KUSI-TV

Kusi redirects here. For the Finnish swear word, see Finnish profanity.

KUSI-TV

San Diego, California
Branding	KUSI (general) KUSI News (newscasts)
Slogan	More Local News.
Channels	Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 51 (PSIP)
Translators	K12PO Murrieta
Affiliations	Independent
Owner	McKinnon Broadcasting Company (Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc.)
First air date	September 13, 1982
Call letters' meaning	U.S. International University (former name of Alliant International University)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 51 (UHF, 1982-2009)
Former affiliations	independent (1982-1995) UPN (1995-1998)
Transmitter power	355 kW
Height	576 m
Facility ID	10238
Transmitter coordinates	32°41′50″N 116°56′4″W
Website	www.kusi.com

KUSI-TV, virtual channel 51.1, is an independent television station based in San Diego, California. The station is owned and operated by Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of McKinnon Broadcasting. As of August 31, 2010, it is now McKinnon Broadcasting's only station property after it sold off its two Texas stations to London Broadcasting.

KUSI is available on cable channel 9 (standard definition) on all of San Diego's area cable systems, Time Warner, Cox, and AT&T U-verse. Both Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable carry KUSI's high definition signal on cable channel 709. The station is also available on its customary Channel 51 position on both of DirecTV's and Dish Network's Local Channels packages, but neither satellite provider carries KUSI's HD signal. The station is also rebroadcast on K12PO, a broadcast translator licensed to Murrieta, California.

History

KUSI signed on in September 1982 as a general entertainment independent station, airing children's shows, situation comedies, older theatrical and made-for-TV movies, dramas, and sports. From 1987 to 1994, and again from 1997 until 2003, KUSI was the on-the-air television home of the San Diego Padres baseball team.

In early 1994, the premiere and expansion of the station's morning newscast had relegated children's programming to the afternoons; by 1995 those shows were scattered to other local outlets and replaced with more court, talk, and reality shows added to KUSI's schedule, mirroring that of Los Angeles' KCAL-TV. Per the branding by station ownership, the station states that it has "More Local News" as it statistically has more local news content then other San Diego stations and, therefore, the cartoons and recent off-network sitcoms were moved to a weaker station, KSWB-TV which was then a WB affiliate and later affiliated with The CW (2006–2008), and more recently with Fox beginning in 2008.

KUSI gained a network affiliation beginning in 1995, as San Diego's UPN outlet. However, in 1998, the station dropped the affiliation due to low ratings. Many San Diegans without cable (Los Angeles's KCOP-TV was piped in to the area cable systems) nor a strong antenna (facing Los Angeles) could not pick up UPN programming for more than a year until XHUPN (Channel 49) went on the air.

While KUSI was affiliated with UPN, the station tried unsuccessfully to wrestle the Fox affiliation away from the network's then-affiliate XETV-TV (Channel 6) in November 1995. This was after the Fox network first picked up the broadcast rights to the National Football League in 1994, as cited in the United States Court of Appeals (Channel 51, Inc. vs. Fox Television Stations). In that case, KUSI filed an appeal against the Federal Communications Commission in granting Fox a permit to broadcast live sports on the Mexican-licensed signal of XETV. In FCC regulations, stations not licensed to the United States were not allowed to air live sporting events without licensing approval. The permit was granted to Fox on behalf of XETV, and the case was settled on March 26, 1996. However, until XETV started its news operations more than a year later, KUSI provided news-gathering resources to Fox's news and sports divisions for the San Diego market. (Similarly, there was a rumor in 2008 that KUSI would pick up the CW affiliation abandoned by KSWB-TV, now known as "Fox 5", but the network signed on with XETV instead.)

In the fall of 2007, KUSI was planning to open new state-of-the-art streetside studios in downtown San Diego. However, the site that was supposed to house its new studio was sold to Bosa Development. KUSI remains at its Kearny Mesa studios.

Ownership

Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc.:

66.26% - Michael D. McKinnon

17.48% - C. Dan McKinnon (Michael D's brother)

08.13% - Michael Dean McKinnon (Michael D's son)

08.13% - Mark Daniel McKinnon (Michael D's son)

Channel 51 of San Diego, Inc., a California corporation & Texas Television, Inc., a Texas corporation are wholly owned subsidiaries of: McKinnon Broadcasting, Inc., a California corporation.

Digital Television

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
51.1	720p	16:9	Main KUSI-TV programming

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion that took take place on June 12, 2009, KUSI-DT will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 18. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KUSI-DT's virtual channel as 51.

Programming

Unlike most other independent television stations, KUSI allocates a significant portion of its broadcast day to news programming, although the station does offer syndicated programming such as The Jerry Springer Show, Judge Judy, Judge Alex, Extra, TMZ on TV and Montel Williams, among others.

Local programming

The Prep Pigskin Report

One of the station's most popular locally-produced shows is The Prep Pigskin Report, which has been awarded the local Emmy award. The hour-long show, which airs live on Friday nights at 10:30 p.m. during the football season, features videotaped highlights from nearly every high school football game in San Diego County played that evening, or in some cases on Thursday.

The Team

• Paul Rudy - host
• Stephanie Kelly - East County Game of the Week Reporter
• Brandon Stone
• Kerri Sargent - City Game of the Week reporter
• John Shacklett
• John Soderman - South Bay correspondent
• Rick Willis - North County Game of the Week Reporter
• Tom "The Intern"

Other local programs

• San Diego People - featuring the main KUSI anchors, Sundays 10:00-10:30 a.m.

News operation

Currently, KUSI broadcasts a total of 50½ hours of local newscasts each week (with 7½ hours on weekdays and 6½ hours on weekends), the most of any station in the San Diego market (ahead of Fox affiliate KSWB-TV, which carries 44½ hours of news a week).

KUSI became a serious player in the local television news race when it introduced a 10 p.m. newscast in September 1990. Originally anchored by veterans Roger Grimsby and George Reading, it was San Diego's first new local newscast since XETV's previous effort ended in 1972, when XETV lost its ABC affiliation to then-KCST. In January 1994, joining the growing number of other local stations nationwide, a morning newscast was added, originally anchored by Laura Buxton and Tom Blair (later replaced by Stan Miller). The show, now known as Good Morning San Diego, gradually phased out the aforementioned children's programming that aired during that period and currently is seen for four hours every day including weekend editions. The station later added nightly evening newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. In September 2011, Good Morning San Diego was extended by one hour and Live with Regis and Kelly moved to CBS affiliate KFMB-TV.

Currently the evening anchor team consists of mostly longtime veterans of local San Diego television news, including Paul Bloom (who had several stints at KNSD) and longtime Chicago weatherman and Weather Channel founder John Coleman is the station's chief meteorologist.

The Turko Files is a civic and consumer watchdog segment of KUSI-TV by reporter Michael Turko, known for the line "It ain't right". KUSI also provides news updates for XX Sports Radio and sister station San Diego 1700 AM. The owners of both stations are close friends.

On April 18, 2010, KUSI became the fourth San Diego television station to broadcast its newscasts in high definition, starting with the station's 6 p.m. newscast. The difference between this broadcast and other HD broadcasts in San Diego is that it is shown in a letterbox format for those with standard definition television sets.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• KUSI News (1990–present)
• Good Morning San Diego (morning newscast; 1994–present)

Station slogans

• The Spirit of San Diego (1990–1997; based on "Spirit (of Texas)" news package by James R. Kirk's TM Productions)
• San Diego's More Local News Station (1997–2002)
• More Local News (2002–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff (as of September 2011)

Anchors

• Ross Becker - weeknights at 11 p.m.
• David Davis - weekday mornings Good Morning San Diego (5-10 a.m.)
• Alexis Delchiaro - weekday mornings Good Morning San Diego (5-10 a.m.)
• Allen Denton - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Sasha Foo - weekends at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.; also weekday reporter
• Byron Harlan - weekends at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.; also weekday reporter
• Tom Jordan - weekend mornings Good Morning San Diego (6-10 a.m.)
• Sandra Maas - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Bridget Naso - weekend mornings Good Morning San Diego (6-10 a.m.)

SuperCast Weather

• John Coleman - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.
• Dave Scott (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings Good Morning San Diego (6-10 a.m.), weekends at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.
• Brad Perry - meteorologist; weekday mornings Good Morning San Diego (5-10 a.m.), also general assignment reporter

Sports team

• Paul Rudy - sports director; weeknights at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.
• Rick Willis - sports anchor; weekends at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.

Reporters

• Steve Bosh - general assignment reporter
• Mike Castellucci - weekday morning features reporter
• Jessica Headley- general assignment reporter
• Jane King - NYSE business reporter
• Ed Lenderman - general assignment reporter
• Leslie Lopez - general assignment reporter; also fill-in weather anchor
• Kerri Sargent - weekday morning traffic reporter
• John Soderman - general assignment reporter
• Michael Turko - investigative/consumer reporter

Former on-air staff

• Paul Bloom - anchor (now at KSWB)
• Laura Buxton - morning anchor (now at local cable channel SD4)
• Doug Curlee - reporter
• Aimee Fuller - morning anchor
• Kimberly Hunt - anchor (now at KGTV)
• Renee Kohn - meterologist (now at XETV)
• Phil Konstantin - reporter/photographer (now at KGTV)
• C.S. Keys - weather anchor (now at XETV)
• Susan Lennon - morning anchor (now at KSWB)
• Joe Lizura - meterologist
• Stan Miller - Good Morning San Diego anchor (now at KWTV in Oklahoma City)
• Charlotte Starck - freelance anchor at KING-5/NWCN Seattle 2007-2010
• Michael Tuck - anchor
• Dan Plante- anchor (now at KTVX)

Station personnel

• Mike McKinnon - station general manager
• Steve Cohen - news director
• Steve Sadler - chief financial officer
• Charlie Grisham - general sales manager
• Jim Barker - local sales manager
• Tim McCarthy - national sales manager
• Vince Douglas - production manager
• Douglas Friedman - director of creative Services
• Sally Luck - human resources director
• Richard Large - director of engineering
• Jared Klein - art director
• Terry Sanchez - director
• Lee Neuwirth - senior writer
• Larry Lowy - senior writer

External links

• KUSI Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUSI-TV
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K12PO
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KUSI-TV