fact, we cut the cable altogether.
Despite throwing a bone to us once in a while, they are little more than the mouthpiece for the GOP Establishment/RINO-globalist stooges.
They still have flaming lefties on the payroll.
FOX is damaged goods to any thoughtful American. I say this is a sound business move by WFXT.
What say I?
The national brand outweighs the local brand. I think this is a short-sighted decision.
I live in MA. The station is under new ownership (happened a couple years ago) and they promptly fired the two conservative opinion guys working with the morning show and doing spots for the new broadcasts. One was a talk guy from Worcester, Jim Polito, the other Howie Carr’s old sidekick.
They lost some of their best talent soon after that. They’ve already lost a ton of viewers.
Maria was in my neighborhood to interview Markey at his house. Took a walk by when the remote van was setting up. She wore,The Boots”. She even looked better in person. No wonder Howie would drool over her.
And i should cry a tear for our “good friends” at Fox because? Go to One America News - OAN IS what Faux News pretends to be; bye bye.
Probably getting constant hate from leftists about the FOX affiliation. And subsequently wimped out.
My wife watches WFXT in the AM for weather but leaves it on. When I hear it, all I hear is:
Local news sux.
It is Boston
And I assume Cox is the Cox Chambers media empire from Atlanta which has always been left
The Dixie Pritzker equivalent
Expected
My wife tends to have this station on in the kitchen when I get home from work. They used to be fairly middle of the road, and their coverage the night Speed Bump and Joker were captured after the Marathon Bombing was spectacular. But lately they have gotten on the left-wing crazy train. I actually request DVR’d Wheel of Fortune. Yes, it’s that bad.
“I and many others have not watched FNC or FBN one minute since they shamelessly tried to derail the Trump campaign.”
Same here. We haven’t cut the cable yet, but we’re close. We picked up Amazon Prime and Hulu last Christmas, and pretty much watch anything but “live” cable anymore. Fox’s efforts to go “diverse” cemented our departure from their audience.
Now watch their ratings suffer .
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