I woke up this morning and turned on my radio to its regular setting, KLSD, the Air America and NOVA affiliate in San Diego. Today the mood was a bit somber on the Stacy Taylor Show. It appears the death knell has sounded for KLSD, and the station will become a sports station.
Apparently, Stacy Taylor learned about it the same everyone else did, from a story in the Sports Section of the San Diego Anti-Union-Tribune. He's playing Merle Haggard cryin' in your beer songs as bumpers.
I hate linking to this poor excuse for a newspaper.
There have been plenty of rallies, and I've gone to a couple. Each rally brought out hundreds of people, and to me, they would appear to be the kinds of people radio advertisers would want: middle-aged, likely homeowners with good jobs and at least some disposable income.
KLSD is a Clear Channel station. I talked to some of the suits who said the station was profitable, but just not profitable enough. The big station in the CC stable here pulls in about $10 million in ad revenue a year (according to them), and KLSD would need to bring in $5 million to make them happy. I don't know if any of this information is true or not.
I have heard that a major factor in KLSD's failure to bring in revenue is the auto dealers. One family group, the Mossy dealers, has been advertising regularly on KLSD, but another, the Bob Baker Auto Group, has been conspicuously absent. I'm sure the Baker dealers will be advertising on a new sports station, though.
It isn't really surprising, especially in the last few weeks. You can tell when someone has lost interest in a venture. Last Monday night, the station went to dead air for over 20 minutes (about 7:05 to 7:25 p.m.) while Sam Seder was on the Mike Malloy show. I was walking my dog and didn't have my phone. I got home and tried to call someone, but went to voicemail Hell at the Clear Channel offices. I called the Jon Elliot Show and told them (interestingly, Jon's show is broadcast fromt he KLSD studio, but we get it on delay, so he wasn't on the air at the time). The station came back on within a minute. I worked in radio years ago, and dead air was one of the things we were constantly reminded to avoid. No one seems to care what happened on KLSD, and I suppose a fine from the FCC would just provide management with more ammunition in its drive to get rid of the station.
Oh well, there really isn't much to say about KLSD here that hasn't been said already. It would be nice if progressives could gain a foothold in the media business. One thing I have been thinking about would be a Progressive Media Mutual Fund that could invest in radio, TV, and other media just as the religious broadcasters have been doing with their nonprofit foundations. Am I going to set one up? Nah, it's enough for me just to do the work I have and try to kee my job and my health insurance.
We still have an NPR station around here, but it goes to classical music in the evening, and it depends heavily on the Anti-Union Tribune and some of the conservative advertisers who won't advertise on KLSD, so I guess I'll be missing out on some of the programs I listen to when I drive home.
Perhaps the progressive format will find a home on the dial somewhere. We've had some stations break away from corporate control in this market.