WXIN
kW | |
HAAT | 304 m (997 ft) |
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Transmitter coordinates | 39°53′20″N 86°12′7″W / 39.88889°N 86.20194°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | fox59 |
WXIN (channel 59) is a
History
Prior history of UHF channel 59 in Central Indiana
The UHF channel 59 allocation in
WXIN station history
In the late 1970s, the FCC began taking applications for channel 59 in Indianapolis, receiving four, from Indianapolis Television Corporation; Channel 59 of Indiana; United Television Corporation of Indiana (owned by United Cable); and Indianapolis 59 (subsidiary of a young Sinclair Broadcast Group).[4] Indianapolis Television Corporation secured the channel in a joint settlement, reimbursing its competitors a combined $128,300 in the process.[5]
The new construction permit, initially held by Indianapolis Television—a consortium of
Palamara had promised the station would be on air by New Year 1984; due to weather delays, that turned into the
As a Fox affiliate (1986–present)
WXIN became a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company when the network launched on October 9, 1986, after WTTV—despite its status as one of the strongest independent stations in the country—turned down an offer to become an affiliate. As was the case with other Fox stations during the network's early years, channel 59 was still programmed as a de facto independent station, as Fox initially ran prime time programs only on weekends and would not offer nightly programming until September 1993. Until then, WXIN aired a movie at 8 p.m. on nights when network programs did not air. The station began identifying as "Fox WXIN 59" by 1988 (simply adding the Fox name to the "WXIN 59" branding in use since 1985), which was simplified to "Fox 59" in 1991; it also added more sitcoms to its inventory, and eventually began to overtake WTTV in the ratings. Outlet sold WXIN along with WATL in Atlanta to Chase Broadcasting in December 1989;[12] Chase subsequently merged with Renaissance Broadcasting in 1993.
Tribune acquired WTTV and its
In 2011, WXIN and
Sale to Nexstar Media Group
After a failed attempt by Sinclair Broadcast Group to acquire Tribune Media,[22][23][24][25] Nexstar Media Group—which had subsumed Media General's WISH and WNDY in 2017—announced in December 2018 that it would acquire the company.[26][27][28] Due to FCC ownership rules and scrutiny, Nexstar was required to divest two of the stations: the company ultimately elected to sell WISH and WNDY to the owner of Bayou City Broadcasting, in favor of retaining WTTV and WXIN.[29] The sale was completed on September 19, 2019.
Programming
In September 2013, WXIN became the
Channel 59 also airs select Indianapolis Colts telecasts, as part of Fox's National Football Conference package. Shortly before WTTV switched to CBS, the team announced a deal with Tribune Broadcasting that made WXIN and WTTV official broadcast partners. This means both stations will air Colts preseason games, team programming and coach's show beginning in the summer of 2015, though a majority of the games will air on WTTV, owing to CBS' AFC rights. Advertising within Lucas Oil Stadium is also included in the deal. Additionally, both stations carried the Super Bowl from 2019 to 2021, with WTTV carrying CBS coverage of Super Bowl LIII, WXIN airing Fox's coverage of Super Bowl LIV and CBS airing Super Bowl LV. (CBS and NBC switched Super Bowl coverage in 2021 and 2022; this was so that NBC would not have to worry about airing the Winter Olympics (which began nine days before Super Bowl LVI) against CBS' coverage of the Super Bowl. Thus, CBS aired Super Bowl LV in 2021 and NBC aired Super Bowl LVI in 2022.[32]) The only time the Colts would not play on a Nexstar station would be if they were scheduled for an NBC Sunday Night Football telecast, which would air on WTHR, or ESPN's Monday Night Football, which has traditionally aired on WRTV.[33] From 2018 to 2022, the Thursday Night Football telecast games were aired on WXIN, due to Fox carrying the package. (Thursday Night Football is now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.)
News operation
WXIN presently broadcasts 62+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10+1⁄2 hours each weekday and five hours each on Saturdays and Sundays, which includes IN Focus airing Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and Indy Sports Central Overtime airing Fridays and Sundays at 10:35 p.m.). Currently WXIN itself (excluding sister station WTTV) has the second largest local newscast output in Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. Combined with WTTV, Nexstar's Indianapolis duopoly broadcasts 88 hours of local news. Prior to 2017, WXIN had the largest local newscast output in both the Indianapolis market and the state. That changed with WISH-TV expanding to about 77 hours of local programing, coupled with the cancellations of FOX59 NewsPoint @ 11 on weekends. The sports highlight program Indy Sports Central Overtime is retitled Fast Break Friday or Football Friday Night on Fox during the high school basketball and football seasons.
News department history
Local newscasts debuted on channel 59 the day it started operations as WPDS-TV on February 1, 1984, with an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast, titled 59 Headline News; it was co-anchored by Ann Craig and Ken Owen, who later served as an anchor at WISH-TV, WANE and WRTV. Unable to compete with WTTV's longer-established prime time newscast in the
Long-form newscasts returned in September 1991 after Chase Broadcasting restarted a news department for WXIN, which began producing a nightly 35-minute newscast at 10 p.m.
WXIN expanded news programming outside its established 10 p.m. slot on March 29, 1999, when it premiered Fox 59 a.m. Formatted as a mix of news, entertainment and lifestyle features with a looser, "personality-driven" style inspired by morning radio programs, the show initially aired from 6 to 9 a.m., replacing infomercials and children's programs that had previously aired in that time period.[37][38] The program was reformatted as a more traditional morning newscast in 2004, and grew to beat competing local and national morning news programs in the 25–54 age demographic.[39] The station expanded the flagship 10 p.m. newscast to one hour on April 17, 2006;[40] until that point, WXIN had been among the largest news-producing Fox affiliates by market size that did not air an hour-long prime time newscast, either on a nightly basis or on weeknights only.
In May 2007, WXIN entered into a content partnership with the Indianapolis Business Journal to provide news and weather content for the newspaper.[41] On January 2, 2008, WXIN added an hour onto its morning newscast from 5 to 6 a.m., expanding it to four hours; a simulcast of the 6 to 9 a.m. block of the program began airing on WTTV on that date[42] (the WTTV simulcast later moved to that station's This TV-affiliated digital subchannel on September 13, 2010, before being dropped in September 2013). The station debuted a half-hour midday newscast at 11 a.m. nine months later on September 15.
Under the direction of now-former general manager Jerry Martin and his successor Larry Delia, and former news director Lee Rosenthal, WXIN spearheaded a major expansion of its news programming.[43] On September 21, 2009 (as other Tribune-owned Fox affiliates began to increase their news output, which the network had encouraged its stations to do since the 1990s), the station expanded its weekday morning newscast to 4+1⁄2 hours with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 a.m., and premiered an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast. On November 1, 2009, WXIN became the fourth television station in the Indianapolis market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; with the change, WXIN adopted the logo and graphic scheme used by Fox's owned-and-operated stations and certain affiliates (including some of its sister stations under Tribune ownership). On WXIN, this Fox graphics scheme and corresponding music package was already in use in some aspects (though the music package was used in all aspects) since 2006. The 11 a.m. newscast was dropped on January 1, 2010; WXIN then added an hour to its weekday morning newscast from 9 to 10 a.m. on January 4.
WXIN launched Indysportsnation.com in April 2009; in addition, the station debuted a weekend evening sports program that month, IndySportsNation Overtime (which replaced another highlight show, Fox 59 Sports Weekender), and sports segments during the station's newscasts were rebranded under the "IndySportsNation" banner. Morning newscasts expanded again on August 21, 2010, with the debut of three-hour weekend editions from 6 to 9 a.m. (as a result, WXIN became Tribune's first television station, since an attempt by its Chicago flagship WGN-TV for a few years during the 1990s, to carry a weekend morning newscast); three weeks later on September 13, the station debuted an hour-long weeknight 5 p.m. newscast.[43][44] The weekend morning newscasts expanded to four hours on January 8, 2011, with the addition of a 9 a.m. hour; this was followed on January 10, 2011, with the expansion of its weekday morning newscast to six hours with the addition of a half-hour at 4 a.m.[45]
WXIN furthered its evening news expansion on September 10, 2012, when it debuted an hour-long weeknight 6 p.m. broadcast.
When sister station WTTV announced that upon its switch to CBS it would launch a separate news operation from WXIN with its own on-air staff (similar to, though also differing in structure from the shared news operation of
Notable current on-air staff
- Lindy Thackston – weekday morning anchor
Notable former on-air staff
- Aishah Hasnie – investigative reporter (2011–2019; now at Fox News)[55]
- Catt Sadler – entertainment reporter and co-host of Hoosier Millionaire (later host of The Daily 10 on E!; now correspondent for E! News)
- Sara Snow – weekday morning reporter (formerly host of Get Fresh With Sara Snow on Discovery Health)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
59.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WXIN-DT | Main WXIN programming / Fox |
59.2 | 480i | 4:3 |
AntTV | Antenna TV |
59.3 | 16:9 | Rewind | Rewind TV | |
59.4 | Charge! | Charge! | ||
29.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WTTK-DT | WTTK )
|
Analog-to-digital conversion
WXIN shut down its analog signal, over
References
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- ^ a b Roysdon, Keith (August 10, 1985). "Indy station gets a more memorable name". Muncie Evening Press. Muncie, Indiana. p. T-2. Retrieved August 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WXIN". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "TV Applications" (PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook. 1981. p. C-184. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
- ^ "Indianapolis TV proceeding" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 12, 1981. p. 112. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
- ^ FCC History Cards for WXIN
- ^ a b Shull, Richard K. (March 18, 1983). "New Station, Familiar Names". Indianapolis News. p. 17. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
- ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting. July 25, 1983. p. 88. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
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- ^ "Sinclair may add WXIN 59 to stable". Indianapolis Business Journal. American City Business Journals. April 22, 1996. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
- ^ "Colts, Tribune sign deal to air shows on WXIN: WISH makes own adjustments in wake of change". Indianapolis Business Journal. American City Business Journals. May 29, 2006. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
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- ^ Jessell, Harry A.; Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar To Spin Off $1B In Stations". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
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- ^ WTTV, WRTV discuss joint newscast, Indianapolis Business Journal, April 1, 1991.
- ^ Wake-up call, Broadcasting & Cable, December 14, 1998.
- ^ Channel 59 bets on mornings, Indianapolis Business Journal, February 8, 1999.
- ^ MORRIS: Fox 59 is serious about local news, Indianapolis Business Journal, September 8, 2012.
- ^ Late News Gets Earlier, Broadcasting & Cable, June 12, 2006.
- ^ IBJ, Channel 59 strike news partnership, Indianapolis Business Journal, June 11, 2007.
- ^ WXIN to simulcast morning news on WTTV, Indianapolis Business Journal, December 3, 2007.
- ^ a b WXIN expanding its news programming, Indianapolis Business Journal, June 10, 2010.
- ^ Fox59 adds more newscasts, WXIN, June 10, 2010.
- ^ Fox59 Morning News to Start at 4 AM, Fox59.com, December 15, 2010.
- ^ "Central Indiana's largest news producer grows even bigger".
- ^ Local Fox affiliate fattens up on news, Indianapolis Business Journal, October 30, 2010.
- Indianapolis Star, June 23, 2014.
- ^ WXIN, Paper In News, Promo Partnership, TVNewsCheck, June 23, 2014.
- ^ Malone, Michael (April 28, 2014). "WXIN Indianapolis Adding 7, 11 P.M. News". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
- ^ "Nicole Pence lands at Fox59 as anchor of new newscast". Indianapolis Business Journal. April 28, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
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- ^ Rakes, Amanda (November 12, 2014). "WTTV announces anchor teams for new newscasts beginning January 1". Fox59.com. WXIN/Tribune Media. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
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- ^ "Aishah Hasnie anchors FOX59′s First at Four and is a FOX59 Investigates reporter". FOX 59. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
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- ^ "CDBS Print".
External links
- Official website
- Indianapolis.ThisTV.com - WXIN-DT3 ("This TV Indianapolis") official website
- "Listing 1030684". Antenna Structure Registration database. U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
- WPDS opening sign-on on YouTube