The Downfall of Channel 25 in Boston: A Timeline

This is The Chronicles of Trevor, the blog that will always be owned and operated by Trevor Hart.

From a station owned by the folks who brought you The 700 Club, to a Fox affiliate featured in The Practice and Boston Legal, It's no surprise that WFXT in Boston has had such an interesting history. Today, I will talk about the history of Channel 25, from the rise to its fall.

In 1969, a license for channel 25 was given to a company called WREP-TV, Inc. This iteration of channel 25 never made it on air, and was dark until 1977.

October 10th of that year was when the late Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network acquired the license to broadcast on channel 25, with the call letters of WXNE, meaning Christ in New England. Christ is often abbreviated as X, which is also where Xmas comes from, but I digress. WXNE was an independent station that would air family-friendly programming, and the ultra-iconic CBN flagship series, The 700 Club. CBN would own 25 for 10 years. 

A year after Rupert Murdoch acquired the stations formerly owned by Metromedia, he approached CBN with a deal to acquire channel 25. WCVB was owned by Metromedia, but a month before Murdoch's acquisition, was spun off, with a new owner, WCVB, Inc. Murdoch wanted a station in every top 10 market, so he went to CBN to acquire WXNE. They accepted, and WXNE became the current WFXT. The calls stand for FoX Television, representing the new owners (Fox Television Stations, Inc.) and network affiliation.

WFXT would go on to become one of Fox's flagship stations, along with the stations acquired from Metromedia, but in 1990, since Rupert Murdoch acquired the Boston Herald, FTS sold WFXT to the Celtics. Yup, THE BOSTON CELTICS once owned a TV Station! The C's then started a new group called Boston Celtics Communications Limited Partnership, which consisted of WFXT and WEEI-AM, who would also broadcast non-NBC Celtics games. They even had a mascot for WFXT, a cartoon fox dressed in a Celtics jersey numbered 25. 

I'd say that this era of WFXT was one of the best eras, because of this mascot alone.

In 1994, the same year that 20th Century Fox introduced its CGI logo with the Schwarzenegger film True Lies, Fox Television Stations re-acquired WFXT, and the fox mascot was no more. But with this came a newscast called Fox News Boston, produced in-house by the station themselves (prior to this, New England Cable News (NECN) produced 25's newscasts). The theme for FNB, called "First on Fox", was commissioned by WFXT and composed by Stephen Arnold Music. This theme was a horn-driven tune with some sax accompaniment, and guitar backing chords. This theme would last until 2004, when an unknown theme was composed by an unknown artist, and used by 25, a punk rock-esque tune with the 20th Century Fox drumroll at the beginning. Back to 1997, Fox 25 introduced the numeral 25 that would be used in its logos until 2015. But I digress. In 2003, Fox 25 introduced its well-known voiceover, Russ Harris. He would be the voice of the station until 2015.

2006 was a time of standardization at Fox Television Stations. Every Fox O&O station changed their logo to the famous "Boxkite" design, and used a electric-guitar driven theme composed by New York-based music group OSI Music, led by famous theme music composers Reed Hayes and Phil Garrod. This dynamic duo also co-composed the NFL on Fox theme with Scott Schreer, and the theme to "The O'Reilley Factor" and other Fox News Channel cues. This new theme was called the rather generic "Fox Affiliate News Theme". It is one of the most memorable news themes I've ever heard.

This is the studio of OSI Music. Pretty neat, huh?

2009 saw the analog-to-digital switchover, and new HD "Boxkite" graphics. This is the most nostalgic era for me!

But in 2011, Fox started de-emphasizing the Boxkite logos and went back to the normal horizontal FOX (NUMBER) logos.

Keep in mind, they still used the Boxkite logos on promos and the PSA's aired on E/I weekend programs.

Sadly in 2014, Fox traded WFXT and Memphis sister station WHBQ to Cox Media Group, for the San Francisco duopoly of KTVU and KICU. In my opinion, that was the downfall of WFXT, and the end of an era in Boston media. The changes were unnoticeable until 2015, when WFXT changed its logo to one that looks like a market 200 station. The FOX logo was replaced by the name FOX in a bland Helvetica Italic font. 3 years later, CMG pulled a Disney before it was cool, by changing the FOX25 brand to Boston 25. So far, the Boston 25 branding has been disastrous for the station. Keep in mind this was 2 years before Disney made the unconventional decision to deface 20th Century Fox and turn it into 20th Century Studios. Way to go, Cox Media Group, for ruining my childhood by defacing the station I have watched my whole life.

Here's the logo history of the station.

P.S. Fox also blundered with KTVU. They added the FOX logo next to the iconic 2 logo, when the 2 used to stand alone. They never called themselves "FOX 2" under CMG ownership. Fox even made the confusing decision to brand KICU "KTVU Plus". It is confusing because they're using the KTVU calls on a station with the call letters KICU. Also, two TV stations can't have the same call letters. So I would've called it "TV36" or something along those lines.