Energy Crisis In San Diego?
• No one is commenting on the record — yet — but rumors continue to strongly circulate out of the San Diego market that Entercom Top 40 KEGY (Energy 97.3) will soon be flipping to Sports-Talk. Those rumors, which have been reported in local media, gained added intensity when the San Diego Padres, still giddy with excitement after signing free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer to a monster eight-year, $144 million contract, announced the Padres’ Spring Broadcast Schedule — if you skim down to the third paragraph, the release states, “Padres radio broadcasts will move to 97.3 FM this season after switching over to the FM dial for the first time in team history last year.” Yup, that very same 97.3 that is currently occupied by KEGY, formerly CBS Radio Top 40 KEGY (Energy 103.7), which swapped frequencies with Country sibling 97.3 KSON last fall after the Entercom-CBS Radio merger. Last season, the Padres’ radio flagship was Entercom Alternative sibling KBZT (ALT 94.9).
As Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, “Entercom, the parent company of both stations, is making the move as part of its conversion of 97.3 to an all-talk format.” There is some speculation that the Padres’ may have jumped the gun before Entercom could control the narrative and announce the news on its own terms. At press time, emails to Market Manager Bob Bolinger had gone unreturned.
