The Ninth Annual State of San Diego Radio Address (January 1, 2006)

It is now January 1, 2006, and it's time for the Ninth Annual State of San Diego Radio and TV Address. We've been doing this every year since 1998.

What has happened in the past year in San Diego radio? Outside of the run of the mill mentality by Clear Channel, enough activity from their competetors as well as the forced divesture of five Mexican-owned radio stations that Clear Channel has been running has finally removed most of the dark cloud of mediocrity that has been plaging San Diego since 1998 when Jacor (which was swallowed by Clear Channel in 1999) acquired eleven radio stations in San Diego, which included three Mexican-owned stations, plus eight based in San Diego.

Satellite radio subscriptions have just logged its eighth millionth paid subscriber by the time this Address gets read (up from four million), meaning that broadcast radio's newest nemesis is gaining traction and is on its way towards becoming radio's answer to cable television encroaching on the television broadcasters' share of its audience. Portable music playing devices, anything from CD audio to MP3s to AAC to whatever else, is taking a toll on the teenage-skewing radio stations that play pop music, especially the young males who prefer to listen to portable music instead of broadcast radio. Males who can afford satellite radio are also leaving broadcast radio except for the local talk and sports radio programming. Which means that, like broadcast television, broadcast radio is slowing sequeueing from a medium serving a broad (as in all demographics) audience into a medium serving a female (or another kind of broad) audience as well as the poor who can't afford the alternatives.

Howard Stern leaving terrestrial radio last month for Sirius on January 9 has brought more than two million more Sirius subscribers, mostly by the men whom this show is aimed at, so satellite radio has become basically a male-aimed radio model, though there are plenty of channels that women and children can listen to. It is the males that are helping satellite radio gain traction against the radio broadcasters.

David Lee Roth and Adam Carolla are just two of the big name replacements for the Howard Stern show for the eastern and western listeners respectively. Each of them are capable of holding their own in their markets given the relative showbiz experience that they both possess.

Broadcast radio music has, except for 91X, Rock 105.3, and FM 94/9, become mostly female-oriented, so much that I can't even listen to any of the other music stations for long periods of time anymore. More than ever, we're getting a limited selection of pop oldies, teen top 40, women's pop, watered-down country, lite jazz, lite hip hop, and old rock music formats that the commercial radio stations continue to play year after year, songs that sound like other songs, and acts that sound like other acts. There's no edge in US 95.7, Real American Country my eye! Rock Without Rules my foot!

Oldies-only stations have taken a beating in San Diego. In August, we lost KOOL 0ldies 99.3 in favor of a Spanish language music format called La Preciosa. AM 690 will be losing its pop standards format for a Spanish language talk format this year. Nostalgia and standards will live exclusively on AM 540 (and 1260 in Los Angeles) for some time, but for how long is anybody's guess. For oldies on broadcast radio, you have to tune in KEARTH 101.1 or KOLA 99.9 from up north, just two of a dying breed of oldies stations left. San Diego mercifully lost one of two low-rated classic rockers in favor of an FM talk format called Free-FM which is helping to take some of the young male listeners from their music players thanks to Tom Leykis and Phil Hendrie.

San Diego is down to two oldies-oriented radio stations, though they play a few new stuff every now and then: Magic 92.5 and KGB 101.5. It's only a matter of time before these stations begin to phase out the moldy oldies from before 2000 and play more new music from today.

Independent radio bloggers have popped up all over the Internet in the past few years, dispensing advice on what their favorite new kinds of music are available to download and purchase, as well as to give self-written reviews on the new artists that the Big 4 record labels continue to shun or underpromote. Even older listeners are into the new music that they hear on satellite radio as well as Internet downloads, and more people are shunning broadcast radio as a way to learn about new music as each year progresses.

Older listeners don't care to hear the same songs that were once popular when they were teenagers when "Hawaii Five-O" was in first-runs on CBS everyday. They're listening to satellite radio for new songs and songs they never heard before and are paying to hear more of them. They're also listening to Internet radio as well as podcasts for new music. They don't care about hearing "Stairway to Heaven" or "Give It To Me Baby" everyday. They want to hear what interests them, music that corporate radio just don't touch.

Now nearing its eleventh year in 2006, the local radio stations, as well as non-broadcasters, are utilizing this important medium to stream their playlists to a world-wide audience. Radio stations are not only trying to get their broadcasters streaming on the Internet, but thanks to a new technology called HD Radio, the broadcasters are publicizing their multicasted second and third channels on the Internet, streaming them for people who don't have HD radio and don't live within 30 miles of its audience with niche ideas such as dance and oldies. Broadcasters feel they have to compete with Internet-only radio stations (as well as XM and Siruis satellite radio that's also streaming on the Internet) so that they can colelctively stake a bigger share of its audience than they would if they don't stream on the Internet.

Radio stations need to recognize that oldies has become a niche, available commercial-free on satellite, and they have to give up oldies programming concepts in favor of new music-based formats such as CHR-dance and rap-free R&B, as well as talk formats, and even flipping languages to Spanish. Expect more oldies stations to disappear from the broadcast airwaves by the turn of the decade.

Local radio is still great at giving a local connection to the programs with news, weather, traffic, sports, and public service, but local radio needs to do something to stand out above the other competeting streaming and satellite services such as expanding the list of genres to play, dropping old songs that are way past their prime, and keeping their commercial sets to three minutes or less. Local radio needs to do something besides reducing their commercial load and hyping the local connection to give the listeners a reason to tune in to their stations.

Why pay for radio when you can get it for free? It's because you're getting what local radio isn't giving you what you want out of it, pure and simple. Check out the satellite services and see for yourself. Blues? Americana? Classic New Wave? Reggaeton? Comedy? Dance?

Top 40/CHR music is still loosing males and has become a female-based music format, nothanks to Clear Channel ruining the fun of the genre in favor of playing mostly bland and uninteresting musicial acts. Put the fun novelty and dance music back into the playlists. The hip hop/R&B/soft rock genres are of no interest to many listeners including myself.

I said it last year, and I'll say it again: San Diego can use an all-modern dance radio station that plays the dance hits of today. Guess what major demographics with money it will attract? The Latinos, of course. The Italians, naturally, since they also dig the beats. There's also the local gay population that has money for the advertisers who plug their products on the dance stations. There's the rest who don't care for pop punk or rap music. See, radio needs to cover all of the rich demographics with programming that will get them to tune in.

Wireless broadband Internet has been gaining steam. You can listen to Internet radio on your portable computer. Some cellphones can receive streaming music though I don't know which services offer that feature, but I'll bet you that it's available somewhere. Imagine that broadcast radio competeting with Internet and satellite radio stations on your wireless portable computer is getting more real all the time. One company is working on taking that convergence of Internet radio and portable computer and placing it in your car so that you can listen to any streaming radio station while you drive in your car! It's coming this year. Stay tuned.

Dialup Internet access has become a niche e-mail service since broadband Internet has more than 50 percent (I'm guessing about 60 percent by now) of its share of Internet subscribers. You can't do anything with dial-up that you want to do with broadband. If you're interested in watching broadcast television on the Internet, it's definitely broadband. If you want tinny 8 kbps streaming radio like it was in 1996, then you can get dial-up. Almost everything is going in favor of broadband Internet including wireless, giving Internet radio a reason to exist.

The talk radio landscape has gotten better this year as opposed to last year when Clear Channel launched a lamented all-left Air America affilliate. Why do radio stations have to overniche talk to death. All right? All left? All sports? Free-FM got it right with their lineup of active talkers, mostly of syndicated fare, but bringing in Tom Leykis to San Diego was the right thing to do as many people I talked with personally can attest to that fact. Leykis has a strong North County following with fans listening to his show from L.A.'s KLSX 97.1 and fans in the San Diego metro area can finally hear his show for the first time since 1999 when Salem bought KCBQ 1170 and dropped his show (bad idea) in favor of a lineup of talkers nobody cares to listen to.

All Comedy Network, meanwhile, has been adding new stations totaling some 100, none of which are anywhere near San Diego unfortunately, and none that I know of are streaming on the Internet. This is a programming concept I'd like to see on in San Diego.

And now, here is a station-by-station evaluation of all the formats for the year 2006:

AM 540 nostalgia/standards - how long will this last? It's not gaining any traction.

AM 600 news/talk - needs to get some interesting programming on the weekends. How about adding some from All Comedy Network? Hacksaw and Yuhas are decent, but get rid of that brokered programming featuring money schemes that never seem to work.

AM 690 nostalgia - will flip to Spanish talk, so this will be the last time this frequency gets mentioned.

AM 760 talk - needs to stream full-time since many workplaces can't get the 5,000 watt signal in outlying areas.

AM 800 sports - give it up. Flip it to Spanish and move ESPN to a local stick in San Diego. The USC football telecasts are a major headache to listen to given the fact that all they're doing is broadcasting an Internet feed full of dropouts. I thoght ISDN went the way of Senifeld. The nighttime signal in Santee and points north of Kearny Mesa are nonexistant, and the World Series playoffs suffered at night, thanks to co-channel interference from a radio station from near El Paso.

AM 910 religion - no comments

AM 1000 talk/oldies - why not go all oldies? Drop the talk and go for it!

AM 1040 Gospel - no comments

AM 1090 sports - stop cutting away from popular games to cover an unpopular game such as the Ducks.

AM 1170 talk - drop the talkers that are getting no ratings. Pick up ESPN from 800 and broadcast it locally.

AM 1240 asian - is anyone listening to this format?

AM 1360 liberal talk - needs more diverse programming such as All Comedy.

AM 1450 classical - how long will this last? Bring in 70s-80s oldies.

AM 1700 financial - when will they get a website?

FM 88.3 jazz - add in more genres.

FM 89.5 news/classical - no comment

FM 90.3 hip hop - how long can this station survive competeting with upstart Blazin 98.9? Bring back dance!

FM 90.7 classical - Convert it to a public access radio station. Classical sounds better on satellite.

FM 91.1 alternative rock - sounding better now that it's no longer part of Clear Channel.

FM 92.1 country - how well is this station doing simulcating KSON-FM?

FM 92.5 old school - mix in some modern dance hits from XM 81 and drop the disco/freestyle crap.

FM 93.3 top 40 chr - hip hop and rap are still popular ten years past its peak?

FM 94.1 hot AC - needs more variety. Too sleepy/

FM 94.9 alternative rock - needs more synth alternative dance.

FM 95.7 country - no edge whatsoever.

FM 96.5 AC - play more oldies alongside the current songs since KOOL is dead.

FM 97.3 country - no comment

FM 98.1 smooth jazz - no comment

FM 98.9 hip hop - bring back Rewire and electronica

FM 100.7 hot AC - last year I said "stop talking so much." They did when they flipped to Jack-FM in April. I don't remember more than 3/4 of the old songs that they play. Maybe they should talk a little just to identify the old songs I can't place a name on.

FM 101.5 classic rock - play mostly new rock

FM 102.1 AAA - play some harder rock

FM 103.7 talk - bring in Bob and Tom.

FM 105.3 hard rock - take more chances on new rock music

The Top 10 Best Things in Radio in 2005

2. DFSX Comedy Radio http://www.dfsxradio.com/ - for providing us thinking music fans some entertainment for a change in our music pleasure.

3. Tom Leykis. Nevermind what Randy Dotinga and Mikey say. Tom rules the male audience. Let him play the sound of a man having sex with a horse to porno music all he wants. Let him blast San Diego radio all he wants (deservedly so). Let him man up the young males and educate them on what women are really about. Let him play that Meow Mix cat jingle while arguing with a totally pussified man. This is what I have been wanting in San Diego for a long time. Thanks Free-FM. I appreciate it. Seriously.

4. Dr. Demento's Radio Show - thanks to the Internet pirates, we can get our weekly fill of funny music. Now that Talonian is planning to take it pay, I need the pirates more than ever.

5. Mike Halloran. I'm glad somebody who still gives a damn about music is programming at least one station in the San Diego Outland.

6. Sports on the Radio - can't stay at home to watch the games? Hear them on the radio!

7. All Comedy Radio - in 100 cities, none near San Diego. Any takers?

8. ipartyradio.com - I'm totally addicted to this new dance station!

9. q1520radio.com - get your oldies fix on the Internet

10. Roger Hedgecock - he may be uneducated in regards to gender diversity, but he knows the other stuff such as the Prop A ripoff extension of the 1/2 cent sales tax.

The Worst San Diego Businesses in 2005

To those who don't like me, I say let's don't do business with them.