No Pay for AM 800/FM 98.9 ESPN Stations in Tijuana (May 19, 2010)

Commentary: AM 800/FM 98.9 (May 19, 2010)

AM 800's relatively low signal is better used for serving the South San Diego and Tijuana areas with a format aimed at the largely Hispanic audience. Putting ESPN Radio on 800 proved to be basically a ratings underperformer as the last thing AM or FM radio needs is another radio station playing a non-music format such as talk or paid programming.

ESPN Radio came on AM 800 in 2002. The only good thing about the station was the ability to catch the play-by-play games of MLB, NFL, College, and other sports. The year before, 2001, Clear Channel bungled up the baseball playoffs by not carrying some of the games that year, forcing me to tune in stations out of the area such as ones in Los Angeles and even Santa Barbara to follow the games.

The problem with ESPN 800 is that the games were the only reason to tune into the station. The talk shows subjects were so limited (as in sports-related) that listeners were few and far between, proving to be a ratings flop.

Putting on some kind of music format like middle-of-the-road/Jimmy Buffet type melodies during the times no games were on would have been something that could be compatable with the sports broadcasts on the same station.

Meanwhile, XHMORE-FM 98.9 was playing the format of Rock en Espanol, which was never much of a ratings winner, but the critical winner was when they played the Rewire dance mix shows on Friday nights, and some random times on Wednesdays during several day parts as "Midweek Rewire".

When it was time for the station to flip the format, XHMORE should have flipped it to a format many computer listeners were listening to: dance/electronica, which became the music format for the Internet Age, and except for the Rewire dance mixes, no other station was playing that kind of music all the time. But the fools at MEC decided on a hip hop format whose music was already heard on Z90 and Channel 933. That format started in 2004, and ended in 2009 when MEC decided to move ESPN Radio to XHMORE and add ESPN Deportes on its AM 800 signal.

Is San Diego the home of the stupidest radio broadcasting company that ever programmed radio? MEC Nutworks, er, I mean MEC Networks gets the honor of being the stupidest, most inept, and even financially bankrupt radio station company I ever witnessed. With low ratings for formats most people don't care about, MEC Networks is broke, the staff quit for non-payment of their salaries, Disney, the owner of ESPN, may rescind the rights for MEC to rebroadcast ESPN Radio networks locally, the company may be shuttered, and the stations go dark.

All because MEC didn't learn from Clear Channel San Diego, where that company replaced Air America with some kind of ratings life, with the revival of XTRA Sports on 1360, which, like the CW revival of Melrose Place (now cancelled), didn't interest anybody and the ratings remain a failure.

During the day while at work and commuting, people want to hear music and innovative talk. They don't care about another right wing wacko or a convicted criminal hosting a radio show. They don't care to listen to endless talk about sports.

How about something listeners might like like a talk station focusing on pop culture, celebrities, gossip, music, movies, television, and musicials? Are people on the Internet listening to stations similar to what I'm describing? If show, let me know what stations they are.

I like to listen to bluegrass, blues, rock-country, the Jimmy Buffet and Grateful Dead channels, and XM 40's Deep Tracks for music. How about programming something like those locally?

I like ipartyradio better than any of the XM dance/electronica channels. XM 83 playing old disco is OK for nostalgia. How about a dance station locally?

91X should play more of the Radio Nigel resurrection oldies during the day and drop the hard-on-my-ears grunge crap.

There you go! Some better ideas the new operators of AM 800 and FM 98.9, if there will be in the future, should consider trying out for the local area.