KSPN 1110 Los Angeles Gets Angels and 710 Frequency in 2003 (Sep 24, 2002)

You want to hear an Anaheim Angels baseball game in the springtime on AM 570, but when you tune in, you get the Los Angeles Lakers game instead. Why? I guess it's because the NBA team has senority over the MLB team as KLAC 570 is the longtime flagship station of the Lakers, and they have broadcast priority. When conflicts like this happened, the baseball game gets shuttled over to another radio station of its own or farmed out to a competetor's station.

This eventually got tiring for the baseball organization as well as the fans wondering where the radio games went to in the Los Angeles Outland area, the red-eye capital of America (when driving near LAX, carry plenty of Visine, the smog level is totally ridiculous!)

The Angels were bumped a reported 27 games this past season from KLAC in favor of Lakers telecasts. While "Cheap" Channel, owner of KLAC, played games with the Angel telecasts in the springtime through the time the Lakers three-peated(tm) in June, the baseball fans were getting ticked off with "Cheap" Channel playing the old shell game; guess what radio station will carry the next Angels telecast?

But the folks at Disney, owner of ABC-TV, and its own radio/TV empire KABC 790, KDIS 710, KSPN 1110, and KLOS 95.5, plus KABC 7, and of course the Angels, decided that they had enough of "Cheap" Channel's baseball shenanigans and decided to move the Angels baseball rights, which are expiring on KLAC after this season, over to one of its own radio stations beginning in 2003.

This marks the second time in a year that a Southern California baseball team said it would shift away from a Clear Channel/L.A. radio station for the 2003 season. The Los Angeles Dodgers (which are currently fighting with the San Francisco Giants for a wildcard spot) were once heard on KABC 790 (when it was owned by Capital Cities, before Disney bought the ABC TV network and the ABC radio division) until they moved to the then upstart XTRA Sports 1150 in the late 90's. The problem with the Dodger telecasts on 1150 was that San Diegans could no longer get a station with a clear signal for the Dodger telecasts, and perhaps neither could many of the fans in Southern Orange County either since AM 1150's signal strength in San Diego is horrid enough, but at night, it disappears, as well as in Southern Orange County.

For a short while, an Orange County station, 94.3 FM, picked up the Dodger telecasts for the benefit of the Orange County listeners who can't get AM 1150 where they live.

KXTA 1150's signal is unique in scope. Although Clear Channel boosted the signal to 50,000 watts daytime, the engineers also had to make sure that the signal coming down south was not too strong to interfere with a Mexicali radio station 150 miles away and to not be strong enough to spill over to the San Diego stations on 1130 and 1170 AM. Its nighttime signal also has to be low enough to protect the stations since, unlike KFI 640, it's not a clear channel station. Huh? You thought AM 1150 is a Clear Channel station. Well, yes, but you see, KFI 640 has been a clear channel station longer than Clear Channel has been in existance, and when Clear Channel bought the clear channel KFI, it became a Clear Channel clear channel station, but AM 1150 was never a clear channel station and never will be a clear channel station, and AM 1150, which was once owned by Gannet, was bought by Jacor, then by Clear Channel, so for now, AM 1150 is a Clear Channel station, but not a clear channel station. Am I perfectly clear on that?

At night, AM 1150 goes down to 44,000 watts. Normally, that would be pickable from all over the place. But since AM 1150 has a contour that protects the AM 1150 station in Mexicali, the signal strength going down South is more like a weak 500 watt station than a 44,000 watt one. If the South-aimed transmitter goes out, and you're south of the transmitter, you can't get the station at all. The other towers that AM 1150 is running are aiming the station at various wattages and directions that form the countour of the station's coverage area. AM 1150 can aim the station due West at 50,000 watts into the Pacific Ocean during the day, and perhaps someone in Hawaii with a good Supertuner(tm) Radio can pick it up during the day (the same goes with KCBQ 1170 at 50,000 daytime watts aimed westward). AM 1150's other signals are aimed, perhaps at 50,000 watts North West, 25,000 watts Northwards, and say 10,000 watts Eastwards, and 5,000 watts Southwards (don't hold me to that, I'm just illustrating what a signal coutour looks like). It's kind of a engineering quirk with the way AM signal contours work, but now you know why San Diego can't get a 50,000 watt station like KXTA like they can with the omnidirectional clear channel KFI 640 and KNX 1070.

Enough radio lecture. Let's get back to the news.

Where was I? Oh yes.

The Angels are moving to KSPN (currently at 1110 AM, but more on that in a minute) which has an ESPN Radio programming format effective with the 2003 season, while the Dodgers are moving away to Infinity-owned KFWB 980, which San Diegans can get along the coastal areas of the Outland county. Looks like "Cheap" Channel is 0-2 when it comes to keeping baseball teams.

Now for the currently 1110AM part? Well, for a long time since I was a kid, I remember AM 710 KMPC broadcasting the Angel games when the station was once part of the Golden West Broadcasters empire (which also owned KTLA 5, now owned by Tribune Broadcasting and airing WB shows, and FM 101.9, now owned by HBC, a Spanish radio conglomerate) owned by the late Gene Autry. In 1994, KMPC was bought by Capital Cities (not yet Disney yet); CCC already owned KABC-AM and KLOS-FM. The Angel games were still on. I forget when the Angel games moved over to KLAC, but it had to be between the time AM 710 became chick talk and the time AM 710 became the perrineally low-rated Radio Disney. Disney bought the three-station cluster (they didn't own AM 1110 yet, which they bought a few years ago from CBS/Viacom in a divesture sale) in 1995 when it bought them from Capital Cities Corp.

Now, the Angel games are moving to ESPN Radio Los Angeles, but not on AM 1110. AM 1110, like AM 1150, is hard to pick up in areas south of Northern Orange County; its southward nighttime signal, like AM 1150, is also horrid. They both broadcast at 50,000 watts during the daytime, but AM 1110 goes down to 20,000 watts mostly northwards and westwards.

So, what does that mean? On January 1, 2003, Disney, citing limitations with its 1110 AM southward signal, is moving ESPN Radio over to its 50,000 watt KDIS, while Radio Disney moves to the weaker nighttime AM 1110 station KSPN. The call letters will also be swapped between the two stations. This also means that fans of Radio Disney south of Northern Orange County will get static at night on 1110 AM.

Psst! That also means that the Angels will be returning to the old AM 710 frequency once again!

In 2003, areas south of Northern Orange will be able to hear the Angels telecasts much better, as well as no longer being at the mercy of Clear Channel's baseball shell game.

The Angels, also owned by Disney, which is trying to sell the team, has signed a five-year agreement for broadcast rights with Disney, parent of ABC. Isn't this vertical rights alignment redundant? It's like paying yourself or something.

Don Barrett reasons that Since 90% of the Radio Disney listening is done during the day, the programming potential of the station will not be compromised at the higher dial position at 50,000-watt 1110 AM. Tell that to the kids in Orange at night when they can't hear the three-year-old Britney Spears song after the sun sets.

Meanwhile in San Diego, the promotion of ESPN Radio Los Angeles to 710 AM means that it will compete against ESPN Radio San Diego coming from a 1,000 watt transmitter in Tijuana on AM 800. This means that San Diegans in the Outland will have a choice of two ESPN's like some people do with two XTRA Sports stations on 690 Tijuana and 1150.

Some people reported problems with signal problems of AM 710 in San Diego and the Inland Empire. Well kids, guess what? AM 710 is also contoured to protect another AM 710 from nearby Phoenix, Arizona! It's been reported that some people in Escondido picked up the Phoenix AM 710 in the daytime, while getting some talk from Phoenix in the background while trying to listen to Radio Disney from Los Angeles. And yes, the southward signal is nulled enough to protect AM 690 from Tijuana so that San Diego doesn't get 50,000 watts of 710 spilling over to AM 690.

The Angels currently are also broadcast on Ontario's KMXN-AM 1510 10,000 watts day, 1,000 watts at night. That station serves part of the Inland Empire. 710's night signal is not good in the Ontario Inland Empire area.

So now you know the score of what's to come in 2003.