New Programmer of XETRA 690 Granted Permission (Aug 13, 2005)

The Commission, by its International Bureau, took the following actions pursuant to delegated authority. The effective dates of the actions are the dates specified.

GLR Networks, LLC, the U.S. division of Grupo Prisa of Spain, was granted on August 12, 2005, subject to conditions, an application for Section 325 (c) permit to deliver Spanish language programming to radio station XETRA-AM, operating on 690 kHz in Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico with authorized power of 77 kW (day) and 50kW (night) directional.

GLR stands for Grupo Latino de Radio. There is no date when a new Spanish-language based format will debut.

GLR will be the programmer and operator of XETRA as soon as the process of transfership of the programming rights (aka LMA) from Clear Channel is completed. XETRA currently runs a nostalgia-based format programmed out of the Clear Channel Los Angeles building in Burbank-Los Angeles. Clear Channel is in the process of divesting off its rights to operate the Tijuana (4 FM) and Rosarito (1 AM) radio stations since the Justice Department ruled that LMAs and JSAs count towards the number of radio stations in a given market that can be run by a company.

The rule even affected Clear Channel Los Angeles as it was forced by advice from its own legal department to divest its JSA of Santa Monica-based Indie 103.1 owned by Entravision since Clear Channel already owns and runs eight stations in that area.

In San Diego, Clear Channel can run only seven stations in the San Diego market because KFI out of Los Angeles is on a clear channel (the class, not the company) frequency coming in so strong in San Diego that the Justice Department ruled that it counts towards the maximum of eight (3 AM and 5 FM) stations, hence CCSD can run only seven based in San Diego, but it would have easily been a different story if CCLA dealt KFI for a non-clear channel class AM station (KNX owned by Infinity is the other clear channel class based in L.A.) so that CCSD could have never divested KSDO 1130 to Chase Radio Partners, which then sold it to the owner of a Spanish-language religious format.

The question remains: Clear Channel aggresively promotes Jim Rome's show that airs on its Los Angeles station on KLAC 570, which comes in fairly in San Diego, on its San Diego cluster stations such as KIOZ, KOGO, and KGB. Would the Justice Department count KLAC towards the San Diego number?

Tip from SDRadio.net®, who also reports that August is the last month that this station will be in English. Read the PDF file above for more. Adobe Reader required.

FAQ: Is Dr. Demento On in San Diego? (Aug 13, 2005)

This is very much in my territory.

I get this question almost weekly as readers continue to inquire if Dr. Demento can be found on a San Diego-based radio station.

Not since December 22, 1996, when the now-defunct Flash 92.5 broadcasted the show and cancelled it without notice. Apparently, the angry listeners flooded their message board for months after the cancellation, often with plugs for 91X and Star, until the station's LMA was sold to Jacor. There's one thing to say about the local dementoid market in San Diego: it's severely underserved.

In a market where love songs, skate rat, hurban, and the pop oldies rule the airwaves, isn't it about time that somebody could program comedy and demented music (as well as dance music) on a future HD radio channel? Think about it. Instead of reruns of some seventh-grade humor morning show running on a second HD radio channel on KGB, they could program something like DFSX and Dr. Demento on it, and a dance channel on Channel 933-2, and even KOOL oldies on US 95.7-2 since the Clear Channel cluster is divesting the LMA of 99.3 from Tijuana and the oldies format would otherwise not have a home. Program them automated like Jack on the second digital channels. I don't care. This can be done inexpensively. Just give me a reason to shell out $500 for an IBOC-equipped radio that can receive HD digital channels.

As for getting your fix of Dr. Demento, unless you can listen to the streams online when they air as I have been doing since the month before Buffy the Vampire Slayer debut on the WB, you can download recent Dr. Demento shows in MP3 form from these sites:

Unauthorized Dr. Demento (Mocha): http://mocha.net:6969/
Unauthorized Dr. Demento (Mad Music Archive): (removed by request)

I've been listening to Dr. Demento mp3s in my car for about four years now. You can download them and burn the mp3s onto CD-Rs and I guess you can transfer them onto your iPods though I don't own an iPod and can't show you how to do it. Sure beats the pop music hell that's the rule on teen-based radio nowadays.

D.T. Gets a Letter Printed in the U-T (August 13, 2005)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050812/news_lets12.html

Between the teachers and Clear Channel, it's no wonder that today's teenagers are not learning about comedy, dance, folk, celtic, polka, real jazz, classical, blues, americana, bluegrass, electronica, and other genres that they should be learning in public schools. My education in music when I was a teen in the 1970s was far worse back then when all I had was the radio and teachers not knowing how to teach me about genres radio wasn't playing. There was no cable music TV, no Internet radio, no iPods, no satellite, or mp3 alternative mediums where you could learn about new music. No wonder the public schools left me lacking in music cultural knowledge by the time I graduated, and not even showtunes from the TV variety shows counted much.

And, yes, I enjoy polka and bluegrass music.

Bob and Tom Available For Download (August 13, 2005)

You can now use the Bob and Tom Downloads page to download the shows to your iPod or your computer (in mp3 form). 20 hours of crazy comedy and talk is their specialty as a daily flow of comedy guests pop in and do their comedy music and sketches. Each MP3 contains three segments and runs an hour each. The shows are in the VIP archives for 30 days. Once the 30 day period has passed, links to those programs are removed, so listen to the shows ASAP.

The same day's shows are available one hour after the show ends at 7am Pacific, which is 10am Eastern.

The Wires (August 13, 2005)

FMQB: iPod Patent Actually Microsoft's

See Ya Monday (Aug 13, 2005)