Darren Smith returns to San Diego airwaves

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of notable stories in the world of San Diego sports. The Chargers left San Diego. The Padres signed two historic free agent contracts. And there’s been just a small amount of kerfuffle over local stadium projects (Ed note: Kerfuffle has not been small in any way).

For many, the shutdown of the “Mighty” 1090 AM was a development nearly on par with those more high-profile stories. For decades, 1090 was pretty much the central hub of local talk sports radio, until, one day, it wasn’t.

Besides the disruption this shutdown might have incurred on the listening habits of local drivers, the sudden closing of 1090 meant that one local talk host was without a job. Long noted for his focus on Padres-related topics—even before that football team left town—Darren Smith was a fixture in San Diego radio for over a decade.

As of three days ago, that fixture has been reinstalled.

Smith will now be at the controls of a coveted midday market slot—this time at Fox-affiliated XTRA 1360 sports. Smith will be assuming the 12pm-3pm slot previously held by Nick Hardwick and Jon Schaeffer; per this announcement, Hardwick will move into a more football-centric role with the station.

We at Gaslamp Ball welcome back one of local media’s most devoted followers of the hometown team, and hope that the next decade brings him the opportunity to cover the next era of winning Padres baseball.