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The mightier 1090 returns to san diego!

The official switchover time was publicised as 9am PT, but they ended up making an earlier switch at 7am.

With the online stream (at least) there was a glitch at 9.30am which had no stream for 15 minutes.

Based in Oz, I selpt through the next 4 hours, but listening to Scott Farrell's On The Bench later, he mentioned he was knocked a couple of times off the air during his afternoon show (due to crazy weather in Florida where the part of his show is produced).

During Kaplan and Crew serious bugs with the ad breaks, included long dead-air gaps, and inconsistant audio levels.

Most problems seemed smoothed out by night, but certainly a very, very bumpy first day.
 
Signal Geek said:
BoomBox4, thanks for the support. My portable radio meter was feeling a bit insulted. It prides itself on accurately displaying drops (or increases) in signal strength. You've restored my meter's faith in humans.
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boombox4 said:
No problem, sir. Glad to be of some help. :)
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While the stunting was in effect from 8/10 - 8/17/2020, I could hear a few occasional dropouts of the signal.
This seemed to indicate there was transmitter maintenance going on and sure enough, upon listening
to their return on Mon. 8/17, it seemed that the signal had been restored to its previous strength
(at least to these ears and the signal strength indicator on the radio I've been using for several years).

Programming-wise it has the feel of an older AM station's weekend format:
kind of a spin-the-wheel selection of shows from (mostly) various syndicators.

Outside of Scott Kaplan's show, of course, not much in the way of continuity or connection
with either San Diego or even the larger "mega-market" as Kap refers to SoCal in general.
 
Yes, signal is back to its previous strength. And overall I enjoyed the stunting, because it took us on an aural history tour of 1090's long history, complete with clips of Wolfman Jack from (I think) the early 1970s. But they ignored their long run as all-sports between 2003-2019.

As for the first day glitches, understandable if they are actually the first no-studio, all-virtual broadcast radio station. Would love to hear from radio professionals on this board if this is truly groundbreaking, or just hype.
 
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Signal Geek said:
Yes, signal is back to its previous strength. And overall I enjoyed the stunting, because it took us on an aural history tour of 1090's long history, complete with clips of Wolfman Jack from (I think) the early 1970s. But they ignored their long run as all-sports between 2003-2019..
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I would not imagine that they did extracts of the Spanish language format that ran from the 80's through the 90's under the LMA with Teddy Fregoso.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I would not imagine that they did extracts of the Spanish language format that ran from the 80's through the 90's under the LMA with Teddy Fregoso.
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No, they didn't. They ignored that long stretch. The retrospective did include clips from 1090's "Soul Express" period, which I believe was the format right before the switch to Spanish.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I would not imagine that they did extracts of the Spanish language format that ran from the 80's through the 90's under the LMA with Teddy Fregoso.
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Nor did they touch all the religious shows they used to air. There was a time historically when XERB was defined by the three Rs: rhythm and blues, religion, and racing results. (Of the horse kind, back when that got the FCC all mad.)
 
pjc1961 said:
it seemed that the signal had been restored to its previous strength
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True, but 1090's signal in San Diego County's inland areas is still weaker than several other Mexico AM's. Any reason why the station's highly-directional pattern cannot be modified to throw more coverage inland?

I understand decades ago they probably aimed the signal at Los Angeles because it's a bigger market than San Diego. But today, with three other established all-sports stations in L.A. (all with low ratings, by the way), what's the point of being L.A.'s fourth sports station? Especially (as David Eduardo has pointed out), the 1090 signal is only strong in L.A./Orange County coastal areas.
 
Signal Geek said:
True, but 1090's signal in San Diego County's inland areas is still weaker than several other Mexico AM's. Any reason why the station's highly-directional pattern cannot be modified to throw more coverage inland?

I understand decades ago they probably aimed the signal at Los Angeles because it's a bigger market than San Diego. But today, with three other established all-sports stations in L.A. (all with low ratings, by the way), what's the point of being L.A.'s fourth sports station? Especially (as David Eduardo has pointed out), the 1090 signal is only strong in L.A./Orange County coastal areas.
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You are going to get more listeners that way! If you start tinkering with the pattern and throwing more signal inland, that’s a more sparsely populated area. Why throw your signal toward the mountains of San Diego County where less people live when you can have more listeners up and down the coast? (Not to mention the governmental hoops you would have to jump through just to change the pattern).
 
asugeorge1 said:
You are going to get more listeners that way! If you start tinkering with the pattern and throwing more signal inland, that’s a more sparsely populated area. Why throw your signal toward the mountains of San Diego County where less people live when you can have more listeners up and down the coast? (Not to mention the governmental hoops you would have to jump through just to change the pattern).
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Because the signal is weak inland where more people are.. thats why you tinker with it. The station will matter even less to people in LA then it will to those in Sandy Eggo and it matters very little to those in SD. THe water and coast are great conductors of the signal but it does somewhat substantially when you go inland
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Because the signal is weak inland where more people are.. thats why you tinker with it. The station will matter even less to people in LA then it will to those in Sandy Eggo and it matters very little to those in SD. THe water and coast are great conductors of the signal but it does somewhat substantially when you go inland
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I don’t think so. The signal is fine in El Cajon, La Mesa and Escondido where the majority of the people are who live in the San Diego County metropolitan area away from the coastal communities. East of there, you are heading into sparsely populated areas of the San Diego County Mountains. Are there going to be significantly more listeners in Ramona and Valley Center compared to coastal Orange County?
 
asugeorge1 said:
I don’t think so. The signal is fine in El Cajon, La Mesa and Escondido where the majority of the people are who live in the San Diego County metropolitan area away from the coastal communities. East of there, you are heading into sparsely populated areas of the San Diego County Mountains. Are there going to be significantly more listeners in Ramona and Valley Center compared to coastal Orange County?
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Focus the signal where it matters not up the coast where no one gives a shite. Plus what is listenable to us radio people and radio geeks isnt to the average person.. you need alot of oomph to overcome man made interference in populated places
 
asugeorge1 said:
I don’t think so. The signal is fine in El Cajon, La Mesa and Escondido where the majority of the people are who live in the San Diego County metropolitan area away from the coastal communities. East of there, you are heading into sparsely populated areas of the San Diego County Mountains. Are there going to be significantly more listeners in Ramona and Valley Center compared to coastal Orange County?
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When selling advertising, they can forget about the OC coverage... that is part of a separate market and not bought by advertisers in combo with San Diego.

It's all about listening in SD county only.
 
DavidEduardo said:
It's all about listening in SD county only.
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My point exactly. Adjust the pattern so it throws less power up the coast, and more to inland SD County. The signal is not "fine" in La Mesa, it's substantially weaker than Mexico AM's 540, 690, 860 & 950. El Cajon and Escondido are further inland, so it's probably even weaker there. Those last two cities each have 100,000+ residents, so it would be worth an effort to increase the signal there.
 
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1090 didn't show up at all in the latest 12+ ratings. But I hear lots of ads when I tune in. Any thoughts on whether this station will make it? Hard to see how San Diego can support three all-sports stations, when we only have one major-league team.
 
Signal Geek said:
1090 didn't show up at all in the latest 12+ ratings. But I hear lots of ads when I tune in. Any thoughts on whether this station will make it? Hard to see how San Diego can support three all-sports stations, when we only have one major-league team.
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Remember that the "September" book was mostly in August, so the station was just beginning. And we don't know if they are even subscribed.
 
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