WFLX

West Palm Beach, Florida
Branding	Fox 29 (general) Fox 29 News
Slogan	Live. Local. One Hour Earlier.
Channels	Digital: 28 (UHF) Virtual: 29 (PSIP)
Subchannels	29.1 Fox 29.2 Bounce TV
Owner	Raycom Media (operated by E. W. Scripps Company through SSA) (WFLX License Subsidiary, LLC)
First air date	1982
Call letters' meaning	We're FLorida's FoX
Sister station(s)	WPTV-TV
Former channel number(s)	29 (UHF analog, 1982–2009)
Former affiliations	DT1: Independent (1982–1986) DT2: The Tube (2003–2007)
Transmitter power	630 kW
Height	458 m
Facility ID	39736
Transmitter coordinates	26°34′37″N 80°14′32″W / 26.57694°N 80.24222°W / 26.57694; -80.24222
Website	WFLX.com

WFLX ("Fox 29") is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Gold and Treasure Coasts of South Florida. Licensed to West Palm Beach, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 28 (or virtual channel 29) from a transmitter in Lake Worth west of US 441/SR 7. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 11 and in high definition on digital channel 434. The station is owned by Raycom Media, and is operated through a shared services agreement with local NBC affiliate WPTV-TV, which was announced in March 2011. WFLX currently shares studios with WPTV on South Australian Avenue in Downtown West Palm Beach. WFLX programming includes the full Fox lineup; Syndicated programming including How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, The Office, and Family Feud; and news programming produced by WPTV. WFLX also carries the African American-oriented network Bounce TV on digital subchannel 29.2.

History

WFLX's signature logo, used from late-1995 until 2008.

WFLX began operations in 1982 as the West Palm Beach market's first Independent. The station was owned by Malrite Communications and ran a programming lineup typical of independent stations at the time—early-morning cartoons, late-morning religious programming, movies in early-afternoons/primetime, classic sitcoms in the late-afternoon, and current sitcoms during early/late-evenings. Unlike most independents, the amount of children's programming seen on WFLX during this time was low compared to similar stations in other markets, a trend owing to the older demographics of the West Palm Beach area.

On October 9, 1986, WFLX became one of the charter affiliates of Fox. At the time, it was the "de facto" affiliate of the network in all of South Florida since WCIX had a signal unable to reach most Broward and Northern Miami-Dade County viewers. WFLX retained this Fox affiliation through a heavy South Florida affiliation swap in January 1989, but it did lose most of its Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market share to WSVN, which became a Fox affiliate through the swap.

As the 1990s approached, WFLX picked up Fox Kids programming in afternoons and phased out older sitcoms for talk and reality shows. After the 1993/1994 season, it was recognized as the "Fox Affiliate of the Year". In September 1998, Malrite merged with current owner Raycom Media. Shortly after the merge, ratings came out affirming that WFLX was one of Fox's highest affiliates in terms of network ratings and has even showed numbers in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market. In April 2002, WFLX was the first station in the West Palm Beach market to broadcast in high definition showing Fox programming in the updated format. Raycom merged with The Liberty Corporation in mid-2006.

Until the network's shutdown on October 1, 2007, WFLX offered The Tube Music Network, a 24-hour digital music video channel, on its second digital subchannel and Comcast digital channel 220. Today, WFLX-DT2 is not officially occupied but shows a simple station identification and the current time of day. WFLX shut down analog transmissions on June 12, 2009 at noon, the stations broadcasts continued to be on its pre-transition channel 28. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display its virtual channel as 29. This TV, which is currently not cleared in West Palm Beach, has been picked up by most Raycom Fox affiliates except for WFLX. The network has been airing on the second digital subchannel of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale CW affiliate WSFL-TV which can be picked up over-the-air in southern areas of the market. On September 26, 2011, WFLX relaunched subchannel 29.2 with programming from Bounce TV; the subchannel is also available on Comcast digital cable channel 220.

In March 2011, Raycom announced that WFLX would be operated through a shared services agreement with WPTV-TV, the NBC affiliate for the Treasure Coast that is owned and operated by E. W. Scripps Company. In addition to news content, which WPTV has produced for WFLX since the beginning of 2011 (see "News operation" below), WPTV will handle technical, promotional, and online operations for WFLX, along with possible production of local content outside of news. The stations will have separate sales departments; WFLX's sales team (which will remain separate from WPTV) will lease space at WPTV's studios on South Australian Avenue in Downtown West Palm Beach.^[1] It was later announced that WFLX would vacate their existing studio in Riviera Beach at the end of May.^[2]

News operation

Nightly news open at 10.

After Fox required most of its affiliates air newscasts in 1990, WFLX entered in a news share agreement with CBS affiliate WPEC (then owned by the Photo Electronics Corporation). On September 11, 1991, that station started producing a nightly prime time broadcast at 10 pm on WFLX known as Fox 29 10 O'Clock News. Originally thirty minutes long, it soon expanded to a full hour. In 2000, an hour-long weekday morning show at 7 am began to air entitled Fox 29 Morning News; this was expanded to two hours on September 6, 2006.

WFLX and WPEC maintained separate news sets and on-air identities but shared a weather set and most on-air personnel, except for a few that only appeared on one station. While produced by WPEC, the broadcasts maintained their own separate identity and look, similar to other Raycom stations. As with network programming, the newscasts also rated in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, a trend some have attributed to backlash to that area's Fox affiliate WSVN. As a result, Adelphia (now Comcast) pulled WSVN off its West Palm Beach cable lineup in 2005. On January 31, 2008, WPEC and WFLX became the second and third stations respectively in all of South Florida to offer newscasts in high definition behind NBC affiliate WPTV.

WFLX is currently the only station in the West Palm Beach market to air a prime time newscast at 10 pm, although they did face competition from CW affiliate WTVX, which aired their own 10 pm newscast (produced at the studios of its Salt Lake City sister station, KUTV, and including two locally-based reporters) from August 4, 2008 until it was moved to 6:30 pm on March 2, 2009 (and was discontinued altogether three months later).

It was announced on October 22, 2010 that the agreement with WPEC would end on December 31, 2010. On January 1, 2011, WPTV (owned by E.W. Scripps Company) established a new partnership with WFLX and began producing the two-hour weekday morning show and nightly hour-long primetime newscast. These newscasts originate from a secondary set at WPTV's facilities on South Australian Avenue in Downtown West Palm Beach (its mailing address actually says Banyan Boulevard, which is also known as 1st Street) and required the addition of more than a dozen new personnel. The new news agreement eventually led to WFLX's shared services agreement with WPTV later in 2011.

WPTV's news agreement with WFLX was the first time any of the nine Scripps stations have produced an on-air newscast for a non company-owned channel.^[3][4][5] An entire new format was introduced and the coverage is different.^[6][7] On Friday and Sunday nights at 10:45, there is a fifteen-minute sports highlight show called Sports Zone. On September 19, 2011, WPTV added a half-hour weekday late afternoon newscast to WFLX known as Fox 29 News First at 4.^[8][9][10] With this addition, there is now 57 hours of local news each week provided by the two stations. This addition makes it the third Fox affiliate to broadcast newscast produced by another station in the same market to carry a late afternoon or early evening newscast, along with WSYM-TV in Lansing, Michigan and WQRF in Rockford, Illinois.

Station slogans

• "At Ten It's News. At Eleven It's History." (late 1990s-2002)
• "Your Local News, One Hour Earlier" (2002–2008)
• "Local News in HD, One Hour Earlier" (2008–2010)
• "Live. Local. One Hour Earlier." (2011–present)

News team

Anchors

• Shannon Cake – weeknights at 10 pm; also investigative reporter
• Jay Cashmere – weeknights at 4 and 10 pm
• John Favole – weekday mornings
• Tania Rogers – weekends at 10 pm; also weeknight reporter
• Jon Shainman – weekends at 10 pm; also weeknight reporter
• Roxanne Stein – weekday mornings; also medical reporter and "Ask The Doctor" segment producer
• Mollie Reynolds – weekdays at 4 pm

Weather team

• Steve Weagle (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist; weeknights at 4 and 10 pm
• Glenn Glazer (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; weekday mornings
• James Wieland (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; weekends at 10 pm

Sports team (both heard on WEFL-AM 760)

• Evan Cohen – sports director; weeknights at 10 pm
• Jason Pugh – sports anchor; weekends at 10 pm

Reporters

• Evan Axelbank
• Kelley Dunn – features reporter
• Marci Gonzalez – reports three nights a week
• Lauren LaPonzina – weekday morning traffic reporter
• Katie LaGrone – investigative reporter
• Rachel Leigh – Internet Content Director and entertainment reporter; also "Pet Connections" segment producer
• John Matarese – "Don't Waste Your Money" segment producer
• Christina Mora
• Ro Norman
• Whitney Ray – Tallahassee Bureau reporter
• Carolyn Scofield – Stuart Bureau reporter
• Julie Stevens – helicopter reporter
• Mike Vasilinda – weekday Tallahassee Bureau reporter

Multimedia journalists

• Sean Balewski – associate producer
• Thalia Hayden – weekday mornings
• Vince Norman
• Liz Nunez
• Rochelle Ritchie

References

External links

• WFLX "Fox 29" (can be entered into web-enabled wireless device for mobile access)
• WPTV-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WFLX