XETV-TV

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XETV
San Diego, California
City of license	Tijuana, Baja California
Branding	FOX6
Slogan	The Team That Knows San Diego
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 23 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox (since 1987)
Owner	Televisa (LMA with Entravision)
Founded	1953
Call letters meaning	XE (Mexican license) TeleVision
Former callsigns	None
Former affiliations	Independent (1953-1956, 1972-1987) ABC (1956-1972)
Transmitter Power	99.25 kW/258 m (analog) 402 kW/215 m (digital)
Website	www.fox6.com

XETV-TV or FOX6 is the Fox television station serving the San Diego market. It is licensed to Tijuana, San Diego's Mexican twin city (hence the Mexican call sign), but its studios and offices are located on Ronson Road in San Diego with audio-only simulcasts on 87.7 FM.

The station is owned by Mexican media giant Televisa, and it is run by Entravision of Santa Monica (through its Bay City Television subsidiary) under a local marketing agreement. Televisa is the legal owner since Mexican law does not allow foreigners to own any media outlets. XETV is sister station to Univision affiliate KBNT, which is owned by Entravision.

Contents 1 History 2 Logos 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Saturday 3.3 Sunday 3.4 On-demand 4 Couch Potato 5 National Attention 6 External links

[edit] History

XETV-TV came into existence because of a technical quirk affecting stations in San Diego and Los Angeles. San Diego's first two television stations, KFMB-TV and KFSD-TV (now KGTV) were among the last construction permits issued before the FCC froze all new construction permits in 1948. Even after the FCC lifted the freeze 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 two growing Southern California metropolises were close enough that they had to share the VHF band. By 1952, San Diego and Los Angeles already had all but two VHF channels covered. UHF 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, the FCC froze all new San Diego VHF construction permits as a courtesy to the Mexican authorities.

It soon became obvious that the only way to get a third VHF station signed on in the San Diego area was 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 and technical disclaimers. (Tijuana did not get its own station until 1960, when XEWT-TV, also owned by the Azcarragas, signed on.)

In 1956, the Federal Communications Commission granted XETV permission to carry ABC programming. ABC was carried part-time by KFMB and KFSD at the time, but ABC immediately made XETV its exclusive San Diego affiliate. In the late 1960s, Bass Broadcasting of Texas, then-owner of KCST (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. 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 back to channel 10 (renamed KGTV in 1972) as a full-time affiliate in 1977.

XETV once again became an independent station, with a number of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, and dramas. It became one of Fox's charter affiliates in April 1987. However, XETV had its network affiliation threatened once again by 1994, when Fox acquired the broadcast rights of the National Football League. FCC regulations do not allow stations licensed outside of the United States to air live American sporting events without licensing approval. In November 1995, independent station KUSI-TV tried unsuccessfully to wrestle the Fox affiliation away from XETV by filing an appeal, as cited in the United States Court of Appeals (Channel 51, Inc. vs. Fox Television Stations). The permit was granted to Fox on behalf of XETV, and the case was settled on March 26, 1996. By the mid 1990s, reality and talk shows had been mixed into the station's lineup.

XETV launched a news operation in 1999, after pressure from Fox executives to broadcast local news. It had previously had a newscast from sign-on in 1953 until losing ABC in 1972. A 10 p.m. newscast was started, and later that year, a local morning news show followed. The cartoon morning block was abandoned but the afternoon one remained until 2002 when Fox ended its weekday Kids Block nationwide. The 10 p.m. news was initially a half-hour show, but expanded to an hour by 2000.

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.

Because XETV is licensed to Tijuana, 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 in Brownsville, Texas (licensed to Matamoros) 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. In the case of Entravision, it can require San Diego-area cable systems to carry XETV (and sister station XHDTV-TV) as a condition of carrying KBNT.

[edit] Logos

XETV Logo From 1987

XETV(FOX 6)Logo from the early 90s

FOX 6 Current Logo

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• FOX6 News at 5AM - 5:00AM to 5:30AM with Marc Bailey, Desiree Carvajal and Christina Russo weather.
• FOX6 News at 5:30AM - 5:30AM to 6:00AM with Marc Bailey, Desiree Carvajal and Christina Russo weather.
• FOX6 News at 6AM - 6:00AM to 7:00AM with Marc Bailey, Desiree Carvajal and Christina Russo weather.
• FOX In The Morning - 7:00AM to 9:00AM with Marc Bailey, Desiree Carvajal and Christina Russo weather.
• FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with Brian Christie ,Estha Trouw and Aloha Taylor weather.

[edit] Saturday

• FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with Jim Patton, Maria Arcega-Dunn, and Terry Burhans weather.

[edit] Sunday

• FOX6 News at 10:00 - 10:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with Jim Patton , Maria Arcega-Dunn, and Terry Burhans weather.
• That Sunday Sports Show - 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with C.S. Keys

[edit] On-demand

• Via fox6.com

[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 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. NOTE: Couch Potato codes will only work on the day given.

[edit] National Attention

On September 5, 2006, XETV's news team gained national attention, when Unit 6 Investigative reporter John Mattes was beaten very badly by a disgruntled man and his wife named Sam Suleiman and Rosa Barraza. All was captured on tape and shown on many news programs throughout the nation. The reporter and film crew were investigating a husband-and-wife team who were accused of a real estate scam.[1]

[edit] External links

• XETV Fox 6 Website
• RSS Feed: San Diego Local News and other headlines
• Fox Rox: San Diego's Only Local Music Show
• Couch Potato: "TV has never been so rewarding"
• San Diego Blogs and Forums hosted by Fox 6
• Query the FCC's TV station database for XETV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information about Television Station XETV

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of California
KTVU 2 (Oakland / San Francisco) - XETV 6 (Tijuana / San Diego) - KECY 9 (El Centro) - KTTV 11 (Los Angeles) - KKFX 24 / KSSB 17 (Santa Maria / Santa Barbara) - KMPH 26 / 17 (Visalia / Merced) - KBVU 29 (Eureka) - KCVU 30 (Chico) - KDFX 33 / KESQ-DT 51.2 (Indio / Palm Springs) - KCBA 35 (Salinas) - KTXL 40 (Sacramento) - KBFX 58 (Bakersfield)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, Independent, Other Spanish Network, Religious, Home Shopping and Other stations in California