On September 6, 2017, WFXI was shut down as a result of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s spectrum auction, leaving WYDO as the sole Fox affiliate for the region.

This resulted in a broadcasting radius that only reached the southeastern portions of the Eastern North Carolina designated market area—namely Morehead City, Jacksonville, and New Bern.

This station aired an analog signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter southeast of Ayden that covered Greenville, Washington and the northwestern parts of the Inner Banks region.

[2] On April 18, 2006, a preliminary announcement was made public stating WFXI and WYDO would each add new second digital subchannels in order to affiliate with MyNetworkTV (a new broadcast network and sister operation to Fox).

However, officials later changed their mind, and on August 11, moved the pending affiliation to a secondary arrangement through Ion Television owned-and-operated station WEPX-TV (and its full-time satellite, WPXU-TV).

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) with the license being sold to Esteem Broadcasting.

[5] In the late-1990s, WFXI/WYDO began airing the market's original prime time newscast that was produced by CBS affiliate WNCT-TV (then owned by Media General) through a news share agreement.

It originated from the big three outlet's studios on South Evans Street in Greenville featuring most of WNCT's on-air team (except for maintaining a separate news anchor).

In addition to the main studios in New Bern, the ABC affiliate operates bureaus in Jacksonville (on South Marine Boulevard/US 17 BUS) and Winterville (covering Greenville).

[8] Few viewers lost access to Fox programming due to the extremely dense penetration of cable and satellite, which are all but essential for acceptable television in much of this vast market.