HD Gets Power Boost (Jan 30, 2010)

This ruling heralds the most significant improvement in terrestrial radio broadcasting in the U.S. since FM stereo.

See: "http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296079A1.pdf"

NEWS Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D. C. 20554

In 2002, the Commission adopted the in-band on-channel digital audio broadcasting system developed by iBiquity Digital Corporation (ôiBiquityö) as the de facto standard for FM station digital operations. Stations are currently permitted to transmit digitally at one percent of analog power. In June 2008, iBiquity, 18 group owners of 1200 radio stations and four major radio equipment manufacturers requested that the Commission increase digital power levels by 10 dB, i.e., to ten percent of analog power levels. Both iBiquity and National Public Radio have submitted detailed studies assessing the potential for improved digital service and increased interference to analog reception.

The Bureau Order will:

+ Permit most FM stations to immediately increase digital power by 6 dB, a four-fold power increase;

+ Limit power increases for stations currently licensed in excess of class maximums, i.e., ôsuper-poweredö stations, to protect analog radio service from interference;

+ Establish application procedures for power increases up to 10 dB;

+ Establish interference remediation procedures that require the Media Bureau to resolve each bona fide dispute or impose tiered power reductions within 90 days; and

+ Reserve the right to revisit the issue of digital power levels if significant interference results to analog reception.

San Diego Radio Twitterings (Jan 30, 2010)

kgtv... Local Toyota Owners File Suit Over Recall: Toyota said it is close to a solution for millions of vehicles recalled... http://bit.ly/9uIr56

chriscantore... at the casbah shooting @transferband with @sounddiegoblog. http://twitpic.com/10f8du

kson973... Thank you San Diego for become a partner in hope. Our final total is $112,970!!! http://bit.ly/bRHvD7

kson973... Our 22nd Annual Radiothon for St. Jude was a success because of you San Diego http://bit.ly/c9nANp

10News... SDG&E Customers Unhappy With Smart Meter Installations: San Diego Gas and Electric is installing 1.4 million smart... http://bit.ly/cNj8MM

tommysablan... Hey, please do not tweet and drive! Put the phone down! Yeah, you!

91Xmorningshow... Dr. Drew told Carlos the effects of pot are mostly reversible. Smoke on, brothas

nbcsandiego... Happy Birthday @AdamLambert

RogerHedgecock... Haiku Time: Obama Meets the GOP the GOP Meets with Obama, America Loses

tommysablan... When you pronounce February, you kind of sound drunk

91Xmorningshow... The iPhone has died. I will have to mock people using only words instead of letting the pics speak for themselves.

CBS8... Arrests made in string of Santee home burglaries. If you were a victim or know the suspects email yourstories@kfmb.com. http://bit.ly/b4Ej4r

marklarsonradio... So Bin Ladin wants to boycott the US because we cause global warming.. as if that matters in his cave..

marklarsonradio... and the climategate "scientists" with the cooked numbers and emails may get off the hook due to a legal loophole... whatta day so far!

fox5sandiego... Yes, Paul Bloom anchoring our morning show today --- are you watching?

MikeyShowMikey... I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. All the cool posts. I feel so awward smiling but it's all I could do... http://bit.ly/dpEeg2

SDRadio... San Diego Airwaves Missing: Jeff and Jer Showgram Day 162 | Mikey Esparza Day 43 | DSC Day 26 | Halloran Day 26

Radio Survey Fall 2009 (Jan 30, 2010)

1. XX Sports 1090
2. 94/9
3. 91X
4. Walrus 105.7
5. KPRI-FM
6. Jack-FM
7. Magic 92.5
8. dfsxradio.com
9. ipartyradio.com
10. ESPN Radio 98.9

The Wires (Jan 30, 2010)

Jay Posner: Jim Nantz says buy, buy, buy during golfÆs Tiger recession

HD Radio: In a move that will allow HD Radio stations to increase their power, the FCCÆs Media Bureau adopted an order that permits FM radio stations to voluntarily increase digital power levels up to ten percent of analog power levels and establishes interference mitigation and remediation procedures to promptly resolve complaints of interference to analog stations

Inside Music Media: RadioÆs Dirty Little Secrets - Have you noticed how Clear Channel is going from market to market to either eliminate or cutback expenses on local morning shows? This has been going on under the radar for several months now while President John Hogan is engaging a willing press in the thought they he could be Howard SternÆs next employer. The Stern stuff is all fantasy made up by Hogan.

Mel Phillips: The Local Community Radio Act received unanimous bipartisan support in the House of Representatives on December 16th but since has been stuck in the Senate growing cobwebs. This is the bill that would give power to the people, well, low power anyway

Hear 2.0: What the iPad means for radio -- really: "There is no such thing as radio anymore," said Tom Asacker. There's no such thing as radio or TV or newspaper or magazines or even ad agencies. There is only media. And all media is now in competition with all other media because the firm lines once separating audio from video from print are no more

The Wires (Jan 29, 2010)

Inside Music Media: Radio adapted by changing its focus to music formats, news, talk and succeeded with a local focus. But when the world changed two things happened. The Internet came along and so did consolidators. And consolidators danced to the tunes of Wall Street while just about sitting the Internet revolution out (no major broadcast company spends even 3% of their operating budget on things digital). Now the mobile Internet is here and will use the next decade to set a new standard of delivery and content. On-demand has arrived. Wake-up!

John Maffei TV Sports: TUBE TALK: List of top football broadcasters misses mark on many picks

91X, 92.5, and Z90 Now On the Move (Jan 28, 2010)

Greetings 91X Friends and Family,

I'm writing to you today not as "Capone" the eccentric afternoon guy, but rather Garrett Capone, 91X's Program Director.

In case you haven't heard by now, we are moving! Earlier this month a fine local businessman named John Lynch (91X's original owner when we signed on in January of 1983) and his new startup company purchased our very special radio station. So after almost a decade here on Granite Ridge Drive in Mission Valley, 91X - along with our sister stations Z90 and Magic 92.5 - are heading up the 805 to Mira Mesa. Here...

6160 70 Cornerstone Ct. East, San Diego, CA 92121

...is a map of our new offices on Cornerstone Court. All prizes can be picked up there from now on. We will also have a few new members of our extended family - XX1090 Sports and 105.7 The Walrus. That means access to Padres tickets and the entire Beatles catalog. NICE.

As you probably know from personal experience, moving is a BITCH. And since we have to be out of our current digs by Sunday night, I decided to give all of the DJ's the rest of the week off. Not to screw around like they usually do - no, they will actually be helping pack and move all of the junk, er, belongings, that we've accumulated over the years. That means interns in the studio, so please keep in mind that there might be a few issues over the course of the week. I'll do my best to keep the problems to a minimum, but good help is SO hard to find.

So that means "Catching Up With 91X Morning Show" Thursday and Friday of this week. Don't worry, we will still be unloading 3-day passes for Coachella every hour from 6-10am both days.

When we come back live on Monday, The 91X Morning Show will be introducing a very cool new feature. It's called Mat Diablo's Resurrection Daily, where Mat will play a classic 91X song each day at 6:40am. These songs will be stuff you'd normally hear on Resurrection Sunday. Which, conveniently, is also hosted by Mat Diablo and airs every Sunday from 6-10am. So that's a course in 91X musical history every Sunday, and now a lesson every weekday. Not bad, right? Best part is, no homework or tests! They'll also announce our NEXT "Next Big Thing" $.91 show at 7:25am on Monday. Prepare yourself as well for a full Grammy recap, as Mat and Carlos will be up in LA for this weekend's Grammy shenanigans.

Other than that, it's business as usual here at 91X. Right now is a weird time on the San Diego airwaves, with lots of change happening all over. Just know that we are still here for you, still independently owned (since November 2005, baby!), and still committed to bringing you the all the best music we can get our grubby paws on!

If you have any questions, concerns...maybe a good place to grab a beer near Mira Mesa Blvd, don't hesitate to email me at capone@91x.com. Other than that, have a great weekend and thanks for making 91X part of your day. We couldn't do it without you - no seriously, we'd all be out of jobs if you didn't listen. So thanks.

Hugs,

cap1

KFMB Gets Wild Bertinelli Feed on Saturday Morning Sched (Jan 28, 1978)

It was January 28, 1978. From 12:30pm-1pm, CBS affilliate KFMB aired Space Academy as normally scheduled. But a weird thing happened at about 12:40pm. Some kind of wild feed began to creep in and there were horizontal bars coming in brighter with a high pitched squeal until a minute or two later when the CBS feed was switched to an advance wild feed of a CBS prime time program, One Day at a Time, and part of the scene featured Valerie Bertinelli, a male roomate, and some kind of blanket being placed perpendicularly on top of a queen or king size bed in a motel room. I'm not kidding about this. After another minute, KFMB's engineers cut it off and put on some kind of public affairs kid message until they got the regular CBS feed back on track, then continued with Space Academy.

Needless to say, that was really wild.

I don't know how or why I remember that one well. If it was something like some other low-rated sitcom that was sneaking into the regular network feed, I don't think I would have remembered it as much as I did, but Valerie Bertinelli at an unscheduled time? I couldn't say back then that it was the beginning, unintentionally, of more media hogging by her to come in many later years, especially since 2007.

The Wires (Jan 28, 2010)

PC World: Apple iPad: First Impressions by PCWorld and Macworld

LA Times: Air America went out of business last week and I'm ready to accept the significance of the radio network's demise -- the inevitable marginalization of those who support big government, illegal immigration and the homosexual agenda. Yet the Drudge Report has been dropping further behind the Huffington Post, the conservative aggregator attracting well under half the liberal website's audience

Inside Music Media: Steve Jobs has gotten millions of dollars worth of free publicity from a product that consumers have imagined. Apple has had help from the media but not since the introduction of the iPhone have consumers been so spellbound. I have seen some estimate that Jobs has already garnered $40 million worth of free publicity. Wow! Of course the radio industry should be taking this product introduction very seriously because what Apple does from now on will absolutely either drive a nail through terrestrial radio or give it new life after an extensive reinvention

George Johns: From George Johns -- How long do you think the FCC is going to tolerate the nationalization of local radio? + If you can figure out how to get your listeners to listen to your station for an extra day a week, you'll blow the ratings apart + Back in the fifties, young adults had money for the first time in history and became a commodity called teens. They instantly invented Elvis, I wonder what they are inventing right now?

Randy Dotinga: Rock stars to radio: You chill me

Didja Hear? (Jan 27, 2010)

Z90, 91X, and Magic 92.5 will be broadcasting from the BCA studios as of Wednesday (today). BCA took over the programing and management of Finest City Broadcasting's three stations named. They will join the other three stations BCA manages in Sorrento Valley: Sports XEPRS (1090 XX SPORTS RADIO), Classic Hits XHPRS (1057 THE WALRUS) and Talker XEPE-A (1700), all owned and licensed by Mexican business companies.

Local Media of America (LMA), an affiliate of private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC, acquired San Diego-based Finest City Broadcasting earilier this month. The transaction was completed in partnership with The Broadcast Company of the Americas (BCA), which operates three other stations in that market. LMA earlier had purchased the debt of Finest City Broadcasting and acquired the company and its assets through a foreclosure sale.

Z90, 91X, and Magic 92.5 were broadcasting from studios inside the building on Granite Ridge Drive that was shared by Clear Channel San Diego up until yesterday when the moving out was complete. When Clear Channel was forced by the FCC to divest the excess number of stations it managed, which counts toward the maximum of eight (including one from Los Angeles), construction crews split the building in half so that the FCB studios and office would be housed separately as a new suite "B", which you entered from the read of the building in the Northwestern corner.

For a while, competetor 94/9 ran hourly IDs that said "absolutely, postively, not owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications; we won't even be seen in the same building with them." It obviously referred to the three studios and office that FCB housed. The three former FCB studios and office moving out of the same building as Clear Channel effectively elmininates one of 94/9's attacks on 91X.

The Wires (Jan 27, 2010)

George Johns: How long do you think the FCC is going to tolerate the nationalization of local radio? + If you can figure out how to get your listeners to listen to your station for an extra day a week, you'll blow the ratings apart + Back in the fifties, young adults had money for the first time in history and became a commodity called teens. They instantly invented Elvis, I wonder what they are inventing right now?

NY Daily News: Howard Stern may have no choice but to clean up his act if he leaves Sirius Satellite Radio when his contract expires. Clear Channel would be a top contender for hiring him

Inside Music Media: So (Howard) SternÆs $500 million Sirius XM contract is up this year and you know what that means? Stern threatens to leave the satellite network that made him and Rush Limbaugh rich. And then deny interest in being censored on terrestrial radio. ItÆs pure theater of the mind or pure mindf#@k. All that threatening makes good programming. In fact, it makes good comedy. But the funniest thing IÆve heard is that Clear Channel may want Howard Stern

Mel Phillips: Whether or not Howard Stern decides to leave his Sirius XM, FCC-free plastic bubble and return to terrestrial radio or not, will be determined by Howard Stern, who holds all the cards. When his contract ends at Sirius XM, he will either be enticed by another fabulous mega-million dollar pact or go back to terrestrial radio where he would be welcome with open arms by Clear Channel CEO John Hogan

Live Nation and Ticketmaster Complete Merger

The Wires (Jan 26, 2010)

FMQB: Live Nation and Ticketmaster Become One

Harris Poll: Oprah Winfrey is America's favorite television personality, up from No. 4 last year. Brand new to the list and debuting at number 2 is Fox News' personality, Glenn Beck, while last year's number one, Jay Leno drops to number three

New York Daily News: Howard Stern may have no choice but to clean up his act if he leaves Sirius Satellite Radio when his contract expires. Clear Channel would be a top contender for hiring him. All Access reports that Stern dismissed any return to terrestrial radio. During the talk, STERN admitted that he has been contacted by terrestrial radio parties, but has no "bona fide" offer yet.

Gorman Media: Air America had the wind sucked out of its sails when it chose to be a network instead of a syndicator of talk programming. It was undercapitalized, overstaffed, and mismanaged