BULLETIN...BULLETIN... (as of 8pm on Nov 12, 2007)

XTRA Sports 1360 Launches (3pm on Nov 12, 2007)

After a long delayed start, XTRA Sports 1360 finally signed on.

Many bloggers and reporters in the San Diego media kept on differing on what date the format change would happen, but nobody agreed on when the change would take place, but after all is said and done, what was rumored to happen has finally happened.

KLSD AM 1360 has flipped the format to sports talk under their brand "XTRA."

XTRA Sports 1360 http://www.xtrasports1360.com/ signed on with a partial slate of talkers as of Monday with only Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton ready to roll for the 3-7pm afternoon shift on this Veterans Day.

The rest of the lineup premieres today, with Dave Palet and Jeff Dotseth, formerly of the late Free-FM, soon-to-be-late ESPN 800 (at this rate), and KFMB-AM, in the morning drive from 6am-10am.

“I'm fired up,” Hamilton said to Jay Posner in Friday's Sports Media article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It should have never, ever happened and now we're back. We invented it and we're taking it back.”

Unlike XTRA Sports 690, the old home for Hacksaw where he spent about 15 years since the inception of the XTRA Sports brand in Southern California, his voice won't boom up and down the West Coast with just a 5,000 watt stick that is basically limited to San Diego county. XETRA 690, the actual call letters for the Rosarito station, booms up and down the coast at 77,000 daytime watts broadcasting Spanish language programming.

Rumors of the format switch began in the summer, but discussions were under way long before that, according to Posner.

When Clear Channel combined the two XTRA Sports branded stations into one in January of 2003 as XTRA Sports 690/1150 (the latter is owned and operated by CC), the leftover sports talkers were left without jobs until John Lynch's new company Broadcast Company of the Americas secured programming rights to XEPRS 1090, a 50,000 watter from Tijuana, to create a new locally-originated sports talk station then called "The Mighty 1090" (TJ's 690 also used "The Mighty" handle during its top 40 days in the early 80s) and hired the leftover talkers that didn't make the cut for XTRA Sports 690/1150.

Two years later, Clear Channel moved the nostalgia format called "Fabulous" from KLAC 570 in Los Angeles to the 690 signal, where it would disappear under new operators in a forced divesture of the rights to the station by the new FCC rules. "XTRA"'s brand moved to the 570 signal, and for a while, Clear Channel marketed the KLAC signal on San Diego's billboards. Meanwhile, BCA was building up their sports talk station, adding the San Diego Padres play-by-play broadcasts in 2004, and becoming the dominant local sports talker in town. ESPN Radio 800, despite having Dave and Jeff in the afternoons for a year, never made a dent in the ratings due to its subpar signal into metro San Diego.

The XTRA Sports 1360 format is expected to get the advertising revenue that the previous format didn't deliver. Unlike Air America and ESPN Radio, XTRA Sports will be live and local from 6am until 7pm, starting from 6-10 a.m. with Dave Palet and Jeff Dotseth. Then from 10 a.m. to noon it's Josh Rosenberg and a rotating cast of Union-Tribune sports writers and columnists. (The U-T has a business arrangement with Clear Channel for those two hours.) Then from Noon to 3 p.m. is Chris Ello, followed by from 3-7 p.m. with Hamilton.

Then from 7 p.m. to midnight, Fox Sports Radio takes over the station. JT The Brick's show airs from 7-11 p.m., followed by Jorge Sedano until 3 a.m. and Steve Czaban until 6. According to Posner, "XTRA Sports 1360 won't have access to Fox programming between midnight and 5 a.m. until Dec. 6 because of a previous contract with XX Sports Radio. Program director Brian Wilson said he would air mostly replays of local shows during those hours for the first four weeks."

The San Diego State Aztecs football and basketball games air on KOGO 600, and the Chargers air on Rock 105.3 FM. There are currently no plans to move any of the games to 1360, nor are there any immediate plans to add new play-by-play broadcasts in the near future.

In a posting on SignOnSanDiego.com, Bob Bolinger, VP and market manager, answers the obvious question of why go back: "I think there's always room for another great restaurant, no matter whether there's one in town or 10 in town," adding, "I think we found this in numerous formats over the years -- that often when you launch a new station in an arena where there's already a station in that format, you expand the format."

All of that rallying to save Air America in San Diego proved to be naught as the low ratings for the San Diego affilliate of Air America prove that a format change was needed. There are no plans to move the programming on any of the digital HD3 channels run on Clear Channel's stations, and no AM or FM station spoke up about picking up the programming in part or whole from Air America.

Progressive Talk Website Moves to a Blogspot (3pm on Nov 12, 2007)

From Cliff:

"Welcome to the San Diego Progressive Talk blog. This is going to be a place where former KLSD listeners can come to share their thoughts, their desires and their hopes for progressive talk in San Diego. Effective Monday Nov. 12th at 3 p.m., KLSD-AM switched to XTRA Sports 1360 AM. This was a business decision based on the fact that while we were able to survive for four years since the launch of Progressive Talk AM 1360 KLSD, we have been unable to make it a financial success so that we could continue the format. Sports talk radio attracts more traditional radio advertisers than progressive talk.

"We do thank you for your support over the last four years so that we could keep San Diego's progressive talk voice alive during that time on KLSD. You have been a part of clearly the most loyal audience of any radio station in our community.

"While the format has had some challenges being financially successful, the progressive voice will not go away in our community. It will exist in other forms, from the individual voices of our listeners and believers in the progressive cause, to some of our talk show hosts who will continue to be heard in San Diego on traditional radio, around the world on satellite radio, Internet radio and high-tech wireless.

"And remember, your support of KLSD and the efforts of our talk show hosts and all those responsible for our format over the last four years, have not been in vain. Anything but. You can take heart in the fact that we all have been able during these last four years to bring to life the progressive voice in San Diego that had been far too dormant in the years before. You and our talk hosts have made a difference in San Diego. And we thank you."