91X Goes Independent (12:01am, September 20, 2005)

I'm hearing a lot of cool rock and punk songs, many deep album cuts, and a few oldie classics from the earlier alternative rock days here and there but the oldies are not dominating the newer and rarely-heard songs. The deejay played several tracks from Franz Ferdinand's new CD, for example.

Looks like this is alternative gone wild. A lot of rock and punk stuff I never hear is being played...and that's a good thing.

This sounds closer to the anarchy of college radio than the 1983-86 era of 91X. Some bands I never heard of before are getting played. A lot of the stale station bumpers have vanished. There's humans talking more often than once or twice an hour.

Hopefully, they've dumped a lot of the soft rock crud that belongs on My...oops...Star 94.1 instead of a rock station.

Do you like 91X better? Do you like 94/9? Do you like another alternative rock station? Please Let Me Know and some of the letters will be posted.

More on that later, but I got to share this with you now.

At 4pm today, 91X went into a morse code of S.O.S. or whatever was close to it.

Then the station played the legal radio station identification in Spanish a few times.

Then the station warped back to January 11, 1983, when it last played Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" before the format change to alternative rock.

The station, 91X, known as "The Rock of the 80s", was launched by the locally owned Nobel Broadcasting Company under the direction of a lunatic named Rick Carroll.

The first song played on 91X was "Sex" by Berlin. Soon after, 91X introduced San Diego to a myraid of artists ranging from Oingo Boingo to Depeche Mode to Elvis Costello and the Cure. 91X played everything from The Beatles to Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage, making no sense whatsoever.

Regardless, within two months, 91X rose from the a periennial also-rans to one of the top radio stations in San Diego, and a new legend was born.

Before 1983 was over, 91X unveiled its graffitti-like logo, its oval shaped bumper sticker, and the very first X-Fest concert. Held in what was known then as Jack Murphy Stadium, the show featured the Ramones, Bow Wow Wow, The Stray Cats, The Flirts, Modern English, and was headlined by none other than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

In 1984, 91X introduced The X Magazine, which featured up close and personal interviews with the likes of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Thompson Twins. 91X also launched the 91X TV Show airing weekly on channel 6 hosted by token English bloke Steve West. Meanwhile at the Del Mar Fairground, 91X celebrated its first anniversary with a concert featuring the English Beat and Wall of Voo Doo. Then, as the year closed, 91X listeners chose General Public's "Tenderness" as the #1 song of the year in the top 91 countdown.

In 1985, at its state-of-the-art broadcasting site on a Tijuana hilltop, the 91X transmitter site caught fire and the station disappearred for 24 hours. Mass panic ensued, but afterwards, 91X continued to ride the wave...the new wave, of course.

In 1986, it was the year of Oingo Boingo. Proving that the station was an entity upon itself, latched onto a newer band that was barely known outside of Southern California and made them the biggest thing in the 91X universe. "Dead Man's Party" was named top song of the year, and the band headlined the only X-Fest party held south of the border. It was held at the Aqua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana to see Boingo, along with The Fixx, Bangles, Hoo Doo Gurus, and Chris Isaak.

In 1987, that was somewhat of a froggy year. Must have been a really good year, if you know what Steve West means.

The year 1987 was the first year that 91X conducted the first Expose the X contest where listeners had to expose the 91x logo in the most creative way. The contest featured a contestant convincing Valerie Bertinelli to wear a 91X bumper sticker on her lapel when she hosted Saturday Night Live, which was ranked the runner-up for the $25,000 grand prize. Someone with a stop-motion animated clay commercial for 91X was the winner, who bought airtime on a local TV station.

In 1988, the American sequel to X-Fest was held in the Aztec Bowl, a 25,000 seat venue that has since turned into a massive parking structure on the campus of San Diego state. Headlining the show was New Order, along with John Lydon of Public Image Ltd., the Sugarcubes, and De La Soul. Also, in 1988, 91X dropped the Rock of the 80s slogan for a new one, The Cutting Edge of Rock (editor: I thought they dropped that in 1987), and made for really catchy promos.

In 1989, that summer, 91X again made the outside world scratch its collective head when it bought every ticket for The Who's farewell show at Jack Murphy Stadium. Serving at the concert's co-promoter, the station created special yellow and black tickets emblazing with the 91X logo. It didn't really make a lot of sense, but it sure pissed KGB off.

In 1990, it was the dawning of a new decade and a new era for 91X. After spending years broadcasting from a studio overlooking Tijuana, the 91X deejays were moved to the San Diego headquarters of Noble Broadcasting on Pacific Highway. Although the actual transmitter tower remains in Tijuana (as it is a Mexican-owned radio station) to this day, the 91X studio now sits on American soil, which means no more scorpions, stray dogs, or little kids selling dogs showing up at the studio door.

1990 was also the year for X-Fest 3, starring the B-52s, Ziggy Marley, They Might Be Giants, and The Cramps.

In 1991, some new bands from Seattle made a big splash on the scene. The X-Fest show that year featured Siouxsie and the Banshes, Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ice-T. It was sold for the second day for a traveling tour that was known elsewhere as Lollapalooza.

That year, 91X hosted a second Expose the X contest.

1991 presented an End of the Year concert at the Del Mar Fairgrounds featuring Nirvana, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the show opened with a band called Pearl Jam.

In 1992, 91X introduced the Save The World Radiothon, where over the course of one weekend, autographed autographs from 91X artists were auctioned off live on the air. The event continued annually for the next four years ending in 1995. It allowed 91X to raise more than $1,000,000 to the Rain Forest Alliance, securing the preservation of hundreds of acres of rain forests all over the world.

1992 also marked 91X's ninth anniversary, so a two-day listener appreciation show was held featuring Social Distortion, The Cult, Soupdragons, Los Lobos, Panto Bantam, and the Catherine Wheel.

In 1993, 91X took the X-Fest shows to the beaches of Coronado on the 4th of July. It featured the Stone Temple Pilots, the Butthole Surfers, Mike Watt, and was hosted by Johnny Rotten dressed up like a Redcoat. Later that summer, U2's Zoo TV tour hit the stadium with the massive TV monitors behind the band featured footage of the marriage of two 91X listeners recorded earlier that day in the parking lot. The Beat Farmers' Country Dick Montana served as their chaplain. As the year ended, 91X hosted its first acoustic X-Mas show with unplugged performances of Porno for Pyros, General Public, The Wonderstuff, and Live.

In 1994, sticking to its omnipresent Fest theme, 91X invented Sun Fest that included Violent Femmes, Green Day, Rollins Band, James, X, and Toad the Wet Sprocket. It was also the year of X-Fest 5 with UB40, Tears For Fears, and Terence Trent D'Arby. And yet another listener appreciation show featuring Living Colour, Iggy Pop, Social D, and Big Country. The second acoustic X-Mas show included performances from The Black Crowes, Hole, The GoGos, Simple Minds, Dinosaur Jr., and Tom Jones.

In 1995, Howard Stern joined 91X in mornings (was moved in 1997 to Rock 105.3 by Jacor because the Mexican government objected to Stern's rants against the Mexican government).

Everything seemed to be going just fine...and then...

In 1996, 91X's owner Noble Broadcasting was swallowed up by another company called Jacor Communications.

That is when the dark ages for 91X began as well as for the rest of San Diego for the most part.

In 1998, Jacor bought the LMA rights of competetor The Flash 92.5 and killed off the format.

In 1999, Jacor was swallowed up by an even bigger company called Clear Channel.

Clear Channel took control of 91X in May of 1999. By that time, the station started to make a lot of sense to suits in Texas and Kentucky, but not so much sense in San Diego.

In 2001, a new alternative alternative radio station was launched from Escondido at 92.1 called Premium 92.1, a 580 watt flamethrower that covered some 10 miles, but could reach 30 miles on flat terrain, providing corporate-run 91X a challenge for North County listeners. Art Astor once owned the station.

In 2002, an even stronger alternative station was launched at 94.9 by Jefferson-Pilot Communications. In 2003, like Jacor, Jefferson-Pilot bought up a competetor of theirs and dropped the format, this time, it was Astor's 92.1 that was sold and converted into a translator for KSON 97.3, so they could transmit their country music format into North County better.

Meanwhile, 91X continued to suck pretty hard with no direction in music and no personality.

In 2005, on September 19, under new program director Kevin Stapleford and music director Marco Collins, and some new airstaff, a new 91X was reborn, the third incarnation of the alternative rock format, this time, no longer under control of Clear Channel. This time, they're making a commitment to San Diego.

The first song they played?

"We Want The Airwaves" by The Ramones. Naturally. After that, they played The Killers "All These Things That I’ve Done," Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Subways "Rock N Roll Queen," The Smiths "Panic," Green Day "American Idiot," Morningwood "Nth Degree," Radiohead "Karma Police," and Franz Ferdinand "This Fire."

Steve West welcomed the listeners to the new 91X, along with Hillary Chris, and Marco. "Welcome to your new 91X", says West.

The day is 9-19, which, on the phone pad, is 91X.

Mike Glickenhaus was on board for 91X, one of the people who used to work for 91X back in the day, and he was there explaining that he created a company, Finest City Broadcasting, to take over 91X from Clear Channel.

Mike explained that his company entered into an agreement to acquire the rights in the United States for the sales and programming and promotions of 91X, and they cut a deal with the Mexican ownership, to assume the rights from Clear Channel and to work with the Mexican owner of XETRA-FM. Clear Channel is forced to divest interests of stations over the count of seven they are allowed to program and/or own for the San Diego market, and 91X, along with Z90 and Magic 92.5, are being divested as a group to Finest City Broadcasting.

Mike also said that he thinks that with the right attention, people, and resources, and being all about San Diego, it's great to be totally focused on San Diego once again. The new program director, Marco Collins, started working at 91X answering telephone requests, and was the first and only male phone screener for Steve West, as well as Pam Wolf. He also says that this is an exciting time for San Diego radio and the new guy (Kevin Stapleford, the PD) who runs the station gets it.

Kevin was the PD for 91X in the past in 1989-95, the longest surviving of the nine 91X PD's of the past.

Marco was introduced by West, and he said he also answered phones for West. Marco was the second male answering for West.

Marco left 91X to start The End in Seattle, but the reason he left 91X was because he was fired for playing the a Geto Boys song uncensored by Glickenhaus and Stapleford, who are now his bosses once again. He did an anti-censorship topic late one Sunday night during the old "Listen To This" show and he figured to bust out all of the songs in question. Nowadays, it's a half-a-million fine for playing such records on a U.S. station.

The End in Seattle was the flagship alternative rock station in Seattle, helping to launch the grunge rock movement with Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and others. If Keven never got fired from 91X in the first place, we would have never heard "Weird Al" Yankovic doing a parody of Nirvana's songs called "Smells Like Nirvana" in 1992.

After the end came for Marco at The End, he went to VH-1 playing Van Halen 1 songs by David Lee Roth (joke). But before he was fired from 91X, he started a local show called "Loudspeaker."

Marco said that when he moved into San Diego in 1984, he was turned on by the revoultion of new music that was on 91X and thought that in itself that it was a movement. At the time, it was innocent and dymanic. He went through the revolution of new music in Seattle and hopes to make a new revolution of music today.

Mike says that 91X will prove to their friends in San Diego that with new managers, they can make some new memories by bringing some great new music and great radio back to town.

Chris says it's all about having fun on the radio once again. Fun has been lacking from the dial for too long. There's too much hate all over the dial.

Marco introduced a new band called The Subways earlier in the first hour, and he wants to make history by breaking in some new bands on the station. With the audience's help, let's break some new bands, play some bands before anybody else in the country. When he was in Seattle, he continually took risks playing unproven and unknown new bands on the air, it's what 91X used to do. Let's take the bands and break them out of this town before anybody else in this country does, let's put them on the air and and play the heck out of the bands on the airwaves and streaming over at 91x.com.

Another band Marco broke out in the second hour: Morning Wood. A band whose name is a double entendre. Think about it.

Will 91X get back the audience it lost under mismanagement and misguidance by those who represented Clear Channel and Jacor? With the return of the attitude that once made 91X famous 22 years back, this could make people put their iPods playing alternative music in moth balls.

91X ran the a2z marathon for about ten days prior to the 4pm announcement on Sep 19. The regular staff at 91X returns Tuesday morning, starting with Chris Cantore, followed by Hilary, Marco, and Collelo. Al Guerra is on the weekends hosting Loudspeaker, as well as various weekend shifts by Muckley, Trev, Marty, Matty, Jason, and Tom Perry. On Sunday mornings, Steve West hosts the Resurrection zone.