SAN FRANCISCO
-03-24-'09
12: 39 PM PST
CITADEL BROADCASTING is close to filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and many of it's broadcast properties, which include the ABC Radio Network, and locally, KGO Radio, (AM 810) have weary personnel anxiously awaiting it's fate. For the fate of Citadel could have a significant impact om some of it's more popular and higher-paid on-air talent.
The Las Vegas-based corp., whose Chairman of the Board and CEO, Fareed Suleman, has been mocked as "FaGreed" Suleman by industry wags, was removed off the NASDAQ board and it's stock has been relegated to "penny stock" status. Along with the network and KGO, it owns several stations in big markets like WABC in NY and KABC in Los Angeles.
Although several of those stations employ morning and evening talk-hosts making high, six-figure incomes, and in some cases, more than that amount, (Ronn Owens of KGO, for example, here in the Bay Area) and possess "personal services" contracts, the question of their compensation status is a source of industry intrigue when the filing becomes official.
Numerous phone calls to Suleman's office were not returned. According to most analysts, the question is not a matter of if Citadel goes under, but when.
In February, KGO laid off several prominent on-air personnel, including longtime East-bay reporter, Greg Edmunds, afternoon-news anchor Greg Jarrett, and evening producer Harry Hall.
A few weeks back, Mickey Luckoff, VP and GM of the SF talkie, held a backroom meeting with several of the station's key personnel, and reportedly told them "not to worry" about any more layoffs in spite of parent's Citadel status.
In an unrelated, but under the circumstances, poor case of timing, in the recent Arbitron January book, KGO was overtaken by rival all-news KCBS (AM 740, FM, 106.9) and it's morning news pounded KGO's duo of Ed Baxter and Jennifer Jones. It was significant, because KGO has dominated the overalls for 30 years; more importantly, KCBS edged the talkie in the advertiser-friendly A25-54 demo. Luckoff dismissed the numbers to Ben Fong-Torres of the SF Chronicle in his "radio waves" column as insignificant, saying KGO in effect doesn't pay much attention to "monthlies"; nevertheless, the fact that KGO got beat by it's longtime rival in the heavily competitive morning news war, was topic-A in local media circles.
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DRUDGE REPORT is a popular news site on the Internet, along with Yahoo, CNN.COM, and AOL, but Mr. Drudge's partners and affiliates, including Britebart, had one of their most embarrassing moments during the Oakland Police Officer tragedy.
When the story began to gain more ominous last Saturday afternoon, there was no link to it on the site. As the evening progressed into the night when it was confirmed that at least three officers had been gunned down and were dead, the Drudge site still had no mention of the story, even as CNN, Fox News.com, and almost all major news sites on-line were reporting the events unfolding in Oakland.
Drudge finally posted a link on early Sunday morning.
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MEDIA NOTES: ABC Radio freelance newsman, George Weber, who was stabbed repeatedly and murdered in his Brooklyn apartment, apparently knew his killer. The NY Post reports that Weber may have been the victim of a grisly "sex-slay". Weber worked at KGO in the late 80's...Several Bay Area TV stations are said to be considering airing the funeral of the Oakland Police officers, set to take place at the Oracle Arena on Friday...KSFO Morning host Lee Rodgers returned to the airwaves last week, after a nearly month-long bout of double pneumonia...
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