5-Year-Old TV Magazine Publishes Its Last Issue

Citing cash-flow problems and a drop in circulation, Tuned In, the 5-year-old television and entertainment magazine published by a former football star and at one time owned by San Diego’s largest home builder, has gone out of business.

Publisher Johnny Rodgers, a former San Diego Chargers running back, said Thursday that his decision to cease publication was due in part to increased competition in the television-listing publishing business and because his company owes creditors at least $500,000.

Tuned In’s receivables total between $350,000 and $400,000, Rodgers said, but he admitted that most of those are long past due and likely uncollectable. The final edition was distributed last week.

“I feel depressed to a certain degree,” Rodgers, a former Heisman Trophy winner, said at a press conference in the magazine’s Old Town offices. “It’s the first time I’ve openly admitted failure or defeat.”

Nonetheless, Rodgers announced that he would open two new businesses in the old Tuned In offices--one that will produce promotional calendars for the Chargers and another that will be an athlete-management company.

The weekly, 38,000-circulation magazine had been struggling financially in recent months, with Rodgers reportedly attempting to raise capital from outside sources.

Twenty-five employees in Tuned In’s telemarketing department were laid off last week. The remaining 20 employees were told by Rodgers late Thursday that the magazine would fold. The surviving staff include Rodgers, a bookkeeper and a secretary.

Since its inception, Tuned In’s finances have been a source of public speculation and interest. On Thursday, Rodgers confirmed that Tawfiq Khoury, president of Pacific Scene, San Diego’s largest home builder, had put $2.5 million into the publication before Rodgers bought him out nearly two years ago.

Khoury is among those owed money by Tuned In, Rodgers said.

Khoury is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Asked what he thought his creditors might say when they discovered that he had closed one business and immediately opened another, Rodgers insisted that he would quickly pay off those creditors who are dependent on Tuned In to meet their own payrolls.

Tuned In’s reported overhead of about $100,000 a month “is not huge . . . for a weekly,” according to one Tuned In source. “They have good readership acceptance and respective circulation. But they have suffered from a lack of ad sales.”

When they began publishing Tuned In, Rodgers and Khoury believed that they could tap into the television-listing market as a local alternative to TV Guide by carrying cable-TV program information and stories about local celebrities. Circulation peaked at 50,000.

Since then, however, most daily newspapers, as well as TV Guide, have expanded their television-listing formats to include cable programming and features about television shows and personalities.

Rodgers said Thursday that the San Diego Union’s expansion of its Sunday TV section earlier this year “made it even more difficult” to remain in business.

A letter that offers the publishers of TV Guide, San Diego Magazine and San Diego Home/Garden Tuned In’s subscriptions list will be mailed Monday, Rodgers said.

Tuned In’s premiere issue was May 3, 1980, although it was then titled California Radio and TV News. Local television anchorman Michael Tuck was featured on the cover.