There is a small spot on a hill in the El Cajon, CA area where my car radio picks up this station that serves the Mexicali/El Centro/Calexico/Yuma areas. I had a chance to tune in today and noted some observations. I've picked up the station many times in rural eastern San Diego County and once even drove past the transmitter on the Mexico side on Mexican Highway 2D and several times on I-8 going to and from Phoenix and the desert areas.
I found out that they also stream, so I spent about an hour listening to the stream as I drove around, after confirming with the over-the-air signal that I had the right station. The over-the-air signal sounds distorted in El Cajon, but that might just be the signal propagation. The stream seems a bit thin sounding and may even be in mono or just barely a stereo signal.
This station essentially replaced KSIQ/Q96 after they moved into San Diego (Campo plus a booster licensed to Santee) and later became KYDO/Air 1. Q96 was one of the best-sounding CHR stations in an unrated market (you can hear an example of what it sounded like here: KSIQ (Q96) - Brawley/El Centro, CA - 2000 - Bill Stewart, Mary Jesse - FM Airchecks) 98.3 had run a kind of variety classic rock format up until then. Listening 12-13 years later, it sounds very much the same as it has for years. There are no jocks (at least in the afternoon drive when I was listening) and it's basically a jukebox. The mix of music is very good and in line with most mainstream/rhythmic-leaning CHR stations of today. I heard all of the big current hits and a few recurrents. The commercials are bilingual, which makes sense for the market as the station's big city is Mexicali.
The sweepers are kind of poor in production quality. I'm not sure who the voice of the station is, or if the sweepers are being produced in-house or not. Some of the sweepers sounded like they were taking pieces of other production elements (such as "Hi, I'm Ed Sheeran..." "Back to the music first...." "The station that plays all the hits...." with a kind of disjointed "Power 98" done at the end) - one of the sweepers was right from the old Q96 - the original one said "From Baja to the North Shore, Pine Valley to Arizona's door..." the one I heard today was almost identical - it said ""From Baja to the North Shore, East San Diego County to Arizona's door..." and the first one made me laugh out loud. It said "Arbitron Rated Number One....Power 98." Now, Arbitron hasn't been a thing in almost ten years, and even if it was, the Imperial Valley was never a rated market by Arbitron - it's kind of like someone who used to know a little more about radio just said "let's do some sweepers that sound like radio stations used to - nobody is going to know the difference or care..." And that might just be....I'm not sure how much of 98.3's audience is solely English speaking and they are probably not radio people like we are so if it sounds good, just run with it. One of my friends is operations manager at KXO in El Centro and he told me once that radio is a little backwards in the Imperial Valley - there are I think three or four English-language stations serving the market and KXO is two of them. Also, the AM has a very large studio and is live and local with oldies much of the time, while the FM is automated AC and runs from a PC on top of a filing cabinet with voice tracked jocks.
Just some interesting takes on the station. The music mix itself is very good. Otherwise, the station could use some updating and a better sound.
I found out that they also stream, so I spent about an hour listening to the stream as I drove around, after confirming with the over-the-air signal that I had the right station. The over-the-air signal sounds distorted in El Cajon, but that might just be the signal propagation. The stream seems a bit thin sounding and may even be in mono or just barely a stereo signal.
This station essentially replaced KSIQ/Q96 after they moved into San Diego (Campo plus a booster licensed to Santee) and later became KYDO/Air 1. Q96 was one of the best-sounding CHR stations in an unrated market (you can hear an example of what it sounded like here: KSIQ (Q96) - Brawley/El Centro, CA - 2000 - Bill Stewart, Mary Jesse - FM Airchecks) 98.3 had run a kind of variety classic rock format up until then. Listening 12-13 years later, it sounds very much the same as it has for years. There are no jocks (at least in the afternoon drive when I was listening) and it's basically a jukebox. The mix of music is very good and in line with most mainstream/rhythmic-leaning CHR stations of today. I heard all of the big current hits and a few recurrents. The commercials are bilingual, which makes sense for the market as the station's big city is Mexicali.
The sweepers are kind of poor in production quality. I'm not sure who the voice of the station is, or if the sweepers are being produced in-house or not. Some of the sweepers sounded like they were taking pieces of other production elements (such as "Hi, I'm Ed Sheeran..." "Back to the music first...." "The station that plays all the hits...." with a kind of disjointed "Power 98" done at the end) - one of the sweepers was right from the old Q96 - the original one said "From Baja to the North Shore, Pine Valley to Arizona's door..." the one I heard today was almost identical - it said ""From Baja to the North Shore, East San Diego County to Arizona's door..." and the first one made me laugh out loud. It said "Arbitron Rated Number One....Power 98." Now, Arbitron hasn't been a thing in almost ten years, and even if it was, the Imperial Valley was never a rated market by Arbitron - it's kind of like someone who used to know a little more about radio just said "let's do some sweepers that sound like radio stations used to - nobody is going to know the difference or care..." And that might just be....I'm not sure how much of 98.3's audience is solely English speaking and they are probably not radio people like we are so if it sounds good, just run with it. One of my friends is operations manager at KXO in El Centro and he told me once that radio is a little backwards in the Imperial Valley - there are I think three or four English-language stations serving the market and KXO is two of them. Also, the AM has a very large studio and is live and local with oldies much of the time, while the FM is automated AC and runs from a PC on top of a filing cabinet with voice tracked jocks.
Just some interesting takes on the station. The music mix itself is very good. Otherwise, the station could use some updating and a better sound.
