the outcome of an appeal by KFMB-TV and KFSD-TV, ABC signed an affiliation deal with XETV which allowed channel 6 to carry network programming via film and kinescope; that became effective April 5, 1956 and replaced the part-time carriage of ABC programming by the two San Diego-licensed stations. The original decision was stayed by the United States Court of Appeals due to the decision having been made in the absence of hearings by the FCC; after hearings were held, the FCC upheld the grant in October 1956. KFMB-TV again appealed the grant and the Appeals Court remanded the decision to the FCC. The Commission again upheld the grant on April 22, 1958; in November of that year, KFMB-TV again asked for revocation, based on an ad in Broadcasting which XETV identified itself as a San Diego station. Throughout XETV's tenure with ABC, network programs were received via microwave and AT&T cable at the station's San Diego offices, where they were reproduced (on film or kinescope, and later videotape) and then physically transported to channel 6's transmission facilities in Tijuana, a practice known in the television industry as "bicycling". While this arrangement legally circumvented the station's inability to receive and broadcast a direct network feed from across the international border, it left XETV unable to carry live network programming, such as breaking news events and some sports coverage. The FCC held the option of renewing the authorization on an annual basis, as well as reviewing it if – and when – a third commercial television station signed on in the American side of the market. XETV cleared most ABC programs, with one exception: an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. was self-censored, as it depicted an abortion in a Mexican border town at a time when abortion in Mexico was still illegal. Transition In 1968, as it had every year since 1956, the FCC renewed its permit allowing ABC to provide programming to XETV. Only this time, Western Telecasters, which owned the fledgling independent UHF station KCST (channel 39, now KNSD) at the time, contested it and began a lengthy battle to take San Diego's ABC affiliation from XETV. KCST claimed that it was no longer appropriate for a Mexican-licensed station to be affiliated with an American television network when there now was a viable American station available, and also asserted that XETV had lacked local programming that effectively served the San