WXXA 10pm Newscast (July 9, 2007; Partial)

Описание: The 10pm news show from WXXA-TV (channel 23) in Albany, NY, the area's Fox affiliate. At the time, it was the number one newscast in the Capital Region; most people were watching the early nighttime news instead of the Big Three stations' 11pm news offerings at the time, as evidenced by an ID in this video.

The newscast focuses on severe weather hitting the area, with floods around many major roadways. Definitely weather that rivals this past summer, where rainfall seemed to be inevitable each week. Schenectady got walloped by fallen trees, while Albany's roads were the flood targets. Also features Eliot Spitzer in here, during his short-lived term as governor.

John Gray and Ann Hughes anchor, with Chris Silveri doing an update on the weather (Steve Teeling had the night off). Walt McClure and Jeff Saperstone do news reports. Steve Teeling had tons of weather stops in his career, including KPHO in Phoenix and WPXI in Pittsburgh (which he arrived to Albany from). The original version of this look had former chief met Noah Francis in the talent shots, this was the updated version to include Teeling.

John Gray was Fox 23's lead anchor and managing editor, and it was largely his addition that helped them propel into ratings success. I always liked John Gray - he has a very conversational approach and can connect with the viewer. Ann Hughes was okay, but she wasn't an anchor that struck me.

While WXXA had success, by this time Clear Channel had decided to sell its stations to Newport Television, which led to some ratings declines afterward. This resulted in a merger with WTEN, with John Gray now co-lead anchor with Tim Lake. While this had to happen, I still do miss Fox 23 News and wish they produced their own news again.

The news theme is News Matrix by Stephen Arnold Music, and the voiceover is Tom Buck. News Matrix (and the station's logo) debuted in 2003 and lasted until 2008, while the graphics were about a year and a half old at the time. They were done by Giant Octopus, which did a handful of looks for Clear Channel's stations. I liked this look and unfortunately this was replaced with the god-awful Fox affiliate news theme when Newport took over.

(C) 2007 Clear Channel Communications, now iHeart Media; WXXA is now owned by Mission Broadcasting. No copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off this video.