An inspired Scott Kaplan returned to The Scott & BR Show on Monday after meeting with the owner of San Diego’s 1090 AM frequency.
In April, longtime San Diego sports radio leader, The Mighty 1090 went dark following a financial dispute between the station’s operator, Broadcast Company of the Americas and owner of the 1090 transmitter, Andres Bichara. Last week, Kaplan flew to Monterrey, Mexico in hopes of building a relationship with the Bichara family, to create a partnership and reincarnate The Mighty 1090.
“It was much more about me going to the Bichara family and making it very clear, I’m not the guy who was part of the previous regime that made you feel like you got screwed over in business,” Kaplan said during Monday’s episode of Scott & BR. “I have nothing to do with those people, I got screwed over too.”
Since The Mighty 1090 went dark in April, Kaplan has continued to broadcast The Scott & BR Show live on YouTube and TuneIn every weekday at 3pm PT.
The outlook for bringing The Mighty 1090 back to the airwaves seems like a difficult task, but one that Kaplan believes will happen. “My goal is to have us on the air August 1st, I explained to everybody, you can’t lose football season, we have to be on-air for football season.”
Kaplan and the Bichara family enjoyed their time together during their meetings and both sides are hopeful a partnership can work. The Bichara family has owned and operated numerous radio stations since their grandfather began purchasing them in the mid-1900’s. Leasing a radio station, as they did with 1090 to Broadcast Company of the Americas, was a rare occurrence, the Bichara family is used to operating the stations they own themselves. This time around, Kaplan hopes The Mighty 1090 can eliminate the middleman and partner directly with ownership.
“Innovative professional people who are making money in the radio industry, not necessarily in San Diego or L.A., they’re doing it in Laredo, Texas or Monterrey Mexico, I bet they’d bring an awful lot to the table when it comes to partnership, consulting, ideas and innovation, you want to be in business with guys like that,” Kaplan said regarding a future working with the Bichara family.
During their meetings, Kaplan explained the 1090 AM transmitter would need to be surrounded with digital aspects to be successful, which Andres Bichara agreed. The two sides wrote down numbers on paper and discussed the costs of running a radio station, with the next step being for Kaplan to project the expenses and sales of operating 1090.
The August 1st date of relaunching The Mighty 1090 sounds like a lofty goal, but Kaplan explained they’re “under the gun.” All of 1090’s broadcast equipment is still in their old studios. With rent being due to the landlord, they either need to figure out a partnership with the Bichara family to start paying station expenses or remove all equipment which would incur an additional cost.
The quickest solution would be for Kaplan to come up with a plan that sees the Bichara family agree to operating The Mighty 1090 so that rent could be paid and broadcast equipment can stay where it is. Both Kaplan and the Bichara’s want a partnership to ensue, now it’s about the numbers making sense for both sides.
“Theres a potential relationship here that we might be able to do more things together than just this first radio deal, but let’s get this thing done first,” Kaplan said.
If Kaplan is able to strike a deal to resuscitate 1090, he has confirmed thru Twitter that the station will drop the Mighty 1090 name in favor of Team 1090.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
