Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Bigger than KOGO and KFMB

Catholic KCEO to double wattage by end of year

Pro sports figures have long been major players in San Diego radio.

John Lynch was a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker before getting into radio management and launching San Diego’s first sports and modern rock stations (Mighty 690 and 91X).

After selling the Padres for a reported $800 million, John Moores bought and still owns controlling interest of Broadcast Company of Americas (Mighty 1090, Max 105.7).

Helix High’s Bruce Walton (Bill’s brother) played for the Dallas Cowboys before becoming the general manager of pop-jazz KIFM in the ‘90s.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Philip Rivers

But San Diego’s most understated sports/radio heavy hitter would have to be Chargers QB Philip Rivers, who reportedly committed a large sum of his money toward buying KCEO AM-1000 in 2012. Rivers and his wife Tiffany were a big part of the local drive to raise $3.75 million so that Sacramento-based Immaculate Heart Radio could buy KCEO and turn it into a 24/7 mouthpiece for the Roman Catholic way of thinking.

“St. Sebastian is the patron of athletes, so I wear a medal of him, along with a miraculous medal and a crucifix,” Rivers told the National Catholic Register in 2012. “In a 2008 playoff game I tore my ACL…. My mom asked me on the phone, ‘Do you know that St. Sebastian’s feast day [Jan. 20] is the day of the next playoff game?’ Amazingly, maybe even miraculously, I was able to play that game.”

While Rivers’s career seems particularly blessed this year, is his commitment to pontiff radio is still on fire? A call to the Chargers’ PR office for a request for a response from Rivers was not returned.

But KCEO and Immaculate Heart Radio are presently coming on as strong as the Chargers.

Immaculate Heart, which now owns and programs more than 30 stations in six western states, has just purchased former Los Angeles Top 40 powerhouse KHJ AM-930 AM and will soon flip it to all-Catholic. It was announced last month that Immaculate Heart will participate in the creation of a state-of-the-art TV and radio broadcast facility in the Crystal Cathedral complex in Garden Grove, which was purchased by the Orange County Catholic Diocese and renamed Christ Cathedral.

KCEO spokesperson Cy Kellett says locally generated programming is limited to the two-hour syndicated Catholic Answers talk show which originates in El Cajon, and an hourly show which was recorded in conjunction with the San Diego Diocese called Setting Things Right.

Unlike many AM stations that “broker” or sell time at an hourly rate, Kellett says outsiders, even if they are Catholic, simply can’t buy their way on to AM 1000.

Immaculate Heart general manager Dick Jenkins admits that none of the discourse you hear on KCEO will counter the “catechism compendium.” In other words, you won’t hear any challenges to the church’s official positions on birth control or celibate priests.

“We try to be exactly where the Catholic Church is.”

KCEO’s four broadcast towers in North Oceanside allow it cover coastal San Diego County and south Orange County. The station has been granted a daytime power increase from 5000 watts to 10,000 watts, which will allow it better Orange County coverage. When the power increase is completed by the end of the year, KCEO will have twice the radiated power of San Diego’s more famous AM stations, KOGO and KFMB.

(revised 10/27, 9:45 a.m.)

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest

Pro sports figures have long been major players in San Diego radio.

John Lynch was a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker before getting into radio management and launching San Diego’s first sports and modern rock stations (Mighty 690 and 91X).

After selling the Padres for a reported $800 million, John Moores bought and still owns controlling interest of Broadcast Company of Americas (Mighty 1090, Max 105.7).

Helix High’s Bruce Walton (Bill’s brother) played for the Dallas Cowboys before becoming the general manager of pop-jazz KIFM in the ‘90s.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Philip Rivers

But San Diego’s most understated sports/radio heavy hitter would have to be Chargers QB Philip Rivers, who reportedly committed a large sum of his money toward buying KCEO AM-1000 in 2012. Rivers and his wife Tiffany were a big part of the local drive to raise $3.75 million so that Sacramento-based Immaculate Heart Radio could buy KCEO and turn it into a 24/7 mouthpiece for the Roman Catholic way of thinking.

“St. Sebastian is the patron of athletes, so I wear a medal of him, along with a miraculous medal and a crucifix,” Rivers told the National Catholic Register in 2012. “In a 2008 playoff game I tore my ACL…. My mom asked me on the phone, ‘Do you know that St. Sebastian’s feast day [Jan. 20] is the day of the next playoff game?’ Amazingly, maybe even miraculously, I was able to play that game.”

While Rivers’s career seems particularly blessed this year, is his commitment to pontiff radio is still on fire? A call to the Chargers’ PR office for a request for a response from Rivers was not returned.

But KCEO and Immaculate Heart Radio are presently coming on as strong as the Chargers.

Immaculate Heart, which now owns and programs more than 30 stations in six western states, has just purchased former Los Angeles Top 40 powerhouse KHJ AM-930 AM and will soon flip it to all-Catholic. It was announced last month that Immaculate Heart will participate in the creation of a state-of-the-art TV and radio broadcast facility in the Crystal Cathedral complex in Garden Grove, which was purchased by the Orange County Catholic Diocese and renamed Christ Cathedral.

KCEO spokesperson Cy Kellett says locally generated programming is limited to the two-hour syndicated Catholic Answers talk show which originates in El Cajon, and an hourly show which was recorded in conjunction with the San Diego Diocese called Setting Things Right.

Unlike many AM stations that “broker” or sell time at an hourly rate, Kellett says outsiders, even if they are Catholic, simply can’t buy their way on to AM 1000.

Immaculate Heart general manager Dick Jenkins admits that none of the discourse you hear on KCEO will counter the “catechism compendium.” In other words, you won’t hear any challenges to the church’s official positions on birth control or celibate priests.

“We try to be exactly where the Catholic Church is.”

KCEO’s four broadcast towers in North Oceanside allow it cover coastal San Diego County and south Orange County. The station has been granted a daytime power increase from 5000 watts to 10,000 watts, which will allow it better Orange County coverage. When the power increase is completed by the end of the year, KCEO will have twice the radiated power of San Diego’s more famous AM stations, KOGO and KFMB.

(revised 10/27, 9:45 a.m.)

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

The Digital Currency Wave Hits the Shores of San Diego

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.