FOX 25 in Boston Drops the FOX

By Stephanie Tsoflias Siegel 

FOX 25 Boston is dropping the FOX affiliation from its newscast names.

The station is switching to ‘Boston 25 News’ starting April 24.

“The perception of what our TV news station does is not what we do. They perceive us to be part of the Fox News family,” said general manager of the Cox-owned station Tom Raponi.

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Fox owned the Boston station until 2014 when it swapped WFXT as well as and WHBQ in Memphis to Cox, and in return got KTVU, which Cox had owned since 1963.

Raponi says the Fox 25 News brand, “wasn’t built for this environment.” Raponi believes WFXT has been impartial politically but TVSPy has learned 41 percent of Boston news consumers believe Fox 25 to lean conservative.

Raponi said the recent PR crises at Fox News were not a motivating factor in dropping the affiliation from the newscasts. He claims management had been considering the change since the Cox takeover.

“It’s not that it’s a bad brand; it’s just that it’s not ours.”

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