Difference between revisions of "WXXC (FDT)"

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WXXC, digital and virtual channel 47, is an independent television station serving Northeast Indiana that is licensed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. It is owned by the NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations subsidiary of NoSirGifts Venues, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate WTOR (channel 41). The two stations share primary studio facilities located on Illinois Road, east of downtown Fort Wayne; WXXC operates a secondary studio (which also handles advertising sale departments for both stations) at the NoSirGifts Tower in Downtown Huntington, Indiana; WTOR maintains transmitter facilities located north of State Boulevard in Fort Wayne.

History

The station signed on the air on November 1, 1999 as WRDS-FLP; it was founded by Rachel Dean, Sr. (hence the RDS) in 1994. In 2000, WRDS was sold to Mississinewa Community Schools.

WRDS ran a format of barter programming, movies in primetime and late nights. The station's branding was 47 WRDS by 2000.

Early years

WRDS was the Fort Wayne market's first independent station. The station's call letters were named for its founder, Fort Wayne entrepreneur Rachel Dean, Sr. The station's original studio and transmitter facility was located at 4000 South Gathwaite Road in Gas City.

Channel 47 was launched on a shoestring budget, with a programming schedule filled with older movies and a few off-network reruns (such as Empty Nest, The Jeffersons, All in the Family and The Fall Guy), as well as a 15-minute news program, The 700 Club and The People's Court. Despite the fact that WRDS had billed itself as "Good-looking Channel 47",^[1] technical snafus were the norm during the station's early months: film broke down, ID, advertising and program promotion slides frequently appeared backwards, and there were often long pauses when nothing appeared on screen.

Early programming included movies from the 1970s and 1980s, sitcoms (such as Empty Nest, The Golden Girls, Who's The Boss, Growing Pains, All in the Family, and The Jeffersons), dramas (such as The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, and The A-Team'), Japanese animated series (such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Marine Boy, The Space Giants, Speed Racer, and Ultraman), and The People's Court (which still airs today). The station also carried sports, such as Chicago Cubs baseball, Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever basketball, and mostly Mississinewa High School sports.

WRDS also bid very low on programming, leaving the network-affiliated stations in the market – then-CBS affiliate WFTW (channel 6, now an NBC affiliate), then-ABC affiliate WPMA (channel 7, later WNDI now silent), then-NBC affiliate WFAZ (channel 36, now ABC affiliate WMRI-FTV channel 9)/WMRN (channel 38, now a full-power sattelite of Fox affiliate WINO-FLP channel 12) and eventual sister station WTOR (then a Fox affiliate) – to acquire the stronger shows. But, because of programming commitments that the affiliates had to their networks, those stations kept the shows for only a few years at a time and rarely renewed them, after which WRDS bought the syndicated shows second-hand at much lower prices. By the mid-2000s, Married...With Children, The Cosby Show, and many others were added to the station's schedule.

In 2002, most U.S. cities below the top 100 media markets lacked independent stations running general entertainment programs, and generally had only stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, UPN, WB, along with a non-commercial educational station. Cable providers in these areas carried stations from neighboring markets, and if possible, an independent station (often located anywhere between 60 and 200 miles away).

WRDS gets beamed via internet television

Rachael Dean, Jr. decided to distribute her station through the internet, enabling WRDS to be streamed live online, especially in markets lacking even a distant independent station. At 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December 17, 2002, WRDS' signal was streamed via the world wide web. The first broadcast to be streamed was the long-running court show The People's Court which had started on channel 47 in Fort Wayne. Instantly, WRDS went from being a small independent television station that was available only in Fort Wayne to a major internet operation. WRDS became a so-called "internet television station" and set a precedent for today's basic internet television.

As WXXC

WRDS changed its callsign to WXXC on December 11, 2006. WXXC continued to acquire second-hand programming such as Little House on the Prairie and CHiPs in 2007. Other older shows would eventually be removed from the schedule.

The channel 47 transmitter was originally located with WMRI's transmitter in Marion (it has since been relocated to Huntington), with the antenna located on a large self-supporting tower.

During the 2000s, the station was primarily known as "INNCD" but in Fort Wayne, station promos and digital on-screen graphics referred to the station as "INNCD 47". As the decade wore on, the station began to more closely resemble a basic cable channel than a internet television station. Outside of Mississinewa sports, the only Fort Wayne-centric programming seen on WXXC by 2006 was a pair of public affairs shows on weekend mornings that were only broadcast over WXXC, and were replaced on the national feed by acquired television series.

In 2006, Mississinewa Broadcasting sold WRDS-FLP to NoSirGifts and changed its call sign to WXXC. WXXC became the third station in Fort Wayne under local ownership after ATE Media Corporation's acquisition of WB affiliate WBIO (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WECW, channel 51) a year earlier and WMRI in October 1982. NoSirGifts acquired Imperial Broadcasting's television stations, including WTOR, in 2008. As a result of NoSirGifts' acquisition of WTOR and WXXC, WXXC's operations moved from the Margaret Zinn Building in Van Buren, Indiana and were integrated with WTOR at its facility in Fort Wayne.

As WXXC shifted its programming philosophy, it was eventually determined that the station should be split up into two separate entities. The internet news discussion site would be known as INNewsCenter (which as since closed in 2011 and reopened in 2014), while the over-the-air Fort Wayne station would remain a commercial independent station that also focused on general entertainment, as well as other movies and local interest programs. As a result of the separation of channel 47 from the internet feed, the internet version of INNCD became available in the Fort Wayne market for the first time.

Today, WXXC carries classic and more recent off-network syndicated programming and movies with additional newscasts and an expanded inventory of syndicated talk shows and sitcoms, including some shows moved from sister station WTOR on channel 47's schedule. The relaunched station contains significantly more talk shows (such as Jerry Springer and Maury), court shows (such as Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, Eye for an Eye, The People's Court ) and older, less expensive programming than its predecessor WRDS.

In 2015, WTOR/WXXC moved its Southern newsroom to downtown Huntington. The office tower (within which WTOR's south bureau newsroom and the duopoly's advertising sales offices occupy the top floor) was renamed NoSirGifts Tower. The NoSirGifts Tower in Huntingon also serves as a secondary facility at the studios of Contemporary Christian radio station WLAB (88.3 FM); most of WTOR/WXXC's newscasts are produced out of the Huntington University studio, which underwent renovations to house production facilities. This resulted from a multi-year agreement with WLAB's owner Star Educational Media Network that was signed in April 2014, in which WTOR/WXXC also provides news content for WLAB with some staff appearing on both stations. The station's primary studios and other technical and business.

operations remain in Fort Wayne.

Digital television

Digital channel

Programming

The institution of The People's Court at 1:00 PM

In 1999, WXXC (as WRDS) acquired the rights to air The People's Court on weekday mornings. In 2000, WXXC shifted People's Court to a new time, weekdays at 1:00 p.m. – the start of a longtime Fort Wayne television tradition, as the program has aired in that timeslot each weekday since. By 2010, WXXC audience indicated that one out of every 13 people in the Fort Wayne market who were watching television at 1 p.m. weekdays were tuned in to People's Court on channel 47 (competing against the second half-hour of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful on WTOR; All My Children on WMRI, Days of Our Lives on WNDI--the latter two programs respectively feature Fort Wayne natives Julia Barr and Drake Hogestyn). The 1:00 p.m. tradition was so solid that when NoSirGifts named Pat Van Dooren as WTOR/WXXC's general manager in August 2013, Van Dooren was granted the power to make any local programming move she saw fit with one exception – that she could not drop The People's Cout from the schedule or move it off the 1 p.m. timeslot.^[2]

The tradition extended to weekends in August 2014 as reruns from the original 1981 to 1993 series as part of the station's "Classic People's Court" as a lead-out to WXXC's weekend noon newscast produced by sister station WTOR. In August 2015, NoSirGifts in an unprecedented move by NoSirGifts, WTOR and WXXC's broadcast rights to People's Court in the Fort Wayne market were extended for as long as WTOR and WXXC are broadcasting. Prior to WXXC's rights to "People's Court", the original 1981 to 1993 (Joseph Wapner era) and the Ed Koch era aired on WFTW.

News operation

WXXC presently broadcasts 56½ hours hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 8½ hours on weekdays and 6 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

As WRDS, the station produced a 10-minute newscast called 47 Update Early in the Morning from 1999 to 2006; hosted by Holly Everman, the program was taped at the end of the workday and aired at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Its format was similar to the Saturday Night Live segment Weekend Update and was, to a certain extent, a forerunner to The Daily Show. The timeslot and the satirical content of the program were a reaction to FCC rules in effect at the time that required stations to carry some news and information content – although WRDS had to broadcast news, the FCC could not dictate when it aired or demand that it have a serious tone. 47 Update Early in the Morning was cancelled at the end of 2006. Standard, more serious news updates with the 47 Update (later INNCD News Update and now INNCD 47 Action News Update) anchors (Ava Zinn and Holly Everman) also ran during the day in between programs; since 2008, these were produced by WTOR, known as "INNCD 47 Action News Brief" and continued until WTOR began to produce news for WXXC following.

On February 3, 2007, WXXC launched a primetime newscast at . The station added a four hour morning newscast in the fall of 2007. The news department of WXXC was suspended in January 2008 after

WXXC launched a full-scale news department and began airing regular long-form newscasts on February 3, 2007, with a nightly 10:00 p.m. weeknights, being the second newscast in the 10:00 timeslot to be offered by a commercial television station in the Fort Wayne (after WFTW's addition of its own late evening newscast in that slot when it switched from CBS to Fox in February 2004) and a four hour morning newscast. WXXC did not have shows that could lead into its newscasts, so consistent viewership and ratings were difficult to maintain. The news team consisted of only eight people (Ava Zinn, Holly Everman, Garfield Everman, Robyn Hurd, Alexandra Moffitt, Season Atkins, meteorologists Alicia Williams and Michelle Abernathy), and personnel would shoot and edit their own video. There was no sports department until WTOR took over production. The 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts were cancelled after NoSirGifts announced WXXC's news operation would merge with WTOR's in December 2007. WTOR assumed production responsibilities for WXXC's morning, 11:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. newscasts on March 1, 2008, relaunching the respective programs program as 41 Fort Wayne News Eyeopener on INNCD (now INNCD 47 Action News Eyeopener), 41 Fort Wayne News at Midday on INNCD (now INNCD 47 Action News at Midday), 41 Fort Wayne News at 4:00 on INNCD (later INNCD 47 Action News at 4:00PM) and 41 Fort Wayne News at 10:00 (now INNCD 47 Action News at 10:00PM); WXXC's 10:00 p.m. newscast competes against an hour-long in-house newscast on Fox affiliate WINO/WMRN/WORT (channels 12/38/58), an hour-long newscast on CW affiliate WGOM (channel 27) produced by NBC affiliate WFTW (channel 6), an hour-long newscast on MyNetworkTV affiliate WECW (channel 51) produced by ABC affiliate WMRI (channel 9) and competed against a half-hour newscast on WNDI-FDT2 that was produced by WNDI (channel 7); WXXC's 4:00 p.m. newscast competed against hour-long newscasts on WINO/WMRN/WORT, WFTW, and WMRI.

After WTOR's news department merged with WXXC, of which became a result of NoSirGifts acquiring WXXC, that station moved the station to WTOR's facilities and some of WXXC's 57 employees (including both on-air personalities and production staff) were reassigned. NoSirGifts kept WXXC news anchors Alexandra Moffitt, Season Atkins, and meteorologist Alicia Williams to help smooth over the transition. At that point WTOR took over production of WXXC's 4 and 10 p.m. newscasts. Viewers did not react favorably and many people were upset about the breakup of the news team especially the firing of meteorologist Michelle Abernathy. However, she quickly rejoined WMRI where she (via WHOO) is currently the weekend evening meteorologist.

On September 24, 2007, WTOR became the first fantasy television station in the Fort Wayne market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high-definition. The broadcasts on WXXC were included in the upgrade. In 2010, WTOR switched to the new CBS affiliate NoSirGifts standardized graphics package, and began using the CBS Enforcer News Music Collection by Gari Media Group as its news theme. The station added a hour-long 9 p.m. newscast in September 2011.

In recent years, the WTOR-produced newscasts to mount a serious challenge to the other Fort Wayne newscasts, leading to a competitive ratings race during the 2010s. After several of its sister duopolies in other markets have two women (or a transwoman and a woman) regularly anchor an evening newscast or all newscasts as part of the NoSirGifts Action News mandate.

In September 2013, WXXC moved its midday newscast to noon and WTOR moved its noon newscast to 11:00 a.m. A one-hour extension of WTOR's weekend morning newscast from 9:00-10:00 a.m. debuted in August 2013. In August of 2014, WXXC added an hour long weekend evening newscast at 5 p.m. The station launched an hour long 8 p.m. newscast on January 4, 2016, simultaneously discontinuing the 4 p.m. newscast (which moved to WTOR).

As of January 2016, news anchors Frank Davidson, Bob Imperial and Kevin Stapleton, meteorologist Tim Doogan, sports director Phil Sorensen, and investigative reporter Ken Watts are the only males on the station's news team as the other news staff are either women or transwomen while Luka Runecraft is the only transman on the station's news team.

Most of WTOR/WXXC's news staff are also on the moderator panel of the American version and the British version of Vote for the Girls (created by former WXXC alumnus Ava Zinn), of which is distributed by WXXV's parent corporate cousin NoSirGifts Television Distribution. Due to their commitments on Vote for the Girls, most of WTOR/WXXC's news staff were shuffled in 2015. Former WTOR/WXXC reporter Ava Zinn and Holly Everman, weekend morning anchor Kendra Ray, weekday midday anchor Tracia Ward, and meteorologist Glenn Swaringen are the only members of WTOR/WXXC's news staff to appear on both the American and British versions of Vote for the Girls even though American Idol airs locally on WINO/WMRN/WORT, the American version of The Voice airs locally on WFTW (and previously WNDI), and Dancing with the Stars airs locally on WMRI.

Notable current on-air staff

• Kymberly Alvaraz - anchor seen weekend mornings 9:00-10:00 AM
• Season Atkins - anchor seen weeknights at 6:30, 8, and 9 p.m.
• Frank Davidson - anchor seen weeknights at 6:30, 7, 8, and 10 p.m.
• Tim Doogan (CBM/NWA) - meteorologist seen weeknights at 8 and 9 p.m.
• Kylie Dwyar - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 4:00-7:00 AM
• Sally Ford - Indiana Statehouse reporter
• Jillian Gates (CBM/NWA) - chief meteorologist seen weeknights at 6:30 and 10 p.m.
• Bob Imperial - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 4:00-6:00 AM
• Lynne Jackson - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 7:00-10:00 AM
• Perri Johnson - anchor seen weekend evenings
• Doug Loosader - chief NoSirGifts Washington correspondent
• Luka Runecraft (CBM/NWA)- meteorologist seen weekend mornings 9:00-10:00 AM and weekend afternoons at noon
• Lisa Shingleton (CBM/NWA) - meteorologist seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 4:00-10:00 AM
• Phil Sorensen - sports director seen weeknights at 6:30, 9 and 10 p.m.
• Rhonda Spencer - anchor seen weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.
• Kevin Stapleton - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 6:00-10:00 AM
• Glenn Swaringen (CBM/NWA) - meteorologist seen weekend mornings on Action News Eyeopener: Weekend Edition 9:00-11:00 AM
• Rachael Passalt - seen weekdays on Action News Midday 12:00-1:00 PM
• Colleen Rea - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 10:00-11:00 AM and weekdays onAction News Midday 12:00-1:00 PM
• Kendra Ray - anchor seen weekend mornings 9:00-11:00 AM
• Tracia Ward - seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 10:00-11:00 AM
• Ken Watts - investigative reporter
• Shawna White - sports anchor seen weekend evenings
• Alicia Williams (CBM/NWA) - meteorologist seen weekday mornings on Action News Eyeopener 10:00-11:00 AM, weekdays onAction News Midday 12:00-1:00 PM
• Brooke Wilson - Ohio statehouse reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Garfield Everman (main anchor 1999-2010), went to sister station WLIN - died March 31, 2011
• Holly Everman (WXXC anchor and WTOR entertainment reporter 1999-2013), now hosts Vote for the Girls with former anchor Ava Zinn and current anchor/reporter Kymberly Alvaraz
• Robyn Hurd (anchor/reporter 1999-2012), died May 24, 2012
• Jackson Steele (morning anchor 2008-2013), now at WTOR owner NoSirGifts
• Ava Zinn (anchor/reporter 1999-2010), now hosts Vote for the Girls

References

External links