In Depth
San Diego Stations Pull Out Promo Stops to Announce Affiliation Switches
The sky’s the limit when it comes to reminding San Diego’s TV viewers that come Friday, The CW’s programming is moving from Channel 5 to Channel 6 and Fox programming is moving from Channel 6 to Channel 5.
Tribune-owned KSWB-TV/Channel 6, once part of the backbone of The WB and its successor, The CW, made the first move by switching to Fox. The station plans to fill the skies on the weekend of the switch with still-secret messages.
Then Grupo Televisa-owned XETV-TV—which 22 years ago was the first Fox Broadcasting-affiliated station not owned by Fox—made a deal with The CW.
XETV VP and General Manager Richard Doutre Jones, who said he is still, technically, a member of the Fox affiliates, felt like the injured party in a blind-side divorce.
The shock was followed by the anger and then the recognition that decisions had to be made. Mr. Jones made a decision that involved moving on, aggressively.
While some might suggest he had only one real option, The CW, Mr. Jones said it was the network’s decision to drop wrestling as inconsistent with its aim to reach young women that convinced him, “OK. That’s something I want to be a part of.” The CW’s decision to bring back one of his early Fox favorites, “Beverly Hills, 90210,” as “90210” is a bit of icing.
XETV’s Web site already carries the new logo and the slogan that San Diego 6 is “New home to The CW” effective Friday.
Mr. Jones suggests he has even gotten some on-air plugs for the change on sister Grupo Televisa stations in Tijuana, where XETV’s transmitter is located, and has slipped the message in during breaks in his Fox prime-time lineup.
“I’ve not broken any of the rules. I’ve done nothing illegal, but I have made full use of what we have,” Mr. Jones said.
He has the most to lose in a market that is so geographically challenging that only 6% of the residents get their TV signal over the air. The rest are getting their TV from cable or satellite. The 27th-largest TV market in the country has a once-booming housing market and auto market. With the mortgage crunch, the automakers’ struggles, high gas prices and assorted economic ripple effects, the area is in its second year of double-digit declines in overall market revenue, Mr. Jones said.
When asked what the affiliation switch will mean to XETV, he said: “We were No. 1. We’ve been No. 1 forever. We will not be No. 1.” (He meant moving forward as a CW affiliate will cost him his membership in the Fox affiliates’ Fox No.1 Club.)
KSWB, on the other hand, is clearly marrying up to a prime-time lineup with hits led by Fox’s behemoth “American Idol,” plus a full complement of major sports franchises that play well in San Diego, home of Major League Baseball’s Padres and the National Football League’s Chargers. The Chargers are on the Fox Sports lineup three times this fall, starting with the San Diego home opener.
KSWB VP and General Manager Ray Schonbak, a local broadcasting veteran of three decades who had overseen the Emmis station group, was appointed to run the San Diego station when the switch was announced in March. He has not been sunning himself like a soon-to-be trophy wife since then.
In addition to all the engineering, graphics, signage and regulatory details involved with the switch, he has been jump-starting a news operation that will, effective Friday, be producing more than four hours of local news a day, all in high definition, including the street-level reporting (the latter a first in the market).
That’s a lot of equipment bought and personnel hired.
Mr. Schonbak coaxed Kathleen Bade, a popular anchor at Midwest Television-owned CBS affiliate KFMB across town until she left to focus on motherhood, to return to the air as anchor of KSWB’s 10 o’clock newscast weeknights. Susan Lennon, another popular local anchor before she took time off for motherhood, will anchor the weekend 10 o’clock newscasts. Mr. Schonbak also hired the well-traveled Arthel Neville to anchor the four-hour weekday local morning show.
The high-speed hiring spree has been accomplished with a lot of support from Tribune and the availability of talent that has been laid off throughout the country due to the tight economy.
Because the switch takes place on a Friday, Mr. Schonbak said it will give the station, which has been doing run-throughs, an opportunity to broadcast all the new newscasts in the first three days and tweak them if necessary.
Meanwhile, over at XETV, the second-oldest station in the sprawling San Diego market, Mr. Jones and his staff have faced the challenge of how to switch from the most popular network prime-time lineup to the weakest without denting the station’s dominance in key news periods, fringe and late night, or disrupting the lineup, including local lifestyle programming, familiar to viewers outside prime time.
The most dramatic change—outside prime time—will occur after the 10 o’clock news ends: a nonstop 11-minute wrap-up of news titled “11@11,” promoted as “Today’s news. Tomorrow’s weather.” That will be followed by a five-minute sports review, a repurposed “San Diego Living” segment and a minute-long segment from Comedy.com, a Web comedy portal run by former UPN President Dean Valentine, as a lead-in to “Seinfeld.”
Both stations are making use of every available platform, medium and surface for signs touting their switch. Both stations have gotten a good deal of attention and help from their new network partners in planning for Friday and maintaining the promotional push through the end of the November sweeps ratings book.
KSWB has “got some of the most popular shows to hang their hats on,” said Nick Belperio, senior VP of affiliate marketing for Fox, which is picking up 50% of the undisclosed cost of the promotion and marketing for the switch.
The slogans inspired by the move and Fox hits rolled off his tongue: For “Bones,” “Same chemistry. New scene.” “‘House’ has a new home.” For Sunday’s animation lineup: “Animation relocation.”
One of the city’s picturesque trolleys is being wrapped in an ad. News vehicles are being wrapped as well. A position for switch promos has been secured over the masthead on Page 1 of the San Diego Union-Tribune for several days starting this weekend through mid-August.
“It’s important to us that this launch go well, and we’re pretty good at this,” Mr. Belperio said.
Ed Wilson, who was president of the Fox Television Network until he was hired in February as Tribune Broadcasting president, revealed the sky-writing plan, but not the message.
“I don’t think we’ve missed anything,” Mr. Wilson said.
Callers to KSWB who are put on hold hear a show-by-show listing of the programming that is moving to “the new home, the only home for Fox in San Diego,” Mr. Schonbak said. “It’s been a great opportunity for both us and Fox.”
At XETV, Mr. Jones convinced The CW executives to remain true to the San Diego blues in the station’s redesigned logo and only go to the network’s lime green upon linking to the network Web site. “It was important to me that we kept our look,” Mr. Jones said, joking, “I personally look pretty bad in green.”
He’s relying on promotional momentum on his established morning show and relationships with local students via a series of documentaries the station has produced to augment his other attempts to collect his new audience.
“This station is so aggressive,” said Elizabeth Tumulty, the head of network distribution for The CW. “They are on top of it.”
(Update: Clarified comments in 11th paragraph)
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The Chargers are only on Fox twice this fall, since they are an AFC team.
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KSWB is located over the air on channel 69, not 6 (as incorrectly noted in this story). It's cable position is on channel 5 on most San Diego systems. But it would be interesting to note somewhere that Fox is going from a strong V to a U, while the CW can potentially benefit from going from a U to a V.
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