Studio 31 Media Archive's video: WFXT Boston 25 Morning News Open Promos 10 14 2021 New Music

4:30am news open, bump-out to break, and promos taken from the Thursday, October 14, 2021 edition of the morning newscast on Apollo Global Management's Fox affiliate in Boston, Massachusetts. As of at least yesterday, WFXT is now using the same Stephen Arnold-composed theme first heard on sister station WHBQ FOX13 in Memphis. The two stations have a lot in common, including sharing the same graphics package (designed internally at WFXT), and being former FOX O&Os that were traded by the network to Cox Media Group in exchange for their Bay Area cluster of KTVU-KICU. So it's only fitting WFXT now uses the same music as WHBQ. This is rumored to be the new standardized theme package for Cox stations, but it remains to be seen if that will actually be the case. We'll just have to wait and see. I did leave in a bit more here than usual because it sounds like they are using more variety with the package compared to WHBQ. WFXT struggles in the ratings (regularly beaten by independent WHDH) and recently cut both staff and news airtime as they conform to the Apollo cost-cutting approach that the legacy Cox family wasn't generally known for. The harder approach Cox is known for hasn't really taken hold in Boston (WHDH could be a reason why; the hard-news, no-nonsense hole is also filled very well by WCVB). In contrast, other operations taken over by Cox in the last decade (WHBQ, WJAX/WFOX, KOKI) have all seen their ratings increase, but that could be the shape of other stations in those markets and being vulnerable for competition. WHBQ also has not increased as widely as the former Newport stations and remains a comfortable third. Still, all perform better than WFXT, a regular 4th or 5th finisher in Boston's ratings. The station's voiceover is John Pleisse. Anchored by Nicole Oliverio and Heather Hegedus; Shiri Spear weather; Catherine Parrota traffic. ©2021 Cox Media Group and WFXT-TV, no copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off of this video.