Fox Television Stations
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The Fox Television Stations are a group of television stations located within the United States which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the News Corporation. FTS also produces the Fox program COPS.
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[edit] History
Fox Television Stations was formed in April 1986 after the acquisition of the Metromedia-owned independent stations by the 20th Century Fox film studio, at the time jointly owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and Denver-based billionaire Marvin Davis. These stations would later become the basis of the Fox television network, which launched in October 1986. Not long after the Metromedia deal was made, Murdoch purchased Davis's shares and News Corporation assumed complete control of 20th Century Fox.
Initially FTS was a semi-autonomous unit in which News Corporation owned over 99 percent of the equity but only 24 percent of the voting power; the balance was held personally by Murdoch.[1] Federal Communications Commission regulations of that era prohibited foreign interests or non-American citizens from controlling more than 25 percent of an FCC-licensed broadcast station. Though News Corporation was still based in Australia, the firm first got around this hurdle when Murdoch became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985. The quirk was removed permanently when News Corporation reincorporated in the U.S. in 2004.[2] The Fox network itself and affiliated cable channels were not affected by these regulations.
Starting with the original six stations, Fox Television Stations gained the bulk of its group through two large transactions: the 1997 purchase of New World Communications, succeeding a 1993 business deal between the two companies which led to all of New World's stations switching from other networks to Fox during 1994-95; and the 2001 acquisition of the Chris-Craft/United group, which gave Fox ownership of several stations then affiliated with the UPN network, and also created several duopolies (two stations in the same market owned by the same company).
The Fox-owned UPN affiliates were not included in the UPN/WB merger, which was announced on January 24, 2006. Soon after, these stations removed references to UPN from their on-air branding and websites. On February 22, 2006, Fox Television Stations announced that all of their non-Fox outlets will be charter affiliates of a new service known as MyNetworkTV [2], which commenced operations on September 5, 2006.
[edit] List of Fox owned-and-operated stations
Currently, a total of 35 stations, consisting of 25 Fox stations and 10 MyNetworkTV stations.
Notes:
1) ** -- Indicates original Fox-owned stations from the network's inception in 1986;
2) ++ -- Indicates a station owned by New World Communications prior to its acquisition by News Corporation in 1997;
3) ¤¤ -- Indicates a station owned by Chris-Craft Industries prior to its acquisition by News Corporation in 2001.
| DMA# | City of license/Market | Station | Channel TV / DT |
Owned since | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | New York City | WNYW ** | 5 / 44 | 1986 | Fox |
| Secaucus, New Jersey | WWOR-TV ¤¤ | 9 / 38 | 2001 | MyNetworkTV | |
| 2. | Los Angeles | KTTV ** | 11 / 65 | 1986 | Fox |
| KCOP ¤¤ | 13 / 66 | 2001 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 3. | Chicago | WFLD-TV ** | 32 / 31 | 1986 | Fox |
| Gary, Indiana | WPWR-TV | 50 / 51 | 2002 | MyNetworkTV | |
| 4. | Philadelphia | WTXF-TV | 29 / 42 | 1995 | Fox |
| 5. | Dallas - Fort Worth | KDFW-TV ++ | 4 / 35 | 1997 | Fox |
| KDFI-TV | 27 / 36 | 1998 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 7. | Boston | WFXT | 25 / 31 | 1995 (previously owned from 1987-91) |
Fox |
| 8. | Atlanta | WAGA-TV ++ | 5 / 27 | 1997 | Fox |
| 9. | Washington, D.C. | WTTG ** | 5 / 36 | 1986 | Fox |
| WDCA-TV | 20 / 35 | 2002 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 10. | Houston | KTXH | 20 / 19 | 2002 | MyNetworkTV |
| KRIV-TV ** | 26 / 27 | 1986 | Fox | ||
| 11. | Detroit | WJBK-TV ++ | 2 / 58 | 1997 | Fox |
| 12. | Phoenix | KSAZ-TV ++ | 10 / 31 | 1997 | Fox |
| KUTP ¤¤ | 45 / 26 | 2001 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 13. | Tampa - St. Petersburg | WTVT ++ | 13 / 12 | 1997 | Fox |
| 15. | Minneapolis - St. Paul | KMSP-TV ¤¤ | 9 / 26 | 2001 | Fox |
| WFTC | 29 / 21 | 2002 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 17. | Cleveland - Akron | WJW-TV ++ [3] | 8 / 31 | 1997 | Fox |
| 18. | Denver | KDVR [3] | 31 / 32 | 1993 | Fox |
| Fort Collins, Colorado | KFCT [3] (satellite of KDVR) |
22 / 21 | 1994 | Fox | |
| 19. | Orlando - Daytona Beach | WOFL | 35 / 22 | 2002 | Fox |
| WRBW ¤¤ | 65 / 41 | 2001 | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 21. | St. Louis | KTVI ++ [3] | 2 / 43 | 1997 | Fox |
| 24. | Baltimore | WUTB ¤¤ | 24 / 41 | 2001 | MyNetworkTV |
| 31. | Kansas City, Missouri | WDAF-TV ++ [3] | 4 / 34 | 1997 | Fox |
| 34. | Milwaukee | WITI-TV ++ [3] | 6 / 33 | 1997 | Fox |
| 35. | Salt Lake City | KSTU [3] | 13 / 28 | 1990 | Fox |
| 40. | Birmingham - Tuscaloosa, AL | WBRC-TV [3] | 6 / 50 | 1995 | Fox |
| 46. | High Point - Greensboro - Winston-Salem, N.C. |
WGHP [3] | 8 / 35 | 1995 | Fox |
| 47. | Memphis | WHBQ-TV | 13 / 53 | 1994 | Fox |
| 51. | Austin, Texas | KTBC-TV ++ | 7 / 56 | 1997 | Fox |
| 162. | Ocala - Gainesville, FL | WOGX (semi-satellite of WOFL) |
51 / 31 | 2002 | Fox |
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ FCC Order 01-209, exhibit 'B'
- ^ FCC Order 06-122
- ^ a b c d e f g h i On December 22, 2007, the News Corporation announced that they will sell these Fox owned-and-operated television stations to Local TV LLC, a subsidiary of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. [1]
[edit] Former Fox-owned stations
- Atlanta: WATL-TV 36 -- A charter Fox affiliate which was bought by the network in 1993. A year later, after New World (then the owners of WAGA-TV) announced its partnership with Fox, WATL was sold to Qwest Broadcasting, which was controlled by musician Quincy Jones. It is currently a My Network TV affiliate owned by the Gannett Company.
- Boston: WCVB-TV 5 -- The seventh Metromedia station was included in the original sale of the Metromedia television group to News Corporation in 1986. However, News Corp. spun off the station immediately to the Hearst Corporation, honoring a promise Metromedia made to Hearst in 1982 (after Metromedia sold KMBC-TV in Kansas City to Hearst), giving the latter company a right of first refusal opportunity to purchase WCVB if the station ever again went up for sale.
- Dallas-Fort Worth: KDAF 33 -- One of six original Fox O&Os. After the Fox/New World alliance saw KDFW-TV pick up the Fox affiliation, KDAF was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting and become a WB affiliate. It is currently a CW affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting.
- Portland, Oregon: KPTV 12 -- A charter Fox affiliate (1986-88), KPTV was a UPN station when Fox bought out Chris-Craft, then was traded to the Meredith Corporation for WOFL and WOGX in 2001. Ironically, KPTV swapped affiliations with new sister station KPDX two years later.
- Salt Lake City: KTVX 4 -- ABC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United. As Fox already owned KSTU, KTVX could not be retained (the Salt Lake City market could not support such a duopoly under current FCC rules, which prohibit one company from owning two of the four largest stations in a single market), so KTVX was packaged along with KMOL-TV to Clear Channel (see below).
- San Antonio: WOAI-TV 4 -- NBC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United, previously known as KMOL-TV. When Chris-Craft sold its stations to Fox, this station (along with KTVX) was traded to San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications for Minneapolis-St. Paul's WFTC, then a Fox outlet. Clear Channel, which has owned WOAI radio since 1975, changed this station's calls back to the original WOAI-TV. WFTC would then trade affiliations with KMSP and become a UPN station.
- San Francisco: KBCW 44 -- UPN station acquired through the Chris-Craft purchase, previously known as KBHK-TV. With Fox already committed to KTVU as its Bay Area station through a long-term deal, KBHK was traded to Viacom (whose broadcasting properties were spun off as part of CBS Corporation in 2006) for KTXH and WDCA-TV in 2002. It was alleged that Fox tried to buy KTVU, but was repeatedly turned down by Cox Enterprises, who owns the station.
On a side note, in between the events of Fox acquiring its original charter affiliates and the New World affiliation agreement, only WTXF, WFXT, KDVR, WOFL, KSTU and WOGX were already affiliated with Fox when they were acquired much later on.
