The Fox era (1986–present)
On May 4, 1985, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which had recently bought a controlling interest in the 20th Century Fox film studio, announced its purchase of Metromedia's six independent television stations, including WNEW-TV.[24][25][26] In the interim between the announcement and the buyout, Metromedia references were largely phased out of channel 5's branding. Upon taking control nearly one year later, on March 7, 1986, channel 5's call sign was changed slightly to the present WNYW. The change was made due to an FCC rule in place (no longer in effect) that prohibited television and radio stations with different ownership from sharing the same call sign.[27] Along with the other former Metromedia independent stations, WNYW formed the cornerstone of the Fox Broadcasting Company when it launched on October 9, 1986.
WNYW's schedule initially changed very little, as Fox aired programming only on late nights and weekends on two nights of the week in the network's first few years. It was not until 1993 that Fox began broadcasting a full seven nights' worth of programming. Although it began taking on the look of a network-owned station in the fall of 1986, channel 5 continued to carry decades-old syndicated cartoons, sitcoms and films into the late 1980s.
Murdoch had one local obstacle to overcome before his purchase of channel 5 could become final. News Corporation had owned the New York Post since 1976 and the FCC's media ownership rules barred common ownership of newspapers and broadcast licenses in the same media market. The FCC granted Murdoch a temporary waiver to keep the Post and WNYW to allow News Corporation to complete its purchase of the Metromedia television stations. News Corporation sold the New York Post in 1988, but bought the paper back five years later with a permanent waiver of the cross-ownership rules.
In late summer 1986, WNYW debuted the nightly newsmagazine A Current Affair, one of the first shows to be labeled as a "tabloid television" program. Originally a local program, it was first anchored by Maury Povich, formerly of Washington sister station WTTG. (He also briefly anchored WNYW's evening newscasts.) Within a year of its launch, A Current Affair was syndicated to the other Fox-owned stations.[28] In 1988, the series entered into national syndication, where it remained until the original incarnation of the program was cancelled in 1996. On August 1, 1988, the station dropped its weekday morning cartoons in favor of a local news and information program titled Good Day New York, which continues to this day.
Following the launch of the Fox network, WNYW lost much of its out-of-market superstation reach, as most markets in the Northeast had their own Fox affiliates. WNYW continued to be seen on cable in the Binghamton metropolitan area and the New York side of the Plattsburgh–Burlington market until the late 1990s, when WICZ-TV and WFFF-TV joined the network.
In 2001, Fox bought BHC Communications, a television station group owned by Chris-Craft Industries, which effectively created a duopoly between WNYW and its former rival, WWOR-TV. In autumn 2001, WNYW dropped Fox Kids' weekday block and moved it to WWOR-TV, where it ran for a few more months before Fox discontinued the network's weekday children's lineup at the end of that year. In 2004, Fox Television Stations announced that it would move WWOR's operations from Secaucus to WNYW's facility at the Fox Television Center in Manhattan. While some office functions were merged, plans for a full move to Manhattan were abandoned later that year due to pressure from New Jersey Congressman Steve Rothman (whose congressional district includes Secaucus) and Senator Frank Lautenberg on the grounds that any move to Manhattan would violate the conditions of WWOR's broadcast license.[29][30] The company also considered moving WNYW's operations to Secaucus, but ultimately decided to remain in the Fox Television Center.
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WNYW, eight other New York City television stations, and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. The station relocated to an antenna located atop the Empire State Building, where its transmitter facilities had been located until they were moved to the World Trade Center in the 1970s. By the late 2010s, the transmitter returned to the newly built One World Trade Center.[31][32][33] In April 2006, WNYW became the first Fox-owned to launch a website on Fox Interactive Media's "MyFox" platform, which featured expanded content, more videos and new community features such as blogs and photo galleries. The MyFox sites were later outsourced to WorldNow, and later Lakana beginning in 2015, after which the "MyFox" brand was discontinued.[34][35]
On October 15, 2010, News Corporation pulled the signals of WNYW, WWOR, along with co-owned cable channels Fox Business Network, Fox Deportes, and National Geographic Wild from Cablevision systems in the New York television market area, due to a dispute between Fox and Cablevision. Cablevision claimed News Corporation had demanded $150 million a year to renew its carriage of 12 Fox-owned channels, including those removed due to the dispute.[36] Cablevision offered to submit to binding arbitration on October 14, 2010. News Corporation rejected Cablevision's proposal, stating that it would "reward Cablevision for refusing to negotiate fairly". WWOR, WNYW and the three cable channels were restored on October 30, 2010, when Cablevision and News Corporation struck a new carriage deal.
After News Corporation split into two companies on June 28, 2013, spinning off its publishing assets (including the New York Post) into a new News Corp, WNYW became part of 21st Century Fox.[37] On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC owned-and-operated station WABC-TV (channel 7), announced its intent to buy the assets of 21st Century Fox for $66.1 billion, pending regulatory approval.[38][39] The sale did not include the Fox network, MyNetworkTV, WNYW, WWOR, the Fox Television Stations unit or any other broadcast assets, since that would be illegal under FCC rules prohibiting a merger between any of the four major networks. Ownership was transferred to a new company called Fox Corporation, a split officially completed on March 18, 2019.[40]
In the fall of 2018, after WWOR's license was renewed, and several months after the repeal of the FCC's main studio rule (which required WWOR to operate from New Jersey as a license condition),[41] Fox Television Stations sold its former Secaucus studios to Hartz Mountain Industries for $4.05 million, and consolidated WWOR's operations with WNYW at the Fox Television Center.[42]
