XETRA-FM (or
91X) (sometimes identified as
XTRA-FM) is an English language, Mexican-owned
(border blaster) modern rock music station broadcasting from Tijuana, Baja
California
on 91.1 MHz. The studios are located in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego
. The station is operated by Finest City
Broadcasting, Inc. located in San Diego, with the license and
transmission facilities held by XETRA Communicaciones in Tijuana
.
History
91X was formed in 1978 after XETRA-FM switched formats from its
Beautiful music playlist (it had
moved to its
AM companion station) to an
AOR format, and there it
remained until 1983.
91X broadcast studios were located at the 91X
transmitter site on Mount San Antonio in Tijuana, Mexico
[196937]. Deejay
commuted from San Diego to Tijuana each shift. 91X was notorious
for having deejays with no personality; they would simply announce
the previous song, and the next song. On January 12 1983 at 6PM,
91X followed in the footsteps of
KROQ-FM and
switched formats to "rock of the 80s" (
modern rock). 91X played "
Stairway to Heaven" (
Led Zeppelin) as the final song of the AOR
format. Immediately afterward , then 91X Executive Vice President
and General Manager John Lynch made on air announcement of the
format change and disc jockey Todd Ralston went right into "Sex
(I'm A...)" by
Berlin. Former 91X
on-air personality Jim LaMarca recounts the transition:
"The
day 91X (XETRA-FM) went Rock of the 80s, almost no one knew it was
coming so there was no speculation. An air staff meeting
was called for 3pm. These really straight liner-card jocks
were sitting around the conference room when in walks wild Rick Carroll with a cardboard box. He
dumps it on the table and says, "I'm Rick from Los Angeles and this
is your new format." The first song was played at 6pm by
Todd Tolkoff who was given the name Mad Max. He said,
"This is 91X Rock of the 80s and this is Sex from Berlin.
Everyone at the station (remember he is now in Mexico 30
minutes away) thought this song was too weird. It seemed
slow and goofy, but hey this was all new to us. It also
took forever. Well no wonder, he was playing a long-play
version so the LP should have been playing at 45 rpm.
Since we had never heard the song no one knew. This
happened a lot." [196938] During the 1980s and 1990s 91X was one
of the top-rated alternative stations in America.
[196939]
U.S. Marketing and Operating Rights
In 1996,
the U.S.
marketing
and operating rights to 91X were acquired by Jacor
Communications. Jacor was acquired by
AMFM and then
Clear Channel in 1999.
On December 1, 2005,
Clear
Channel Communications was forced to spin off the U.S. rights
to program and sell advertising time on
XETRA-FM,
XHITZ-FM (90.3) and
XHRM-FM (92.5). This was an effort to satisfy
existing consolidation laws.
Stations based in Tijuana, Baja
California
and operated by U.S. broadcasters are now
considered as part of the San Diego
radio market for ownership limit purposes.
The Mexico-based stations put Clear Channel over the
FCC limit of eight local
broadcast outlets in San Diego.
[196940] Clear Channel operates seven stations
in the San Diego market.
Finest City Broadcasting, a new company under the direction of
former Clear Channel/San Diego VP/Market Manager Mike Glickenhaus,
took over operations of the three stations. Glickenhaus left FCB in
May 2007, and is not involved in radio as of December 2007.
The call letters were also assigned to a
Spanish AM
talk radio station,
XETRA-AM at 690 kHz. Clear Channel formerly owned
the U.S. programming and sales rights to that station as well, and
spun those rights off to a different operator. The calls on the AM
are now XEWW.
Programming
When
Howard Stern was on terrestrial radio, 91X was his original
San Diego affiliate, until he moved to KIOZ
due to the
government of Mexico's disapproval of the racy content on Stern's
show, and his presence on a Mexican-licensed station.
On December 27, 2007 Chris Cantore confirmed with
SDRadio that he
was let go from the alternative rocker. Program Director Phil
Manning placed an ad for a morning show in radio trade magazines.
The show, "Cantore in the Morning" featured Cantore, and Ruggy
Joesten. Former co-host Jennifer White moved to
Sophie @ 103.7. On April 1st, 2008 "The 91X Morning
Show" debuted to mixed, but generally favorable reviews after a
month-long marketing campaign that centered around the question
"who is Mat Diablo?". This show, the first change in mornings on
91X in more than 9 years, is hosted by Mat Diablo, a
self-proclaimed "anti-deejay". The show also features Mahoney,
Carlos Montoya, Sammy The Intern, and occasionally Ruggy. Both
Carlos Montoya and Ruggy were previously part of the "Cantore in
the Morning" program.
According to
Arbitron radio ratings, within
the first six months of 'The 91X Morning Show" airing on 91X, it
has exceeded the previous ratings and audience share of "Cantore in
the Morning".
91X carries the syndicated
Loveline weeknights, and a flashback show
entitled
Resurrection Sunday hosted by long time 91X
personality Chris Muckley.
Until 2008, 91X aired
Reggae Makossa, a program featuring reggae
and roots music that now airs on
Fusion Radio
102.5. The program was originally hosted by Makeda Dread and
Demaja Le. Demaja Le left in 1998 to program
Jazz
88.3. Makeda Dread still hosts the show in its new location.
Despite the move, 91X still plays occasional reggae music, most
notably daily around 4:20 pm to honor
420.
Under the rules and regulations of the
Secretary of Communication
and Transportation of Mexico, 91X (as well as other Baja
California, Mexico-licensed stations) concludes its broadcast week
with public affairs and other mandatory programming in the Spanish
language Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. Pacific time.
Former Personalities
- Juan Grande (daily surf report since 1983) died
9/16/2006[196941]
- Billy Bones
- Chris Cantore ([Cantore in the Morning] 91X DJ from 1997 -
2007) Was at X1FM.com[196942], now is a weekend DJ on 102.1
KPRi
- Diana D'Amato
- Stephen Kallao (was a weekend DJ for Sophie @
103.7)
- Michael Boss
- Marco Collins
- Todd Ralston
- Sue Delaney
- Reckless Erik Thompson (now a TV
network announcer)
- Jim Gelaro
- Mike Halloran (now works at
FM 94/9)
- Hilary (now also works at FM 94/9 and has a
shift right before Halloran's afternoon shift.)
- Jennifer White (now at Radio Sophie)
- Jeff Hunter
- Bryan Jones (born October 13, 1957, died November 15,
2006[196943])
- Kevin "the Dead Dog Kid" Stapleford (former Director of Content
Development & Programming at Tapioca Mobile and currently
Director of Network Operations at X1FM Network
www.x1fm.com)[196944]
- Gene Knight (now with KYXY)
- Jim Lamarca [EVP/COO Jones Radio Network] [196945]
- Matty (now in Oregon working with the Democratic Party)
- Katy Manor
- Lani Minella
- Bob Montague
- Rusty Nailz [196946]
- Mike Berger[196947]
- Jeff Prescott [196948]
- Jason Riggs (currently Senior Product Manager at Qualcomm
[196949] and Program Director for the 80s Alternative
radio station on Slacker.com [196950])
- Lou Niles
- Deirdre O'Donoghue (1946-2001; hostess of 91X's S*N*A*P
Judgements radio show)
- Oz Medina (now works at KPRI-FM 102.1)
- Tom Perry
- Trever Trent (now works at 98.7FM KYSR Los
Angeles/101.5 KGB San Diego)
- Robin
Roth (was at Rock
105.3
)
- Rick Savage (now works for KROQ
106.7)
- Bryan Schock (now works at 101.5
KGB)
- Todd
"Mad Max" Tolkoff (program director of now-defunct Indie 103 in Los Angeles, California
)
- Pam Wolf
- Lindy Scott
- "Rossman" Ross Shields
- Marty Whitney (currently Live Sound Engineer and Imaging
Director for Alice@97.3 KLLC in San
Francisco)
- Annrae Fitzgerald (currently program director of X1FM Network
www.x1fm.com)[196951]
- Steve West
External links