San Diego Radio: Mikey Esparza OUT At KFMB 100.7 FM

Mikey Esparza afternoon personality at Adult Hits KFMB 100.7 has exited, following non-renewal of his contract.

“There are no new Mikey issues,” Alberto Mier y Teran told The San Diego Reader. He manages the KFMB stations which includes Channel 8, CW San Diego/Channel 6, AM 760, and 100.7 FM.

“He is a good guy, a total professional, and we wish him luck. It’s just that we are moving towards a more female-based audience, and Mikey fit us better when we were playing harder rock.”

The move to play more pop-rock by Soft Cell and No Doubt has clearly benefited the other two full-time DJs at KFMB-FM, Chris Cantore (mornings) and Robin Roth (mid-days).

The big story in the June Nielsen ratings released last week was that the Cantore morning show beat the DSC show (named for founders Dave Rickards, Shelly Dunn and Cookie Chainsaw Randolph) on iHeartMedia's KGB 101.5 FM in the lucrative 25-54 age demo.

DSC represents the last of the highly paid morning show ensembles that once included the Jeff and Jer show. DSC is now in its 30th year on the local airwaves, first appearing in 1990 on KGB.

KFMB boss Mier y Teran says it didn’t hurt that Cantore gets daily on-air cross promotion exposure with live drop-ins on the Channel 8 and CW San Diego/Channel 6 morning shows. He also says the billboards put up promoting Cantore with his surf van didn’t hurt. “This isn’t rocket science, by the way. It’s all about the marketing and content. And Chris is just a likable, relevant, transparent guy who happens to do a radio show.”

Cantore, who worked mornings at 91X, FM-94/9 and KPRI, was not on the commercial radio airwaves when KFMB brought him out of radio retirement last summer to replace DSC when DSC left KFMB to rejoin KGB.

KFMB 100.7 FM is currently looking for a permanent replacement for Esparza in the afternoons.