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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 74.14.24.50 (talk) at 16:41, 11 July 2013 (→Notable former on-air staff: Removed unreferenced entries without a preexisting article, please see article talk page.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the unlicensed Rhode Island College radio station, see WXIN (FM).

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WXIN is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Indianapolis, Indiana, television market. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 (virtual channel 59.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on West 73rd Street (or Westlane Road). Owned by the Tribune Company, WXIN is sister to CW affiliate WTTV and the stations share studios at Network Place (near 71st Street & I-465) on Indianapolis' northwest side.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
59.1 1080i 16:9 WXIN-DT Main WXIN-TV programming / Fox
59.2 480i 4:3 AntTV Antenna TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WXIN shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009,[1] and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 45.[2] Digital television receivers display WXIN's virtual channel as 59 through the use of PSIP.

History

During the 1950s, the UHF channel 59 frequency was assigned to Lafayette, Indiana (northwest of Indianapolis). Sarkes Tarzian signed on CBS affiliate WFAM-TV in that city in 1953, before it was moved to UHF channel 18 in 1957 (the station now uses the callsign WLFI-TV). After the Lafayette station moved off channel 59, that channel allocation would remain dormant until the frequency was later reassigned to Indianapolis by the Federal Communications Commission.

Channel 59, as an Indianapolis station, signed on the air on February 1, 1984, as independent station WPDS-TV. The station was originally locally owned, with a programming lineup featuring cartoons, movies, old sitcoms, drama shows and a short-lived hour-long evening newscast. The WPDS callsign stood for the initials of the station's three principals: Ron Palamara, founder of locally-based Anacomp, Inc.; Chris Duffy, former station manager of WTHR (channel 13); and Melvin Simon, co-founder of shopping mall giant Simon Property Group and co-owner of the NBA's Indiana Pacers. The station was sold to Outlet Broadcasting in 1985, and had its call letters to changed the current WXIN. On October 9, 1986, WXIN became the Indianapolis charter affiliate of the upstart Fox network, beating out longer-established WTTV in a significant upset.

By the late 1980s, the station was branded on-air as "Fox 59", and had added more sitcoms to its schedule; channel 59 began to overtake WTTV in the ratings. Chase Broadcasting bought WXIN in 1989, Chase subsequently merged with Renaissance Broadcasting in 1993. Current owner Tribune Broadcasting bought Renaissance's television properties, including WXIN, in 1997. Under Tribune ownership, the station had gradually added more talk shows, reality series and court shows.

Tribune acquired WTTV and its satellite WTTK from Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2002, creating a duopoly with WXIN. However, Tribune chose not to move the Fox affiliation to WTTV/WTTK and The WB affiliation to WXIN. This was because WTTV's primary broadcast signal during the analog television era did not cover the entire Indianapolis market, requiring its Kokomo satellite WTTK to beam its signal to northern portions of the market). That same year, WXIN relocated from its previous studios on North Meridian Street in Indianapolis' Television Row to its current facilities at 6910 Network Place on Indianapolis' northwest side.

In 2011, WXIN became one of only two remaining full-power Fox affiliates in the state of Indiana (along with South Bend's WSJV) that held a primary channel affiliation with the network due to a dispute between Fox and Nexstar Broadcasting Group over reverse compensation of retransmission consent fees that led to Nexstar's Evansville,[3] Fort Wayne[4] and Terre Haute[5] stations losing their Fox affiliations, which moved to digital subchannels of stations whose main channel carries an affiliation with one of the Big Three networks (WFFT rejoined Fox on March 1, 2013, as part of the settlement of a lawsuit between Nexstar and Granite Broadcasting over Granite's two stations (WPTA and WISE-TV) in Fort Wayne having affiliations with five networks). After WFFT-TV lost its Fox affiliation, WXIN became the longest-tenured Fox affiliate in Indiana.

News operation

File:Wxin news 2012.png
News open.

WXIN presently broadcasts 60 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10 hours on weekdays, and five hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local newscast output among the Indianapolis market's broadcast television stations and the largest of any station (and Fox affiliate) in the state of Indiana. It is also the highest weekly newscast output among Tribune Broadcasting's TV stations, ahead of Los Angeles CW affiliate KTLA by four hours. Weekday morning meteorologist Jim O'Brien is the only member of WXIN's weather staff (and one of four Indianapolis television meteorologists) that has a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society, which he earned in July 2007.

In 1984, channel 59 ran a short-lived hour-long primetime newscast called 59 Headline News that was anchored by Ken Owen (later with CBS affiliate WISH-TV and ABC affiliate WRTV). The station ran only news updates for another six years, until WXIN began producing a 10 p.m. newscast once again in 1991, which later expanded from 35 to 60 minutes on April 17, 2006. The station launched a weekday morning newscast in 1999, which also expanded from three to four hours on January 2, 2008. On September 15, 2008, the station debuted half-hour midday newscast at 11 a.m. on weekdays. From January 2, 2008 to September 18, 2009, WTTV simulcast the 4:30-6 a.m. portion of WXIN's morning news (which has since moved to that station's This TV-affiliated second digital subchannel). In addition, the station broadcasts live half-hour editions of the 10 p.m. newscast on WTTV on nights when Fox Sports telecasts are scheduled to air on the station past 10 p.m. (under the repurposed title News at Ten, used in name only as the Fox 59 News logo bug is shown during WTTV's telecasts of the program); an additional half-hour live newscast then airs following the game on WXIN.

On September 21, 2009, WXIN expanded its morning newscast to 4½ hours from 4:30-9 a.m., and launched an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast (WXIN's Fox-affiliated sister stations owned by Tribune began increasing their news output during September 2009, as the network encouraged its stations to do so for the past decade). On November 1, 2009, WXIN became the fourth Indianapolis television station to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition, with WXIN adopting the logo and graphic scheme used by Fox's owned-and-operated stations and other affiliates of the network (including select others owned by Tribune Broadcasting). The 11 a.m. newscast was dropped on January 4, 2010, as the station once again expanded its weekday morning newscast with one hour added the program at 9 a.m.

WXIN launched Indysportsnation.com in April 2009, with sports segments featured on WXIN's newscasts rebranded under the "IndySportsNation" banner in accordance. The station produces a weekend sports wrap-up program (that is broadcast in front of a live studio audience) called IndySportsNation Overtime, which runs for a half-hour at 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, along with a 25-minute version at 10:35 p.m. on Fridays (which is retitled Fast Break Friday or Football Friday Night on Fox during the high school basketball and football seasons). On August 21, 2010, WXIN launched a three-hour weekend morning newscast, making it Tribune's first television station (since a relatively short-lived attempt by Chicago flagship WGN-TV in the 1990s) and the first Fox affiliate in Indiana to carry a morning news program on weekends; three weeks later on September 13, 2010, the station also debuted an hour-long weeknight news broadcast at 5 p.m.[6][7]

The weekend morning newscasts expanded to four hours on January 8, 2011, with the addition of a 9 a.m. hour; followed on January 10, 2011, with the expansion of its weekday morning newscast to six hours by adding a half-hour at 4 a.m.[8] On September 10, 2012, the station debuted an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast, creating a three-hour early evening local news block from 4-7 p.m. [9][10]

On June 15, 2013, WXIN debuted new graphics that are also used by sister station WXMI in Grand Rapids, MI.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • 59 Headline News (1984–1985)
  • WXIN News Extra (1985–1991)[11]
  • Fox 59 Nightcast (1991–1994)
  • Fox News at 10:00 (1994–1997)
  • Fox 59 News (1997–present)[12][13]

Station slogans

  • "Indiana's Best" (1988–1991)[14]
  • "Think First. Think Fast." (1999–2002)
  • "News That Works for You" (2002–2009)
  • "On It." (2009–2011)[15]
  • "Indiana's Fox" (2012–present; used in promos since 2010)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors
  • Jenny Anchondo - weekday mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (4:00-6:00 a.m.)
  • Ray Cortopassi - weekday mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (7:00-10:00 a.m.) and weekdays at 4:00 p.m.
  • Bob Donaldson - weeknights at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
  • Angela Ganote - weekday mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (6:00-10:00 a.m.)
  • Scott Jones - weekday mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (4:00-7:00 a.m.)
  • Zach Myers - weekend mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (6:00-10:00 a.m.); also weekday morning reporter
  • Aishah Hasnie [a] - weekdays at 4:00 p.m.
  • Dan Spehler - weekends at 10:00 p.m., also reporter
  • Fanchon Stinger - weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
  • TBD - weeknights at 5:00 p.m.
Fox 59 Weather Authority
  • Brian Wilkes (NWA Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; Thursdays and Fridays at 4:00 and 5:00 and weeknights at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.
  • Jim O'Brien (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Fox 59 Morning News (4:00-10:00 a.m.)
  • Jennifer Ketchmark - meteorologist; Mondays-Wednesdays at 4:00 and 5:00 and weekends at 10:00 p.m.
  • Ron Smiley (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings (6:00-10:00 a.m.)
Sports team
Reporters

^[a] Indicates reporter also serves as a fill-in anchor

Notable former on-air staff

References

  1. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
  2. ^ CDBS Print
  3. ^ "Fox ends affiliation with WTVW," from Evansville Courier & Press, May 11, 2011.
  4. ^ Nexstar's Fort Wayne Fox Going Independent, Broadcasting & Cable, July 19, 2011.
  5. ^ Foulkes, Arthur (June 30, 2011). "Channel 38 switching from Fox to ABC". Tribune-Star. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  6. ^ Fox59 adds more newscasts, WXIN, June 10, 2010.
  7. ^ http://www.ibj.com/wxin-expanding-its-news-programming/PARAMS/article/20455 WXIN expanding its news programming], Indianapolis Business Journal, June 10, 2010.
  8. ^ Fox59 Morning News to Start at 4 AM, Fox59.com, December 15, 2010.
  9. ^ Central Indiana's largest news producer grows even bigger
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ WXIN October 1989 News break
  12. ^ WXIN-TV Fox 59 open (11/1/09)
  13. ^ WXIN News Open 1999
  14. ^ WXIN 59 - Indiana's Best!
  15. ^ WXIN Promo Montage (11/1/09)
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