Editor: David Tanny
Home, Latest News, 2005 Archives, E-Mail
40 Channels in San Diego (June 13, 2005)Did you know that there are 40 television channels (including translators) originating between San Diego county and northwestern Baja California? There are also five additional cable-originating television stations: 4SD, ITV, CTN, City 24, and SDNC. There are currently seven digital TV stations in the area, and 17 of the broadcasting stations are broadcasting in Spanish.Two LPTV channels turned up on a google search that have yet to sign on, or are they on the air in a distant area such as Temecula or Fallbrook? Channel 36 is going to be the San Diego affilliate of TeleFutura, a sister network of Univision and operated by Entravision on Ruffin Road, operators of KBNT, XHAS, and the three translators for the two stations. Channel 67, KDIG-LP, is planned to be a new station for Urban American Television, which was on channel 61 for a short while in 2003. There are six translator stations in the area. Channels 59 and 67 from La Jolla are longtime translators of KPBS 15. KNSD-LP 62 is actually owned by NBC 7/39, but leased out to KBNT since c. 1995. Channel 62 was a translator for KCST (now KNSD since 1988) from c. 1975 until c. 1993. KNSD is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year in San Diego. Visit knsd.com for more on that. KSCI 18 in Los Angeles has had a translator on channel 48 in Poway since about 1981 when I first heard of it from the long-defunct Tuned In television listing magazine. Channel 46 is now a translator for XHAS in Tijuana, but before that, it began as a translator for KBSC 52 (now KVEA) in Corona relaying its signal on channel 57 in Poway, relaying everything including the ONTV subscription television service. When ONTV went bust, the station segueued into an independent, and then a flagship station duo for the fledgling Telemundo Spanish language network in c. 1987. In 1989 or 1990, soon after XHAS became a Telemundo affilliate, channel 57 began relaying Telemundo from Tijuana instead from the L.A. station, but at the same time, XHUAA signed on channel 57, causing co-channel interference with the channel 57 in Poway. In about 1998, the operator of channel 57 in Poway finally got the OK from the FCC to move to channel 46. Channel 49 in Oceanside started out in about 1991 as a San Diego affilliate of TBN, but later on became a translator for KBNT. Channel 43 in Poway began ten years ago as an affilliate of the now-defunct Network One television network, but after that, relayed programming from channel 17 (which in turn was at the time relaying programming from KWHY 22 in Los Angeles most of the time), but after KBNT (then on 19) was displaced by KSWB-DT, which took channel 19 as their new permanent home once their analog signal on 69 ends next year, 43 went back to a stand-alone LPTV playing Home Shopping in Spanish and English at one time or another. KBNT signed on channel 19 in 1989 as the new San Diego affilliate of Univision (after XEWT ran it for a year), but coverage was limited to North County since its transmitter was in the Mt. Palomar area. K17DI signed on about 1995 or so, but after KBNT was forced to move, there may have been a merger of the two LPTV stations so that KBNT could move into the channel 17 frequency whose transmitter was just south-east of Downtown where many more people can pick up the station with ease. K17DI as a station disapearred. There are currently seven stations in the area that are broadcasting a digital television channel. Only KSWB is assured that its new home will be on 19 once the FCC takes away the allocation for UHF channels 60-69 for auctioning purposes. XETV 6 is the only Tijuana-based station that is currently broadcasting a digital signal, and for that, it's channel 23, which displaced another LPTV station after a month or two of broadcasting FamilyNet network programming. There is no timetable when any of the other Tijuana-based television stations such as XHUPN 49 and XEWT 12 will get a channel for their own digital television channels. With lack of HDTV programming from UPN, there is no hurry to upgrade the XHUPN channel for now, but the deadline for December 2006 is approaching fast for analog signals, and the LPTV channels will either have to convert to digital or go off the air after that date passes. The engineers at XETV isn't sure if a decision of making channel 23 their new home will be decided upon. For those who subscribe to cable television, the services will continue to broadcast their lineups in analog for the foreseeable future, and since many people suscribe to basic and expanded basic cable, today's VCRs and TV sets will continue to be able to tune in the analog cable channels 2-99 without a digital converter box. There is apparently no deadline for cable television to convert to digital television for basic or expanded basic, which would render the VCRs, TVs, and converter boxes obsolete. Today, you can buy a TV set on the cheap from $20 for a five-inch black and white portable, which is going to be useless in 2007 unless it's hooked up to cable, so enjoy watching All My Children on the five-inch portable while you eat lunch until then. If you need a new TV set, buy a cheap set until the costs of the TV sets that have built-in digital TV tuners come down to a more reasonable price. Once you can get a 27 inch HDTV set with a built-in digital TV tuner for about $500, go ahead and grab one!
|
