Top 25 Radio News Stories of 2004 (December 31, 2004)

2. DFSX Comedy Radio Changes Format. Actually, all that this comedy station did was to change the stream from AM quality to FM quality, resulting in better-sounding music, though now in mono.

3. Janet Jackson exposes a breast on CBS. This is what caused Clear Channel to dump Stern? Who's the bigger boob in this case?

4. Pacific Spanish Network/Jaime Bonilla's three Tijuana radio stations cause havoc regionwide. XEKTT 550 began causing co-channel interference with another station in Tijuana on 540 beginning back in November 2003. A month later, the station shifted over to AM 560, but that caused adjacent channel interference with KLAC 570, as well as co-channel interference with a nearby Yuma station on 560, KBLU, as well as a San Francisco station, KSFO. XEKTT has since moved to AM 1700. Meanwhile, XESS 780 signed on, causing problems with stations to the north and east. The station has moved over to AM 620, where it causes co-channel interference with Phoenix' KTAR. A third station, XESDD, was going to sign on at 920, but a station in Ensenada was already using it from 120 miles south, so that station signed on at 1030 AM, causing some co-channel leaking into KTNQ 1020 Los Angeles, and KURS 1040.

5. KPOP 1360 Changes Into KLSD. Due to demographic changes, and an audience die-off, the nostalgic sounds of KPOP were replaced with Air America programming from KLSD dubbed "progresive talk." Stacy Taylor shifts over there into the morning slot, as does Al Franken, Ed Shultz, Randi Rhodes, Lionel, Majority Report, and Morning Sedation. Only Ray Lucia's show remains on the new format.

6. Mighty 1090 Does a Heidi Impression. On January 12, after the Eagles and Packers game ended in regulation with a tie, guess what 1090 did? They switched to a lowly Mighty Ducks game just before overtime began. Being on the road without a TV, I had to switch over to the faint signal of AM 1560 from Bakersfield to hear the rest of the game.

7. The upper half of the KSON-AM tower collapses in heavy winds, knocking KSON-AM, KURS-AM, and KBNT-17, off the air.

8. Blazin' 98.9 Launched. Z90's ratings continue to fall as the rise of this new hip-hop competetor gains more listeners at the expense of longtime hip hop Z90. 98.9 replaces MORE-FM's stagnant rock en espanol format whose sole bright spot was the Rewire dance mix shows on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Now that Rewire is history, there's no station in San Diego playing real dance music, except for Channel 933 late Sat MID-3am, if you're up that late.

9. 94.9's survey says a lot about what San Diego listeners want that 91X wasn't providing them. Among them, complaints about too many commercials, wanting DJs to have a choice in what to play, desiring to hear more than just the hit songs from CDs, to take more risks in new music, and not talking while the songs play. And, oh yes, Ryan Seacrest doesn't work there.

10. Britney Spears got married for some 55 hours. Not related to radio, but I had to put that one in.

11. Tony and Kris reappear on US 95.7, a new country-music station.

12. The San Diego Padres begin their first season on the Mighty 1090.

13. Pirates Going Amok in San Diego. Four stations on 96.9 including one from Oceanside in spanish, a couple on 98.5, and one on 106.9, were on the air at one time or another during the past year. Pirate 96.9 has been on the air since late 2002, and 106.9 signed on sometime this summer. Radio Clairemont signed on 98.5 soon after. Many others came and went fast. One pirate on 105.7, just before the Mexican station on the same channel signed on, closed down after lawyers from KWVE 107.9 threatened legal action if they did not cease relaying their signal after six years of pirate activity from Lakeside. An unlikely pirate: Grossmont College? An unauthorized station was operating on 89.1 for three years from the campus until they were shut down.

14. XSURF 540 switches from adult standards to oldies.

15. Spanish-language 102.9 morphs from K-Love to Viva.

16. KCEO adds reruns of the late Wolfman Jack radio show nightly.

17. For the first time since 1997, San Diego Chargers games were blacked out locally because not enough tickets were sold. This was due to the dreaded ticket guarantee finally being extinguished by the city and the Chargers.

18. ESPN 800 finally added a local talk show in the afternoons hosted by Dave Palet and Jeff Dotseth, formerly with KFMB-AM.

19. KURS 1040 switches from Spanish to Gospel. Before that, it had just switched to talk and oldies, briefly carrying the boring Don Imus radio show.

20. XEBNC 105.7 from Tijuana goes on the air, causing adjacent-channel interference with hip hop Power 106 (105.9) from Los Angeles.

21. KCEO 1000 dumps the remains of the Premium format that was once on 92.1 and launches Owl 1000 playing pop standards and oldies.

22. XHATE 95.3 gets a stronger prescence in San Diego as its transmitter moves from Tecate to Tijuana, and gets new call letters: XHHIT

23. Mark Larson sequeues from KCBQ to KOGO in the afternoon.

24. The incompetent PD Bryan Schock leaves San Diego when he quits the dinosaur KGB station for a job elsewhere. He was shuffled from the sinking 91X six months before. Good riddance. Another radio progammer who just can't get it right, not even with KGB.

25. Mighty 1090 fired John Fricke and Mike Costa.

Deaths (cannot be ranked): Ken Caminiti, Bill Balance, Victor Diaz, Ron Reina.

KSON-AM Antenna Collapses (December 30, 2004)

A major winter storm that brought heavy rains and high winds to Southern California on Tuesday was responsible for snapping off the top 200 feet of the broadcast stick, knocking KSON-AM 1240 (brokered), KURS-AM 1040 (gospel) and low power TV station KBNT 17 off the air. All three stations remained off the air on Wednesday with no estimate of when the damage would be repaired or when the stations might return to the air.

A problem with the collapse caused a chain-reaction for those who watched Univision 17 over one of the three transmitters in San Diego. KBNT fed a low power KNSD-LP 62 on Mount Soledad, which in turn fed channel 49 on San Marcos Mountain near Oceanside, and since KBNT went silent, so did the other two translators.

As of Wednesday, KURS's Gospel programming was on adjacent-channel XESDD in Tijuana.

KURS 1040, the Soul of San Diego, is broadcasting temporarily on XEDD 1030 from Tijuana, and on the Internet at http://www.thesoulofsandiego.com/. From the website: We need your help to get the word out to others to listen to us LIVE on the internet. Tell all of your friends to go to www.thesoulofsandiego.com so they can hear Gospel programming 24hr/day on the internet.

From KURS' Preacherman:

"Last night's record breaking wind broke off the top two-hundred feet of The KSON Tower located in The southeastern section of the City.

According To Dick Warren, The Chief Engineer for KURS 1040AM (The Soul of San Diego) several broadcast facilities have been affected by the damaged tower, which include KSON-AM 1240, Cable TV Channel 19 (KBNT-LP) and KURS. Warren, indicated that the problem occurred at approximately 3:30 this morning. Upon Warren's arrival he was shocked to see a portion of the Tower dangling from the air, San Diego Police and SDG&E were on the scene and had secured the area.

The Wires - San Diego (December 30, 2004)

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
Broadcast Briefs Dec 29, 2004... As of yesterday, the English-language adult standards format once heard here on XEDD (corrected)/AM 1030 has moved to a new frequency, 5,000-watt XESS/AM 620. Run by Quetzal Bilingual Communications in Chula Vista (but licensed by Mexico), AM 620's music is presented under the promotional moniker "America's Best Music." Meanwhile, AM 1030 has become a Spanish oldies format marketed as "Recuerdos" (memories).

The Wires - Nationwide (December 30, 2004)

The FCC has ruled that satellite radio providers like XM and Sirius are free from FCC oversight. Not only is this ruling the only legal decision the FCC could have reached, it’s a great decision for free speech everywhere. The Federal Communications Commission realized that while it has control over programs broadcast for free over radio and television it has no right to control what consenting, informed adults choose to spend their money on. Despite the clear legal grounds the religious right wanted to extend government reach further into private business. Oddly most of these people vote republican whom I always thought wanted less government intrusion into life. Focus on Family called the ruling “Tragic” (read more - BlogCritics)

The Wires - Nationwide (December 29, 2004)

Boosted by increasing visibility and holiday sales of satellite radio devices, XM Satellite Radio said it surpassed its year-end goal of 3.1 million subscribers, set in February, after starting the year with 1.3 million subscribers, while Sirius Satellite Radio said it bested its own goal of 1 million subscribers (read more - Paul Festa-CNET) (read more - Detroit News)

Source: radioandrecords
Clear Channel Re-Ups With Arbitron... Arbitron announced today that it has signed a four-year deal with Clear Channel Radio. The agreement runs through the end of the Fall 2008 survey period. It provides Arbitron ratings and Scarborough qualitative data to Clear Channel radio stations as well as CC subsidiary companies Premiere Radio Networks, Katz Media Group and Clear Channel Traffic.

Radio Ink
Stern To Sign Off Public Airwaves Sooner Than Planned? NEW YORK—December 28: As reported by CNN/Money Howard Stern has “died on public radio” because of a deal reached last month between Viacom and the FCC.

The Wires - San Diego (December 28, 2004)

Radio in San Diego changed radically and historically this year, thanks largely to the efforts of Cliff Albert, program director of Clear Channel Communications' KOGO/AM 600 and KLSD/AM 1360. In August, KLSD came into existence as "Air America Radio," a liberal talk-radio alternative to such conservative outlets here as KFMB/AM 760, KCBQ/AM 1170, KPRZ/AM 1210, KSDO/AM 1130 and KOGO (read more - Preston Turegano-San Diego Union Tribune)

The Wires - Nationwide (December 28, 2004)

Source: radioandrecords
Sirius Surpasses 1 Million Subscribers... The satcaster announced this morning that it has officially surpassed its year-end target of 1 million subscribers, thanks to strong holiday sales and increased marketing efforts. Among the stronger sellers were the Sirius portable "Plug & Play" products. "We predicted that we would reach one million subscribers by year-end and we did it," said Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin. "It's now clear that consumers are increasingly recognizing the appeal of our programming."

Upcoming Topics for The Dr. Demento Show (Early 2005)

To make a request for these topics, or anything on the show, go to Very Keri's request page at http://www.clamhead.com/drdrequest.html

January 2 (05-01) nonsense
January 9 (05-02) The Bobs - interview
January 16 (05-03) Red states (humor from and/or about them)
January 23 (05-04) Hometowns
January 30 (05-05) Hawaii / Ukuleles
February 6 (05-06) super bowl day
February 13 (05-07) love songs
February 20 (05-08) birds
February 27 (05-09) Science, technology
March 6 (05-10) Science fiction
March 13 (05-11) Green songs St Patrick's / Spring
March 20 (05-12) Hair
March 27 (05-13) Easter

The Dr. Demento Show Funny 25 of 2004 (December 26, 2004)

So what song hit #1 for the year 2004?

Steve Goodie's "Shatner"? A tribute to the Star Trek lead. Or was it his "Harry's Wand" song tied in to Harry Potter?

Did Ryan Hopak hope to hit #1 with last year's "Tribal Council," a salute to "Survivor" the TV series?

How about Tony Goldmark? Did he "Rage Against the Mundane" enough to reach the top? Or was he serious enough to do so with "Sirius Black?"

And, what about the reunited Canadian group, The Frantics? Their "Army Careers" comeback sketch made the Funny 25 of the year late, but did it make it into the #1 slot?

And, what about sweet Carla Ulbrich? She had two songs in the Funny Five this past year: "If I Had The Copyright (The "F" Word Song)" and "What if Your Butt Was Gone?. Did either one of them make it into the #1 slot?

Did the Worm Quartet's great idea for a song called, well, "Great Idea For a Song", hit #1?

And, who is Mr. Whitekeys & The Fabulous Spamtones with "The Liar Sleeps Tonight," and did that overplayed anti-Dubya novelty song hit #1 with the fans?

For the answers to these and other questions, Read the Funny 25 List here, or tune in to the Dr. Demento Show on the Internet right here.

Offside note: Dammit, J.R., give Bianca back Miranda and be a man about it. Sheesh! Wish to get shot like that other J.R. did 25 years ago?