XETV
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| XETV | |
|---|---|
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| Tijuana, Baja California - San Diego, California |
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| Branding | Fox 6 |
| Slogan | Your Station for Balanced News |
| Channels | Analog: 6 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox (through August 2008) |
| Owner | Grupo Televisa (through LMA with Bay City Television) (Radio Televisión, S.A. de C.V.) |
| First air date | 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | XE (Mexican ITU prefix) TeleVision |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1953-1956 and 1972-1986) ABC (1956-1972) |
| Transmitter Power | 99.25 kW (analog) 402 kW (digital) |
| Height | 258 m (analog) 215 m (digital) |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.fox6.com |
XETV, channel 6, is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the Fox Broadcasting Company affiliate for the San Diego, California area across the international border in the United States. XETV's studios and offices are located on Ronson Road in San Diego, and its transmitter is based on Mount San Antonio in Tijuana.
The station is owned by Mexican world-wide media giant Grupo Televisa, and its programming and sales rights are held by Bay City Television, Inc, a California corporation. Televisa is the legal owner since Mexican law does not allow foreigners to own any media outlets (similar to the US law that prohibits non-US owners of terrestrial television and radio stations).
On March 23, 2008, it was announced that XETV will lose its Fox affiliation in August 2008, when the affiliation will move across the border to KSWB-TV (channel 69).[1] It is currently unknown what programming will be shown on XETV after the affiliation switch.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The San Diego market's third VHF station to make it to the air, XETV came into existence because of a technical quirk affecting stations in San Diego and Los Angeles. Even after the FCC lifted the four-year-long freeze on awarding television construction permits in 1952, signing on a third television station in San Diego proved difficult. While San Diego and Los Angeles are not close enough that one city's stations can be seen clearly over the air in the other, the unique Southern California geography results in tropospheric propagation. This phenomenon makes co-channel interference a big enough problem that the two cities must share the VHF band.
By 1952, San Diego (awarded channels 8 and 10) and Los Angeles (assigned channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13) already had all but three VHF channels covered (3, 6 and 12 were not used in either area). San Diego's first two television stations, KFMB-TV (channel 8) and KFSD-TV (channel 10, now KGTV), were among the last construction permits issued before the FCC freeze went into effect. The UHF band was not seen as a viable option because set makers were not required to include UHF tuners until 1964. Complicating matters, the Mexican authorities had allocated two VHF channels to neighboring Tijuana -- channels 6 and 12. Since these were the last two VHF channels left in the area (channel 3 was deemed unusable because it was allocated to Santa Barbara and the signal would be receivable in much of the San Diego area since it would travel in a straight line across the Pacific Ocean), the FCC did not accept any new construction permits from San Diego as a courtesy to Mexican authorities.
Although San Diego was large enough for a third station, it soon became obvious that the only way to get a third VHF station signed would be to use one of Tijuana's allocations. The Azcarraga family, owners of Telesistema Mexicano, forerunner of Televisa, quickly snapped up the license for channel 6, and XETV signed on in 1953 as an independent station. Even though it is licensed to Tijuana and owned by Mexican interests, for all intents and purposes it has been a San Diego station from the beginning, broadcasting entirely in English except for station identification purposes, the compulsory playing of El Himno Nacional Mexicano (the Mexican national anthem) and technical disclaimers. Tijuana did not get its own station until 1960, when the Azcarragas signed on XEWT-TV on channel 12.
In 1956, the Federal Communications Commission granted XETV permission to carry ABC programming. ABC was carried part-time by KFMB-TV and KFSD-TV at the time, but ABC immediately made XETV its exclusive San Diego affiliate. However, the FCC did not allow American networks to transmit their signals to stations located outside the United States. As a result, ABC programs were recorded (on film, kinescope, and later videotape) from a location north of the border and then physically transported to channel 6's transmitter in Tijuana, a practice known in the television industry as "bicycling". While this arrangement legally circumvented the station's inability to acquire a direct network feed, it left XETV unable to carry live network programming, such as breaking news events and some sports coverage.
[edit] Transition
In the late 1960s, Bass Broadcasting of Texas, then-owner of KCST-TV (channel 39, now KNSD), began a lengthy battle to take away the ABC affiliation, claiming it inappropriate for an American television network to affiliate with a Mexican-licensed station when there was a viable American station available. In 1972, the FCC revoked XETV's permission to carry ABC programming. The wording of the FCC decision forced ABC to move its programming to KCST, which was the market's only other station not affiliated with either CBS or NBC in existence at the time. Not surprisingly, ABC was not happy with how it ended up on a UHF station, and only stayed with KCST for five years until moving to KGTV in 1977.
XETV once again became an independent station, with a standard program schedule comprised of syndicated offerings, off-network programs, movies, and children's shows. Also, because Mexican broadcast regulations did not limit commercial time[citation needed] (as FCC regulations did at the time[citation needed]) every Sunday, the station, in a forerunner to future changes in the U.S., became, in effect, the first station in North America to carry an infomercial,[citation needed] which consisted of a one-hour advertisement of listings of local houses for sale. As FCC regulations at that time limited television stations to 18 minutes of commercials in an hour,[citation needed] such a program could not have been run on U.S. television at that time.[citation needed]
[edit] As a Fox affiliate
In 1986 XETV became one of the very first stations outside of the original group of six former Metromedia stations (which had been purchased by Fox's parent company, News Corporation, earlier that year) to join the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company as a charter affiliate. Similar to its earlier arrangement with ABC, XETV had to receive pre-recorded Fox programs on tape, transported directly to XETV's Tijuana facilities. When Fox acquired the broadcast rights of the National Football League, the FCC soon granted a waiver of the rules and allowed Fox to transmit a direct network feed to XETV.
In November 1995, then-UPN affiliate KUSI-TV (channel 51) tried unsuccessfully to wrestle the Fox affiliation away from XETV by filing an appeal, as cited in the United States Court of Appeals case Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc. vs. FCC and Fox Television Stations, Inc. The permit was granted to Fox on behalf of XETV, and the case was settled on March 26, 1996. [2] [3]
In March 2008 Tribune Broadcasting announced that its San Diego station, current CW Television Network affiliate KSWB-TV, would be switching to Fox in August 2008. The fate of both XETV and the CW affiliation for the San Diego market remains unclear as of this revision. This will also leave XETV's sister station, XHRIO-TV in Matamoros, Tamaulipas (serving the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas), as the only Fox affiliate to originate in Mexico.
XETV plans on fighting the affiliation switch in court, saying the switch violates a contract XETV has with Fox to run until 2010. In addition, XETV did not know about the affiliation change until the switch announcement was made public. [4]
[edit] Special broadcast authority
Because XETV is licensed to Tijuana (under authority of the Secretary of Communication and Transportation of Mexico, as the sign-on disclaimer notes each day at the beginning of XETV's broadcast day), it is not covered under the FCC's must-carry rules. This means that XETV and the other Fox affiliate licensed to Mexico, XHRIO-TV, are the only network affiliates that local cable providers are not required to carry even if the TV station requests to be carried under this provision. However, cable systems are effectively required to carry them anyway. The FCC's must-carry rules give full-powered American stations the option of "retransmission consent", or requesting compensation from cable systems to carry their station.
XETV's broadcast day begins at 5:00 a.m. Pacific time (6:00 a.m. on Sundays) and ends the next late night/morning at 2:00 a.m. (most days, the late night schedule is filled by infomercials). The broadcast day begins with the playing of both El Himno Nacional Mexicano and the Star Spangled Banner, followed by the customary operational information and disclaimer, read in both English and Spanish. [5]
[edit] Digital television
In the early-2000s, XETV's digital signal, on channel 23, signed on. With its transmitter being in Mexico, XETV had the distinction of being Mexico's first digital station, as none of Mexico's other stations opened their digital facilities yet at the time. XETV was also the first digital signal transmitting in the San Diego television market.
Since XETV is licensed in Mexico, it will be exempt from the requirement to discontinue analog broadcasting after February 17, 2009, when American full-power stations must do so. Mexico has a different timetable for its own transition to digital, which is expected to be complete by 2015.
[edit] Newscasts
XETV launched a news operation in 1999, as part of their Fox affiliation agreement to broadcast local news. It had previously had a newscast from sign-on in 1953 until 1967. (Lionel Van Deerlin, later a San Diego congressman, was a news director in XETV's early years.) A 10 p.m. newscast was started in 1999, and later that year, a local morning news show followed. The 10 p.m. news was initially a half-hour show, but expanded to an hour in 2002.
[edit] Personalities
- Marc Bailey, the Fox in the Morning co-anchor is a native San Diegan, who started his career as a San Diego policeman.
- Christina Russo, the morning weather and traffic anchor is also a surfer and former soccer player and is also the co-host of San Diego Living M-F 9-10AM.
- Jim Patton, 10pm Anchor/reporter-Jim Patton was formerly the weekend anchor, and started as M-F 10pm anchor on August 17th, 2007. Jim is the only primary late news anchor in San Diego who also does reporting several times each week.
- Heather Myers,10pm Anchor/reporter-started with XETV in November 2007 and will joining Jim Patton the primary anchor desk in January 2008. Heather is a San Diego native, attending Poway High School and San Diego State. Heather started her career in Yuma as a reporter/anchor and worked at KFMB/CBS station in San Diego from 2003-2007 as their lead reporter. Like Jim Patton, Heather will anchor several stories each week along with her anchor responsibilities.
- Current weeknight weather host Aloha Taylor (who joined XETV in Sept. 2006) holds full certification as a meteorologist as well as a university degree, but is also remembered as Miss Hawaii USA 1996 (chosen that year as Miss Congeniality in the Miss USA pageant).
- CS Keys, the 10pm Sports anchor is recognized by the California State Assembly for his tireless efforts to help San Diego youth, Keys started his own foundation, C.S. Keys’ KIDS with Athletes for Education Foundation.
- Joe Bauer, the San Diego Living co-host, a long time San Diego Radio talk show host (30+ years), Joe is Mr. San Diego and brings his wealth of San Diego experience as he co-hosts San Diego Living.
[edit] On-demand
- Via fox6.com
[edit] Logos
 XETV(FOX 6)Logo from the early 90s |
 FOX 6 Current Logo |
[edit] "Couch Potato"
Couch Potato is XETV and XHDTV's viewer loyalty game. Viewers simply watch either channel throughout the day for special Couch Potato codes (which only apply on the day given) and answers to trivia questions. If the viewer enters the code and answer the given trivia questions on the Couch Potato site, they can earn points to win prizes. Membership is free.
[edit] Radio
XETV's audio signal can be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial in San Diego, Tijuana and surrounding areas. This is because the audio signal of channel 6 is located at 87.75 MHz. This frequency assignment applies to all channel 6 television stations in countries using the NTSC-M standard.
[edit] National attention
On September 5, 2006, XETV's news team gained national attention, when Unit 6 Investigative reporter John Mattes was badly beaten by a disgruntled Sam Suleiman and Rosa Barraza. All was captured on tape and shown on many news programs throughout the nation. The reporter and photojournalist were investigating the husband-and-wife team who were accused of a real estate scam. [6]
[edit] References
- ^ Greppi, Michele. "Trib Station Switches to Fox Tribe", TelevisionWeek, 2008-03-23. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ 79 F.3d 1187
- ^ Radio Televisión v. FCC, No. 96-1438
- ^ XETV, KSWB Battle For Fox Affiliation In San Diego.
- ^ Youtube - XETV San Diego FOX6 Sign-on 2007.08.20 (Flash Video).
- ^ Camera records attack on Fox 6 News reporter (2006-09-07).
[edit] External links
- XETV Website
- RSS Feed: San Diego Local News and other headlines
- Couch Potato: "TV has never been so rewarding"
- San Diego Blogs and Forums hosted by XETV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on XETV-TV
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