Commentary: 92.1 and 103.7 (October 24, 2002)

Blurt items by Ken Leighton- SD Reader 10.3.02 and 10.24.02

So what could really be happening to Premium 92.1 in the future?

Ken Leighton, who is technically a free lance writer at The Reader, blurts out that the future of 92.1, a 588 watt light bulb that is basically there to serve the North County area listeners only, says in an October 3 issue that it is unclear three weeks ago, but in an October 24 issue, says that there is a published report, whatever that is or wherever they got it from, that suggested that the station may be dropping the alternative rock format for an alternative language format that is now showing signs of listener erosion: Spanish. I guess the Spanish music fans discovered kazaalite.com to swap songs En Espanol with each other by now.

One 92.1 deejay, one of only two full time jocks (either Rick Rome or Rick Savage) now at the station, joked that maybe he would have to start learning how to say "noventa y dos/uno."

According to Blurt: The report centered around Lieberman Broadcasting, a Burbank-based group that owns two TV and ten radio stations in L.A. and Houston. All stations broadcast in Spanish. The report said Lieberman was making an offer to buy three more Southern California stations. Two different radio station general managers in San Diego say those three stations are owned by Art Astor and include 92/1.

Now also in the article they mentioned the three are KFSD-AM 1450, KFSD-FM 92.1, and, not KCEO-AM 1000, but KMXN-FM 94.3 in Orange County, where SP Radio One hosted by Tazy is on Sunday Nights. Also, bear in mind that among the three San Diego county based stations "Dis"-Astor (ha ha) owns, only KCEO-AM reaches most of the county during the daytime hours, but at night, it dips to 250 kw, so low that KOMO AM 1000 from Seattle engulfs the Vista signal for the lower half of San Diego County. You could see why DisAstor doesn't want to sell KCEO, but given the fact that AM 710 won't be airing Radio Dismal next year, and AM 1240 doesn't come in well in North County, Astor may get Radio Disney on there, and call it Radio DisAstor!

Since the firing of program director/DJ Mike Halloran and nighttime DJ Anya Marina last month, 92/1 has been operating with two full-time DJs -- Rick Rome and Rick Savage.

"This is the house that Mike built. But Mike has been kicked out," says a radio insider about the plight of Mike Halloran, who convinced station owner Art Astor (he's Art A**hole if he sells out to Lieberman) to flip the North County station from classical to alternative rock on May 1, 2001.

So what could be in store for 92.1? Go back to classical music on the FM? Maybe not since 90.7 out of TJ blasts the format all over San Diego from an overppowered transmitter in Mexico (I suspect they're at least 25,000 watts instead of the 1,000 watts they were assigned to use.) Flip back to country? The genre is on its way down, thanks to the Nashville Establishment who flooded country radio with watered-down female-friendly pop tunes en masse for over a decade, ruining the true meaning of country radio; even well-known stalwart KSON is way down from three years ago, and its competetor, BOOB 99.3, aka COLD COUNTRY, remains at the bottom of the heap.

Switch to dance? How many people down in the heart of San Diego and Tijuana would bother to upgrade their radios to get the puny 588 watt station? Dance radio should be based near TJ where most people could hear it.

Switch to classic rock? Planet is rumored to go all talk, but that remains a rumor, and we don't need more oldies niches, aka specialty shows stretched to formats anymore, just less (hear that, KGB and MAGIC?)

Another October 3 Blurt suggested that The Planet (KPLN 103.7 FM) is poised to drop classic rock to become San Diego's first "FM talk" station. Two different DJs say that Planet program director Todd Little has told them that the Planet is preparing to morph from a classic rock station into "FM talk," a hipper, sexier version of AM talk radio. Planet sister station KLSX (97.1 FM) has been doing "FM talk" for ten years. KLSX and the Planet are both owned by CBS/Infinity.

The recent Arbitron(tm) ratings among the 25-54 demographic suggest that neither of the classic rock period piece formats are doing well with those listeners (hint hint: they're listening to Internet radio, KIFM, or KPRI 102.1 instead). And KGB thought stupidly enough to can Jim McInnes instead of adjusting their worn-out format to fit today's adult rock listener base .

Switching Planet to talk is another stupid move being rumored to be in the future. San Diego is already oversaturated with talk formats, many of which are from Los Angeles, so much that more than half of the locally-based talkers do poorly in the ratings. To switch to FM Talk, without Howard Stern (which is under contract at 105.3) to start the daytime shifts, would be a stupid move. Phil Hendrie bombed at that other classic rock station at night, and those three morning show buffoons reaired at night there just shows how bankrupt the creativity of Clear Channel San Diego is. Tom Leykis bombed at KCBQ 1170 and KSDO 1130 in the mid 90's, so his brand of shock athiest talk isn't going to work here. So FM Talk in San Diego is out.

If 103.7 is in a format flipping mood, then HALLORAN better get his ass over to that Viacom building in Linda Vista and sell Todd Little the PD his concept of alternative rock, which very much was in par with that other alternative station ouf of Mexico in the North County area only. Let Halloran be the music director at the station.

Since 92.1's signal doesn't serve any place south of Rancho PQ, it will never see ratings like a 4.0 due to its signals that's reportedly weaker than any microwave oven wattage rating. Premium 92.1, based on its ability to grab listeners away from the competetor, is a success despite its signal handicap.

But if Halloran somehow manages to get to program a new alternative rock station on 103.7, or even the weak tired 94.9, replacing one of the overplayed period-piece formats with Go Loco, Radio Swami, SP Radio One, and others, and prescreen self-censor the bad words from the records before they get played, gets a new marketing scheme going, allows Infinity (if Halloran runs 103.7) to use the resources from sister station KROQ in Los Angeles, then it could be a strong contender for a second major alternative radio station in this market.

I figure that 92.1 was a test station to see if anyone could create a buzz on a format coming out of a small broadcasting stick from way over yonder. Well, it got buzz on a few San Diego Radio news websites, some covered it more than others, but for a younger generation, 92.1 was put on the map for many alt rock fans who wanted an alternative to corporate run version that still isn't serving San Diego at all.

92.1, after Halloran gets a new job and establishes a new Premium locally, could flip to classical/fine arts, country, adult contemporary, classic rock, whatever. I'll just replace the preset currently occupied by 92.1 if they flip to something other than electronica and techno.