News Operation
Currently, XETV broadcasts a total of 28 hours and 25 minutes of local newscasts each week (with four hours and 41 minutes on weekdays, and 2½ hours on weekends). The odd-numbered amount is due to the fact that the station's 11 p.m. newscast on weeknights has a running time of 11 minutes, making XETV the largest minor network station serving the United States that has an in-house news department whose evening newscast does not run for 30, 35 or 60 minutes; conversely, its 10 p.m. newscast is the only San Diego-targeted television newscast in that timeslot that runs for a half-hour (competing against hour-long news programs seen on KUSI and KSWB). Out of the six English-language television stations in the market with news departments, XETV is the only one that does not produce local newscasts that air in midday or early evening timeslots.
XETV had previously carried a local newscast from the station's launch in 1953 until 1967 (Lionel Van Deerlin, later a San Diego congressman, was a news director in XETV's early years). As an independent station, XETV then ran local newsbriefs throughout the day until the station affiliated with Fox in 1986. The station established its current news department on December 27, 1999, starting out with a 35-minute local news program at 10 p.m. (which later expanded to one hour in 2002), subsequently followed by the debut of its weekday morning newscast (initially three hours in length) and a now-defunct noon news program in September 2000.
On September 5, 2006, XETV's news team gained national attention, when investigative reporter John Mattes was badly beaten by Sam Suleiman and Rosa Barraza, a husband-and-wife team accused of a real estate scam who were being investigated by the reporter. The incident was captured on tape and shown on many news programs throughout the nation. On January 20, 2007, XETV debuted a two-hour weekend morning newscast (the program originally aired at 7 a.m., but was moved to 8 a.m. after the CW affiliation switch); the station is one of only four CW affiliates with a local newscast on weekend mornings (alongside WGN-TV/Chicago, KTLA/Los Angeles and KMAX-TV/Sacramento).
Upon becoming the San Diego market's new CW affiliate on August 1, 2008, XETV became the only CW affiliate not under Tribune Broadcasting ownership that produces its own local newscasts. The station added an 11 p.m. newscast titled 11@11 following the affiliation switch (in the case of XETV, it is so named due to the program being only 11 minutes in length); XETV is currently the only CW affiliate with an evening newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (11 p.m. Pacific time on the California side of the market). The following year in 2009, the 10 p.m. newscast was pared back from one hour to 33 minutes (the program has since been reduced to a half-hour).
On March 9, 2009, XETV shut down its sports department, and sports anchors C.S. Keys (who returned to XETV as a weather and traffic anchor in October 2011) and Andrea Nakano and sports producer Mike Lamar were fired by then-vice president and general manager Richard Doutre Jones (who left the station in June 2010 and was replaced by veteran sales manager Chuck Dunning). Doutre Jones said in a statement that the decision "had everything to do with return on investment... I think people depend on us for weather and news; I don't think sports is what they think of." On April 23, 2011, XETV became the sixth television station in the San Diego market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition.
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