History
On November 1, 2011, KFMB launched KFMB-DT2, an affiliate of MeTV, by way of an agreement between the network's owner, Weigel Broadcasting, and Midwest Television that was announced two months earlier on September 6.[22]
On January 18, 2017, Midwest Television and network co-parent CBS Corporation announced that KFMB would become the San Diego affiliate of The CW, which would be carried on one of the station's digital subchannels; the station would replace Tijuana-licensed XETV-TDT (channel 6), which had been affiliated with the network since 2008.[23][24][25][26] The move stemmed from a failure between CBS and XETV owner Grupo Televisa, during negotiations to renew an affiliation contract set to expire that September, to reach an agreement to keep the affiliation with XETV.[27] KFMB-TV digital subchannel 8.2 was originally scheduled to take over the CW affiliation on September 1, 2017. However, these plans changed on January 26, 2017, when Televisa announced that it would drop all English-language programming (including its CW affiliation) from XETV on May 31, at the completion of a phased wind-down of the station's San Diego operations (this process began on March 31, with the closure of channel 6's news department); KFMB consequently moved up the date of the switch to May 31, to align with XETV's planned conversion into a repeater of one of Televisa's Spanish-language networks.[27][28][29]
In preparation, Midwest sold the local rights to the MeTV affiliation to the E. W. Scripps Company, owner of ABC affiliate KGTV; MeTV moved from KFMB-DT2 to the second digital subchannel of KGTV–which was also simulcast on KZSD-LP (channel 41, now a KGTV translator on channel 20), which lost its Azteca affiliation to a subchannel of MyNetworkTV affiliate XHDTV-TDT (channel 49), in preparation for the network's July 1 move to XHAS-TDT (channel 33), which also lost its Telemundo affiliation to a subchannel of NBC affiliate KNSD (which they both are owned-and-operated stations)–on May 1 (to accommodate MeTV, KGTV relocated Laff onto the re-numbered 10.3 from digital channel 10.2, which, in the interim, was converted into a news channel that aired simulcasts and rebroadcasts of KGTV's local news programming).[30][31] That same day, KFMB-DT2 began to air a pre-launch loop for the new affiliation with the network on its former MeTV space along with a message card of the MeTV affiliation moving to KGTV 10.2.[32] The signal resolution for KFMB-DT2 was subsequently converted to 720p high definition on May 21.
KFMB-DT2 added programming from The CW on May 31, 2017 (XETV transferred its existing affiliation with co-owned Canal 5 from its decommissioned 6.2 subchannel to its main feed upon losing the CW affiliation).[27] The subchannel–which was rebranded as "The CW San Diego"–concurrently adopted a general entertainment schedule featuring a mix of syndicated shows not carried by other San Diego stations, repeat airings of certain programs seen on KFMB's main channel, and many first-run and off-network syndicated programs (including talk shows and sitcoms) that previously aired on XETV prior to the switch to fill timeslots not occupied by CW network programs. It also launched a two-hour extension of KFMB's weekday morning newscast, along with separate, weeknight-only 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts produced for KFMB-DT2 (the newscasts shown on the subchannel are branded as News 8 on The CW San Diego, omitting all references to the CBS name included in KFMB's main news titling).[33][34][35] The subchannel also took over XETV's slot on channel 6 on Cox, Spectrum and U-verse (those providers as well as DirecTV—which opted to carry KFMB-DT2 on channel 9, transmitting temporarily in standard definition only in the days immediately following the switch—and Dish Network dropped XETV from their lineups upon its switch to Canal 5, with the station's availability on the U.S. side of the market becoming limited to its existing over-the-air signal coverage).
KFMB became the third television station in San Diego to affiliate with The CW: the network was originally affiliated with KSWB-TV (channel 69) beginning at The CW's launch on September 18, 2006, before moving to XETV on August 1, 2008, after Tribune Broadcasting agreed to switch KSWB to Fox, reportedly due to that network's concerns about having its programming airing on a Mexican-licensed station, even though XETV had operated as an English-language station since its 1953 sign-on.[36][37][38] The switch resulted in KFMB-DT2 becoming the largest CW station by market size that is carried over a digital subchannel, and San Diego becoming the largest market with a subchannel-only CW affiliate (overtaking WKRC-DT2 in Cincinnati) as well as the largest overall in which any of the six major networks maintains a subchannel-only affiliation. In 2021 it was overtaken by WZTV-DT2 in Nashville.
In September 2018, after XHDTV-TDT dropped MyNetworkTV to join Milenio Television, KFMB-DT2 added the programming service as a secondary affiliation. MyNetworkTV programming is carried as part of the subchannel's late-night schedule, an increasingly common fate for the service. In 2026, after Nexstar acquired Tegna, The CW moved to KUSI-TV.
