WXIX-TV

WXIX-TV channel 19 is the Fox Broadcasting Company affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio. The station's city of license is Newport, Kentucky, across the Ohio River. WXIX is owned by Raycom Media with studios and transmitter located in Cincinnati. Syndicated programming on WXIX includes: Seinfeld, and Family Guy.

History
While WXIX was running test transmissions before its inaugural broadcast, the station intermittently aired "mini-shows" featuring The Larry Smith Puppets promoting the sale of UHF converters which can be used with pre-1964 television sets which were only equipped to receive VHF signals at the time. Larry Smith and his puppets (a witch named "Battie Hattie from Cincinnati" and her dog "Snarfy" among other characters) later hosted a daytime children's program in the weekday afternoons for several years. Afterward, "The Cool Ghoul" [1] – played by Dick VonHoene, known for his weekend late night sci-fi/monster movie program "Scream-In" – also hosted a weekday children's show in the afternoons. There was an afternoon show called "Kim's Cartoon Caper's". It had a girl of about 13 hosting the afternoon cartoon show.The station began operation on August 1, 1968, owned by a group headed by Cincinnati businessman James Lang. It was the first new commercial station in the market since 1949, and the second UHF station in the area (behind PBSmember WCET). The FCC had allocated one full-power UHF station to Cincinnati—channel 65 (later 64). However, when Lang and his partners found out there was a channel 19 allocation available across the river in Newport, they sought it in order to provide more signal at less cost. WXIX offered Japanese cartoons such as Speed Racer, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero, Marine Boy and 8 Man.

Around 2000, WXIX operated a large open space inside Tri-County Mall called the "FOX19 Station Break."[1] In January 2009 WXIX launched This TV on its digital subchannel, filling the spot that was The Tube Music Network.Malrite Communications bought channel 19 in 1983. It remained the leading independent station in the market, even after WBTI returned to full-time general entertainment programming in 1985. Also in 1986, WXIX became a charter affiliate of the Fox network (which, coincidentally was based around some of WXIX's former Metromedia sister stations). The station changed its on-air branding from "19XIX" to "Fox 19" in 1996. In 1998, Malrite merged with Raycom Media, which continues to own WXIX today.Channel 19 was sold to U.S. Communications in 1970 and then to Metromedia in 1972. Metromedia's deep pockets helped WXIX develop as a strong-performing general entertainment independent station, airing cartoons, off-network sitcoms, first-run talk shows, dramas, movies and talk shows. After nearly a decade on air, it finally received competition in 1980 with the launch of WBTI (channel 64, now WSTR-TV), which ran general entertainment and religious programing before 7 p.m. and subscription TV at night. However, that competition was short-lived, ending when WBTI became a full-time subscription station by 1982. The over-air subscription TV phenomenon occurred in larger markets in the U.S. where cable had yet to penetrate city centers before the late 1980s. Because WXIX have weekdays afterrnoon and saturday morning children programming Fox Kids

Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Post-analog shutdown
WXIX-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on UHF channel 19, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States [3], and remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 29 [4] PSIP is used to display its virtual channel as 19.

News operation
The station launched a 10 p.m. newscast in 1993 and a morning newscast in 1997. It also aired a newscast at midnight in the mid 1990s and an 11:30 a.m. newscast during the late 1990s. WXIX partnered with WBQC-TV to air channel 19's evening newscast during the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball season. After basic cable systems in Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio dropped WBQC, these newscasts were moved to Insight Communications channel 6 in Kentucky and Time Warner Cable channel 2 in Ohio. WXIX no longer broadcasts Bearcat football or basketball games. In addition to its regular newscasts, WXIX provides one-to-two-minute cut-ins at the top of each hour on weekdays, as well as halftime cut-ins during network sportscasts.

Paul Horton became WXIX's chief meteorologist on January 31, 2007. He left channel 19 on August 7 that year to take the morning meteorologist position at CBS affiliate KPHO-TV inPhoenix. Steve Horstmeyer left his longtime morning and noon position at CBS affiliate WKRC-TV to replace Horton as chief meteorologist on August 7, 2008.[5] Horstmeyer traveled toLake Charles, Louisiana, to assist sister station KPLC, as part of a Raycom effort to cover Hurricane Gustav.

On August 11, 2008, WXIX began airing a 6:30 p.m. newscast[6] aimed at the 18–54-year-old demographic. The broadcast competes with national newscasts airing at 6:30 on WLWT-TV,WCPO-TV, and WKRC-TV. On September 21, 2009 the program was extended to a full hour beginning at 6:00 p.m.

On November 4, 2008, WXIX became the second Cincinnati station to broadcast its news in high definition, after WCPO. However, the station continued to broadcast most field reports and weather radar in standard definition. By mid-December, nearly everything was in HD. In December 2009, WXIX reached an agreement with local ABC affiliate WCPO-TV (channel 9) to pool videographers at press conferences.[7] On March 31, 2010, it was announced that WXIX reached an agreement with Clear Channel to have hourly news and weather updates heard on WLW. These updates began on WLW on April 1.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On September 20, 2010 WXIX will expand its weekday morning newscast to 4½ hours, from 4:30-10 a.m. with the 9-10 a.m. extension of the newscast called Fox 19 Morning Xtra.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[9]

Newscast titles

 * The 19 WXIX Headline Report (1980s)
 * 19 WXIX News (1993–1996)
 * 19 News (1996–2001)
 * Fox 19 News (2001–present)220px-WXIX_News_1993.png

Station slogans

 * First. LIVE. Local. (2001–2009)
 * Your Home For News (2009–2011)
 * Balanced News (2011–present)

On-air staff
====Current on-air staff<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[10] ==== <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Anchors


 * Sheila Gray - weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News" (5-9 a.m.)
 * Tracey Johnson - weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News Xtra" (9-10 a.m.)
 * Tricia Macke - weeknights at 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m.
 * Ben Swann - weeknights at 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m.
 * Rob Williams - weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News" (5-9 a.m.)
 * Dan Wells - weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News" (4:30-5 a.m.); also weekday reporter

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Fox 19 StormTracker Weather


 * Steve Horstmeyer (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m.
 * Pat Barry - weather anchor; weekends at 10 p.m.
 * Frank Marzullo (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News" (4:30-9 a.m.), also anchor of "Fox 19 Morning News Xtra" (9-10 a.m.)
 * Katy Morgan - meteorologist; weekday mornings "Fox 19 Morning News Xtra" (9-10 a.m.)

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Sports team


 * Brian Gisenschlag - sports director; weeknights at 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Reporters


 * Sara Celi - general assignment reporter
 * Bruce Davis - traffic reporter; weekday mornings
 * Stephen DiPietrantonio - general assignment reporter
 * Jennifer Grove - general assignment reporter
 * Corey McConnell - general assignment reporter
 * Kimberly Holmes - general assignment reporter, Weekend Anchor
 * Tiffany Teasley - general assignment reporter
 * Cory Stark - general assignment reporter
 * Brad Underwood - Indiana reporter
 * Emily Wood - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff

 * Rich Apuzzo - meteorologist (now owner/operator/meteorologist at http://skyeyeweather.com)
 * Jack Atherton - anchor (now at WLWT)
 * Lynsay Clutter - reporter (now at WTHR in Indianapolis)
 * Gene Cox - weekend anchor (now at WXIN in Indianapolis)
 * Chris Rose - sports intern (now on Fox Sports Net's The Best Damn Sports Show Period)
 * Greg Eversull - longtime in-house announcer and voiceover
 * Kevin Frazier - sports reporter/anchor (now weekend host for Entertainment Tonight)
 * Jonathan Freed - reporter/anchor (now correspondent for CNN's Chicago bureau)
 * Dan Hoard - sports reporter/anchor (now University of Cincinnati radio play-by-play announcer) and Cincinnati Bengals TV play-by-play Announcer
 * Dick VonHoene - news anchor and news director in the early days of WXIX; also known as the "Cool Ghoul", host of a late night weekend horror movie show (early 1970s)