Traffic Radio’s Dated News Comes With a Tijuana Twist

The kindest thing that can be said about AM 530, the voice of California 78 in North County, is that there are no commercials. Plenty of static and a background of percussion and brass, but no commercials.

AM 530 sprang to life last December, advertised by transportation planners as a boon to travelers on North County’s crowded California 78, with 24-hour broadcasts on the status of construction along the east-west freeway as well as timely tips on the latest SigAlerts and how to avoid them.

Instead, the low-power transmitters along the 20-mile stretch drone out a repeating taped message, often with days-old information on construction closures and no news at all on traffic accidents or congestion. The station’s problems are compounded by the conflicting frequency of a powerful Tijuana station broadcasting music.

The Transportation Management Assn., a publicly funded North County agency that sponsored AM 530 and paid for two of its three low-power transmitters, has received a few complaints about the lack of information that the station is putting out and the lack of radio reception at points along 78.

Kevin Ham, a spokesman for the agency, concedes that the experiment in traffic information “still has some glitches in it” and blames the problems on the station’s youth and the lack of experience.

“This is the first such station in San Diego County,” Ham said, “and it’s only been operating since December.”

Ham pointed a critical finger at the state Department of Transportation for not activating a third transmitter that might have given Oceanside-area residents warning that 78 was under water around Jefferson Street in Oceanside during the heavy March rains. That was one of two significant traffic situations that the station has broadcast in its seven-month life span.

The Oceanside transmitter only recently went on the air and is still broadcasting a test message.

For the short spans in which AM 530 can be deciphered through the static and a heavy dose of Mexican salsa music, the Monday morning message said that there would be no new ramp closures Friday or over the weekend and that the Jefferson Street off-ramp from westbound 78 would be temporarily closed until Wednesday, July 24.

The taped information for the station is produced in the Old Town office of the Caltrans-California Highway Patrol Traffic Operation Center. Julie Carlin, who works in the office, said the project engineer for the massive 78 widening project is called daily to find out whether there are closures or expected traffic delays along the highway. If there are, the tape is changed.

As for the reports of highway accidents or hazards, Carlin said, the CHP has a method for interrupting the taped broadcast for current traffic problems. But that’s only happened twice in seven months.

CHP Officer Jackie Sturges said that “we don’t have any written guidelines on what to put out” on AM 530. “We listen to the scanners, and, if we hear something and can determine that it is a serious situation and can get concrete information on it, we put it out.

“Our main problem is that we cannot monitor speeds on Route 78,” Carlin said.

Most modern freeways have speed monitors built into their concrete paving that allows traffic reporters to announce that there is “slowing on Interstate 15 near Miramar Road” and “stop-and-go traffic at the I-5-805 split” without leaving their studios.

But 78 has no such modern features, Carlin said. The Traffic Operation Center is “flying blind” on guessing where the problems are or verifying phoned-in reports of traffic tie-ups on the North County artery.

“I don’t want to put out bad information,” Carlin explained. “It’s better not to put anything out than to put out something wrong.”

When the $38-million modernization of California 78 is completed by the end of 1993, the speed monitors will be in place, providing up-to-date information for the commuters who have survived the construction period.

But the interfering music from a new and powerful Tijuana radio station broadcasting on neighboring AM 540 could be an even more difficult problem to surmount. Jim Larsen, spokesman for CalTrans, said the Tijuana station already “has blown us off the air” at a second 530 AM traffic information station situated near the international border.

A CalTrans official contacted the Tijuana station management and asked them to tone down their signal, but so far there has been no improvement, Larsen said.

“We may have to move to another frequency,” Larsen said of the border traffic info station. “We hadn’t realized that the problem reached up to North County.”

More-powerful transmitters and more-frequent updating of information may resolve the problem for California 78’s AM 530, Larsen said, “but, with the rapid changes in the technology, we may be looking at computer-operated flashing signs or even satellite communications.”

Ham confesses that what they have is not what they wanted when they sponsored and funded AM 530. Directors of the North County Transportation Coalition, parent of the Transportation Management Assn., had expected an up-to-the-minute traffic status report for the beleaguered motorists along California 78. The board members are meeting this morning to air the problem and seek a few answers.

Larsen agrees that “a lot of money has gone into this, and so far it doesn’t seem to be working out very well. We intended to provide accurate traffic reports, and we’re distressed that it hasn’t come about. We’ll keep working on it.”

The station’s three transmitters cost more than $100,000.

For now, however, North County commuters will have to sit in traffic, wondering what’s ahead, listening to the repeated message about ramp closures or the lack of them, heavily spiced with salsa music and a lot of static.