or '''Fox 6''' 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.
The station is owned by Mexican world-wide media giant
Televisa , and is run through its California corporation, Bay City Television, Inc. Televisa is the legal owner since Mexican law does not allow foreigners to own any media outlets. (From October 2001 through April 2007 XETV was part of a JMPA: Joint Marketing Programming Agreement, with XDTV (formerly XUPN) which is owned by Entravision Communications (Santa Monica, California) who also owns KBNT (Univision Affiliate), WXHA (Telemundo).
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 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 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 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 the
Mexican National Anthem , 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 (Channel 8) and KFSD (Channel 10) 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 to channel 10 (renamed KGTV in 1972) in
1977 .
XETV once again became an
Independent Station , with a number of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, and dramas. In 1986 XETV became the first non owned and operated FOX affiliate. 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 , then-
UPN affiliate
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
Fox Kids block nationwide. The 10 p.m. news was initially a half-hour show, but expanded to an hour by
2000 . As for Fox Kids, the remaining Saturday morning block has revamped to
4Kids TV , but XETV splits the block up between Saturdays and Sundays due to a morning newscast now.
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 (under authority of the
Secretary Of Communication And Transportation Of Mexico , as the sign-on disclaimer notes each day at 5 AM (6 AM on Sunday Mornings), 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 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.
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. 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.
XETV's broadcast day begins at 5:00 AM (6 AM on Sundays) and ends the next late night/morning at 2:00 AM (most days, the 2:00 AM-5:00 AM schedule is filled by
Infomercials ). Since it is a Mexican-licensed station serving both San Diego and Tijuana, the broadcast day begins with both the
Mexican National Anthem and the
U.S. National Anthem , followed by the customary operational information and disclaimer in both
English and Spanish versions . Since XETV is licensed in Mexico, it will probably be exempt from the requirement to discontinue analog broadcasting after February 17, 2009, that U.S. full-power stations are subject to.
VP & General Manager: Richard Doutre Jones
Chief Financial Officer: Rodrigo Salazar
News Director: Tauna Lange
News Managing Editor:
Greg Todd
Human Resources Director: Olvia Alvarez
Operations Director: Bob Anderson
General Sales Manager: Chuck Dunning
Creative Services Director: Judy Albrecht
Engineering/IT Director: Gary Stigall
Asst News Director: Tim O'Brien
Production Manager/Senior Director: Jackson Sturlin
Webmaster: Aaron Sheinbein
Newstips: 858-650-5401
- ''FOX6 News at 5AM'' - 5:00AM to 5:30AM with Marc Bailey, Angela Chee and Christina Russo weather.
- ''FOX6 News at 5:30AM'' - 5:30AM to 6:00AM with Marc Bailey, Angela Chee and Christina Russo weather.
- ''FOX6 News at 6AM'' - 6:00AM to 7:00AM with Marc Bailey, Angela Chee and Christina Russo weather.
- ''FOX In The Morning'' - 7:00AM to 9:00AM with Marc Bailey, Angela Chee and Christina Russo weather.
- ''FOX6 News at 10:00'' - 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with Brian Christie ,Estha Trouw, Aloha Taylor weather, and C.S. Keys sports.
- ''FOX6 News in the Morning Weekend'' - 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. with Anita Lightfoot, Lynn Stuart and Terry Burhans weather.
- ''FOX6 News at 10:00'' - 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with Jim Patton and Maria Arcega-Dunn.
- ''FOX6 News in the Morning Weekend'' - 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. with Anita Lightfoot, Lynn Stuart and Terry Burhans weather.
- ''FOX6 News at 10:00'' - 10:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with Jim Patton and Maria Arcega-Dunn
- ''That Sunday Sports Show'' - 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with C.S. Keys
