XHRIO-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
city = Matamoros, Tamaulipas
call_letters = XHRIO-TV
station_
station_slogan = At 9, it's news, at 10, it's history
station_branding = FOX Rio 2 (general)
FOX 2 News (newscasts)
My 2 (for MNTV programs)
analog = 2 (VHF); cable 6
digital = KNVO-DT 49.3 (UHF); cable 870
affiliations = Fox
MyNetworkTV (secondary)
MTV Tr3s (secondary)
founded = January 12, 1979
location = Brownsville / McAllen / Harlingen, Texas
former_callsigns = XHRIO-TV (1979-late 1990s)
XHHUPN-TV (late 1990s-2005)
callsign_meaning = XH = Mexican callsign
RIO Grande Valley
owner = Entravision
"(license and transmitter owned by a Mexican company)"
licensee = TVNorte, SA de CV
former_affiliations = Independent (1979-late 1980s)
Telemundo (late 1980s-early 1990s)
UPN (late 1990s-2005)
homepage = [http://www.foxrio2.com foxrio2.com]

XHRIO-TV, channel 2, also known as FOX RIO 2 or FOX XRIO, is the local Fox affiliate for the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is licensed to Matamoros, Mexico, but serves American audiences across the Rio Grande from studios in McAllen, Texas. It can be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 6 in analog and digital cable channel 870 in high definition, as well as on sister station KNVO's third digital subchannel. XHRIO is operated by KNVO owner Entravision under a local marketing agreement; Mexican law does not allow foreigners to own any media outlets.

XHRIO carries the full Fox schedule, along with MyNetworkTV programming nightly at 10 p.m., and MTV Tr3s during late night and early morning hours (generally 1 a.m. to 9 a.m.).

History

The first incarnation of channel 2 operated in the 1990s; this was quickly shut down by its family ownership.

In 1977, a joint venture was formed between the owners of KRIO (910) in McAllen and and KRIX (99.5; now KKPS) in Brownsville and a respected broadcasting family of Mexico City, holder of the license for the channel 2 transmitter. The venture returned channel 2 to the air on January 12, 1979 as XRIO-TV-2, an English language independent station, running primarily reruns of older US shows and recent feature films. The studios were in McAllen and were located with KRIO. The trasmitter was eight miles south of the Rio Grande and the Harlingen antenna farm. Since XRIO-TV-2 was perceived by its American competitors (KRGV-TV and KGBT-TV) as a "border blaster" or pirate station, they set about to block live delivery of programming across the US border. Thus, a monumental effort was required to cross the equipment and tower into Mexico, then to build and maintain the super-power facility. The American side, responsible for constructing both halves of the facility, disregarded many Mexican communications and labor laws. In fact, American engineers were smuggled into the Mexican site in the late night hours to complete the construction. The station then began to transmit without authority of the Mexican government, and was not even using the correct call sign: XHRIO-TV. Notified that government authorities were on their way to shut down the transmitter, American technicians and Mexican operators alike fled the site. This was resolved and the station soon returned.

Although XHRIO-TV had a signal superior to its US counterparts, it suffered from serious underfunding and mismanagement by the ownership of the studio facility. During its first year, the technical staff which had created the facility against incredible odds slowly departed. Power to the transmitter site was sporadic and replacement technical people were not up to the task. Thus, XHRIO-TV was never able to establish an advertising base in the English market, despite extremely successful initial ratings. In 1981, the owners of the Mexican license ended the delivery of programming tapes across the border to the channel 2 transmitter, and converted XHRIO to a Spanish language station, first as a local channel for Matamoros viewers, and later as a Telemundo affiliate. In the late 1990s, the station reverted back to English language programming and became XHHUPN-TV, a UPN affiliate. In 2005, the station reverted back to the XHRIO-TV calls and dropped UPN for Fox.

Fox programming had previously been seen on XHFOX channel 17, but in the early 2000s, station owner Televisa dumped the Fox affiliation and flipped that channel to a XEW-TV repeater. Prior to XHFOX's arrival and before XHRIO took Fox, Lower Rio Grande viewers on the American side received the network from the nationwide Foxnet channel.

Digital television

Because it is licensed in Mexico, XHRIO is exempt from the requirement to stop analog broadcasting after February 17, 2009 that US full power TV stations are subject to. Mexico has a different timetable for its own transition to digital, in which the station has from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 to broadcast exclusively in digital (although XHRIO may at its discretion broadcast a digital signal before then). [ [http://dgsrt.sct.gob.mx/fileadmin/TDT/transicion_TDTinternet_310804.pdf Transicion a TDT (Transition to DT)] (Spanish)]

Newscast

On March 12, 2007, XHRIO debuted "FOX 2 News at Nine". The 30 minute newscast airs Monday through Friday at 9 p.m. This newscast was XHRIO's first, although it was not the first in the area (as XHFOX produced one while it was a Fox affiliate). Like many Fox affiliates, XHRIO takes advantage of the network's shorter primetime schedule by scheduling their newscasts an hour before the other local affiliates in the region. In addition to local/national news, weather and sports, "FOX 2 News" also includes "Around The World In 80 Seconds", an 80 second segment dedicated to International news, health news and entertainment news.

News team

* Anchors: Octavio Saenz, Irma Saenz
* Weather: Ana Lorena Sanchez
* Sports: Alex Del Barrio
* Health: Anna Ramirez
* Entertainment: Danielle Longoria
* Reporter: Lindsay Ranson

Carriage issues

Because XHRIO is licensed and broadcasting from Mexico, it is not covered under US "must-carry" regulations from the FCC. This means that, apart from low-powered affiliates in the US, XHRIO is the only Fox affiliate that local cable systems are not required to carry. However, US cable systems are effectively required to carry XHRIO anyway, since it is operated by Entravision, which owns stations on the American side of the border—the same must-carry rules give full-powered American stations the option of "retransmission consent", or requesting compensation from cable systems to carry their station. In this case, KNVO, an Entravision-owned Univision affiliate in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, can require cable systems to offer XHRIO on their systems as part of the compensation for carrying KNVO.

On September 27, 2006, DirecTV added XHRIO to its lineup in the Rio Grande Valley market; prior to that date, DirecTV viewers in that market received Fox programming from Corpus Christi's K47DF. DirecTV currently has plans to launch local HD in the Rio Grande Valley Market in November 2008. It is unclear if XHRIO will be part of the HD lineup.

On September 14, 2007, Time Warner Cable added XHRIO-DT to its HD service on digital cable channel 870, and can also be seen on ATSC/QAM channel 127.1 on basic cable.

References

External links

* [http://foxrio2.com Official website]