| WFXI: Morehead City, North Carolina WYDO: Greenville, North Carolina |
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|---|---|
| Branding | Fox Eastern Carolina |
| Slogan | Working to Earn Your Trust |
| Channels | Digital: WFXI: 8 (VHF) WYDO: 47 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | 8.1/47.1 Fox |
| Owner | Esteem Broadcasting of North Carolina, LLC (operated through SSA by Bonten Media Group) |
| Founded | WFXI: April 7, 1988 WYDO: October 2, 1989 |
| Sister station(s) | WCTI-TV |
| Former channel number(s) | WFXI: 8 (VHF analog, 1989-2009) 24 (UHF digital, 2007-2009) WYDO: 14 (UHF analog, 1992-2009) 21 (UHF digital, 2007-2009) |
| Transmitter power | WFXI: 42 kW WYDO: 200 kW |
| Height | WFXI: 247.4 m WYDO: 542 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | WFXI: 37982 WYDO: 35582 |
| Transmitter coordinates | WFXI: WYDO: |
WFXI is the Fox-affiliated television station for Eastern North Carolina's Inner Banks licensed to Morehead City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter in unincorporated Davis, North Carolina along the South River's East Fork. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 2, Time Warner Cable channel 8, and Suddenlink channel 9. There is a high definition feed offered on Suddenlink and Charter digital channel 702 as well as Time Warner Cable digital channel 1125. WFXI-TV 8 Fox Eastern Carolina Office is in 5441 Highway 70 East in Morehead City and on WYDO-TV 14 Fox is In Red Bank Rd. in Greenville.
Owned by Esteem Broadcasting of North Carolina, the station is operated through a shared services agreement (SSA) by the Bonten Media Group as sister to ABC affiliate WCTI-TV. The two outlets share studios on Glenburnie Drive in New Bern. Syndicated programming on WFXI includes Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, and Everybody Loves Raymond among others. WYDO operates as a full-time satellite of WFXI. Licensed to Greenville, this station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in Trenton along NC 41. On satellite providers, WFXI can be seen on Dish Network while DirecTV offers WYDO.
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The station signed-on November 1, 1989 and had to conform its analog signal on VHF channel 8 to protect ABC affiliate WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia. As a result, it only reaches New Bern and Jacksonville in the southeastern portions of the market. As a condition of joining Fox, it had to sign-on a full-time satellite (WYDO) to cover the northwestern parts of its coverage area. This station debuted in the mid-1990s, airing an analog signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter southeast of Ayden. Both WFXI and WYDO were Fox affiliates from sign-on.
On April 18, 2006, it was announced new second digital subchannels of WFXI and WYDO would be created to affiliate with a new sister network called MyNetworkTV which would be operated by News Corporation and its syndication division Twentieth Television. However, network officials later changed their mind, and on August 11, moved the affiliation to Ion Television owned-and-operated affiliate WEPX-TV and its full-time satellite WPXU-TV. WFXI shared its call letters with a Class A repeater of Fox affiliate WYFX-LP in Youngstown, Ohio. Both stations were owned by Piedmont Television until 2007 but were otherwise unrelated.
On November 6, 2007, it was announced the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale of certain WFXI/WYDO assets from Piedmont Television to the Bonten Media Group (owner of WCTI). As part of the deal, WFXI moved from its longtime home on Arendell Street/U.S. 70 in Morehead City to WCTI's facility in New Bern. In addition, WYDO closed its sales office on Old Tar Road in Winterville. In January 2008 after Bonten took over operation of the stations, the two were co-branded together as "Fox Eastern Carolina" and a new logo was released. It had previously been known on-air as "Fox 8/Fox 14" for many years.
The web address remained in that branding until August 2010 when it was integrated within WCTI's website. WFXI/WYDO made local headlines with difficulties in transmitting Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008. The outage left several thousand viewers unable to watch. A high definition feed of WYDO was launched on DirecTV on January 7, 2009 while Dish Network did the same for WFXI at the end of February. At midnight on June 13, both stations went all digital as part of the DTV transition.
Originally, the station aired a prime time newscast produced by CBS affiliate WNCT-TV through a news share agreement. Known as Fox News at 10, this could be seen every night for thirty minutes from WNCT's facility on South Evans Street in Greenville. The outsourcing arrangement was terminated in December 2007 after WCTI became a sister station to WFXI/WYDO through their management by Bonten. Initially in January 2008, WCTI began offering a repeat of its nightly 6 o'clock newscast at 10 on this station. A new nightly prime time broadcast produced by WCTI was added on January 28. Now known as Fox Eastern Carolina News at 10, the show was expanded to an hour on weeknights while introducing an updated graphics package and news music theme.
At the same time, WNCT's prime time newscast at 10 was moved to its second digital subchannel that has CW affiliation. On June 27, 2010, WCTI upgraded local news to high definition becoming the first outlet in the area to do so (broadcasts on WFXI/WYDO were included in the change). In addition to its main studios, WCTI/WFXI/WYDO operate bureaus in Jacksonville (on Johnson Boulevard) and Winterville (on Old Tar Road covering Greenville and previous location of WYDO's sales office). During weather forecast segments, the station features a live NOAA National Weather Service Doppler weather radar based at the Local Forecast Office on Roberts Road in Newport.
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