WXXA-TV
FCC | |
Facility ID | 11970 |
---|---|
ERP | 22 kW |
HAAT | 437.2 m (1,434 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°37′31.3″N 74°0′36.7″W / 42.625361°N 74.010194°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WXXA-TV (channel 23) is a
WXXA-TV is the only commercial television station in Albany that has never changed its primary network affiliation or call letters.
History
WXXA signed on July 30, 1982
A
The station was owned by Albany TV 23, Inc. a group of investors led by president and
In July 1986, WXXA-TV agreed to become a charter affiliate of Fox,[3] which launched on October 9.[4] Initially, WXXA-TV still programmed itself as an independent, since Fox only aired one program (The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers) until April 1987 and even then would not present an entire week's worth of programming until the 1993–94 season. Shortly after Fox's launch, Albany TV 23 sold the station to Heritage Broadcasting Group (a Detroit-based company, unrelated to the similarly named Heritage Communications and Heritage Media, that was also in the process of acquiring WWTV in Cadillac, Michigan) for $10.1 million.[5][6] The station picked up programming from the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) block in 1993.[7]
In 1994, Heritage sold the station to Clear Channel Communications (now
When
WXXA-DT began airing on VHF channel 7 on December 20, 2005. A combination of objections from analog co-channels
On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of 22 of its 27 stations to the
On November 8, 2013, Media General shareholders approved the company's merger with New Young Broadcasting, which was completed on November 12.[17] The merged company kept the Media General name, and continued its agreements with Shield Media. More than two years later, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. The operations of WXXA and outright ownership of WTEN became part of "Nexstar Media Group."[18] Upon the sale's closure on January 17, 2017, the deal reunited WXXA with its former Newport sister stations that were sold to Nexstar in 2012.
On August 21, 2020, it was announced that Mission Broadcasting would acquire WXXA.[19][20] The acquisition was completed on November 23.[21]
WXXA-DT2
WXXA's second
News operation
On October 8, 1996, the station established a news department and began airing a nightly half-hour prime time newscast known as Fox News at 10. It was not the time slot's first show in the market, as WMHQ (now WCWN) launched a WNYT-produced broadcast earlier in the year; in 1998, that production was canceled due to a lack of support, leaving WXXA as the only outlet for a prime time show.
Filling a niche in local newscasts, its prime time broadcast was expanded on weeknights to an hour on September 4, 2000, and renamed Fox 23 News at 10. Upon launching the newscast, WXXA was successful in the time slot with high
On January 10, 2000, the station took on the area's big three outlets for the first time with the launch of Fox 23 News at 6:30. This show offered a local alternative to the national news broadcasts seen in the time slot. This was followed on March 26, 2001, by another show weeknights at 6 p.m. that directly competed with the other stations.
A change in upper management led to a realignment of early weeknight shows with the 6:30 p.m. broadcast moving to 5 p.m. in September 2002 and an expansion to an hour. Fox 23 News at 6 would eventually be dropped on June 27, 2003, due to low ratings and a re-focus on the success of its flagship 10 p.m. show by putting a significant investment in its news operation beginning in late 2003. The biggest move was the signing of former WNYT news anchor John Gray. Additional resources and capabilities were added to the station behind the scenes as well as on-the-air.
On April 17, 2006, it was announced WNYA would begin airing an hour-long extension of WRGB's weekday morning show from 7 until 8. This action could be seen as a preemptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by WXXA, which had announced its own plans to launch a weekday morning newscast two weeks earlier. The actual launch of Fox 23 News Mornings occurred September 18, 2006, and it initially ran for three hours from 5 until 8. WRGB subsequently moved the sixty-minute extension of its morning show from WNYA to WCWN, and in 2008 began producing a 10 p.m. newscast for that station, giving WXXA its first challenger in the time slot in a decade. WXXA reduced its weekday morning broadcast to a two-hour format (from 6 until 8) in Summer 2009 due to low viewership.
A final addition to newscast offerings on WXXA occurred June 29, 2009, when it launched a half-hour broadcast weeknights at 11 following a national trend by other Fox affiliates. Although Fox 23 News at 10 has remained popular with viewers, its weekday morning show and Fox 23 News at 11 continued to struggle in the ratings against long running newscasts on competing stations. Fox 23 News at 5 (seen on weeknights) was eventually cut to a half-hour for that same reason. In 2012, Fox 23 News A.M. was moved to the 7 to 9 time slot. WXXA was the last remaining news department in the Capital District that continued to broadcast local news in 4:3 standard definition, and it never upgraded to high definition or 16:9 widescreen during the time that the newscasts were produced in-house.
With the consolidation of WXXA with WTEN, the ABC affiliate took over production of channel 23's newscasts. The two stations' reporting staffs were merged immediately following Shield Media's purchase of WXXA was completed.[22] On January 24, 2013, WXXA discontinued its weeknight 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts, in order to focus more on the morning and 10 p.m. newscasts; in an announcement on its Facebook page; the station redirected viewers of the canceled newscasts to the WTEN newscasts in those time slots. The weekday morning (7–9 a.m.) and nightly 10 p.m. newscasts, which do not compete against WTEN's newscasts, remain on the station.[23][24]
On March 23, the consolidation was completed when all newscasts began originating from WTEN's studios produced in high definition. WXXA simulcasts WTEN's weekday morning show from 6 to 7 a.m. From 7 to 9 a.m., WTEN produces a newscast for WXXA as a local complement to
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
23.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WXXA-HD | Main WXXA-TV programming / Fox |
23.2 | 480i | WXXA-OT | Capital OTB TV (streams online) | |
23.3 | WXXA-GR | Grit | ||
23.4 | Rewind | Rewind TV | ||
23.5 | Crime | True Crime Network |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WXXA-TV shut down its analog signal, over
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WXXA-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "In Brief" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. 103 (5): 88–89. August 2, 1982.
- Albany Times Union. p. B8. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- Albany Times Union. September 12, 1986. p. 1B. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- Albany Times Union. p. B7. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ Haynes, Laura (July 22, 1986). "WXXA retains Fox; Boaz probably a 23 consultant". Knickerbocker News. p. 6B. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ Whiteside, Lee (April 6, 1995). "B5: Babylon 5 TV Station List/Times updated!". rec.arts.sf.tv. Google Groups. Retrieved November 27, 2006.
- Albany Times Union. Associated Press. September 16, 1994. p. B12. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- Albany Times Union. p. C5. Retrieved March 6, 2017.[permanent dead link]
- Albany Times Union. p. D6. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- Albany Times Union. p. D5. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- Albany Times Union. p. D4. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
- ^ Newport Sells 22 Stations For $1 Billion, TVNewsCheck, July 19, 2012.
- ^ "Galloway, Young Plan ABC-Fox Duop". TVNewsCheck. July 27, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
- ^ "The FCC granted the transaction on October 23" (PDF). Retrieved December 6, 2012.[dead link]
- ^ FCC Internet Services Staff. "Application Search Details". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "Media General, Young Now Officially One". TVNewsCheck. November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
- ^ Shareholders of Both Companies to Realize Immediate and Long-Term Value Archived January 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine © 2016 Media General. All rights reserved.
- ^ "Mission Consolidation Continues With Michigan, N.Y. Moves". Radio & Television Business Report. August 21, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
- ^ "Consummation Notice", CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, November 25, 2020, Retrieved November 25, 2020.
- Schenectady Gazette. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
- Albany Times-Union. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
- ^ McGuire, Mark (February 14, 2013). "Ann Hughes out in Fox 23 layoffs". Times Union. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WXXA
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.