What San Diego Radio Is Still Doing Wrong? (April 23, 2002)

The Winter 2002 Arbitrons were just released this Monday. Click on the rronline link to the left to see the numbers.

Some surprises:

D.T. listened to radio in his car only 20 out of 90 days in the period. The rest were for listening to MP3 CDs in the car. Would you believe I listened to two Crazy Jay shows, 11 Cream Cheese Library shows, and 120 Dr. Demento shows (1997-2002) all those 70 days? Just goes to show you that local radio just doesn't have a clue how to program good variety for this 41 year old male (42 this Friday!)

Aside of my personal preferences, the rest of the people in the San Diego Outland left many stations in droves, making Channel 933 lose almost a full point from last period, thanks to their predictable homogenized music playlist, and Alicia Keys' sad songs probably drove the most listeners away to Z90, which not only doesn't play Keys, the station removed her songs from their playlist for business reasons I won't bother to go into detail (ask Ken Leighton to explain it all for you!)

Meanwhile, a station that calls itself "Smooth Jazz", KIFM, which plays "smooth jazz artists" such as Michael Bolton, Whitney Houston, and Glenn Frey (shudders in disbelief) rose more than a full point. KIFM is to smooth jazz as KSON is to country; neither brand lives up to its name.

Speaking of KSON (and XHCR for that matter), watered-down country is loosing listeners at an alarming rate. Are people fed up with all the pop that's masquerading as country?

Star 100.7 inches upwards. So does Magic 92.5 and My Mix 94.1, whatever the heck that format is supposed to be. What is My Mix? Something between the old KIIS and Channel 933? It doesn't make sense!

KPOP is back up, thanks to loosing the talk in late morning.

B 94.9 is in trouble and a format change is unavoidable. And after three years, Hot Country 99.3 remains in the cold part of the ratings heap. Can you spell "RATINGS LOSERS?" There's no way to sugar coat it. They both stink up the high heavens! So does Radio "Dismal" 1240, which doesn't even show up in the ratings!

And a surprise: XMORE-FM 98.9 is up above 1 for the first time in recent memory. Wonder if many listeners are discovering rock and dance in Spanish (and sometimes English) as they flee 933.

TIME TO CHANGE THE FORMATS! - The King of San Diego commands the following radio stations to change to the following formats...

XHCR 99.3 - Dance. The genre appeals to citizens on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border. Spanish speaking music fans prefer upbeat music as seen by the popuarity of K-Love 102.9 and La Nueva 106.5. English people want uptempo beats without sleepy soft or annoying rock music. Dance as a format appeals to both sides of the audience and, being on the Mexican border fence, 99.3 could make a killing in the ratings! Why do you think dance music shows such as The Digital Groove and Rewire are popular? It's the only time I listen to the radio at night (aside of Dr. Demento on the Internet) where my senses are not insulted with grunge and rap.

KSON 1240 - AM Adult Contemporary - loose the kids commercials and revamp the station into an office-appeal radio station featuring the hits from the 50's through the 70's, with the best of the 80's and 90's (no sleep, synth, hair, or rap bands) mixed in.

94.9 FM - The New Q 95 FM MOR Hits! - with Star and 933 playing grunge, rap, and Alicia Keys, neither radio station has a clue how to not play songs that drive away listeners. The New B 95 is just what the Doctor ordered! The station would play an upbeat mix of adult rock, lite, and dance songs, plus introduce many interesting acts found on radioparadise.com and radiomargaritaville.com for our listening pleasure. No kid/teen pop, except the ones that appeal to people 25 and over. Mix in country songs that really sound like country music for added flavor to make the genre mix reminiscent of the genre mix heard on KCBQ in the late 60's and early 70's. This is what the adults who like MOR music want to hear. No outdated grunge like Linkin Park and Puddle of Mud. No repetetious homogenic hip hop. No overplayed 80's and 90's pop either!

Bonus Suggestion:

KFSD AM 1450 - put nostalgia back on!