San Diego Sports Radio Station Gets Completely Shut Down In The Middle Of A Show

San Diego sports radio station The Mighty 1090 had been off the airwaves and in an online-only format since April 10, courtesy of its parent company Broadcast Company of the Americas. Its future was extremely uncertain. On Monday, it was killed off for good in the middle of the day.

Darren Smith was hosting his titular show when he was told that it was over:

According to Scott Kaplan, one of the hosts of the Scott & BR Show, BCA President Mike Glickenhaus said he was ordered to shut down the Mighty 1090's stream for good. The cause is unclear, but the yesterday that BCA had been missing lease payments to its Mexico-based signal operator for the station.

The station’s website has been replaced with a logo and this brief message:

For the last two weeks, Mighty 1090 programming has only been available online and through our mobile app. We can’t thank you enough for bearing with us through this ordeal. Unfortunately, we have ceased operations. We are forever grateful for your passion, loyalty, and all your support over the years.

In the aftermath of Monday afternoon, Kaplan livestreamed himself walking around the office, talking to whoever still hadn’t left yet. As he explained it, Glickenhaus told producer Brandon Truffa to immediately kill Smith’s show, per orders of BCA CEO Jay Meyers “and the board.” Glickenhaus then announced to everyone that there would be a meeting Tuesday at 11 a.m., and to bring a box.

Kaplan made sure to tip off a San Diego Union-Tribune reporter if the meeting didn’t go well:

From the standpoint of demand, it makes no sense to kill off the Mighty 1090. It was still the highest-rated of the three San Diego sports radio stations. (In a distant second was 97.3 The Fan, previously and briefly known as “The Machine.”) Even though the station lost the rights to Padres games starting in the 2017 season, and the Chargers left for Los Angeles, it still had a significant audience. The people who get to make decisions either made this one out of stupidity or greed—or both.

H/t to Dustin