What happened to Califormula Radio Group?What is the history of XHLTN 104.5?

[SDRadio]

XHLTN is and always has been a Tijuana station. Its transmitter is in Mexico, and it is a licensed Mexican radio station, not a US station.

Whether it had studios in National City or not is irrelevant to this fact.

National City is relevant, David. No one is questioning the transmitter location. The studio location is where the heart and the soul of the station is; it's where the metal was poured, formed, and became Califormula. I met Victor once. He showed this Anglo reporter how vibrant, how exciting, and how local radio is supreme. Of course a few years later he "sold" the broadcast rights to Clear Channel radio when the group combined for 13-stations in one market.

So, XHLTN is a Tijuana station but it is being marketed -- still -- on both sides of the border. Tijuana and San Diego "share" a popular station.

Thanks for your time, David.

 

[radio-darn]

XHLTN is and always has been a Tijuana station. Its transmitter is in Mexico, and it is a licensed Mexican radio station, not a US station.

Whether it had studios in National City or not is irrelevant to this fact.

National City is relevant, David. No one is questioning the transmitter location. The studio location is where the heart and the soul of the station is; it's where the metal was poured, formed, and became Califormula. I met Victor once. He showed this Anglo reporter how vibrant, how exciting, and how local radio is supreme. Of course a few years later he "sold" the broadcast rights to Clear Channel radio when the group combined for 13-stations in one market.

So, XHLTN is a Tijuana station but it is being marketed -- still -- on both sides of the border. Tijuana and San Diego "share" a popular station.

Thanks for your time, David.

And Califormula never had an office in National City - always in Chula Vista. For years the offices and Z90 studios were in a small strip mall on 3rd Avenue, just south of Oxford. The mall had two buildings and Califormula filled one building except for a space at one end occupied by an insurance office. They would complain about the sound from the Z90 production and air studios, so Victor directed that some speakers be pointed at the wall to intensify the sound - the goal was to convince to the insurance office to move to Califormula to get that space too. They also rented space in the other building for the XLNC studios and for an office used in an unsuccessful effort to sell Victor's big bus designs ("Street Blimps" he called them) to other radio station companies (those buses were among the very first in San Diego County to have large artistic designs and logos covering the whole outside and constituted most of Califormula's promotional budget).

Victor bought the big building on Frontage Road west of I-5 mostly so he could have a large space to display more of his color photograph collection (which was the only thing allowed to be hung on office walls in the old studio).

 

[DavidEduardo]

And Califormula never had an office in National City - always in Chula Vista.

I believe the original poster / inquirer was referring to the current Imagen sales office.

 

[SDRadio]

And Califormula never had an office in National City - always in Chula Vista. For years the offices and Z90 studios were in a small strip mall on 3rd Avenue, just south of Oxford.

~~

Victor bought the big building on Frontage Road west of I-5 mostly so he could have a large space to display more of his color photograph collection (which was the only thing allowed to be hung on office walls in the old studio).

Thanks Bob; and yes, the photos were (and still are) amazing. A lot has been written about Victor; but he only knew one color. Green.

 

[radio-darn]

A lot has been written about Victor; but he only knew one color. Green.

Actually Victor was the least greedy and most generous person I ever worked for in 30 years in radio. He gave to local community groups without question whenever they asked, he gave very generous gifts to employees when they got married, he kept consultants on retainer because he knew they needed the money more than he needed their advice.

In the course of my duties as a VP, I'd sometime offer up my two cents worth on some scheme that involved spending considerable amounts of money on something I thought would not pay off. Victor's "uniform" was a blue sport coat, gray trousers and light blue shirt. When I'd point out the financial pitfalls of something, he'd point to his shirt and say, "Bob, what will I do with this money I save by following your advice? Do I buy more shirts, another coat?"

He often frustrated Gringo sales managers and program directors who thought Victor should spend money on some things all radio stations "needed," but he had his own thoughts on that and decided, for example, that Arbitron was not worth it. It wasn't that he was cheap, but he figured they just charged too darn much and that he could make a nice profit without them, which he did.

Victor was a true eccentric and working closely with him for a decade convinced me that "eccentric" means "rich enough to do whatever the heck you want." His hero, of course, was Howard Hughes and both of them could have had as last words, 'I did it my way..."

 

[DavidEduardo]

Victor was a true eccentric and working closely with him for a decade convinced me that "eccentric" means "rich enough to do whatever the heck you want." His hero, of course, was Howard Hughes and both of them could have had as last words, 'I did it my way..."

I'm reminded that "eccentric" means "crazy" but with money.

The local engineering community... in fact, the Southern California engineering community... has a great deal to say about Victor's widely quoted statement that "Mexican watts are different from American watts" and his obvious disregard for licenses and treaties.

Víctor was certainly a picturesque figure. Like many eccentrics, with Howard Huges coming to mind, he had peculiarities as well as saving graces.

 

[johndavis]

Back when Stern was on 105.3, a religious group would take out large ads in the UT telling people not to listen to Clear Channel stations because they broadcast "smut."

Many suspected that Victor bankrolled it. Anyone know if that was true or not?

 

[radio-darn]

Back when Stern was on 105.3, a religious group would take out large ads in the UT telling people not to listen to Clear Channel stations because they broadcast "smut."

Many suspected that Victor bankrolled it. Anyone know if that was true or not?

Yep - Victor worked with Reverend Samuel Fosu-Mensah who had something called "End Radio Air Smut Effectively" (ERASE), started back in 1997. Howard Stern on 91X was Victor's big target - you can read about it here: http://www.djbrian.net/archive/howard/hs-old.html

Reverend Samuel didn't have a dime to his name and really was just a front man.

This was part of Victor's campaign against Jacor - later Clear Channel - and there were a other fronts.

The ERASE campaign ended up being on the agenda for the El Cajon City Council with a proposed resolution condemning Stern and DSC, then on Rock 105. One of those speaking in favor of the resolution was Phil Ganyon, who was on Victor's payroll as a consultant for many, many years, working things including the anti-Jacor/CC campaign. As one report news noted in 1997:

"Phil Ganyon, an advertising agency owner from Poway, said he was appalled
by the programming that was readily available to children over the radio
airwaves."

The irony of all this was that the nastiest music in town was being played on Victor's Jammin' Z-90. He pretty much only ever listened to the morning show, so later in the day and at night the PD and MD played what they wanted because they knew Victor was not listening then, and if he did listen, he probably couldn't understand the lyrics on hard core rap.

For a time Ganyon would monitor the music (he was about 60 at the time) and would report to Victor. I remember how upset Phil got when he heard Salt 'N Pepa's Shoop pointing out this was all about having sex (and of course, this song was quite mild compared to some of the stuff that maybe even Ganyon couldn't understand).

 

[johndavis]

For a time Ganyon would monitor the music (he was about 60 at the time) and would report to Victor. I remember how upset Phil got when he heard Salt 'N Pepa's Shoop pointing out this was all about having sex (and of course, this song was quite mild compared to some of the stuff that maybe even Ganyon couldn't understand).

After all, the only place I've ever heard 2 Live Crew's "Throw The D---" was on Jammin Z-90 back in the day.

 

[Lopaka]

Wasn't 104.5 early on XHERS of the XHIS (90.3--OB Ranger, etc) combo? I think I remember the day they went on the air, XHIS said to tune up the dial to 104.5 to hear their new sister station signing on, early '70's if memory serves. Its been quite a while. Please forgive a memory lapse.

 

[radio-darn]

Wasn't 104.5 early on XHERS of the XHIS (90.3--OB Ranger, etc) combo? I think I remember the day they went on the air, XHIS said to tune up the dial to 104.5 to hear their new sister station signing on, early '70's if memory serves. Its been quite a while. Please forgive a memory lapse.

Victor Diaz said he had always regretted giving up programming control of those stations to someone else.

You can read about them here: http://foxcars.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/san-diego-radio-digest-column-63099/

 

[Lopaka]

A very interesting article, thank you very much!

 

[radiocph]

Back in the mid-80s, I used to listen to San Diego/Tijuana stations from Santa Barbara (UCSB student). Nice overwater path.

XELTN was one of my favorites. I liked them better than KLVE (which I could also receive); XELTN seemed to play songs that KLVE didn't play at all. They even played the occasional song in FRENCH!

XELTN, at least back then, didn't have too many announcements, so it was difficult to identify the songs. A few years back I digitized a number of XELTN airchecks and posted links to them on the "Spanish Music" Usenet newsgroup. I was able to identify all of them except for one. Not even David Eduardo, who knows his music, knew this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8ek2Uo9ZU

I also remember "Z90," which was mildly popular with black students as there were few "urban" choices in Santa Barbara (KCAQ - Q105 was pretty close)....

 

[DavidEduardo]

A few years back I digitized a number of XELTN airchecks and posted links to them on the "Spanish Music" Usenet newsgroup. I was able to identify all of them except for one. Not even David Eduardo, who knows his music, knew this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8ek2Uo9ZU

I just sent this link to the co-creator and PD for 12 years of the Recuerdo stations, and she did not recognize it either!

 

[DavidEduardo]

Wasn't 104.5 early on XHERS of the XHIS (90.3--OB Ranger, etc) combo? I think I remember the day they went on the air, XHIS said to tune up the dial to 104.5 to hear their new sister station signing on, early '70's if memory serves. Its been quite a while. Please forgive a memory lapse.

IIRC, that was a venture with Paul Schaefer (sp) of the automation company of the same name... a search in Broadcasting Magazine will bring up quite a few items.

 

[Gregg]

Getting back to Howard Stern being forced off 91X and onto 105.3 KIOZ. I didn't know Victor Diaz was behind the move.

Stern had been getting some good ratings as the 91X morning show when he was first syndicated into the San Diego market. Then I believe he had made some not-too-nice comments about Mexicans. And he also said some negative things about the Mexican-American singer Selena after she was shot and killed.

One day, he announced he was being moved from 91X to KIOZ. He said the reason he was given by the group owner was that KIOZ had a better signal in San Diego. Of course, that's not true. XETRA-FM's 100,000 watt signal covers San Diego and Southern California better than KIOZ, which is limited to a Class B signal, even if its transmitter is on the U.S. side of the border.

Stern continued to do well on KIOZ. But I never knew about Diaz using a local minister as a front to fight Stern and other push-the-envelope material from the San Diego-Tijuana airwaves.




Gregg
[email protected]

 

[radio-darn]

Stern continued to do well on KIOZ. But I never knew about Diaz using a local minister as a front to fight Stern and other push-the-envelope material from the San Diego-Tijuana airwaves.

Victor was genuinely upset by the likes of Stern (and Bubba the Love Sponge when he briefly aired in San Diego) and, again, the irony was that the nastiest stuff on San Diego radio was in the lyrics of music played at night on his Jammin' Z-90. Victor was fond of White Star champagne as an after work ritual, so while he at times micro-managed the morning show, he hadn't a clue about the nights. He was well into his White Star and classical music collection by then.

 

[Gregg]

I should have added that the group owner who had the deal with a Mexican owner to run 91X and also owned KIOZ felt the heat of Diaz's protests. I suppose it's a sensitive situation for American businesspeople to run Mexican broadcasting facilities.

On one hand, it's good because they're only leasing the station. The Mexican owner still has to maintain the transmitter and do all the required work with the Mexican government. I assume for the American leaser, there are less regulations. 91X isn't required to run news or public affiars as an FCC licensed station must, it doesn't have to have a public file available for inspection, it doesn't have to maintain studios or an office in or near its city of license, it doesn't have EEO or other hiring requirements as a U.S. broadcaster must comply with.

But there are other requirements, such as running El Hora Nacional and Mexican tourism PSAs, having to work with a Mexican owner who may or may not drop everything if the transmitter has problems or the power goes out. (Do English-language stations have to play El Himno Nacional Mexicano, The Mexican National Anthem, at midnight?) And you can't offend your host country or its political leaders.

So when Stern said some anti-Mexican things and made some non-PC remarks about the shooting of Selena, and Victor Diaz started publicizing these things, the corporate owner pulled Stern from 91X. Luckily they had another young male FM station on this side of the border which was also a good fit for Howard, Active Rock KIOZ.

 

[radiocph]

But there are other requirements, such as running El Hora Nacional and Mexican tourism PSAs,

and also "El Presidente..."

having to work with a Mexican owner who may or may not drop everything if the transmitter has problems or the power goes out. (Do English-language stations have to play El Himno Nacional Mexicano, The Mexican National Anthem, at midnight?)

Back when XETRA was in English, they did play the anthem. So I would give it a qualified yes...

And you can't offend your host country or its political leaders.

The Mexican FCC did allow cussing in English, but probably not in Spanish. There were/are reportedly some restrictions on religious content as well...

 

[johndavis]

Back when XETRA was in English, they did play the anthem. So I would give it a qualified yes...

So does XHRM, although not every night.