On "Chronicle Live"; Raj Mathai; KGO's Wattenburg asks caller if he masturbates; '7Live' in the tank? Bay Area media notes

I was a guest on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area's "Chronicle Live" program Friday evening, appearing with local broadcaster, Rick Tittle and Comcast writer, Ann Killion.

Host Greg Papa had a segment on whether it would be blasphemy if the 49ers were to make the playoffs. I said no. Killion said it would be a national tragedy. I mentioned that anything could happen in the playoffs even if the 49ers are real cruddy, (which they are,) and although some fans secretly wish they'd lose out, some fans will still root for the team.

Killion disagreed.

We had a decent back and forth. I wanted to say more, but don't mess with Papa. It's this type of energy that I enjoy seeing on the program, a la a local version of ESPN's "Sports Reporters." It also makes for better viewing too, as opposed to the usual innocuous sports minutiae.

**NBC Bay Area's soon-to-be newsy, Raj Mathai, gets some flack here and beyond for his style and looks. Mathai is a solid talent and should do well making the transition from sports to news, (He'll be doing some sports content for Comcast and will have a significant presence at the Olympics for both Comcast and NBC)

Mathai's "pretty boy" look is not indicative of a guy who takes his gig ultra seriously and performs well. He's also a hard worker and a helluva interviewer. He'll be fine.

**KGO's cranky genius, Bill Wattenburg, was griping about the absurdity of the military's "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" policy, (which was repealed by the Senate Saturday) Sunday night. Wattenburg, who is against "DADT", took a call from a listener opposed to the senate action and became irritated. (That's not a surprise)

What followed was.

"Hey fella, do you still masturbate?" The guy didn't miss a beat, acknowledged he did, and that was that. Wattenburg was trying to make a point about reality. I'm not going into the specifics, but I gotta hand it to him, (rim shot!)

**A KGO-TV staffer about 3-4PM:  "7-Live has plateaued at a poor ratings mark that didn't even match that of 'View-From-The-Bay', and they're stuck w/ the show since they signed it for 2 years.  They don't care for 7-Live and say regular folks are complaining it's just a commercial for the 5 pm news."

NOTES: Karel, the openly gay talk host on Green 960, used to elicit "let's listen" status in this corner, but his show has become stale and predictable. Every day is another reference to yesterday's comments and rants....How done is 7Live? KGO already has a judge show in place once the plug is pulled...Speaking of KGO, morning reporter, Teresa Garcia was recently let go. An insider take: "She's blogging and doing the usual-telling people it was 'her decision' to take a sabbatical  while she has her baby.  Instead, she was actually let go for what we call, "time issues" because many times we were to go to her and she'd walked away and wasn't there, or showed up at the very last minute pissing people off.  She's a much better actual reporter than newsreader Wang, (Janelle), but if she's hard to find, she's done."  ...Yes, most NBC o and 's will outsource their sports from Comcast because it will save wads of money and in today's world, that's huuuuge...

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