Not Much Radio News to Report?

This is where you come in to help shape up what's reported here. All you need to do is to send in any radio-related news you write up (minimum 200 words, no line limit) and send it in. Letters printed will get a free plug to their website (e-mails will not be seen here in order to minimize bot spam collecting them for no practical use) or local business. If you're a die-hard fan of XJAZZ, KSDS, even Radio Disney, I don't care, just write up a weekly newsletter about the stations' music, staff, events, contests, etc., the topics is all your decision.

If you have a radio news website, it might be easier if I can just point to your website so that the readers can read more about what you wrote as well as to see whatever ads or plugs you have on your website.

You say you want more coverage? Well, with over 2 million residents in San Diego, and about, hmm, 27 people reading the DFS News everyday, surely there must be plenty of budding journalists who wish to exercise their reporting skills and want an outlet for them to express their interests.

What I can't accept: advertisements and spam. Sorry, this is about the news, and reports less than 200 words cannot be considered for publication. Rejected articles include: Charity drive announcements that have nothing to do with San Diego. Reports in foreign languages or about foreign radio.

Good luck.

Premium Radio 92.1 Updates

Also, 92.1's phone number has changed to 1-760-745-9292. Their address is at 1835 Aston, Carlsbad, CA. 92008.

Check out Tazy's SP Radio One website at http://www.skaparade.com. His show airs Wednesdays 10pm-MID.

Also check out "Sunday School" if you're up from 6-9am. Spacey Stacey hosts six hours of Christian alternative rock and roll.

What D.T. Listens To Hour By Hour/Day by Day

Monday-Friday:
10am-NOON: flip around between 92.1, 94.9, 102.1, 91.1, and 95.7
NOON-1pm: 93.3 if they're playing the real club jams, else flip to Z90's old skool, then 92.5, flipping back and forth.
1pm-3pm: see 10am
3pm-5pm: flip between Roger on KOGO and other talkers or music if the subjects don't interest me.
5pm-6pm: either Roger, Z90's Drive at Five, 92.5's old skool dance mix, or 95.7's Dance Mix depending on what's on
6pm-7pm: see 10am
Wednesday random times: 98.9 plays some dance mix blocks

Mon-Thu Night:
7pm-8pm: flip around between 92.1, 94.9, 102.1, 91.1, and 95.7
8pm-sign off: TV taped programs.

Friday Night:
7pm-9pm: Rewire 98.9 for party mixes. The first hour sometimes does an 80's or early 90's set or two.
9pm-11pm: flip between 98.9, Club 93.3, La Boomba 91.7, and Z-90 depending on mix.
11pm-1am: flip between Club 93.3, La Boomba 91.7, and Z-90 depending on mix.
1am-sleep: KIIS 102.7 for Full Frequency

Saturdays:
10am-6pm: flip between any station around. 98.9 sometimes plays 80's blocks.
6pm-7pm: 1170 for I Still Q in My Car
7pm-10pm: either 1170 or 92.5's Old School dance mix jams if I'm taping Q at home.
9pm-1am: flip between Klub KISS 102.7, Club 93.3, La Boomba 91.7, Z-90, for party mixes.
12am-2am: 93.3 for The Digital Groove
2am-4am: 90.3 for The House of Z or 93.3 for Digital Groove (til 3)

Sundays:
10am-home: anybody's guess what I'll listen to. Tapes? CD's?
4pm-8pm: 92.1 for Marco Collins...the single best reason to listen to the radio!
7pm-10pm: Z-90's old school mix if I'm still on the road
7pm-11pm: Dr. Demento on the Internet (if I'm home, any two-hour period)
11pm-sleep: TV taped programs (SNL, late-night talk, Drew Carey, etc.)

Mornings if I'm Awake in Order of Preference:
1. 100.7 Jeff and Jer
2. 97.3 Tony and Kris
3. 91.1 Chris Cantone
4. 600 First News
5. 90.3 Funny Farm
6. 93.1 Bob Rivers
7. 102.7 Rick Dees
8. CD or tape (nothing else is on that's worth listening to!)

Search For a Portable MP3 Player Continues

Other Sony MP3 player: CD Boom Box Digita AM FM Tuner Model CFDG30 - FAILED..did not play any tracks.

Found at Electronic Fry's: Audiologic CD MP3 Model CDM-306; played some tracks fuzzy or skipped tracks. FAILED TESTS!

The Growth of Radio News

If you pick up the San Diego Buffoon and the Lost Angleless Times, you'd think that there is nothing about radio worth talking about. The truth is, the editors, with all their credentials and Associates Degrees in Journalism and all that jazz, doesn't know jack what they're talking about.

Let's time warp way back to 1991 (about 100 years Internet time) when there was no Internet as we know it. The only radio news that existed to my knowledge existed in the Oceanside Blade-Citizen (before it merged with the Escondido Times-Advocate to form the North County Times) where Ken Leighton used to write the Friday radio columns (now written by Randy Dotinga), and the long time current radio scribe, Gary Lycan of the Orange County Times.

Just those two weekly columnists gave the readers an insight to at least some of the changes going on in radio. During those times, you hardly read anything about radio station ownership changes, but there was a lot of format change news back then. You read about the personality profiles, hirings, firings, programming notes, public services, charity drives, and a few reader comments and columnist editorials.

Back then, there wasn't that much about radio to talk about, but over the past few years, as radio consolidation began dominating and influencing what comes out of the radio airwaves, and Internet streaming is born, there was all of a sudden many more subtopics related to the topic of radio worth talking about, yet, the dinosaur newspapers continue to ignore such topics because the editors think that such topics are probably too cerebral to the average reader to comprehend.

Hello newspaper editors and journalists? Have you been living in a cave for the past five years or so? You put out boring 16-page tributes to the Oscar Awards and fluff pieces on some obscure avant garde off-Broadplay play that nobody outside of the Lawrence Welk village has ever heard of in their life. Sure, you satisfied their reading prefreneces. How about satisfying ours?

What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at the Internet and see what kinds of radio news that deserve to be put in print, but isn't for the most part.

North County Times "San Diego Radio Static" - Randy Dotinga: - Thursdays. This is the North County radio column I was talking about at the beginning of this story. I'm not sure how many years the radio column has been running in this newspaper, but in limited space, you get nowadays the best of local radio news every week. Surely, this newspaper could expand the column to cover more than one page. Didn't the old Blade-Citizen used to have a two-page radio column ten years ago?

John Maffei - North County Times TV/Sports: - Fridays; you get some radio news if the subtopic happens to be sports. You read what's happening with the play-by-play broadcast teams, what stations they're playing on, what personnel are working, and more.

Chris Carmichael - San Diego Radio Net: http://www.sdradio.net - daily. That's right. Daily, as in Monday through Friday. Did you see this, Union-Buffon? Who says there's not enough radio stories in San Diego? Chris started out doing a weekly radio column at his own website in circa 1995, then did a weekly column in the North County Times between the Leighton and Dotinga eras, then after a few months at radiodigest.com, he moved to Houston in 1998 for a year. After he left, John Fox took over doing the San Diego radio beat at radiodigest.com (folded in Dec 2000). When Fox's San Diego column was cut last August, Chris returned with sdradio.net doing a daily radio column. So everyday, you can read Chris's site about the radio personalities' histories, comings, goings, and happenings, see some news about format changes, features such as 15 Questions with a local radio personality, some Hooked on Trivia questions before they're asked on KFMB's late night radio show, some programming notes, links to other reports about radio, ownership changes, some editorial commentaries, and more.

The San Diego Union: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/daily_index.html - daily, radio reports sporadic. This has to improve dramatically.

Jay Posner - TV/Radio Sports - The San Diego Union: - Fridays. Does a good job covering sports on TV and radio.

The San Diego Reader Blurt - Various journalists: - weekly (usually posted Wednesday nights). Ken Leighton usually writes about the angles of some radio-related stories that Star's Tommy Sablan once deemend "not interesting." Most of these stories would never be seen on a regular newspaper. Not interesting enough? You be the judge.

Randy Dotinga's Radio Articles: http://www.randydotinga.com/ - archives of his "Static" and other news articles

Los Angeles/Orange

Don Barrett - Los Angeles Radio People: http://www.laradio.com/ - daily since 1997. Does the Smell-A Times care about covering radio anymore? Forget them. Check out Don's informative and entertaining radio news column about Los Angeles and Orange radio. Many reader e-mails are used in his daily news and Saturday Letters in shaping the scope of his radio beat. Radio personality birthdays, histories, happenings, and movings are covered. Many radio personalities are regular contributors monthly or so. This is what the Smell-A Times are missing.

L.A., CA: http://members.tripod.com/~chinesecookery/ - a new kid on the block covering most of the links about radio news plus some brief headlines.

Wang-Net: http://members.home.net/rwagoner/ - weekly, about Tuesdays covering Los Angeles radio

Nationwide

Radio Online: http://www.radio-online.com/ - daily, includes prep material. Unfortunately, most of the stories are for paying subscribers.

Inside Radio: http://insideradio.com/ - daily. Too bad all the stories are for paying customers.

New Radio Star: - daily; covers a wide range of radio-related topics on a national scale like rronline.

Gavin - Industry: - weekly; another trade magazine dealing with radio and Internet issues.

Del Mar Fair Report

Wired Headlines

U.S.: Fear Countries, Not Hackers (Politics Friday) http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44742,00.html?tw=wn20010623 Lawmakers attending a congressional hearing say the real threat to U.S. computer networks will come from other nations, not petty annoyances like individual hackers. By Declan McCullagh.

Letter Anarchy: June 25, 2001

Give Brian Schock at 91X the boot! Anyone who responds to listeners with insults doesn't deserve a job such as a program director. Wait, don't hold your breath. He works for the Evil Empire. The G.M. doesn't give a crap about what they tell their listeners! Clear Channel doesn't stand for San Diego. You're damn right about that fact. Change the name to 91suX!

The U.C.C.R. is a perfect fit for Clear Channel. Who runs this company? Darth Randy Michaels?

Cheryl:

What gall! 91X shows their true colors! Thanks for posting some Bryan dirt on the Independent Radio messageboard! What kind of influence is he under? Bryan is a humorless twit, plain and simple! He's one of the reasons (the departing Todd Little) why San Diego radio has no culture, no joy, and no clue.

91X is too big and they need to lose the raitings quite a bit. Their music is still too skateborder punkish. Independent 92.1 isn't any better, in fact, they're playing harder punk. I was hoping for a Flash angle to alternative. Back to Star for me!

Sue:

Afroman sucks! Thank god 91X doesn't play his song, but then again, 91X sucks for not playing the other bands 92.1 has been playing.

Gregory Polk:

I wrote you before about wimp alternative 91X. For a wimp station programmer, Bryan sure is an a--hole! All the soft rock songs from Dave Matthews must be rotting his brain!

San Diego radio sucks and will always suck.

From Gabriel via e-mail:

I said it before and I'll say it again. 91X still sucks. Cutting edge? I don't think so! Too bad 92.1's signal is weak. Wish Planet or B94 would take on an Alternative rock sound, but aim it at the older listeners 25-54, not the teenagers 91X is programming for.

Michael Drew:

I wrote you earlier how much 91X is a farce. Thanks to Bryan Schlock blasting you (thanks for the e-mail), now I know how much I should hate the station. Lack of maturity on Bryan's part (how old is he, 15?) as well as living in a shell just keeps proving to me how imcompetent he is as a programmer and a human.

Brian Schock is so disconnected from the reality of San Diego modern rock's musical tastes. Music Programmer Marco Collins isn't as bad, but again, there's a tight playlist on 92.1 as well.

Bryan should take a hike. No alternative imports, unreleased songs, underground classics, dancable synth rock, and more variety. MORE-FM has a lot of alternative rock variety. Our alternative music made in the U.S. is nothing but grunge and rap-rock, both of which are in a different rock niche and not alternative rock. Can't these guys get it right anymore?

Bruce Cartier:

As a native SD'an with some cultural enlightment from other cities I'm continually embarrassed by the state of San Diego Radio Music. I never listen to it. I'd rather hear no name bands on mp3 than listen to the redundant programmed crap that's on the air.

I'll spend time , effort and money looking for music that isn't programmed for the masses ..is that what you guys think you're doing? Nobody I know of listens to the radio anymore becasue it's not edgy, it's not tribal, it's not percussive..it's the same ole but what the hell do I know?

bruce, a local musician who will never be played on the radio

Jake AC25:

I take back about what I said about 91X being the best rock station in San Diego. 92.1 is where the new music really starts, not 91X. But I'm already sick of hearing that same Paul Oakenfold song every three hours. I thought 92.1 was going to be playing a wider variety of groove rock music. I'm disappointed in 92.1 myself, but I'll be listening to it as well as 91X. 91X still overrepeats the same ten songs every four hours, burns the same old songs everyday, and refuses to play XTC, Echo and the Bunnymen, Scapegoat Wax, Basement Jaxx, Alien Ant Farm, and whatever. Bryan Schock needs to grow up and stop blasting your opinions or I'm not listening to 91X anymore.

Jake Hallett: (repost)

I think Star should go alternative rock and give 91X a headache! San Diego needs an alternative to 91X's treks into noisy grunge that is ok for Generation Y listeners only. It would be far better than Flash as it programs just the music that is truly alternative rock and roll without the Sheryl Crow/Seal/Sister Hazel sleep rock that does not fit the genre. Star's format was ok for the mid 90's, but we need a better format that is more focused in direction than the mixed-up format that Star is using.