KSON 1240 LMA Sold (Jul 1, 2003)

What was once the mighty KSON AM 1240, playing country music on a small 1kW station since I discovered it in the 60s through the early 90's, then switched to kids, then back to country in 1997 when Kidstar went kid-put, then Radio "Dismal" in 1998, is now running a brokered ethnic programming format as of now.

For folks who want to tune in Radio Disney from the Los Angeles station, better get your mouse ears tuned in. Disney moved the overcommercialized "kids" music format from the strong AM 710 to the weaker to the south AM 1110, in a move to help ESPN Radio Los Angeles get a better southward signal to Orange and San Diego when the latter was moved up the dial to 710. Nighttime DXers can catch Radio Disney on Phoenix's AM 1580 or a few others on 1680 and 1690. XM radio carries Radio Disney in stereo by satellite.

Could this signal the end of Radio Disney as a programming concept for AM radio? With ratings constantly on the bottom of the Arbitron survey for many years on many radio stations across the nation, radio station owners are evaluating whether Radio Disney makes any sense to the station owners' bottom lines. Many of the Radio Disney stations are competeting with all the more powerful and better-sounding (and less-commercialized by comparison) FM CHR stations that feature heavier music mixes than the fluffy teen-oriented fare "Dismal" offers. Even the corporate Clear Channel top 40 stations are not as ad-cluttered as the top 40 from hell "Dismal" stations.

Once an innovating format when it started out in November 1996, Radio Disney once mixed in selected children's recordings with kid-friendly top 40 songs from the pop charts, making sure that sanitized versions of the songs were used such as Weird Al Yankiovic's "The Saga Begins" (replacing the line about Annika hitting on the Queen with another). In 1997, AM 710 in Los Angeles replaced their talk format with Radio Disney. In 1998, KSON-AM followed, once again dumping their FM country music simulcast. Radio Disney was among the best programmed stations, coming at par with Star 100.7, Sets 102, and Groove 103.1 in terms of quality programming in Southern California. Radio Disney was once a great alternative to unlistenable rap and grunge crap such as those programmed by Jacor's 91X and Luis Kaloyan's The Flash, which was mercifully sold to Jacor.

But in 1999, when the teen singer boom hit the music scene, RD began phasing out the music for the younger listeners, and concentrating more on the teen acts of the day including Britney Spears, N Sync, Ricky Martin, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguliera, and others. Meanwhile, their ratings began to sink. Why? The FM top 40 stations programmed by the other broadcasters also played the same thing Disney was playing. So the younger listeners, sick of all the cross-promotion clutter of everything Disney (theme parks, ABC, movies, etc.) moved over the Channel 933, KIIS, and other stations and got better sounding quality to boot. Disney, still continuing on the AM, went more narrowcasting for teen girls 10-15, getting nowhere but down in the ratings.

A kids music format is a great concept, but with the exit of Radio Aahs in 1997, who went on to sue Radio Disney for whatever it was instead of continuing Aahs on AM 830 in Orange, many broadcasters thought the concept was dead and unappealling to the desired targeted audience of 18-49. A music format that kids can listen to, if done right without all the ad clutter, can work if it appeals to the older demographic as well. If you don't have the older listeners, you can't really sell the ads since kids don't have the money to spend. So Radio Disney probably ended up with endless ads for Disney products, soda pop, gum, candy, overpriced records, concerts, and anything a kid or teen can afford. This is narrowcasting at its worst possible potential: a format nobody over the age of 18 or male can stand to listen to.

So hopefully, as more radio station owners wise up and realize what kind of crud they are getting with Radio Disney, they will take charge and replace them, one by one, with better concepts in AM radio programming such as business, tech, sports, or other forms of talk radio.

Inside Radio
Did ABC pass up the chance to buy KSON-AM, San Diego? Today KSON's being LMA'd to brokered-ethnic specialist Arthur Liu -- and it's bye-bye, Radio Disney, after 5-1/2 years. We believe ABC had a chance to acquire KSON (1240) from Jefferson-Pilot -- and walked.

Posted by David Eduardo in the SC Groove board:
It's probably "so long" to Radio Disney for San Diego -- Arthur Liu buys the rights to program KSON (1240) for $7,250,000. Liu's Multicultural Radio specializes in brokered ethnic programming and it takes over KSON-AM [July 1] in an LMA. Jefferson-Pilot's been clearing Radio Disney on 1240 -- but Liu's LMA could end that. Broker on the sale: Michael Bergner.

rronline
Jefferson-Pilot Sells KSON-AM/San Diego To Multicultural... Arthur Liu enters market No. 17 by paying $7.25 million for the station, which has been a Radio Disney affiliate since February 1998. Multicultural, which begins operating KSON-AM today via an LMA and is changing the station's programming, owns 34 other stations, including several AMs in the Los Angeles area. Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co. served as the broker in this transaction.