Stairway to 105.7? (Update 9:30am, Jan 28, 1986)

"105.7, Bringing San Diego the Greatest Rock and Roll of All Time...Maybe," as the sweeper between the "Stairway" song airplays.

Could it become classic rock, or whatever weekend rock music format that Free-FM in San Diego was running for a short while? Stay tuned.

20th Anniversary Reflection (Jan 28, 1986)

Fabulous 690/LA Sets Format Flip Date (Jan 28, 2006)

Spain-based Grupo Prisa LLC has apparently assembled a staff to run the Mexican-owned radio station and has set a date for its flip to Spanish-language talk on February 5th.

The current staff of 690, under the current monker of "Fabulous 690", will be jettisoned on Tuesday, the date the station will run on automation until the format change takes place.

From the http://www.fabulousradio.com/ website:

"Thank You! 35 years in radio could never prepare me for the outpouring of love and support, the friendship and kinship you've shown not only us, but that you've extended to other members of our Fabulous Family. Tuesday January 31 is our last day. The new owners don't take over till 2/5, but we will say our goodbyes on Tuesday. Please join us through these last days so we can say thank you - and have some fun, celebrating this Fabuous Family and our 3-year love affair with the Greatest Songs ever written and the greatest listeners ever to tune in to a radio station. I hope you'll join us for our October 12 Reunion Cruise with Holland America Cruise Lines and YMT Vacations. Thank you, and we WILL meet again."

The Farewell to Fabulous Sweetheart Ball that takes place on Sunday February 12, 2006 is sold out.

Last April, Promotora de Informaciones SA (PRISA), based in Spain, has agreed to acquire the U.S. marketing and programming rights to XTRA 690 from Clear Channel Communications in Rosarito, Baja California, for 28 million dollars according to Yahoo Biz.

PRISA's USA unit, GLR Services Inc, reached an agreement with Clear Channel to acquire the rights to broadcast using the 77,000 watt XTRA-AM 690 AM radio station owned by Mexico's XETRA Communicaciones.

GLR Services is mostly Spanish based, so it would be natural them to take the strong Southern California/Northwestern Baja California signal into a Spanish-language talk format.

Clear Channel held the rights to XTRA 690 since 1999 when it purchased Jacor Communications which held the rights to the station. Jacor became operators of XTRA 690 and XETRA-FM 91.1 (91X) when it purchased Noble Broadcasting in 1995.

Clear Channel San Diego transferred the programming to its Los Angeles cluster in 2003 when the company combined XTRA 690 into KXTA 1150 to form a two-station network "XTRA 690/1150" which lasted until February 2005 when Clear Channel Los Angeles moved "XTRA Sports" to KLAC 570, and bumped the "Fabulous" standards format to XTRA 690; at the same time, 1150 became the second home of Air America's programming. XTRA 690 had been long rumored to be the subject of station divesture according to the rumor buzz.

Clear Channel is almost finished divesting the programming rights of the five Mexican-owned radio stations it once operated. In December of last year, Clear Channel closed the deal to sell three of the LMAs to a new San Diego-based operator, Finest City Broadcasting, who took XHITZ 90.3, XTRA-FM 91.1, and XHRM 92.5. Clear Channel is still looking for a buyer to purchase its final LMA to a Mexican-owned radio station, XOCL 99.3, which was flipped from oldies to La Preciosa last September 2005.

The FCC is forcing Clear Channel to divest the number of stations the San Diego-based unit can operate to seven from the peak of 15 it used to run about three years ago. The FCC's latest rules include the number of radio stations the company owns, as well as JSAs, and LMAs in determining market concentration, and 15 was more than twice the number of stations Clear Channel San Diego was allowed to run under the new rules.

In 2004, CCSD simply transffered the ownership of its two Temecula-owned radio stations to its Riverside cluster, and lost its JSA to KSDO 1130 when Chase Radio Partners sold KSDO to Hi-Favor Broadcasting, which took it Spanish as "Radio Nueva Vida" and is now housed in another location, bringing the CCSD station count down to 12. Last April's XTRA 690 sale brings it down to 11. The dealing of the three Mexican FM stations brings it down to eight, but six FMs from one company serving a market is one too many.

As of this time, there is no street buzz regarding who is rumored to take over the LMA of the La Preciosa-programmed radio station on 99.3.

There may be another obstacle in this deal. La Preciosa may not be on 99.3 after its LMA is sold to another broadcaster if the FCC determines that the Clear Channel-owned format of La Preciosa (though programmed locally) on 99.3 would count as a sixth FM run by Clear Channel and would be in violation, so therefore, La Preciosa would have to either be moved to one of Clear Channel's U.S.-based broadcasters, possibly on 95.7 and flip Tony & Kris and the country music format to another broadcaster not owned or run by Clear Channel, or the new operator of 99.3 can run another format not JSA'd, LMA'd, or conceptionally owned by Clear Channel.

The jury is still out on whether the three Finest City Broadcaster radio stations that they purchased the LMA rights to from Clear Channel can co-exist in the same building in another suite as the seven Clear Channel-owned and operated radio stations do at 9660 Granite Ridge Drive. There is no word whether the Justice Department is looking into this housing arrangement as being not quite separate broadcasters in that sense as FM 94/9 has been harping on for months in their on-the-air station ID announcements.

Finest City Broadcasters is on the prowl for more radio stations in the San Diego market to run or manage. Another new local upstart, Broadcast Company of the Americas, operators of Mexican-owned 1090, 1700, and 105.7, is also seeking more radio stations for its portfolio. Is 99.3 a target for these two broadcasters?

Tony and Kris E-mail Message (Jan 28, 2006)

"In 2006, we’re going to work even harder to make a positive difference in your life everyday, and to do that, our goal for the new year is to give away ONE MILLION DOLLARS to our listeners! And to help us achieve this goal, we just need you to listen a little longer every day, and maybe even invite a friend or two to try us out. You can even forward this email on to your friends.

"Thanks again for inviting us into your homes and lives. We’ll continue to bring you more of the $5 concerts that your entire family can enjoy, more fun with your favorite artists on features like "Write a Song Wednesday," more secret flyways to see the biggest country stars, and more prizes to win each weekday. We promise to continue to be your FAMILY radio station in 2006!

"Thank you for all of your support and we look forward to spending time with you again this year!"

Roger's 20th Notes by Jimmy (Jan 28, 2006)

Roger Hedgecock of KOGO 600 thanks a whole bunch of folks for making his 20th Anniversary show a great success.

Roger had his personal family in attendance but everyone who listened on the radio or took time from the day to attend in person are part of this amazing family. And it was proper that we put our deeds on the scale and judged them. Remarkable achievements. Successes achieved because we are not one but many…hundreds of thousands many. With radio and Roger’s broadcast available daily, all of Southern California has the opportunity to sound an alarm, rally troops to civic battle and produce change that benefits community.

Early on, when we started writing this drivel most each day, we referred to Roger’s show as: “This Ain’t Just Talk Radio.” And that remains true. Roger is on the radio and does do a talk radio broadcast. But it is actually a Community Forum. Common ground where this vital, fantastic and energized audience can come together…in times of disaster (in San Diego, around the nation or across the world) mourning, challenge and success. And from this daily meeting comes fund raisers, petition signings, citizen lobby efforts, aid for military families, support of our Warriors in combat, opposition to political and social lunacy and fill in the blank.

This really ain’t radio as it was known 20 years ago. Others have adopted Roger’s activism on the radio. Fortunately his model is now duplicated in big and small markets across the land. Radio hosts in San Francisco, Sacramento, Beaumont, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, Philadelphia, Pa…and more, have abandoned the gimmicks of pure entertainment and devoted their airwaves indeed to the public good. I’m not a broadcast historian, but help me please. Name a radio host prior to Roger who energized community and worked daily for the public good? Programmers loath to allow this…it’s not entertainment..it’s too serious…you can’t urge an audience to work for civic betterment…tell jokes, have strange celebrities on as guests, produce the big names in sports and theatre and flims. Yuck it up. NOPE!!

So this ponder concludes, largely because we’re typing to the choir.

But THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

KOGO deserves much credit for helping us produce a great tribute to Roger’s listeners. First the event cost money. Suits want to count only those beans that come into the coffers. Letting even one bean go out the door causes gastric turmoil. Many beans were spent. Free T-shirts. Free Food. Production of show items. The billboard up on the I-5. Dozens of staffers time. And more.

And great creative skills came into play. Sherry and her staff in marketing and promotions produced colorful boarding tickets, VIP passes, tribute plaques for special listeners, balloons and perhaps most of all coordination with the administration of the USS Midway, caterers, logistics and more. We’ll name these folks individually in days to come but we need to acknowledge up front how much support KOGO gave to this once ever effort.

We have some fun with our suits on a pretty regular basis…but we are in fact ONE TEAM.

Free 91X Hard-FI Show This Sunday (on Jan 29, 2006)

The Subways played a free 91X show for you back in November, and this weekend, it's all about HARD FI. Their great new album, "Stars of CCTV", just went number ONE on the sales charts in England! That's huge!! Bigger than Britney, Madonna and flippin' Kylie Minogue! Sheesh.

So c'mon down to Brick by Brick (1130 Buenos Ave in SD) this Sunday night and check them out for FREE! It's 21+ and first come first served, with doors at 8pm. Local DJ Barry Weaver will be spinning before the show. See you Sunday!!

Loving YOU,

91X

Accurate Radio Ad: DSC on KGB (Jan 28, 2006)

Minutes later, the boss exits the booth. His henchman asks him, "So how did it go, boss?"

The boss replies "he's said he's heard worse."

The henchman tells him "he's said he's heard worse?"

The boss answers that "he says he's heard worse every morning."

Then we cut to a clergyman laughing while listening to KGB and DSC in the morning.

Yup. That's accurate advertising for a morning radio show all right. Make your own conclusion.

Yvonne Karlin off KYXY Nights (Jan 28, 2006)

For who knows how many years, soft music KYXY 96.5 has very much eschewed anything that was syndicated as far as I know. Every time period I suppose was done live. You could count on a live jock to answer the phone and ask them to play a request.

First, sister station Free-FM has gone almost 95 percent syndicated talk. Now KYXY is bumping off Yvonne Karlin after 24 years of hosting the longtime local nightly staple "KYXY Love Songs" in favor of, of all people, John Tesh?

You got to be kidding. John Tesh? That's a smooth jazz icon.

Anyway, FMQB reports that KYXY adds "The John Tesh Radio Show" for nights, Sunday through Friday, from 7 p.m to midnight.

The series begins on Wednesday.

The Wires (Jan 28, 2006)

LA Without Stern = a Market Up For Grabs!

Howard Wants Pirates To Stop Rebeaming His Show

Listeners Praise Localism As Radio's Top Virtue In a new survey, 33% of participants said local traffic and weather information is what they like best about conventional radio, followed by 25% who like the immediate access the medium affords. In the survey — conducted by Roper OmniTel for American Media Services — 37% of respondents listed the number of commercials as their top gripe, followed by 23% who tire of hearing the same programming over and over again. Still, 46% said they are listening to about the same amount of radio that they listened to five years ago, compared to 18% who are listening more and 34% who are listening less. "This survey has reinforced what we have known for several years: that local radio has a unique and unmatched place in the American community," AMS CEO Ed Seeger says. "Other technologies are going to be there to compete, but radio has made some fundamental changes over the past couple of years, and I think the consumer knows that."

From r&r: Delana Bennett, also known as Roxy when she headed Roxy & The Mizfits when it was on XHTZ (Z90)/San Diego, will co-host with Danny Bonaduce when he sits in on afternoon drive next week for Sirius' Howard 100 and 101