San Diego 1995 in Review (January 1, 1996)

I have a variety of thoughts about the San Diego/TJ radio market in the past year of 1995. What's right about it. What's wrong. What's missing. What's unneeded. Also included are selected major LA stations.

AM

540 - XHTIM Tijuana - News originating from Orange County. Good idea to simulcast the same programming on BOTH the Tijuana station and the Hesperia transmitter on 540, plus the 1260 frequency in San Fernando valley. BUT: 540 in TJ does dark at night and I cannot get either the 540 or the 1260 frequencies from up North at any time. Instead, I get a strong 540 from somewhere deep south in Mexico. Couldn't we have this station on 24 hours a day down in San Diego/TJ?

600 - KOGO San Diego - Talk - I like the concept of talk radio, but most of the talkers that are not working could be replaced with newscasts, other talkers, or more sports programming.

640 - KFI Los Angeles - Talk - still a winning lineup making a dent locally in ratings

670 - KWNK Simi Valley - Sports - now on its own and no longer an XTRA relay, KWNK intends to become the second all-sports station (the second since the demise of KMPC) originating from LA. The more, the merrier.

690 - XTRA "From Baja To The Canadian Rockies" as they call it though I doubt it you can get any trace of it in Canada in midday. Their sports talk shows are entertaining and its sportscasts and literally jam packed. They should look into broadcasting some of the overflow games on another AM outlet so its fans can be able to follow them.

710 - KMPC Los Angeles - Talk - good signal. entertaining lineup. where's the ratings?

760 - KFMB San Diego - Talk/News - full of personalities to entertain you. It could use more sportscasts though, especially from XTRA's overflow farm.

790 - KABC Los Angeles - Talk - the owners of 710/790 should look into strengthening the lineup on 710 with some of 790's programs. Fix the problem of interrupting Tom Leykis's afternoon program with baseball bumping it off the air and put the rest of it on 790, for example.

910 - KECR - El Cajon, 1210 - KPRZ - San Marcos/San Diego, 740 - KBRT - Los Angeles, and 107.9 - KWVE - San Clemente - religion. Need more?

950 - XEK Tijuana - Mexican - Noble Broadcasting should look into getting this strong signal for broadcasting its overflow sports programming there. All the second choices and a few first choice events could go there.

1000 - KCEO - Vista - Business news and talk - strong enough during the day, but disappears in the night. I can get a Seattle station there instead of KCEO at night.

1070 - KNX Los Angeles - News - though it's aimed at LA and no all-news San Diego station exists, this will do for national, LA, and sports.

1130 - KSDO San Diego - Talk - could use more newscasts in the afternoon and evening. We should have at least one station doing all-news from 3-7pm, NOON-1 and 6-9am during drivetime and lunchtime somewhere here aimed at San Diego. Rush rules in the 9am-NOON and Roger Hedgecock in the early PM.

1170 - KCBQ San Diego - oldies - in 1996, it will become a simulcast of Jef and Jer on the other "Q" station (Q106). In my opinion, it should look into an original program lineup after Jef and Jer ends at 10am. They could do news on the hour with talk or adult pop/rock music of the 70s-90s and sports programming at night not heard on 600, 690, or 760.

1240 - KSDO San Diego - country - this 1000-watter has been that way since I first got a radio back in the late 60s. I don't know why it doesn't do an different country angle than on its sister simulcast on 97.3, but if it ain't broke...

1320 - KKLQ - Oceanside - currently a Q106 simulcast - its very weak signal and close proximity with TJ's 1310 is keeping it from success. If Palomar College can't use it, what would it become?

1360 - K-POP San Diego and 1450 KSPA Escondido - nostalgic pop - do we really need TWO of these here?

FM

88.3 KSDS San Diego - Traditional Jazz - since XETV channel 6 nearby (at 87.75 audio) is keeping this station from boosting its power citing interference reasons, I'd like to see 88.3 swap channels with Mexico's 88.7 so it would be able to boost its power for better coverage. The 88.3 could go to Ensenada or Mexicali.

89.5 KPBS San Diego - Public radio - if they don't do it, who will?

90.3 Jammin' Z-90 - TJ/SD - R&B/Dance/Rap - very successful format, but we could use an alternative when they play sleepy slow jams or monotonous rap stories.

91.1 91X - TJ/SD - modern rock on the hard side - the plus side: they got Howard Stern and Loveline. the minus side - it erased the likes of Erasure and other modern dance-rock off its playlist and leaving the playlist soulding like Nirvana and Sound Garden and Nine Inch Nails. Haven't tuned in for longer than 3 seconds at a time per day just scanning past it.

92.1 KOWF - Escondido - country - there's room in San Diego for two country music stations and I'd like to see someone program one that reaches the southern part of San Diego county.

92.3 KKBT The Beat - Los Angeles - R&B/Rap/Slow jam music since 1989 (it was classical until then) and has established itself as the Beat of LA challenging Power 106 (see below). In San Diego, this and the above and below stations often interfere with each other, especially in the North County where it's more on an even field signal wise.

92.5 XHRM The Flash - TJ/SD - modern rock - this used to be a long-time R&B music station until 1993 when it switched over to modern rock. As a regular listener, the playlist is more in line with what I like with a mix of today's modern rock without the Nirvana soundalikes mixed in with the 70s-80s-90s new wave/modern rock songs of the past. Check out the Flash Zone Saturdays at 10pm-2am for a flavor of dance modern rock that used to be a staple of 91X in the 80s. Bryan Jones plays his rarities Sundays at 8pm and Dr. Demento moved his offices to a stronger signal Sundays at 11pm.

93.1 Arrow 93 - Los Angeles - All Rock and Roll Oldies - now the only one of its kind since KLSX 97.1 switched to Real Radio with talk following Howard Stern with lame talkers like Kato Kaelin and other forgettable talkers other than Susan Olsen.

93.3 the station formerly known as KECR - it's now simulcasting an easy listening station from Florida and intends to format a top 40 station. IMHO: they should consider country instead aimed at southern San Diego county. We really don't need another top 40 station here with Q106 and Star 100.7 fighting each other off.

94.1 KFSD - San Diego - classical - I don't see this station changing formats or owners anytime before the end of the century.

94.9 K-Best 95 - San Diego and 101.1 K-Earth 101 - Los Angeles - oldies - The only ones locally airing hits from the 50s-early 70s.

95.5 KLOS - Los Angeles - rock and roll - it has Mark and Brian, today's rock and roll, and that's all I know. I never tune in nowadays.

95.7 KUPR - San Diego - adult progressive rock - FINALLY! somebody has programmed a classic rock station that plays NEW classic rock mixed in with the past and present modern rock hits. Classic rock is a genre, not a period piece (see below for more)

96.5 KYXY - San Diego - adult contemporary - currently, the top station locally. It could use some competition. The new owners of 102.1 should look into programming adult comtemporary of the 70s-80s-90s-today and aim it in the North County area, not try to aim it for all of San Diego county as its transmitter is too weak to cover points south of Miramar.

97.3 KSON - San Diego - country - still ropin' in the listeners here unchallenged.

98.1 KiFM - San Diego - modern jazz - a unique mix not heard anywhere else. 94.7 KTWV The Wave - Los Angeles offers a similar new age/jazz mix.

98.9 XHMORE - TJ or Rosarita? - modern rock with Spanish DJs and ads - it has a unique mix of music not programmed here. On weekends, check out the Rewired With Dano for R&B/pop/modern rock dance mixes reminiscent of the way the old Power 106 used to do it.

99.3 XHKY - X99 - Tijuana and 97.9 KLAX - Los Angeles - Ranchero Music.

100.1 KBNN? - Christian pop music - The other adult pop format they tried until September didn't segueue together at all. Couldn't KSDS simulcast their jazz here instead?

100.7 KFMB Star 100.7 - San Diego - top 40/modern rock mix. It is making a prescence known here. It has Dave Smiley in the AM and the Love Doctor at night. The modern rock mix now sounds like The Flash and over 75% of the song playlists seem to overlap.

101.5 KGB, 103.7 KMKX, and 105.3 KCBQ - San Diego - rock and roll oldies of varying degress. Do we really need THREE, count'em, THREE classic oldies rock stations in one market? Rememer that the former KCLX 102.9 aborted its classic rock format for 70s last year (see below) and 103.7 wasted a golden opportunity to program a classic rock station with NEW classic rock and instead sounds like the old KCLX. 103.7's format is due for either a modification to include NEW rock and roll, or a format switch overall, and 105.3 WILL be the new home for Rock 102.1 once the FCC approves of the Par/Compass swap. Where will Shotgun Tom go? How about The Flash Zone (B-b-b-b-b-yahhh! Shotgun Tom on 92.5 The Flash!) KGB can own the rock and roll oldies by itself as does 93.1 in LA (see above)

102.1 KIOZ Oceanside - Rock and Roll - This is the successful format that 103.7 and 102.9 SHOULD have tried programming so that hard rockers south of Miramar can then be able to enjoy an alternative to the oldies-only zone KGB is trapped in, but instead, KIOZ will own all the San Diego hard rock audience once they move and become Rock 105.3. As for the call-letters? KIOZ? What does it mean? The "IOZ" looks like "102" but that's all I can think of. How about resurrecting the old KPRI calls on 105.3? Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw are popular there in the mornings despite the weak signal.

102.7 KIIS - Los Angeles - top 40 - Rick Dees, Ellen, and a hip mix of today's pop keeps it alive.

102.9 KKBH - The Beach - 70s music - let's face it, this uneven mix of bubblegum pop, soft pop, disco, mellow rock, and hard rock just doesn't work here all in one station. Each of these genres are better suited on other stations such as KYXY or KUPR. They should do an experiment that 100.7 conducted last May 1994 and ask the listeners to vote and comment on formats they try out. I'd like to see them try a format similar to The Flash Zone, Rewire, Jammin' Z-90, and Power 106 without the sleepy slow stuff or bad gang rap on one station. It'd be an interesting mix of remixes of r&b, soul, disco, modern rock, pop, disco, old-school, and reggae music. Nothing like it since Power 106 cut out the pop/rock remixes in their playlist 4 years ago.

104.3 KBIG - Los Angeles - adult contemporary - someone could program a station like this down here.

105.9 KPWR - Power 106 - Los Angeles - a mix of R&B, rap, and slow jams mixed with old school and dance mixes. Check out the Powertools house music late Saturday nights at around MID.

106.5 KKLQ Q106 - San Diego - Top 40 - they cut the rap out of their playlist even going as far as cutting up some songs and performing a rapectomy on them so they can be played there. Jef and Jer still rule the mornings despite Howard Stern's strong prescence here.

what will it look like next year? stay tuned

happy new year

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sincerely

d.tree.

check out my URL at
  http://www.geopages.com/Hollywood/1715 (now defunct)
for San Diego radio info, Dates In History, Demented Music, and
other weird stuff.
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