XETV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = XETV
station_
station_slogan = Your Station for Balanced News
station_branding = San Diego 6
analog = 6 (VHF)
digital = 23 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = The CW
network =
founded =
airdate = January 1953
location = Tijuana, Baja California -
San Diego, California
callsign_meaning = XE (Mexican ITU prefix)
TeleVision
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Grupo Televisa
"(through Bay City Television)"
licensee = Radio Televisión, S.A. de C.V.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Independent (1953-1956 and 1973-1986)
ABC (1956-1973)
Fox (1986-2008)
effective_radiated_power = 99.25 kW (analog)
402 kW (digital)
HAAT = 258 m (analog)
215 m (digital)
class =
facility_id =
coordinates = coord|32|30|7.9|N|117|2|26.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.sandiego6.com/ www.sandiego6.com] | [http://www.fox6.com/ www.fox6.com]

XETV, channel 6, is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the CW Television Network 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 media giant Grupo Televisa, and its programming and sales rights are held by Bay City Television, Inc., a California corporation owned by Televisa. [http://www.sbe36.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=211&Itemid=1] Televisa is the owner since Mexican law does not allow foreigners to own any media outlets (similar to the U.S. law that prohibits non-U.S. owners of terrestrial television and radio stations).

History

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 Federal Communication Commission lifted a 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 January 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 FCC 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.

Transition

In the late 1960s Texas-based Bass Broadcasting, then-owner of independent KCST-TV (channel 39, now KNSD), began a lengthy battle to take the San Diego ABC affiliation from XETV. The station claimed it was inappropriate for an American television network to affiliate with a Mexican-licensed station when there was a viable American station available. The FCC would later agree with KCST, and in 1972 the Commission revoked channel 6'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, effective July 1, 1973. Not surprisingly, ABC was not happy with how it ended up on a UHF station, and only stayed with KCST for four years until moving to KGTV in 1977.

XETV once again became an independent station, with a standard program schedule comprising syndicated offerings, off-network programs, movies, and children's shows. Also, because Mexican broadcast regulations did not limit commercial time Fact|date=April 2008 (as FCC regulations did at the timeFact|date=April 2008) 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,Fact|date=April 2008 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,Fact|date=April 2008 such a program could not have been run on U.S. television at that time.Fact|date=April 2008

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, channel 6 had to receive pre-recorded Fox programs on tape, transported directly to the station's Tijuana facilities. When Fox acquired the broadcast rights of the National Football League in 1994, 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. [http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/79/79.F3d.1187.95-1128.html 79 F.3d 1187] [http://www.fcc.gov/ogc/documents/opinions/1997/radiotv.html Radio Televisión v. FCC, No. 96-1438]

an Diego 6

In March 2008 Tribune Broadcasting announced that its San Diego station, CW 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 remained unclear until July 2, 2008, when channel 6 announced that they would be joining the CW [http://www.fox6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=7a4bac12-8df5-48e6-8f68-d8e355f50b95] . This will 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. On July 19th, 2008, the station began dropping references to Fox, referring to itself as "San Diego 6, your new home for the CW". The San Diego 6 logo incorporates a miniature CW logo in its top left corner for news programming; otherwise setting it off to the right in proportionate size. XETV, upon switching networks, replaced KSWB-TV on DISH Network as CW-W in markets without a CW Television Network affiliate on the system.

Despite signing with the CW, XETV plans on fighting the affiliation switch in court, saying the switch violates a contract channel 6 has with Fox to run until 2010. In addition, the station did not know about the affiliation change until the switch announcement was made public. [cite url|title=XETV, KSWB Battle For Fox Affiliation In San Diego |url=http://radiomatthew.com/posts/xetv-kswb-battle-for-fox-affiliation-in-san-diego/]

pecial broadcast authority

Because XETV is licensed to Tijuana, it is not covered under the FCC's must-carry rules. This means that local cable providers are not required to carry XETV, even if the TV station requests to be carried under this provision.

XETV's broadcast day begins at 5:00 a.m. Pacific time (6:00 a.m. on Sundays); this 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. [cite video |title=Youtube - XETV San Diego Sign-on 2007.08.20 |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zMP3HUk_I8 |format=Flash Video ]

Digital television

In the early-2000s, XETV's digital signal, on channel 23, signed on. 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 a Mexican-licensed station, 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 2016. [ [http://dgsrt.sct.gob.mx/fileadmin/TDT/transicion_TDTinternet_310804.pdf SCT: Transicion a TDT (Transition to DTV)] (Spanish)]

XETV states that it does not plan to shut down its analog signal at the American deadline, due to its Mexican license. [cite url|title=Reception FAQs - San Diego 6 |url=http://www.sandiego6.com/content/contacts/faq.aspx#shutdown]

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. The station will continue their news broadcasts under their CW affiliation.

National attention

On September 5, 2006, XETV's news team gained national attention, when investigative reporter John Mattes was badly beaten by Sam Suleiman and Rosa Barraza, a husband-and-wife team accused of a real estate scam being investigated by the reporter. The incident was captured on tape and shown on many news programs throughout the nation. [cite url |title=Camera records attack on Fox 6 News reporter |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060907-9999-6m7foxnews.html |date=2006-09-07]

Current personalities

;Anchors
* Marc Bailey - weekday mornings
* Joe Bauer - "San Diego Living"
* Anita Lightfoot - weekend mornings
* Lynda Martin - weekday mornings
* Heather Myers - weeknight co-anchor
* Jim Patton - weeknight co-anchor
* Jeff Powers - weekend co-anchor
* Lynn Stuart - weekend co-anchor

;Weather
* Renee Kohn - meteorologist
* Aloha Taylor - chief/weeknight meteorologist

;Sports
* C.S. Keys - sports director/weeknight anchor
* Andrea Nakano - weekend anchor

;Reporters
* Brooke Beare
* Antonio Castelan
* Sharon Chen
* Eric Collins
* Carlos Delgado
* Ruben Galvan
* Amanda Grace
* Jenny Hamel
* John Mattes
* Sherri Palmeiri

On-demand

* Via [http://www.sandiego6.com sandiego6.com]

Logos

"Couch Potato"

"Couch Potato" is XETV'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.

Radio

XETV's audio signal can be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial in San Diego, Tijuana and surrounding areas, though at a slightly lower volume than other FM stations - due to technical reasons. 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.

Since XETV's analog signal will continue airing past the U.S. digital transition deadline, the station's audio signal will continue to be heard on the FM dial. [cite url|title=Reception FAQs - San Diego 6 |url=http://www.sandiego6.com/content/contacts/faq.aspx#shutdown]

References

External links

* [http://www.sandiego6.com/ XETV Website]
* [http://www.sandiego6.com/rss/default.aspx RSS Feed: San Diego Local News and other headlines]
* [http://cp.sandiego6.com/ Couch Potato: "TV has never been so rewarding"]
* [http://community.sandiego6.com/ San Diego Blogs and Calendar hosted by XETV]
* [http://community.sandiego6.com/blogs/richards_blog/archive/2008/07/17/3211696.aspx Message from XETV's General Manager on Affiliation Switch]