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FOX 61 history
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Megyn Kelly, in full Megyn Marie Kelly, former married name Megyn Marie Kendall, (born November 18, 1970, Champaign, Illinois, United States), American attorney, journalist, and television personality who was known for her pointed interviews and commentary on the Fox News Channel.
A group led by Arnold Chase and his company, Arch Communications, won a construction permit for channel 61 in September 1983.
WTIC-TV began operation on September 17, 1984, with a special live broadcast hosted by TV star Eddie Albert and longtime WTIC radio personality Bob Steele.
WTIC later became a charter Fox affiliate when the network launched on October 6, 1986.
Chase Broadcasting (owned by Arnold Chase's father's organization) acquired WTIC on October 2, 1987.
A milestone was reached in 1992, when WTIC began to regularly beat WTXX in the ratings.
During negotiations, which lasted from the time the sale became final until July 1993, Renaissance agreed to have WTXX run The Disney Afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. and some off network sitcoms from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays free of charge, as well as first run syndicated shows on weekends in this slot.
Since Fox began airing sports programming in 1994, WTIC has had to deal with issues regarding Major League Baseball and National Football League coverage.
However, following her graduation in 1995, Kelly settled on corporate law, accepting a position at the Chicago law firm Bickel & Brewer.
It was routine for cable companies to pay networks such as HBO or MTV for the right to broadcast their content, but Murdoch reversed the equation, paying cable providers to carry Fox News. As a result, when the network first took to the airwaves on October 7, 1996, it was viewable in more than 17 million homes.
That year, Chase agreed to sell its four television stations — WTIC-TV, WATL in Atlanta, KDVR in Denver, and WXIN in Indianapolis — to Renaissance Broadcasting, owner of WTXX. The sale did not include the WTIC radio stations, which Chase retained until 1996.
Fox News Channel, American cable television news and political commentary channel launched in 1996.
On the other hand, the lead anchor of the news division, Shepard Smith, who had started with that division in 1996, found that his coverage of the White House was increasingly at odds with views expressed on the opinion shows.
In 1998, when WTIC replaced WVIT as WTXX's LMA partner, the WVIT-produced 10 p.m. broadcast was replaced with a simulcast of the first half-hour of channel 61's primetime newscast.
The morning news and celebrity gossip program Fox & Friends debuted in 1998 and soon became a fixture in the Fox News lineup.
Two years later, WTIC-TV replaced WVIT as the LMA partner for WTXX (then a UPN affiliate, later with The WB, currently a CW affiliate). In 2001, Tribune bought WTXX outright.
The weekday cartoons ended at the end of 2001 when Fox ended its weekday kids' block.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, cable television viewership surged, and Fox News built on its gains to surpass CNN for the first time in January 2002—a lead it would retain throughout the decade.
However, amid negotiations for a full-time position in 2004, she was offered a job by the Fox News Channel.
On April 24, 2006, WTXX began to simulcast the entire hour of the program.
As a general correspondent, she won accolades from some quarters for her 2006 coverage of a scandal at Duke University, wherein white members of its lacrosse team were accused of sexual assault by a young black woman hired as a dancer for a private party.
The station launched a weekday morning newscast on March 3, 2008.
WTIC-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 61, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.
On August 4, 2009, the weekday morning newscast was expanded to 4½ hours and began airing from 4:30-9 a.m.
On August 23, 2010, WTIC launched an hour-long late afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. on weekdays.
Barack Obama—most notably on such issues as Obama’s signature health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)—echoed many of the stated principles of the Tea Party movement.
The channel’s political leanings came under heavy scrutiny in 2010 when News Corporation donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.
On January 28, 2013, WTIC launched an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast.
On July 10, 2013, Tribune announced plans to spin off its publishing division into a separate company.
In 2013 Fox News was transferred, along with other Fox Entertainment Group holdings, to 21st Century Fox when News Corporation split into separate media and publishing entities.
In 2013 Kelly began hosting her own live evening news show, The Kelly File, which she maintained was a straight news analysis show rather than an editorial one like much of Fox’s programming.
Gretchen Carlson, a former host on Fox News, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes in July 2016.
Tucker Carlson began hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight in 2016, and the following year The Ingraham Angle debuted, hosted by Laura Ingraham.
In January 2017 Kelly left Fox News to join NBC News, and the magazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly debuted in June.
In 2017 The New York Times reported that a number of sexual harassment lawsuits against O’Reilly had been settled for more than $10 million.
In 2019, after Carlson mocked him on-air and Trump made his displeasure with Smith’s newscasts known, Smith resigned.
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