History

 

 

San Diego 6, also known as XETV, signed onto Television programming in April 1953,making it the second-oldest

television station in San Diego. Due to signal issues of California’s geography, it was only possible for one copy of the channels in Santa Barbara and Tijuana. The Azcarraga family in Mexico

City owned channels 6 and 12, and both channels were allocated to

Tijuana. The United States had a superior number of homes with

television sets so in the early 1953the Azcarraga family decided to

make XETV available in San Diego

in the English language.

 

During the stations launch, San Diego 6 was an independent

station that broadcasted programs from their studio facilities in Tijuana

in both English and Spanish languages. XETV is licensed to Tijuana

but for all targets and intentions it has been a San Diego station from

the beginning. San Diego 6 was known as “The International Station”

during its early years because bi-national and bilingual audience.

 

In 1956, ABC received permission from the FCC to link up with XETV, which lasted until 1974. Around this time, Spanish programs were no longer playing on this station, and XETV would broadcast almost only in English from that point on. With these two working together, XETV premiered Monday Night Football, as well as the San Diego Padres to broadcast television. In 1974 the FCC decided to end this relationship with ABC and XETV because they wanted ABC to link up with UHF Channel 39. This relationship ending caused XETV to become an independent station once again. Although XETV was an independent station, it became very successful because of its popular programming, and strong signals. Also, Mexican broadcast regulations did not limit commercial time so XETV became the first station in North America to carry an infomercial, which entailed of a one-hour advertisement of listings of local houses for sale, which also brought a lot more attention to the station.

 

In the mid 1980’s, XETV became one of the first stations in the U.S. to affiliate with the new Fox network. The relationship between these two programs lasted for twenty-two years, which began with the Joan Rivers Show that ran at late night. By the next year, XETV built a seven night weekly schedule, which introduced their Prime Time programming. They started airing the NFL in 1994, and then Major League Baseball in 1996, and even got the chance to air the Padres/Yankees World Series in 1998.

 

 

 

                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

The next big change for this station was in 1996, when the Azcarraga family made the decision to sell the station to Grupo  Televisa. Continuing on with the changes in order for the station to grow, on December 29th, 1999 “Fox 6 News at 10” premiered, and by the next year “Fox in the Morning” began airing. Soon after, weekend morning Newscasts began. Slowly after more programming began such as “That Sunday Sports Show”, “Fox Rox”, “Life Lessons”, and “San Diego Living.”

 

In recent years, XETV ended their relationship with Fox Network and linked up with the CW network, which changed the station to be known as  “San Diego6- The CW”. The only other locations that the CW was affiliated with were Los Angles, New York, and Chicago. After linking up with the CW, XETV began airing many popular television programs such as “Gossip Girl”, “Vampire Diaries”, “Nikita”, and “Hart of Dixie”.

 

 

Although XETV has transformed because of their new popular programming being aired, the station is still devoted to delivering local news and information. The station still delivers the news 36 hours a week, and just three years ago, San Diego 6 news began airing in high definition. The station still has the same goal as they had when they first began airing in 1953, “to serve the viewers of San Diego with the best news and entertainment programs possible.” – Chuck Dunning, VP & General Manager

 

-Shannon Hayon