San Diego sports personality Scott Kaplan, radio talk-show host of “Kaplan & Crew,” heard weekday afternoons on XEPRS 1090-AM, The Mightier 1090, can now be seen on weeknight TV.
Cox Communications’ regional cable channel, called YurView, is airing segments from that day’s radio show from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. The TV show, called “Kaplan & Crew Tonight,” also includes appearances by Kaplan’s radio show co-hosts John Browner and Alex Padilla.
Kaplan has worked in San Diego radio since 2001, including 16 years with 1090-AM, previously known as The Mighty 1090. The station went off the air in April 2019, after a dispute over leasing fees for the Tijuana-based transmitter. Kaplan then resorted to hosting a podcast from his Solana Beach home.
In August 2020, the radio station was re-launched with Kaplan as the station’s anchor personality. The rebirth of 1090-AM was led by advertising agency owner Bill Hagen of Out The Window Advertising of Flagstaff, Ariz. With the 50,000-watt signal, 1090-AM can be heard as far north as Santa Barbara.
“We are stoked to add TV as a distribution platform,” Kaplan said in a statement to Times of San Diego. “Two years ago, we were heard exclusively on radio, then we evolved into a podcast broadcasting on terrestrial radio and now cable TV. I am excited to share with the Cox viewers our brand of sports and life talk. Thankfully, my man Bill Hagen revived 1090, who has been instrumental in our growth, and getting us onto televisions throughout the mega market.”
“Kaplan & Crew Tonight” can be seen on Cox’s YurView Channel 4 in San Diego and Santa Barbara and on Channel 118 in Orange County and Palos Verdes. YurView is also available to San Diego Spectrum cable TV viewers on Channel 4.
“The idea to do a TV show actually started before we put 1090 back on the air last year,” said Hagen, radio station operator. “Cable TV has a tremendous reach in SoCal and The Mightier 1090 is very excited to partner with Cox Media and YurView on this production. We will reach households throughout Southern California with this new show.”
“Cox has a long history of carrying programming that is hyper-local and highlights the people, places and events in our local communities, and we’re excited to bring the best of Kaplan & Crew to YurView for our customers,” said Sam Attisha, senior VP and regional manager for Cox Communications in California.
Consumer Attorneys Honor Voice of San Diego’s Sara Libby
Sara Libby, managing editor of Voice of San Diego, a local news website, has been named Media Person of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, a professional group of trial lawyers.
Libby was recognized for overseeing VOSD news stories that exposed wrongdoing and compelled change. Over the past year, VOSD has posted stories on such topics as police surveillance practices, disclosure of death certificates of coronavirus victims, rules for flying drones over dense metro areas, school district financial scandals and enforcement reforms at the Metropolitan Transit System.
In her acceptance speech, Libby said, “Many people see these types of stories and investigations as negative, but I don’t see it that way. I think revealing our greatest failures and shortcomings is a profoundly optimistic exercise, because it comes from a place of believing that we can do better. And the only way to do better is to wrap your mind about what the problem is.”
Public Invited to San Diego Press Club’s Vaccine Hesitancy Webinar
The San Diego Press Club will host an online, on-the-record panel discussion with public health experts from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14. The public and news media members are invited to attend and ask questions. To register for the webinar, visit www.sdpressclub.org.
Speakers will include Dr. Susan Bailey, president, American Medical Association; Dr. Wilma Wooten, director of public health services, county Health and Human Services Agency; and Andrea Lopez-Villafana, reporter, The San Diego Union-Tribune. The moderator will be Susan Taylor, external affairs director, Scripps Health.
Discussion topic will include reasons for vaccine hesitancy, the challenge of communicating to diverse audiences, how to be part of the solution, the role of journalists and communicators and sourcing.
CalMatters recently reported that a recent survey from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 14 percent of adult respondents said they would “definitely not get the vaccine.” Another 7 percent said they “probably” wouldn’t. That suggests that one in five Californians need some convincing.
There are no state plans to mandate universal vaccination, according to CalMatters. In California some health care workers and first responders, who were given priority for shots, have declined the opportunity. A March report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post said only 52 percent of health care workers said they had received a shot.
PRSA Offering Free Advice to Nonprofits
The Public Relations Society of America’s San Diego-Imperial Counties chapter will host “Quality Time with PR Minds,” its annual outreach to help nonprofits with their communication goals, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 15 over Zoom.
At the event, PSAR members will offer free one-on-one advice to representatives of local nonprofits. The chapter said it is hoping to match two or three PSAR members with each participating nonprofit for up to 90 minutes of free consultation.
PSAR officials also said its members claim this is one of their favorite annual events because it’s an opportunity to ue their expertise to help raise awareness of the greater good happening in the San Diego nonprofit community. For more information, visit www.prsasdic.org, or contact Staci Reidinger at staci.reidinger@gmail.com.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.