Ronn Owens is still the king of the SF radio airwaves. After 35+ years at KGO, Owens, (9-Noon, M-F,) commands high ratings, still generates enough local and national buzz, and most importantly, (at least in Owens' case,) he makes money for the company.
Owens clearly still has the audio cachet intact, but lately, sounds sort of soft and jaded. Maybe three decades and new faces at 900 Front can take its toll.
Some of it isn't Owens fault.
His good buddy, (until it involved contract negotiations,) Mickey Luckoff split; although Luckoff was a royal pain, his loyalty and relationship with Owens was central to both men's success. Even a messy contractual dealing, (Owens won,) couldn't mess up the very close alliance.
Owens has also dealt with a number of key KGO people leaving the radio station and played a strong part in the departure of his longtime producer, Mark Silverman.
The latest mess? KGO's voluminous amount of commercial spots during the three hours Owens performs on the air. Between spots and news, there's more non-content then their there is content. Listeners are annoyed. I'm getting e-mail after e-mail that the new format is driving away many people.
In any event, Owens is signed through January, 2013. He's won a Marconi and is in the Radio Hall of Fame. He also still gets the A-list of guests plugging books and rocking the casbah. He recently attended a Giants game with Hugh Jackman. Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Phil Bronstein are buddies.
So even if Ronn Owens is going full-frontal into the last stages of the twilight of his career, he's doing it in style.
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it's ridiculous, he's actually on for about 20 minutes of the entire hour. not worth it for me to sit through all those newsbreaks and commercials.
ReplyDeleteAny guesstimates on what his 15 hours per week (spot load included) contributes to KGO's revenue and bottom lines? He's 17% of total weekday 6am-12M hours. I'm guessing he accounts for at least 25% of station revenue and a third of its cash flow. JW
ReplyDeleteI too have listened less and less to Ronn. When I hear a Sleep Train commercial coming, he's off for the rest of the day. Just cannot take it any more. (Same with Gil Gross and Dr. Scott Hyver. It drives me mad.)
ReplyDeletePlease elaborate on the Mark Silverman issue. And, how much $$ do you think Ronn makes yearly? Compared to the other hosts on the station?
Thanks!
He was at his best right before he tried (and failed) to simulcast his show in SF and LA, replacing sensationalist talk show host Michael Jackson (the old British one)there at KABC. His shows lost the "must see who's on Ronn's show today" vibe and now seem to either about world events (where Israel can do no wrong, hence his show known as "Air Israel") and the latest Bay Area stop for whomever is pimping their latest book. His shows now lack excitement and his preparation seems poor, compared to say a John Rothman or Gene Burns. He's probably helping Radnich's ratings with is dull shows.
ReplyDeleteEverybody has to make a living, but some of the talk show host endorsements bug me. Don't mind if they are legit and they actually patronize the advertiser, or if it's just a straight spot that doesn't imply personal endorsement. One that annoys me is John Rothmann's endorsement ad for a carpet dealer. He leaves the strong impression that he and his wife bought carpet from them, walking right up to the line of saying that but stopping just short. He talks about how they have been thinking about new carpet, how they visited the store and how impressed they were but doesn't say they bought anything. Pretty sleazy if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Palo Alto, it's been rumored in various places and mentioned here that Owens makes slightly above a million. Just guessing, but Gene Burns is probably less than half that for his M-F show. Maybe in the 400k range. However, Gene works his tail off doing commercials and his Saturday morning "Dining Around" show, for which he no doubt is paid substantially extra. Given his network background and mid-day shift, Gil Gross is probably above Burns but nowhere near Ronn.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad others have noticed the amount of commercials. I refer to it as KGO, commercial break 810 (in contrast to their old tagline KGO, newstalk 810). I for one love Ronn, I will miss him when he goes. Same goes for Dr Bill.
ReplyDeleteA couple of three sports observations = Speaking of Owenns 35 year run...The Damon Bruce show has jumped the Shark at the 4 or so year mark. Too many personality switches. Who is he?
ReplyDelete95.7 Scott Jackson sounds eegzactly(my father would say that-as Jackson does) like John Tesh. I can see-sort of,Jackson listening to his Tesh and Yanny with some Enya discs tossed in . Riverdance too?
Tim Kawakami's post of "The Giant pitching wont last forever" as flat out laughable. No,it won't. Neither will the earth and stars or universe as we know it.
Tim has a thing about inciting trades for no good earthly reason...
I’ve put Ronn Owens’ show in the same category as Radnich. They were once kings and they are now shells of their former selves. A previous poster is correct in pointing out the annoying huge gaps for commercial and news breaks. Why in the hell do they have a news spot at 9:20am after we’ve heard their God Damned news show from 6am until 9am? Unless there is a breaking news story we don’t need that news break at 9 f-ing 20 man! I usually listen to Ronn's intro and then tune out. More and more Democracy Now is where I go at 9am even though it is depressing as hell to hear REAL news events instead of the TMZ garbage KGO broadcasts.
ReplyDeleteIt is worse when that valley girl sounding chick Jennifer Jones Lee comes on to do the news spots at 9:20am. Hooorrribbbleee!
I used to really enjoy Ronn's show....not so anymore. In some ways, some of the commercials are a relief. He seems bitter, and really only seems to care about Israel and keeping HIS money. I find no "heart" in his program. I think he's spent too much time reading and hearing the praises of his friends (like you), and though he's always had a very high opinion of himself, in the last year it has become insufferable.
ReplyDeleteThat would be ok, if the "product" was high quality, but he just seems to be 'phoning it in' waiting for the contract to be over. I'm not sure management is the problem, only that I'm sure he doesn't get the daily stroking from the current management as he did from Mickey. If he were the 'old Ronn' he could do it without management bowing down to him. But he's content to just cash the paychecks, grumble to his friends, rely on same old same old, whining and acting snobby. Hey, these days very few people have the same working conditions they did 10 years ago. I'm sure there are many people that would welcome the "problems" of Ronn's job.
At least Gavin Newsome was hanging out with Ronn, rather than banging Ronn's wife!
ReplyDeleteI love how these political/celebrity phonies were going to see the giants at Candlestick. Oh wait, they weren't.
ReplyDeleteRonn is good when he is focused. Most of the time, he mails it in. People can call him the million dollar mailman. Most of the time, the old man is intellectual lazy and fat. He has no killer instinct, except for his cash, his elite friends, and playing on his latest kosher devices. Have you ever listen to his opinions? It is so self-centered. In summary, Ronn caters to the female audience and limo. liberals.
ReplyDelete*** Jennifer Lee Jones is a news anchor who does not know much. Her opinions are so irrelevant that it is insulting to the smart listeners.
*** During the afternoon news, the news readers spend too much time laughing. Bring back Mary Ellen Geist. Opps. I forgot that Ed had her fired, many years ago.
*** At the same time, the choice of news stories usually suck. Should we blame that decision on the current unqualified news director?
*** During the weekend, the staff does not do much. They read off the Chron. and the wire. Then they surf the web.
*** Rothmann is good when he talks about political moderate issues. Other than that, he just mails it in with his bias.
*** The best thing about KGO is Dr. Bill on the weekend. He is the smartest out of all of the hosts. I think quite highly of him.
Interestingly, some of the news staff (and other media sources) disliked him for political reasons. They will never be as smart as Dr. Bill and have his record of professional accomplishments. That is another story.
*** I hear their sales department is hurting like f--k.
*** Another reason why KGO sucks is that they have no competitive instinct. Look at the management and then the hosts. Their mind sets are the same. They are just intellectually fat and boring. Most of the time, they focused on feminine issues or non-significant news issues. No cutting edge in anything.
*** In conclusion, KGO has become so pathetic.
*** If you want to find info about the inside dirt w/ this station or others, sneak to their favorite watering hole. Quietly sit in the corner, sip your drink and listen to what some of them whispering to each other between drinks.
I watch KRON 4 instead of listening to Ronn Owens. It is more entertaining.
ReplyDelete@PaloAlto: Mark Silverman walked the plank because a Jerry Brown - Meg Whitman debate, heavily billboarded on-air by Owens, fell through at the last minute. See Rich's story on this: http://richliebermanreport.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-silverman-was-fired-by-kgos-ronn.html
ReplyDeleteyes , I too hate all those "FEMININE ISSUES" that those kgo hosts talk about all the time. What? did they think that over half the population (see basic societal demographics) was female or something? they must think that somehow american women care about foreclosures? debt-ceilings? war? peace? nuclear power? health care? education? ??? and of course we know that women don't care about any of that..right?
ReplyDelete@Lou,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. It's funny... when the debate was canceled I didn't hold it against Ronn. Never even occurred to me. Aren't egos funny?
Hey, Ronn re-grew his hair!
ReplyDeleteI have not even finished ripping them yet. The talk show hosts make garbage points. They rarely ever using statistics to support their arguments. All they do is make irrelevant political points. When a listener counters him or her, the host cuts them off. (Just like Bernie.)
ReplyDeletePat the weekend host does that alot.
In most cases, I do not get a shit. I know it is info-tainment. But this crap influenced the naives to believe their elitism's version of social liberal crap.
* * * Ronn needs his new hair to turn on his boxton-filled female fans.
* * * By looking at the host's background and their connections, you can determine where is their leanings and their bias. They do not remember what it is to be a hard working dirt- collared professional.
KGO and most of the news media plays the game of Go Along to Get Along.
* * * Readers and Listeners of the news media, you should hear the garbage that they say about you once the red light is off.
Gotta agree with the vast majority of posters. Owens sounds like he is just mailing it in. There is only one radio host I look forward to listening to on a daily basis with anticipation and it is Michael Savage (Gene Burns a close second). I disagree with Savage’s stance on 95% of issues but the son of a gun is entertaining as hell. There’s a host not mailing it an iota.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, narcissistic baffoons and juvenile louts have been hired by corporate bean counters such as Cumulus' Lou Dickey, and the American Public is a much more poorly informed because of it.
ReplyDeleteUntil apathetic Americans rise up and demand through their lawmakers that companies such as Cumulus, Infinity, and Clear Channel give back some of the properties to people who represent responsible companies who are vested in the community, and will run them to serve the public, we're going to continue to be inundated by what Rich so eloquently refers to as ' this drek.'
Rich, your rants sometimes go over the top, but I unfortunately find myself agreeing with many of your assessments. I have been sadly disappointed to see a once proud profession that I've been lucky to have worked within for many years get hijacked by these 'big box' companies who couldn't give a rat's ass about serving the American public or providing a worthwhile service to the community.
When you have loud, dysfunctional, uneducated, unhappy people filling the air with
'junk food' nonsense that is of little value to anyone, it's a sign that our culture is in deep
trouble. To be well informed we need a media that serves its purpose and keeps us up on all of the things that happen in a free society.
I can't really blame the young, shrill, cynical
folks who have taken many of what used to be the good jobs. Most of them are getting paid peanuts
(the 'brands' that run these broadcast operations don't care about quality anyway..all
they care about is a fat bottom line), and are more than happy to work for virtually nothing anyway, just so they can get their 'five minutes of fame." So instead of hiring journalists who want to tell the stories about what's going on, and professional broadcasters, who are educated, curious and worldly, they foist these semi-educated, unprofessional, semi talented boobs who weren't good enough to make it in show business upon us. Many are completely uninterested in journalism or being objective, and they would rather make rash and stupid observations that would have gotten them laughed off the air 20 years ago. Many unfortunately must have also not received enough attention from their parents, so they want attention any way they can get it, and because they can't make it in the movies or on stage they figure they can go 'the cheap route' with broadcasting to get some noteriety. They don't even realize that they're being exploited!
Until the American public says: "Im mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" we're going to continue to see more of this nonsense, and the public will become less and less educated. When people rely on "Comedy Central" (which is a great program, but shouldn't be considered a 'news' show) or bloviating fools such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox news as their primary sources of information,
you know the country is in deep do-do!
sad..sad...sad!
i used to listen Owens 20 years ago but he's just booooooring, like the rest of KGO, with their goofball leftist nutjobs. they used to have a nice mix but now all that's left worth listening to is "Dining Around" and Dr. Bill on the weekends. btw the whole group there must be left wing nutters because even when a Kevin the Rat or Rich Walkoff fill in, even they are off the chart lefty. its just crazy. no wonder they lost their audience.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ron "quit" when they undermined his ability to create a radio program by insanely placed news updates sandwiched in-between 4 minutes of commercials. How can you possibly hold an audience with those kind of interuptions? Whoever redesigned this programming wheel should have their head examined. I never listen anymore either, sometimes push the KGO button in the car to see who the guest is, inevitably I hear a spot or news/traffic break. Gone.
ReplyDeleteKGO's greatest disappointment is Ray T. Going from riveting all night rants to the most inane discussions about the silliest of stuff. What gives? When is his contract up? Is he just marking time while trying to be as boring as possible? Is he mad at KGO and doing his best to run his listeners off? Just trying to wrap up his career on different note? Barack Obama is a hopeless failure to his liberal leftist supporters yet Ray refuses to take him to task. Oh well makes for a good nights sleep.
ReplyDeleteDr Bill is the only thing keeping me going. Whether you like him or not he has been consistent on just about every issue he tackles.
I look for Dickey to push for almost one hundred percent syndicated programming at KGO.
ReplyDeleteI remember listening to the court of "status, class & tacky" circa 1977? It's been a while, Ron.
ReplyDeleteDr Bill? You gotta be kidding me. His shows are all the same. Replay any show from the last 10 years and you will hear the following:
ReplyDelete-He defends the nuclear industry, repeats the same thing about radiation and the burning of coal.
-Takes a phone call from a 10 year old kid and tells the kid how smart they are and to continue to take science classes "you must have really good teachers to sound so intelligent"
-half the calls are from some old codgers (i suspect Dr Bill's plants)complaining about something to give Wattenburg a soap box for the next 5 minutes.
-a guy who runs his website calls in, again an opportunity for Bill to do more pontificating.
-he reads a joke.
-he mentions that he was the youngest person on staff at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore lab, drops a few names in the process
-name drops Clint Eastwood, he's close with "Clint" you know
-Criticizes the Sierra Club
-mentions the Ice Age as proof that there is no such things as Climate Change (and belittles Al Gore in the process)
-talks over and then asks a hypothetical question to someone who dares disagree with him
-reads a commercial for windows.com, taking forever to do so. You thing Ronn with the Sleep Train ads are annoying?
-mentions how when he was a kid he fought fires driving his D-9
-sprinkles in a few "I told you so's" regarding gasoline storage tanks, ethanol, MTBE, using old railroad cars as bridges, dragging chains suspended from helicopters to explode land mines.
-Ecotards, eco-freaks, eco-nazis----you know, folks who might be against clear cutting or strip mining.
-"We can be heard from Alaska to South America and across half of America--100 million listeners" lol
The station isn't what it once was, but live and local is still better than most alternatives.
ReplyDeleteOne question - what's the deal with the host promos? They give the impression that most of the shows are filled with inane wacky callers (Gil Gross's especially). Or celebrities of little consequence.
If they are really going this route, they'd be better off just hiring Mal Sharpe.
The huge break at the start of the show is the main problem for Ronn. He starts the show with energy, introduces the topic, interviews someone and then there is a big ass commercial break that lasts forever, finally the commercials end and then there’s a news break! WTF!?!? Another annoying thing about KGO is the idiot on the promos who says: “we need to talk about it” or “Can weeee taaalk?!?” He sounds like an ass. Who is this guy Rich? Give the name of this guy. I find it amusing that the guy tries to make KGO sound cool yet 90% of the hosts are old farts.
ReplyDelete*** Dr. Bill can go nuts at times. I do like Dr. or Uncle Bill. He has a heck of a professional record of accomplishments and successes. I do not see some of the critics having that type of resume.
ReplyDelete*** I like Gil Gross, Rothmann and others. (except for Karel) As long as they are interviewing, it is ok. Ronn is a prick but Jan tolerates him. Ronn interviews just like Larry King. He is quite smooth.
*** I just can't stand when they begin to espouse some of their social-liberal political views and agenda.
*** The bottom line is that KGO is still better than KNiBbR.
Rich, Did your readers do a good job in keeping their thread alive? Ha! Ha! Ha!
You should do a post on KDFC. What happened to them?
Re the poster who said of Dr. Bill, "Whether you like him or not he has been consistent on just about every issue he tackles":
ReplyDeleteA foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.... RW Emerson
It takes Dr. Bill all of 30 seconds to launch into one of his "eco-nazi, MTBE, yadda yadda" rants on totally predictable and very shopworn topics. In addition, he is unspeakably rude to his callers.
I absolutely hate the weekends on KGO. As if Dr Bill wasn't bad enough, now they inflict Karel and Thurston on our undeserving ears.
I agree that every Wattenberg show sounds the same, the rant on the California Air Resources Board, the shout out to Clint Eastwood, the joke, the line about fuel additives, the kid working on the science project.
ReplyDeleteIt's still very listenable, but they could re-run his shows and nobody would know the difference.
If KGO were smart they would offer a subscription-based live feed for Owens to hear some chit-chat between the breaks.
"If KGO were smart they would offer a subscription-based live feed for Owens to hear some chit-chat between the breaks."
ReplyDeleteWhy? Leo Laporte doesn't require a subscription.
Ever listen to the Casey Kasem "little dog" story? Karel thought his mike was off too. Even mild mannered Leo has been known to go off once in a while.
You mean each Dr. Bill show is live and new? I thought they were all repeats.
ReplyDeleteActually, although I'm no fan of the rude Wattenberg, he had an excellent first hour Saturday night with the former president of Shell Oil talking about energy policy. It was pretty informative. JW
What will happen with KGO in the next few years, it's stale and lazy. Someone up there said it, it's a bunch of old farts! Ha! Do you think bringing in more vibrant talent would even help at this point? Ron should resign before it gets worse, you can tell he's bored.
ReplyDeleteCant stand Ronn or kgo anymore way to many god damn kaiser commercials ...,bunch of melancholy lazy spoiled doing the same thing over and over again make a buck above everything else arrogant alcoholics (you cant stop for 60 days)
ReplyDelete