KCBS: Best Radio in SF Bay Area for "News, Sports, 'Trafiic and Weather Together'

While perusing my Facebook page last Saturday afternoon, I had KCBS on in the background, as I usually do when spending idle time perusing the popular social networking site.

As anchor Janice Wright took it back from a weather report, suddenly the first news broke about some "police activity" near the Eastmont Town Center in Oakland. Nothing unusual; I continued my Facebook chit-chat and went about my way.

Suddenly the news became more ominous. Wright reported that at least two Oakland Police officers had been shot and the area around 74TH ave. and MacArthur blvd had been cordoned off. The officers condition was not immediately known, but Wright indicated that the scene was described as chaotic by an OPD official. Wright stated that a reporter was on their way to the scene.

Within an hour, street reporter Tim Ryan filed a report from the scene that indeed two officers were in grave condition after being shot during a traffic stop, and that over 200 officers from the Oakland Police, Alameda County Sheriff's Dept., CHP, and BART had cordoned off an area and were looking for a lone shooter believed to be involved in the incident.

Hours later, anchor Susan Kennedy took the controls as the events in East Oakland became more dire and what began as a "routine traffic stop" suddenly would evolve into the eventual deaths of 4 Oakland Police officers.

KCBS was the FIRST and only radio outlet on the Oakland tragedy, essentially going wire-to-wire on the story, broadcasting the first police briefing in its entirety all the way late into the evening when the news was confirmed at 9 PM that all four officers were dead; one, brain-dead, but still on life support.

To it's credit, KCBS stayed on the story, and in spite of all the fluctuations and rumors regarding the conditions of the officers early on, the all-news outlet pulled off a spectacular display of on-the-spot reporting, from beginning to end.

It's the type of story Bay Area listeners have become accustomed to as KCBS has solidified itself as the best source for news 24/7. While KCBS was reporting the on-going events in Oakland, KGO was running the Bob Brinker financial show. Incredibly, it wasn't until late into the afternoon, that KGO's news insert at 30 past the hour mentioned the Oakland story. Even more jarring was their decision to continue regular programming, as Michael Finney did his consumer show from 4 until 7 PM. KGO only did top-of-the-hour updates and on their bottom-hour fillers.

This is what makes KCBS stand out; no matter what time of the day, weekday, weekend, KCBS has a steady stream of news outlets, most notably it's FM simulcast at 106.9, and also it's news-heavy Internet site, kcbs.com.

The Infinity station is celebrating it's 100-year history, and appropriately enough, just overtook it's rival, news-talk KGO, (810 AM) in the monthly January Arbitron book; KGO has been in the top spot for over 30 years; more notable, KCBS beat KGO in the highly competitive morning news, albeit slightly, and was particularly strong in the A25-54 demo, which advertisers covet.

The station has a strong morning team with anchors Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor from 5: 30 until 9, and another steady afternoon duo of Jeff Bell and Patti Reising. In the mix of news, traffic and sports is a steady stream of interesting CBS contributors like Charles Osgood of the "Osgood Report", health news from Dr. Emily Sinay, Narsai David's food news, and Jan Wahl, who covers movies and entertainment. KCBS has great, insightful takes on both local and national politics with the Chronicle's Phil Matier and Washington insider Marc Sandalow.

In the Sports dept., KCBS is even stronger with the talented and versatile Steve Bitker in the morning and Hal Ramey doing snappy, biting reports on the afternoon news. KCBS also has the benefit of John Madden's commentary in the morning, where the NBC football analyst converses with Bunger and Taylor on the news of the day. In addition, weekend sports anchor Joe Salvatore gives a nice, spirited update twice an hour.

The best thing about KCBS is it's consistency. It resembles KTVU's approach to it's 10 o'clock News. No-nonsense reporting, very little idle chit-chat, and extremely airy, lucid, well-written news reporting at it's best, without any theatrics. That element is most telling during weekend, late-night, and early morning reporting as anchors Dave Padilla, Janice Wright, Susan Kennedy and veteran Steve Little deliver the news without any unnecessary verbal pitter-patter; it's news, concise and up-to-the-minute, delivered by some of the best radio broadcasters in the biz.

One of the delights during the wee hours of the morning is long-time Bay Area anchor, Dave McQueen, whose signature voice sounds like a reassuring, professor from radio 1-A. "Best Pipes" in the world, said longtime media analyst Paul Stern.

All in all, the beginning of 2009 has been very kind to KCBS as the station validates itself as the best source for news in the Bay Area.

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Michael Savage is celebrating his 15TH year as host of TRN'S syndicated, "Savage Nation", heard locally on "Talk 910--KNEW) from 3- 6PM. "Talkers Magazine" recently listed Savage, (real name, "Michael Weiner") as the third "most important" radio talk-show host in the country.

While Savage occasionally goes overboard with a combination of off-the-cuff' shtick and bizarre monologues, his show often is a hilarious three hours of unpredictable rants, insanely funny, albeit "out-of-the-loop" analysis that borders on one cringing, but definitely keeps you listening.

Savage's politics is generally to the right of 'Attila the Hun', but his humor and banter is undeniably entertaining and occasionally brilliant. When's the last time you heard a guy with a Brooklyn accent and PhD conduct a biting indictment of the Bush administration, all the while playing a Frank Sinatra tune in the background, and asking listeners if he should order Chinese food or Italian for dinner?

Savage is on over 300 stations in the country; a guilty pleasure for me; just don't tell anyone I actually listen to him, OK?

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Rich Lieberman

03-25-'09 10: 09 AM PST