XETV to Become CW Affilliate on Aug 1 (July 4, 2008)

Reported by: FOX 6 News Staff

On August 1st, 2008 XETV Channel 6 becomes “San Diego 6 The CW” and the proud new home of The CW Television Network. “We believe that The CW’s new fall line-up, with the new 90210 joining the critically acclaimed Gossip Girl, will be a very exciting and promotable schedule that will fit perfectly with the #1 local station in San Diego. We are looking forward to a great new partnership,” said VP/General Manager, Richard DoutrT Jones.

The station logo and prime time programming will change, but the rest of the program schedule will remain the same. “We will continue our popular 5 a.m.-9 a.m. morning newscast, and 9-10 a.m. San Diego Living, as well as our full hour of news at 10:00 p.m. We also have our top-rated syndicated programs including The Simpsons, That 70’s Show, South Park and Seinfeld.

Viewers will wake up with San Diego 6 in the Morning anchors Marc Bailey, Lynda Martin and man about town Ruben Galvan weekdays 5-9 a.m. San Diego 6 News at 10:00 p.m. will continue to bring balanced news coverage to San Diego, with anchors Jim Patton, Heather Myers, meteorologist Aloha Taylor and C.S. Keys on sports.

Said Jones, “XETV has been serving San Diego for over 55 years. We will continue to bring viewers the balanced news they trust and the great entertainment programming they love”.

The CW fall 2008 prime time schedule lineup includes returning hits America’s Next Top Model, Smallville, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and this year’s wildly-anticipated new show, 90210.

“We are thrilled to be affiliated with XETV, the number one station in San Diego,” said John Maatta, Chief Operating Officer, The CW. “This station has a huge local identity, which perfectly complements The CW Network. The combination of XETV and The CW will be an explosive one which will rock the San Diego market. This vibrant and happening West Coast market now has a vibrant and happening combination with the hook-up of The CW and XETV. This will be a great thing for the station, the network and most importantly, the viewers in San Diego.”

XETV signed on the air in January, 1953 as San Diego’s second television station. From 1956 to 1973 (year corrected) XETV operated as an ABC affiliate. The station became independent in 1973 (year corrected) and was one the first stations to affiliate with the fledgling FOX network in 1986.

Analysis: XETV to Become CW Affilliate on Aug 1

Gary Stigall of XETV notes that the prime time programming will be carried in HD 1080i, but there's a lot of work to do between now and August 1, when the switch gets thrown. No, the local news isn't yet in HD, and he doesn't know when it will be.

It's also ironic that XETV is picking up the CW is because 90210, a former Fox show in its original run, will be on the CW network in the fall, so it's one way for XETV to show first runs of 90210 once again. No word whether Shannen Doherty will be on the new 90210 when the show returns with Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling in the show. Wonder if Joe E. Tata's Nat character will still be running the Peach Pit, or will Ian Ziering's character will be running it and Nat is retired?

FOX was sure they wanted a US based broadcast tower. They were even willing to switch to a lower power station with much less going for it during the rest of the days programming and (rumor) break a legal contract they had with XETV in an effort to get it. The question is: were they worried about the digital changeover? Were they worried about the must carry laws, or were they simply unwarranted idiot worries (like their cable news counterparts)? At least for now, it doesn't look like there was any good reason for FOX to flee the XETV affiliate. Looking at the objective facts, FOX lost the "#1 station" (at least in some respects), so I don't see (at least on the surface) why FOX did this.

In history, this is only the second time a network affilliation by its own hand moved to another local station. In August, CW goes from KSWB to XETV while the latter station loses the Fox affilliation by the network's own hand to the former station. In 1977, ABC made a deal for KGTV to move its affilliation from KCST (which I guess it didn't like being on) after four years to KGTV in July of 1977. KGTV's former NBC affilliation moved to KCST, which is now KNSD and owned and operated by NBC Universal. In either case, both of the KCST and KGTV, as well as the KFMB stations, often pre-empt desired programming such as game shows and sitcom reruns in order to show talkers, news, and movies.

Going back to KCST in 1973, to make a long story short, it convinced the FCC that XETV, a Mexican owned station, shouldn't be broadcasting ABC's programming when KCST, being an alternative to it, existed. It was probably the first time one station grabbed a network affilliation from another station through government means. In the mid 90s, KUSI had been trying do do what KCST did to XETV, especially when it came to rebroadcasting NFL games live, but KUSI couldn't get the Fox affilliation because of the NAFTA law signed by President Clinton or whatever the reason. KUSI got the UPN affilliation but dumped it two years later, becoming the first affilliate to toss away a network affilliation by its own hand.