MarketInk: Radio Host Reflects On Aztecs' Historic Game On Saturday

By Rick Griffin, Times of San Diego

April 3, 2023

After spending 15 seasons as a play-by-play radio broadcaster for university athletic teams and minor league baseball teams on the East Coast, Jon Schaeffer arrived in San Diego in the summer of 2017 for a career switch that included hosting pre-game, half-time and post-game shows for San Diego State University Aztecs basketball and football games.

Over the past six years, he has covered a lot of Aztecs hoops action on iHeart San Diego’s KGB-AM San Diego Sports 760.

This past weekend, Schaeffer was in Houston to watch the Aztecs play as one of the “Final Four” teams in the NCAA’s post-season tournament. For San Diego State, it was the first time in the school’s history for their men’s basketball teams to advance to the Final Four.

On Saturday, a jump shot at the final buzzer by guard Lamont Butler gave the Aztecs a stunning 72-71 win over Florida Athletic University. The dramatic victory sent the Aztecs (32-6) to the championship game against the heavily favored University of Connecticut (30-8) on Monday, April 3 at Houston’s NRG Stadium. The UConn Huskies have won four NCAA championships, the last in 2014.

“There are 363 men’s college basketball teams in Division One, and any time that one of them can make it to the Final Four, it’s amazing and remarkable,” Schaeffer told Times of San Diego. “Then, to win the semi-final game and play for the national title on Monday night is truly incredible. The most remarkable stat I saw after the win over FAU was San Diego State is the first team to hit a buzzer beater in a Final Four game when trailing. Just amazing.”

Schaeffer believes the Aztecs will remain one of the nation’s best college basketball teams for years to come.

“The Aztecs coaches and players have been working for the past two decades to put themselves in this position,” Schaeffer said. “They’ve been consistently good for a long time. I believe it will remain that way for many years to come.

“That’s because there’s continuity in the head coach position with only one coaching change in the last quarter century. Also, they recruit the right type of high-caliber, defense-first players. Now with this season’s success, they can continue to build on that approach.”

In addition to Aztecs shows, Schaeffer also co-hosts with Jim Russell a weekday afternoon sports talk show heard from 3 to 6 p.m. on KGB-AM. The “Jon and Jim Show” has aired since January 2022. Schaeffer also is in his fourth season of co-hosting “The Wrap-Up Show,” a 60-minute podcast with Russell that follows San Diego Padres games.

“Since arriving in San Diego, it’s been an incredible career experience for me to watch and talk about the Aztecs,” Schaeffer said. “I believe right now will be remembered as a golden era for San Diego sports. It’s certainly an amazing, exciting time to be a San Diego State fan.”

Union-Tribune Introduces DIY Advertising Platform

The San Diego Union-Tribune has announced a partnership with Ads On Tap, a digital ad-buying technology, resulting in the launch of SDUTonTap.com, a do-it-yourself, online media buying platform.

U-T officials said SDUTonTap.com can help advertisers select their target audience according to age, income levels, education, interests and geography. Then, businesses can access the U-T’s suite of marketing products, including digital newsletters, digital inserts, social media, a daily e-newspaper and the print newspaper. The ad-buying process is similar to Google Ads and Facebook Ad Manager, but the impact is greater as the U-T is San Diego’s largest media company, a statement said.

“We are excited to partner with Ads On Tap to give local businesses a self-service, media-buying platform that measures our audience and demographics and then matches those criteria to our diverse suite of marketing assets,” said Paul Ingegneri, vice president of The San Diego Union-Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.

“In today’s age of emerging platforms, we have more marketing options and reach than ever. Businesses ready to grow now have a simple way to access those powerful assets with a web-based, media-buying tool they can use anytime, anywhere.”

A statement said Ads On Tap, formed in Australia in 2021, was developed to help advertisers access customers in ways similar to search and social platforms. The platform, released in February 2023, is offered to media companies with no upfront costs or licensing fees.

“Ads On Tap has forged a global reputation for helping local advertisers access more customers and grow via the power of local media,” said Chris Edis, founder and CEO of Ads On Tap. “With that obsession firmly guiding us, it is only natural that we are now the first to provide local businesses with a simple and immediate access point to those valuable audiences via the on Tap platform.”

J. Walcher Communications Adds 3 New Clients

San Diego public relations and marketing agency J. Walcher Communications reports the addition of three new clients, including the Comic-Con Museum, Monarch School and San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center.

Located in Balboa Park, the Comic-Con Museum showcases comics and pop culture arts through rotating exhibits, programs and special events.

Monarch School in Downtown San Diego is the only K-12 public school in the country designed to educate youths experiencing homelessness.

PIC, a partnership between the San Diego Foundation, County of San Diego and The Brookings Institute, is conducting research and policy analysis to solve some of the region’s biggest problems.

Founded in 2001, JWC offers media and community relations, social and digital media, content creation, branding, messaging, crisis communications, media training and advertising.

San Diego Press Club Presents Webinar on Arts Writing

The San Diego Press Club will present “Arts Writing: Beyond the Press Release,” a free, live webinar over Zoom featuring arts journalists from 7 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 12. The public is invited to attend.

Topics will include developing unique angles, conducting effective interviews and crafting captivating narratives, as well as the latest trends and best practices in arts journalism.

Panel members include: Seth Combs, contributing writer to The San Diego Union-Tribune covering the visual arts and literary scene; Elizabeth Rookledge, editor of Herein Journal, an online publication about contemporary art, and an art history instructor at the University of San Diego; Kristen Nevarez Schweizer, a writer for Vanguard Culture, an arts organization. Moderator will be Susanna Peredo Swap, founder of Vanguard Culture and San Diego Press Club board member.

To register for the webinar, visit www.sdpressclub.org. The webinar will be recorded and a web link will appear on the Press Club website and Press Club YouTube channel for viewing at a later date. The webinar is part of the Press Club’s longstanding “Nuts & Bolts” educational series, which is part of the Press Club’s professional development program.

Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.

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