Things that SHOULD happen on San Diego Radio in 2004 (Jan 11, 2004)

KPOP 1360 drops standards and turns it into a talk station, adds Tom Leykis and Don Imus to the drive times, and other talkers in the lineup, plays 50s-70s oldie hits on weekends.

My 94.1 merges with Magic 92.5 to form a more rhythmic pop station similar to KBIG 104.3 out of Los Angeles, but does not play dance mix shows at night, but plays soft music seven nights a week.

Magic 92.5 becomes the home of the new modern dance format, with remix shows ranging from pop to underground depending on the days and times, plus a Sunday night disco show, a Sunday morning black gospel show, and a Top 30 dance hits of the week countdown show among other ideas.

Channel 933 tweaks its format to include older-leaning artists such as Norah Jones, Rod Stewart, and others to bring back the older listeners, and drops the Radio Disney-esque teen format.

Radio Disney reappears on 94.5 FM when Disney LMA's the Mexican signal.

Star 100.7 flips to a "Red" format playing classy pop from the last three decades (I'll tell you what that means later).

MORE-FM 98.9 adopts the dance-leaning, synth, euro, alternative rock format as an alternative to the rock heavy alternatives on 91.1 and 94.9. With a signal boost, and a fan base fed up with endless grunge and hard rock, 98.9 beats the other two in the ratings.

KSON 97.3 loses to US 95.7 and changes its longtime format to Q 97.3, a better mix of music and more of it, with a pop mix similar to the old Q106 format from the late 80's, causing Star and Channel to tweak their formats.

Roger Hedgecock accepts an offer to move to KFMB AM, which loses the Chargers football telecasts.

The Chargers are without a radio outlet in San Diego for the first time due to their overpriced minimum bid for the next contract, estimated to be $10,000,000 for a six year period, all pre-paid, of course.

To combat the Mexican signal on 560 interferring with KLAC 570, Clear Channel installs a 20,000 watt KLAC repeater near San Ysidro. The two feuding radio stations duke it out until the Mexican signal on 560 finally backs down and powers down to a dim 250 watt station. KLAC's repeater shuts down.

The Mighty 1090 makes a bid for Roger Hedgecock and loses, but instead, puts Ted Leitner's show opposite Roger's on another station.

After a mix of soft rock finally bites the dust, Groove 102.1 debuts as San Diego's pure dance station.

KCBQ is purchased by Clear Channel when the company realizes that it can own eight San Diego stations after all, and builds a 50,000 watt transmitter on top of the old rival KPOP site.

Jim McInnes quits his Sunday Night vinyl record show when he finally runs out of records to play. His time slot is taken over by another 70's rock geezer who plays nothing but 8-track tapes.

ESPN 800 is taking its radio signal as a pay channel, meaning, listeners have to pay the station in order to listen to the station, just like they have to pay $3 a month extra to watch ESPN on Cox.

KIFM plays a daily block of pure traditional jazz music during the evening drive.

Art Astor sells off AM 1000 and AM 1450 when he finally realizes that he can't make any money no matter what he puts on the two stations. AM 1000 is sold to somebody who flips it into an all-reality game show format. AM 1450 is sold to UCSD so they can finally have a radio station.

The Supreme Court hands down a ruling that the FCC can't stop pirate operators from running radio stations in San Diego and gives the power of regulating the airwaves to where it really belongs: the local city governments where the radio stations serve their areas.

Z90 loses ratings luster when hip hop takes a dive in popularity as music that's really music takes over in popularity. Z90 is sold by Clear Channel to Dr. Demento who takes it 24 hours of comedy music.