In 2007 San Diego had a devastating fire that destroyed hundreds of homes. In the early stages of the fire I was listening to accounts on the radio. Being from San Diego, I quickly turned on the television to get information on the fires. Living In Murrieta, California (Southwest Riverside County) there was no news on the conflagration as the only television stations on cable in our area are out of Los Angeles. I know the San Diego television stations were covering the fire continuously because a San Diego radio station that I could listen to was carrying the audio feed off and on.
I contacted Verizon to see if there was anyway that they could provide a feed of any San Diego television station to our area. They said that it was impossible to do. Not having news coverage available to the fires just south of you, some areas less than 5 miles away, areas that you and your neighbors still consider home was a travesty. Having friends and families homes going up in flames and nothing more than limited Los Angeles and National coverage just seemed like a peculiar lack of proper usage of our public airwaves. The fire proceeded to be the one of the worst if not the worst fire of all times.
The distance from San Diego to Temecula/Murrieta is 51 miles. The distance from Los Angeles to Temecula/Murrieta is 84 miles. Temecula resides on the Riverside County/San Diego County border yet our area is considered part of the Los Angeles market. By far more people in this area commute to San Diego then Los Angeles and yet the area is considered part of the Los Angeles Market. I can make no sense of this situation and have even mailed letters and e-mailed Verizon with no responses.
Recently I discovered that there is a San Diego television station, KUSI Channel 51, that has a repeater in Murrieta. I do not know how long it has been there, but the channel is not on the Verizon cable lineup. My wish would be that one channel be added to the lineup so that we in Southwest Riverside County (or what I have always called Extreme North San Diego County) have access to San Diego news. And if it were only the news broadcasts shown, that would be a great service to us transplanted San Diegans.
I hope this request is not ignored like my previous requests.
