GIVING IT THAT XTRA EFFORT : San Diego Station Establishes a Base in Redondo Beach and Tries to Reach L.A. Sports Audience

As his voice boomed across the dining area, Steve Hartman drew curious stares from patrons at Grandstands Sports Bar in Redondo Beach.

“Welcome to the midday sports extra on the mighty 690,” Hartman said into a radio microphone while diners, unable to hear any of the broadcast except Hartman’s voice, munched away.

It was barely past noon. A hundred miles away in a studio on the outskirts of San Diego, Brad Cesmat was about to join Hartman on the air for their sports talk program on XTRA (690).

The Monday-through-Friday show is broadcast from noon to 4 p.m. on the powerful AM station, which has a 50,000-watt transmitter in Tijuana.

Hartman, a square-jawed former public relations director of the Raiders, has co-anchored the show from the bar since Dec. 3. Cesmat is at XTRA studios on Pacific Highway near Interstate 5. The show, which features interviews and commentary, has been on the air since Sept. 15.

“So far I have been very pleased with the results,” XTRA sports producer Chris Visser said.

Three years ago, XTRA had a golden-oldies music format. But it was struggling to keep pace with ratings posted by its sister station, contemporary FM rocker XTRA, better known as 91X. Executives of Noble Broadcasting, which owns the stations, decided to try an all-talk format on the AM station. They followed the lead of WFAN--a New York station that features an all-sports format--and decided to air several hours of sports talk programming.

Enter Hartman, who had been doing a sports talk show with Bud Furillo on tiny Redondo Beach station KFOX (93.5).

Hartman, 32, who attended Taft High in Woodland Hills, was teamed with Cesmat, 28, a native of San Diego.

Hartman, who said he never considered a career in radio before Furillo offered him a job two years ago, said he met Cesmat only once before the show went on the air.

“They just sort of threw us in a studio, and, boom (we did the show),” he said.

The show was done from XTRA’s San Diego studios for the first six weeks, but station officials wanted an L.A. base, too. That way they could hopefully tap L.A.’s advertising base and attract more sports personalities to appear on broadcasts.

Hartman, who has lived in Redondo Beach for the past three years, said he spent “each week sleeping on a friend’s couch in San Diego,” waiting to relocate. XTRA officials considered locations in Westwood and Beverly Hills, but then settled on Grandstands, which is located inside the Sheraton Hotel.

Hartman lives in an apartment across the street from Grandstands, which is located at the corner of Beryl Street and Harbor Drive.

XTRA’s booming signal can be received throughout much of the Western United States. It is the flagship station for the Kings, San Diego Chargers and San Diego Sockers of the Major Soccer League.

The station is also trying to beef up its live coverage of college basketball by picking up feeds from around the country. The station carried the UCLA-Arizona basketball game, picking up the feed from an Arizona station.

Hartman also moves around. He did part of the show from Tampa, Fla., last week, the site of Super Bowl XXV. And Hartman has carte blanche to move around L.A. He would like to see the program do more live on-the-spot interviews.

“Steve Hartman’s presence in L.A. is what is most striking,” Visser said. “This allows us to interview L.A. sports personalities. . . . Quite frankly, XTRA does not envision itself as being solely a San Diego sports talk station. We can’t survive, plus, L.A. is a great sports market.”

Compared to the inordinate amount of cluttered sports memorabilia at Grandstands, XTRA’s facilities seem stark. Hartman works in a corner of the bar, inside a boxing ring where Yogi Berra’s famous saying, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” is painted on a wall.

A small control box, a pair of telephones and tiny speaker is about all the equipment Hartman needs, save for a microphone and pair of headsets, to interact with Cesmat in San Diego. Hartman is basically on his own.

“I play both host and engineer,” he said while setting up equipment for a recent show.

The move into Grandstands was supposed to benefit both businesses, but XTRA has been having difficulty persuading L.A. sports personalities to visit the show.

“It has not been the way I envisioned,” Hartman said. “It’s not easy to get people to come here. It’s something the station is going to have to think about. If we are not getting the people from here like we thought, we will have to make adjustments.”

Hartman says that may lead to the hiring of an assistant who would produce interviews from Los Angeles.

And the bar’s lunch business has yet to pick up.

“But it takes time,” said bartender Kent Knudsen, a nine-year veteran. “The radio station is giving us exposure and it gives us the type of people we want. Sports people generally travel in groups to things and that’s what we want.”

The plan is for the broadcasts to be moved to the bar’s outdoor patio this summer.

Overall, Visser says the show has been doing fairly well.

“The trends are very encouraging,” he said. “As opposed to a year ago. . . . Our audience is up 50% already.”

The station has provided toll-free numbers for callers, and that has boosted calls from L.A. listeners, Hartman and Visser said. About half the callers come from L.A., many of those from car phones.

“I like to give the listener the feeling of what (the pros) are going through each day,” Hartman said. “I’m a fan. Cesmat and I disagree on whether you have to be a fan to do talk radio. He says you shouldn’t be, but I disagree with him. I think the most effective sports broadcasters are fans.”

San Diego radio/television columnists have said that Hartman is a fan, but only of L.A. teams. A recent press release by the Sheraton Hotel chain referred to Hartman as “Hollywood Hartman.”

“I love L.A.,” Hartman said. “And we make fun of the fact on the air that I attended UCLA. All I can do is put across the knowledge I have come across over the years. In radio, knowledge is more important. You better know what you are talking about if you plan to carry a talk show for four hours.”