The impending sale of Citadel to Cumulus is a few months away, but from a well-placed local broadcast source: "You want ugly?"--'This is going to be ugly.'"
"You have NO IDEA how 'these guys' operate."
The "these guys" are the Dickey Brothers. Lewis "Tricky" Dickey is the CEO of Cumulus. Dickey is a straight numbers guy. Calling him a 'bean counter' would be charitable.
Of course, locally, one of Citadel's prized properties is KGO Radio, currently in free fall, but still making money even though much of its cachet has long entered the broadcast black hole. Everybody and anybody over at 900 Front has resumes all over the town and beyond.
The only relevant and profitable entity is Ronn Owens in the morning. And even King Ronn's status is iffy. (Owens' personal-services contract is up in January, 2013.)
KGO straddlers like to smack me with my prediction a few months ago that the afternoon news would be gonno. They point out that not only is the PM news still intact, but that "we've added a noon news."
Yeah, KGO trolls dream on.
A little 'splainin: First off, Citadel's tightrope over its SF property was limited, (due to the early stages of the Cumulus potential buyout;) as such, the continuance of the PM news is merely but an eventual cease. Clearly, long-term, afternoon news will be bye-bye at KGO. It's far cheaper to have a talk show, (like KABC and WABC,) than it is to employ 50 or so people for a PM news show that is getting killed by KCBS.
And the "Noon News?" Again, KGO's trolls fell for that one. It's temporary at best. You don't believe me? Then why does nearly everyone in that building have resumes floating out there? Coincidence? You be the judge.
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there is no cure for Cumulitus.
ReplyDeleteDon't understand. The Bay Area AM/FM programming is garbage. Hardly anything worth listening to. How many times do you want to hear those recycled 80's pop songs? Not interested in syndicated talk radio out of New York, LA or Texas. Do the conglomerates own all the frequencies? Why can't the future Taliafero's and Owen's start something new, fresh and locally owned? And I don't want to go to bed or wake up to CBS drones.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how the telecom munications act of 1996 has completely ruined local television and radio. That one act destroyed a whole industry- and has helped the music industry to crater.
ReplyDeleteInstead of helplessly whining- people should start to recognize that we need to support a movement to regulate industry and curb mergers and acquisitions when they harm the public. It is sad.
I listened to KGO on my way across the Sunol Grade tonight and was so underwhelmed, I returned to the CDs in my changer that I've heard a million times. Make that a billion times!
ReplyDeleteIf they're gonna go with syndicated material, they should at least go for quality. Red Eye Radio (yeah, I know it's LA) is well done and Doug is an even handed guy. We've heard for months that Imus was coming but it never happened.
Face the facts. Ronn Owens and Ray Taliaferro and Gene Burns are dinosaurs. And, you can forget Karel. We don't all live in the Castro.
You're like the broken clock...sure to be right at least twice a day. Keep banging that drum and eventually, maybe it'll be years from now, you can say "you read it HERE first".
ReplyDelete