FIRST ON THE BLOG: Ugh. The title says it all. Here’s the details.
Just recently, WFXL 31 has dropped its ONLY weekend newscast which was a half-hour 10:00pm newscast. With this dropping, WFXL 31 now ONLY airs one newscast… the weeknight hour-long 10:00pm newscast that is still called FOX 31 News at 10:00 and now has a new team in place to anchor it with Amyre Makupson and and Raymond Tubb, both who joined WFXL 31 from WGXA 24 (FOX/ABC) in Macon.
With this dropping too, this leaves Southwestern Georgia with NO local primetime newscast on weekends, as weekends now belong to long-time leader WALB 10 (NBC/ABC) and WSWG 44 (CBS), which simulcast some newscasts from their Tallahassee station WCTV 6 (CBS).
This has been an unlucky time for WFXL 31 as they have now dropped 3 newscasts since 2011: A weeknight half-hour 6:30pm newscast that has since been replace by syndicated sitcom programming, a 4-hour local morning show called Good Day from 5:00-9:00am which now airs E/I and syndicated programming instead and now this… the weekend 10:00pm newscast which, as of last check, has since been replaced by a show called Pet Matters on Saturdays and Sinclair’s Sunday public affairs show, Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson on Sundays.
So much for having a news department that has that since cut back on DMA #152. Such a shame.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 
I wonder if WFXL will close its news operation all together? There’s no more morning news on WFXL anymore and now no more weekend newscasts. It might be sooner or later their news station could bite the dust.
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I kind of wonder if WFXL would fare better with ABC, and put Fox on DT2 subchannel… and I too doubt that WALB would be willing or able to give up ABC on its DT2 channel anytime soon. WSWG wouldn’t give up CBS, much like WALB wouldn’t give up NBC either.
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As of February 2023, WFXL has shuttered its news operation. No local news originates from WFXL or its Macon, Georgia sister station. The syndicated show The National Desk airs each weekday from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and each evening from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. I have suggested to Marquee Broadcasting (WSWG) that they buy WFXL. This could give WSWG a better signal if they use the Doerun, Georgia, tower by putting WSWG on the main signal with WFXL on a digital subchannel.
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