finnish swear word see finnish profanity . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message kusi tv san diego california united states branding kusi general kusi news newscasts slogan san diego s news channel working in the spirit of san diego 35th anniversary variant channels digital 18 uhf virtual 51 psip subchannels k12po murrieta affiliations independent owner mckinnon broadcasting company channel 51 of san diego inc. first air date september 13 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 09 13 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 32.69722 n 116.93444 w 32.69722 ; 116.93444 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.kusi.com kusi tv virtual channel 51 uhf digital channel 18 is an independent television station located in san diego california united states . the station is owned by mckinnon broadcasting . kusi maintains studio facilities on viewridge avenue near i 15 in the kearny mesa section of san diego and its transmitter is located southeast of spring valley . its signal is relayed on low powered k12po in murrieta . on cable kusi is available on cox communications and at & t u verse channel 9 . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 local programming 4.1 newscasts 5 notable on air staff 5.1 current 5.2 former 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on september 13 1982 . at its sign on it operated as a general entertainment independent station airing a mix of children s programs sitcoms older theatrical and made for tv movies drama series and sports events . the station s license was originally assigned to united states international university the university s initials served as the basis of the station s callsign ; however prior to the station s sign on usiu sold the license to texas businessman michael d. mckinnon . his company mckinnon broadcasting which operates the station under the wholly owned licensee channel 51 of san diego inc. is owned by mike mckinnon who has a controlling 66.26 % stake brother c. dan mckinnon who has a 17.48 % stake and sons michael dean mckinnon and mark daniel mckinnon who hold 08.13 % each . 1 2 3 channel 51 of san diego inc. 4 is a california based licensee corporation while corpus christi based corporation san diego s fifty one inc. 5 6 is a holding company for mckinnon broadcasting . citation needed in january 1994 the station dropped its weekday morning children s programs moving them to afternoons upon the launch of a morning newscast ; citation needed by 1995 kusi began dropping many of these shows which were scattered among other local outlets and added more court talk and reality shows mirroring the scheduling format used by los angeles independent station kcal tv of that time period . the cartoons and recent off network sitcoms were moved to a weaker station ktty channel 69 now kswb tv which became a charter affiliate of the wb in january 1995 . on january 16 of that year kusi gained a network affiliation when it became san diego s original outlet of the upstart united paramount network upn . eleven months later in november 1995 in an attempt to take the fox affiliation away from tijuana licensed xetv tv channel 6 kusi filed an appeal against the federal communications commission s decision to grant fox a permit to broadcast live sports on the mexican licensed signal of xetv mckinnon broadcasting had made an earlier unsuccessful attempt to pull the fox affiliation from xetv in april 1991 7 . fox had picked up the broadcast rights to nfl games from the national football conference the year prior 8 as cited in the united states court of appeals case channel 51 of san diego inc. vs. fcc and fox television stations inc. 79 f. 3d 1187 . fcc regulations disallowed television stations that were licensed outside the united states from airing live sporting events from a u.s. broadcast network without licensing approval . the permit was granted to fox on behalf of xetv and the case was settled on march 26 1996 . 9 10 however until xetv started its own news department in december 1999 kusi provided newsgathering resources to fox s news and sports divisions for the san diego market similarly in 2008 it was rumored that kusi would affiliate with the cw . citation needed after kswb tv decided to end its affiliation with that network after two years in order to assume the fox affiliation from xetv on august 1 of that year 11 but the cw chose to affiliate with xetv instead . kusi dropped upn when its affiliation agreement with the network expired on january 16 1998 citing low ratings for the network s programming locally . 12 13 however upn programming remained available in the market on local cable providers via the network s los angeles owned and operated station kcop tv whose presence in the market also played a factor in kusi dropping the upn affiliation ; however many san diegans that did not have a cable television subscription or a strong antenna facing los angeles were unable to view upn programs within the market until tecate baja california licensed xhupn channel 49 now mynetworktv affiliate xhdtv tv signed on in november 1999 . in the fall of 2007 kusi announced plans to open a new state of the art streetside studio facility in downtown san diego . however the site that was intended to house its new studio facilities was eventually sold to bosa development ; 14 kusi continues to operate from its kearny mesa studios . since mckinnon broadcasting sold its two texas stations kbmt in beaumont and kiii in corpus christi to the london broadcasting company respectively in august 5 2009 and august 31 2010 kusi is currently the company s only remaining television station property as of august 2014 update . 15 16 in september 2017 kusi will celebrate its 35th anniversary . digital television edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 17 51.1 720p 16 9 kusi hd main kusi tv programming analog to digital conversion edit kusi tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 51 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 18 . 18 19 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 51 . programming edit syndicated programming on kusi tv includes the big bang theory the real tmz on tv extra and family feud among others . from 1987 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 2003 kusi held the over the air television rights to major league baseball games from the san diego padres ; during the second tenure the station had only broadcast the team s sunday games which were produced by 4sd until becoming exclusive to the cable channel in 2004 . 20 local programming edit newscasts edit kusi became active in the local television news race when it launched its news department with the introduction of an hour long 10 00 p.m. newscast in september 1990 . originally anchored by veteran television anchors roger grimsby and george reading 21 it was the first television station in san diego to begin producing local newscasts since xetv s original news department folded in 1972 after it lost the abc affiliation to what was then kcst . on january 5 1994 the station debuted a three hour weekday morning newscast from 6 00 to 9 00 a.m. originally anchored by laura buxton and tom blair who was later replaced by stan miller it gradually became a competitor to the national morning newscasts aired during the final two hours of the program . the station is known for its series of civic and consumer watchdog reports during its evening newscasts called the turko files helmed by investigative reporter michael turko who regularly utters the line it ain t right during the segments . 22 from 1994 to 2014 john coleman a longtime chicago weatherman and co founder of the weather channel served as kusi s chief meteorologist appearing on its evening newscasts . during his tenure at the station coleman was known for his trademark drawn out pronunciation of the station s call letters k uuuuuuuuuuu s i and providing his own lively presentation during the forecast segments often referring to the strong winds that affect the area as the sosa or sort of santa ana and breaking out in dance at random . coleman retired from broadcasting in april 2014 after a 61 year career however he did not appear on air for a proper sendoff as he was on vacation at the time when kusi ran a retrospective of his career on the april 10 edition of the 6 00 p.m. newscast . 23 24 in january 2000 kusi expanded its news programming into early evenings with the debut of a half hour newscast at 7 00 p.m. ; within a few months however the program was moved to 6 30 p.m. subsequently in july 2001 an additional half hour newscast at 6 00 p.m. was launched . 25 in january 2005 the station expanded its late evening news programming with the debut of a half hour 11 00 p.m. newscast . 26 on april 1 2010 beginning with the station s 6 00 p.m. newscast kusi became the fourth television station in the san diego market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition . 27 in 2011 the station began using the afd 10 broadcast flag to present its newscasts in letterboxed widescreen for viewers watching on cable television through 4 3 television sets . citation needed in september 2011 the station expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours with the addition of an hour at 9 00 a.m. replacing live with regis and kelly which moved to cbs affiliate kfmb tv channel 8 on that date . citation needed on august 11 2014 kusi debuted an hour long 5 00 p.m. newscast ; subsequently on august 16 the station expanded its weekend morning newscasts to five hours with the addition of an hour at 10 00 a.m. 28 notable on air staff edit current edit ross becker weeknights anchor allen denton weeknights anchor ; also co host of san diego people sandra maas weeknights anchor ; also co host of san diego people carlos amezcua weekday morning co anchor on good morning san diego mark mathis weekday mornings meteorologist on good morning san diego former edit john coleman chief meteorologist 1994 2014 ; retired see also edit channel 9 branded tv stations in the united states channel 18 digital tv stations in the united states channel 51 virtual tv stations in the united states references edit ownership report for commercial broadcast stations for kusi tv at fcc.gov kusi tv cable 9 channel 51 profile san diego source san diego daily transcript dead link dead link fictitious business name statement for kusi san diego source san diego daily transcript dead link dead link corporation status for channel 51 of san diego inc. secretary of state office state of california dead link dead link san diego s fifty one inc mckinnon broadcasting profile manta.com franchise tax certification