XETV and Other Border Stations' Obligations to Mexican Government

[Gregg]

I notice there's a video of the sign-on for XETV 6 Tijuana-San Diego on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id9_ctvH7n4&feature=fvwrel

The station finishes its last infomercial of the night, it's just before 5am on a Friday. The newscaster gives a 10 sec. promo, just before we hear both the Mexican and American national anthems with a flag over Tijuana flapping in the breeze followed by a flag over San Diego flapping in the breeze. Then an American voice gives the usual sign-on info (transmitter power, transmitting from Mt. San Antonio in Baja California, etc.) followed by a Spanish voice giving us the same info. Then the CW 6 news begins.

Are Mexican stations obligated to play the national anthem at the start of their day (or at 5am if the station is 24 hours)? Do Mexican stations, including those broadcasting on the border in English, have obligations to run Mexican PSAs or free tourism ads?

I remember listening to XETRA-AM-FM while in San Diego. (I can remember when XETRA 690 was Top 40 station broadcasting in English to San Diego and L.A.) They played a legal I.D. in Spanish every couple of hours, did Mexican tourism PSAs a few times a day and had to run La Hora Nacional from 10-11pm Sundays, a Spanish-language public service program that all Mexican radio stations must air. On the other hand, they didn't have to do any news, rare in those days before deregulaton. 690 and 91X had no news or traffic reports ever.

Of course, a few years ago, XETV 6, which had done no news as an independent station, decided to do morning news and a 10pm newscast as a revenue producer, while a Fox affiliate. XETV continues this practice as a CW affiliate.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Are Mexican stations obligated to play the national anthem at the start of their day (or at 5am if the station is 24 hours)? Do Mexican stations, including those broadcasting on the border in English, have obligations to run Mexican PSAs or free tourism ads?

Yes, with one caveat:

XETV is not required to air the Mexican government mandated programming on its satellite/cable feeds entirely within the U.S., and IIRC, it isn't required to air the government mandated programming even on the digital OTA signal out of Baja California.

The only place you should see video like on that YouTube link these days is on analog 6.

 

[cd637299]

A similar station to XETV is XHRIO analog 2 (a Fox affiliate) in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, also serving Brownsville TX & surrounding areas.

XHRIO is a common sporadic-E catch here in Florida. I seem to recall seeing Mexican PSA's in Spanish in the commercial breaks along with typical English commercials.

What is interesting is that XHRIO is also a subchannel of KNVO in McAllen. I have no idea if the Mexican PSA's air on the sub....there would really be no reason to have them on it, though.

Because it *is* on a US sub, it makes XHRIO subject to US laws also, in the sense that they ID on the hour as a US station would, complete visual ID (they even say "You're watching XHRIO," whereas at any other time they visually ID as "XRIO" with no H.)

There will be a test on this later.

cd

 

[LKellerIII]

I grew up in a part of LA in the 50s and early 60s that got better over-the-air reception from San Diego than from the LA stations(this was pre-cable). So we watched a lot of network TV on 8, 10, and XETV 6, which was an ABC affiliate at the time.

At that time, XETV had NO news department at all - they didn't have to answer to US FCC requirements. So during the 11:00 PM half hour, they ran old sitcom reruns

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Because it *is* on a US sub, it makes XHRIO subject to US laws also, in the sense that they ID on the hour as a US station would, complete visual ID (they even say "You're watching XHRIO," whereas at any other time they visually ID as "XRIO" with no H.)

Except that on the U.S. channel sub, the legal ID is KNVO 48.3 McAllen...there's no U.S. requirement to ID the Mexican transmission.

As far as the Mexican-government mandated programming on the U.S. only feeds, it would depend on if XHRIO has a separate feed without the Mexican PSAs/national hour/presidential addresses/etc. It's my understanding that XETV does have a separate feed for analog 6, but I don't know if XHRIO does for its Mexico-based transmitter.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

XETV's website on its own arrangement:

http://www.sandiego6.com/content/contacts/faq.aspx

(scroll down to "Other Technical Questions", there is no anchor link for this one)

Why am I hearing parts of your broadcast in Spanish?

If you watch XETV channel 6 over-the-air, you will see some Mexican public service announcements. XETV is required to play these announcements in their original form as part of its obligation to the people of Mexico, where the station is licensed. Those watching SanDiego 6 via cable, satellite, or over-the-air on our digital station will not see these announcements.

 

[LKellerIII]

I don't know if it was a Mexican government requirement or not, but I recall the top of the hour ID for "The Soul Express" (1090 AM "over" Los Angeles) in the 70s (in Spanish) - "X-E-P-R-S, Rosarita, Baja California."

I don't remember that 1090 announced any olfficial IDs during the earlier Wolfman Jack (XERB) era.

 

[KeithE4]

I don't know if it was a Mexican government requirement or not, but I recall the top of the hour ID for "The Soul Express" (1090 AM "over" Los Angeles) in the 70s (in Spanish) - "X-E-P-R-S, Rosarita, Baja California."

I don't remember that 1090 announced any olfficial IDs during the earlier Wolfman Jack (XERB) era.

IIRC, all Mexican stations have to ID in Spanish on the hour, even if they broadcast mainly in English. I believe it's call letters, city, and state.

Paging the Old Gringo! He'll have more knowledge about this than probably anyone else here.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

While we're waiting for the details from David, yes, Mexican stations have to ID, in Spanish.

Here, listen for some examples from our friends at Toppy:

http://www.tophour.com/audio/index.php?q=f&f=/San+Diego+CA

For example, 540 XESURF was running an English-language talk format out of 1260 in Los Angeles (Saul Levine's AM Playground) and put the Spanish-language ID right after what I assume is a Mexican government PSA.

And the ultimate contrast - 690 XETRA, then an English language sports talk powerhouse, with a female doing a Spanish-language ID, followed immediately by the big voiced guy intoning "Southern California's sports leader..XTRA Sports 690!".

That was the 1996 ID. The 2005 followed it with English-language standards music.

 

[desertv]

How about Canadian stations that also broadcast "south of the (canadian) border" such as Windsor/Detroit? Do they have to play "O Canada" sometime during the broadcast day?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'm pretty sure that there's no requirement for Canadian stations to play "O Canada", much like there's no requirement here for the "Star Spangled Banner".

I'm having trouble thinking of any Canadian TV stations which target U.S. audiences. There are a handful of radio stations (like 101.1/Ft. Erie-Buffalo), but not any "cross-border" TV stations aiming at the U.S.

The old CKLW/9 may have in Windsor, but that's been CBC TV's CBET for decades. Other border markets are heavily weighted towards Canadian population - Vancouver is too far from Seattle for stations to target Seattle from there, the other Windsor stations are too weak to target Detroit, Toronto is a bigger market than Buffalo by far, as is Montreal vs. any nearby U.S. market.

 

[azumanga]

XETV's website on its own arrangement:

http://www.sandiego6.com/content/contacts/faq.aspx

(scroll down to "Other Technical Questions", there is no anchor link for this one)

Why am I hearing parts of your broadcast in Spanish?

If you watch XETV channel 6 over-the-air, you will see some Mexican public service announcements. XETV is required to play these announcements in their original form as part of its obligation to the people of Mexico, where the station is licensed. Those watching SanDiego 6 via cable, satellite, or over-the-air on our digital station will not see these announcements.

This might have been a recent development -- in 2005, XETV's morning newscasts (which I saw at a motel on a Dish Network-based system) had the obligatory Mexican PSAs and tourism slots, but all in English with English text, including messages that are clearly aimed at Mexican viewers (including one that dealt with workplace discrimination of pregnant women).

 

[BRNout]

About the former XETRA: all Mexican stations must ID at the TOH by call, city and state and I recall their TOH back in the late 70s/early 80s being really cool with the sexy sounding Spanish woman doing the ID followed by a shotgun-style jingle "The Mighty 690!"

Isn't there a weekly government broadcast that all Mexican-licensed stations have to carry? I seem to recall XHRM taking a 90 minute time out from Art Laboe's Sunday Night Special to present a bunch of "informational" programming from the Mexican Government. Other Tijuana stations were doing the same.

That's not uncommon in Latin America: Brazil has a "Brazil Hour" program on Wednesday evenings that all stations must carry and Costa Rica has a 15 minute block that all radio stations must air sometime on Monday morning. Most do it from 7:00 to 7:15. Pretty much all of these countries also require the national anthem to be aired at least once a day; some even require it upon sign off and at noon.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

This might have been a recent development -- in 2005, XETV's morning newscasts (which I saw at a motel on a Dish Network-based system) had the obligatory Mexican PSAs and tourism slots, but all in English with English text, including messages that are clearly aimed at Mexican viewers (including one that dealt with workplace discrimination of pregnant women).

The development may have been that Dish and DirecTV could have been fed then with the XETV analog 6 signal, but are not now. I'm not in the market, so I can't verify, but the "San Diego 6" website seems to indicate that all U.S. feeds are without the Mexican government mandated programming - much of it in English even on analog 6, IIRC.

Isn't there a weekly government broadcast that all Mexican-licensed stations have to carry? I seem to recall XHRM taking a 90 minute time out from Art Laboe's Sunday Night Special to present a bunch of "informational" programming from the Mexican Government. Other Tijuana stations were doing the same.

The Mexican National Hour, which (as you point out by the show preempted) airs on Sunday nights...I believe at 10 PM PT, or maybe 11.

I can't find it on the website schedules of any of the Mexican-licensed English-language stations I checked (even "The Walrus" 105.7, which proudly announces that it has an English-language permit on the front page), but "91X's" (XETRA-FM) Sunday evening specialty music show ends at 10 PM. None of the stations have full 24/7 schedules up.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Thinking about it, it'd make sense that even if they aren't using a fiber feed, DirecTV/Dish are picking up the digital OTA signal...which is not (for whatever reason) subject to carrying the Mexican government mandated programming, even though it's coming out of Baja California.

In 2005, it was likely that the satellite services were picking up analog 6 OTA.

 

[azumanga]

Thinking about it, it'd make sense that even if they aren't using a fiber feed, DirecTV/Dish are picking up the digital OTA signal...which is not (for whatever reason) subject to carrying the Mexican government mandated programming, even though it's coming out of Baja California.

My speculation regarding why the digital signal is exempt may be that most viewers in Tijuana don't have sets or boxes that pick up digital signals.

Of course, as Mexico gets closer to its analog sunset in 2015 (previously 2021), this may change.