Martin Colby, Longtime Station Executive
Colby worked many years as general manager of San Diego Fox affiliate XETV.
Television executive Martin Colby died March 18, 2012. He was 88.
Colby was the general manager of San Diego’s XETV, a charter affiliate of the Fox network, and he was also the founder of the Fox Affiliate Board of Governors.
During his career, Colby was a producer for ABC and the Dumont network, a sales manager of the Triangle stations, and also a sales executive at John Blair and Company. He became station manager at XETV in 1974 and VP-general manager in 1985.
In 1986, after Rupert Murdoch bought 20th Century Fox and the Metromedia stations creating the Fox network, Colby took the opportunity for XETV to become the first non-Metromedia station to affiliate with Fox.
After retiring from XETV in 1996, he focused on his own production company called Satellite Video Productions, which he later sold in 2000.
He is survived by wife, Marilyn, and his children and grandchildren.