Worst San Diego Radio Decisions (Apr 10, 2010)

Some were decisions for the better, but more interesting, some were for the worse.

Take Jim McInnes, formerly of KGB-FM. Was doing well in the afternoons. Then TPTB fired him and was replaced by Mojo Nixon, who might have made a bigger impact on afternoons if he was allowed to play funny songs every once in a while such as Loudon Wainwright III's "Dead Skunk" song. After JM got fired, he worked for a year or two on 103.7 The Planet before the station dropped music in favor of FM Talk in late 2005. JM has since resurfaced on KFMB-AM and FM doing traffic reports in the PM. All in all, IMHO, it was the worst deejay firing in San Diego radio history.

Another deejay firing that was questionable, meaning that the deejays were likable but probably not delivering what radio wanted, were longtime music director and programmer Mike Halloran, who was let go from FM 94/9 at the beginning of the year. 94/9's decision to hire the unlistenable Mikey in the mornings have been a boost to its ratings, but I avoid 94/9 all morning long and for most of the day and moved 91X to the #1 button on the FM1 band for the first time since 2002. With the ratings Mikey has been delivering to 94/9, wouldn't it make sense to retain Halloran?

Even today, I still question 91X firing longtime alternative rock deejay Steve West a few years ago, and its Sunday morning Resurrection feature just isn't the same without him hosting the show. He's running his own streaming radio station radionigel.com

Chris Cantore was canned from 91X two years ago for not delivering the ratings the station wanted. He's been running his own website chriscantore.com for podcasts and other projects.

Some of the programming decisions by radio stations proved to be disastorous. Anyone remember KS-103 from the mid 80s? I don't know why Crazy Dave Otto left mornings, but none of his successors could do the job to keep the top 40 format afloat while its music mix and imaging grew stale and bland compared to upstart Q106, and was gone in September 1987.

The waning days of B100 in 1993-94 after Jeff and Jer left for Q106 proved to be very much deadly for its A/C format. Likewise for the death of Q106 when in 1997 Jeff and Jer moved to Star 100.7 and the Q format fell to Spanish Inquisitors in August of 1998. Neither station had a morning show to prop up the rest of the dayparts' ratings. Jeff and Jer have since moved to Star 94.1 after Star flipped to Jack in 2005. Now Jeff and Jer are gone due to a contract negotitation standoff, but Star 94.1 has the last laugh for now as they imported A.J. from sister 93.3 to its morning shift, and saw its ratings rise.

KGB-FM survived for a very long time in San Diego where since about 1982, it lost a morning show The Hergon Breakfast Club replaced, then Berger and Prescott replaced it when Hergon departed, then Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw in April 1990 after B&P moved to 91X, then a team I can't remember when the DSC moved to Rock 102.1, then DSC back on KGB from Rock 105.3 in 1997, and now in 2010, no official morning show host. Can it survive this time around without the DSC? KGB and the DSC could not come to an agreement on a contract early in the year and were no longer part of the station. Has KGB given up on the DSC?

91X is doing what it can since firing longtime morning host Chris Cantore. It's struggling in the mornings against Mikey on competetor 94/9. In 1995-97, it had what was probably the most popular morning show, the syndicated Howard Stern show, which moved to Rock 105.3 in 1997. What can 91X do to get its morning ratings back up?

No word on how well 105.3 is doing in the mornings since Mikey departed to 94/9 while the rest of the crew remain at 105.3.

We had some format blunders in San Diego over the past 40 years.

In 2004, 98.9 canned its unpopular rock en espaņol format in favor of a hip hop format, a format that already existed on Z90. What it should have done is to use its Rewire pop dance mix feature it ran during its More-FM days, and program Rewire 24/7. That would have helped its ratings and to keep the folks from settling for the Internet to listen to continuous dance mix radio stations.

In 2009, ESPN Radio moved to 98.9. Not a good call either.

Since dropping easy listening in about 1980, 102.9 went through many formats. It tired A/C, but in 1983, flipped to KS-103 top 40 and had Crazy Dave Otto in the mornings. Its format knocked the Mighty 690 out of the top 40 business, but KS's top 40 format began to lose ratings after Otto left. Randy Miller proved to be a disaster in the mornings. The imaging began to sound robotic with so many taped sweepers. In 1987, Q106 playing CHR was launched and knocked 102.9 into a new age format, which was quickly dealt with by KIFM smooth jazz as it too added some new age selections into its format. KS-103 should have overhauled its top 40 format, simulcasted popular Rick Dees in the morning from sister KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, dropped the A/C ballads, canned the stale sweepers, added live deejays, and start doing weekend mix shows.

In 1989, 102.9 flipped to classic rock for five years. It imported Mark and Brian in the mornings; they originate from KLOS in Los Angeles. It just couldn't compete with KGB after KGB flipped to classic rock in late 1990.

In 1994, 102.9 FM canned its classic rock format because KGB kept beating it and adopted a 70's decade oldies format. It lasted just over a year and was gone by 1996. A decade weekend or a weekly decade show would have sufficed, but the repetetion grew old fast.

In 1996, it flipped to A/C, but was moved to 94.1 after Heftel bought 102.9 and took it Spanish.

106.5 made many bad programming decisions prior to its Q106 days. In January 1983 when 91X reformatted into alternative rock, and saw KPRI 106.5's ratings began to tank, KPRI began playing some alternative rock songs into its progressive rock mix, which didn't mesh well together. Meanwhile, KGB-FM left its progressive rock format alone. In early 1984, KPRI was replaced by A/C, but lasted just over two years. In 1986, it tried classic rock, but went nowhere. In March of 1987, it changed to Q106 playing CHR, and had a long run until 1998 when Jacor dealt it to Heftel, who took it Spanish.

In 1999, 91.7 changed to A/C, but wasn't given a chance, and was gone in early 2000.

In 1998, AM 1240 adopted the Radio Disney format, which didn't help the station's ratings. Disney should have been on FM where it would have done better.

In July of 1993, 105.3 changed from 60s and 70s oldies to rock and pop oldies of the 70s and 80s. That lasted just over two years and almost drove owner Compass into bankruptcy with its expensive cash giveaway contests that didn't help the ratings in the long run. It gave up KCBQ-AM in a sale to Par and swapped 105.3 for Par's harder to pick-up 102.1 from Oceanside. Nowadays, Compass is back in the San Diego metro as its 102.1 transmitter migrated South to La Jolla.

AM 1360 dropped Boss Radio in early 1972 after losing its top 40 battle with KCBQ-AM. It played mellow rock until October 1979 when it flipped to 13K playing top 40 and a mix of some new wave rock hits. It died in March of 1982 after upstart top 40 Mighty 690 beat it in the ratings; KGB flipped to KCNN relaying the audio of the CNN Headline News channel, which proved to be probably the worst format decision ever in San Diego, and was replaced by nostalgia KPOP, which lasted a good run until Clear Channel decided to change it to Air America talk format in August of 2004. Worse yet, it adopted the call letters KLSD, suggesting that the call letters may have been influenced by the memory of Timothy Leary. It was replaced by sports in 2007 to no fanfare and has been strugging with subpar ratings since. Another bad programming mistake for what used to be KGB-AM, a heritage AM station.

In 1995 when a/c 103.7 was purchased by the owners of competetor KYXY, it changed to 70s and early 80s classic rock, which bombed, then flipped to classic rock in 1996, but was never able to beat KGB-FM's classic rock format during its entire existance. It should have flipped to progressive rock in 1995.

In October of 2005, it changed to FM Talk, which would have lasted longer if Howard Stern didn't fly the coop to Sirius after his contract ended in December of that year. Adam Carolla couldn't match the Stern ratings, and most of its entire dayparts struggled except for the 3-7pm shift manned by Tom Leykis. The weekend ratings were dismal with brokered programming nobody wanted to listen to. The format was a good idea, but there just wasn't enough strong talkers to make it a success. In June of 2007, it changed to Hot A/C Sophie to low ratings after it stunted for two hours with an oldies format, which was adopted in April of 2008 on 105.7 to big success.

In 1995, KKOS was doing and sounding fine prior to its transmitter and frequency move from 95.9 in Carlsbad to 95.7 in La Jolla. Too bad the late inept programmer Sherman Cohen screwed up its AAA format and its programming and made it unlistenable. In late 1995, KCBQ-FM 105.3 adopted the Sets AAA format and helped put an end to KUPR 95.7's ill-fated short-lived replacement for KKOS's more successful AAA format. 95.7 changed to country for just three months before changing to R&B oldies in February of 1997, which moved to 92.5 in September of 1998 in a radio station buying move. 95.7 has been to Hot A/C, 80's (for one year), A/C oldies, and oldies before becoming country (in a format move from 99.3) in early 2005.

After new owners of 94.1 changed its longtime classical format to classic rock, it changed to A/C and A/C oldies under another set of new owners before settling for Hot A/C in early 2002.

In 1985, 94.9 FM changed from oldies to A/C after XTRA Gold 690 beat them with its then one-year old oldies format. 94.9 changed calls, monikers, and format variations three more times before settling for oldies in 1992; it was the first station in town to hire Jeff and Jer in 1989. In 2000, it dumped its longtime oldies format for a two-year all 80s format. In 2002, it switched to its more successful alternative rock format.

Sometimes, new formats, deejay changes, and programming decisions sound good on paper, but when they become reality, it's a shocker to realize that they have been mistakes that could have been avoided.