Even if his speech at the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame induction was el mucho largess, (and professionally speaking, a major bomb), the powers that be at KNBR/Cumulus want Ralph Barbieri back, (his deal expires at the end of the year.)
Just not the numbers Barbieri is expecting, nor anticipates. The ratings are good, but the feeling is the Razor's co-host, Tom Tolbert, can more than adequately fill in as a solo performer. And at worst, Tolbert can be paired with a far cheaper, more youthful talent that won't dent the numbers from 3-7 PM.
It's now abundantly clear that Barbieri's disclosure recently that he was in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease was timed intentionally as a prelude to his negotiations with Cumulus for a contract extension, that much is clear.
Then again, dealing with Lew Dickey, (CEO) is a dynamic that Barbieri may not have calculated. Wait until he finds out.
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Hey Ralph don't let the door hit your tired ass on the way OUT!
ReplyDeleteKNBR specialty is obnoxious ego maniacs. Barbi,Raddy,Byrnzee,Fitzy,Brooksy. They pretend to have modesty at times..and its a shallow lie.
ReplyDeleteBut,Barbi taking a greedy multimillionaire Dick for a ride using his illness? Fitting.
As long as that group only hurts one another..
Drop Barbieri. Let Tom Tolbert go solo.
ReplyDeleteHe takes callers.
Nothing would make me happier than to turn on KNBR and hear quality radio. I hope they let Barbieri walk. He's simply not good enough to be on the air. When I'm driving home I often use my internet radio on iphone to get stations outside the area. That is the extent that this 31 year old guy will go to to avoid garbage radio.
ReplyDeleteRalph's salary should be pretty easy to figure out - take the amount of revenues that come from advertisers in the 3-7 slot, and pay he and Tolbert accordingly.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Cumulus wants to shortchange him because revenues are short in other timeslots where the crappy talent can't pull in enough listeners to attract top ad dollars.
Piss on KNBR. They should broadcast the Giants and 9ers, and just go dark the rest of the time.
Yeah, let Tolbert take callers. Can't get enough of loser fantasy-leaguers calling in with insights about how Bochy should bunt more often.
ReplyDeleteGive me interviews and a couple of guys who like each other talking sports and pop culture. 90% of the callers are idiots.
How about a few positive posts for a change(from me)?...I like that commercial where the guy gets upset he wasnt invited to the Taco party "You invited Eric? I thought you said Eric gives you the creeps?"..then finds he WAS invited.Ooooh.
ReplyDeleteAnd: The SW airlines commercial where the young hottie runs a football play in her high heels and slit skirt at the airport? I think it came out more sexy then SWA thought it would...like that commerical where the family floats in air? I noticed the MILF outline of leg as she floated was kind of erotic...then later,the commercial was edited. Her leg flash was left out. Darn.
> Give me interviews and a couple of guys who like each other talking sports and pop culture.
ReplyDeleteSure. As long as they aren't rambling tired old hacks with an equally tired shtick. Tom is funny and light and interesting; Ralph is a droning re-run of himself.
> 90% of the callers are idiots.
More than that. When shows start taking calls I flip to something else. It's the rarest of caller who has anything interesting or even just not stupid (I'd settle for that) to say.
And as an aside: my biggest problem with Fitz & Brooks is when those 2 know-it-all wannabes take calls, and they eventually get some moron caller, they don't have the good sense to just cut the guy off. It'd be a mercy killing for the rest of the listeners, but no: instead Brooks berates the guy over and over, asking impossible (almost rhetorical, but more insulting than that) questions back to the caller, who clearly has no response because he's an idiot, just to point out the caller is an idiot and Brooks is brilliant. But Brooks just won't let it go -- and sometimes Fitz will jump in too just to remind everyone how smart *he* is, and not just a Warriors flunky. Pathetic and sad.
Now, quality interviews with interesting people are just fine -- jocks, ex-jocks, or otherwise. We could do with more of that, though they're probably hard to come by unless the guest is selling a new book. And inevitably we hear more of Ralph ("I'm here too!") and his droning monologue-questions than we do from the guest. I swear sometimes Ralph forgets the question (if there ever was one) by the time he gets to the end of his spiel.
Seems like many people like Tom and think he should solo; I think that would work okay, but I believe Tom is better when he has someone to play with.
But I do agree: it's better (best) if the hosts like each other -- the Radnich-DBruce debacle re-demonstrated that in graphic fashion. Talk about uncomfortable radio.
I'd like to see KNBR try Tom with someone else, but I get the feeling he really does like doing the show with Ralph. If Ralph's contract situation falls through we might see Tom in a different situation, but I suspect as long as Ralph's there he'll be with Tom.
I guess 2:56 took his hands off his penis long enough to post a comment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article link. Ugh, how rude, egotistical, and egoistical for Ralph to suck the air out of the room. I once lamented about Barbieri to a local media guy. His response was, "If Ralph and Jesus were in the same room, Ralph would want to talk about himself." 95.7 The Game is growing on me very quickly. It's refreshing to hear a sports station talk about . . . sports.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Ralphie used to get TV gigs? Eventually they caught on to this no-talent waste of space. It's about time KNBR woke up and dumped his fat ass. Your next Gary.
ReplyDeleteI've tried to listen to 95.7's Brandon Tierny in the afternoon. Here's some advise: Sports Guys that have east coast accents will NEVER succeed in the Bay Area. If we wanted that we'd listen to Goomba Gambling Shows!
ReplyDeleteBring out the gloves - The Razor v Tricky Dickey. Dickey may obviously have the higher authority, but let us all wonder if Barbieri can expose how he and other executives operate companies like this. Like him or not, Good Luck exposing the worst of radio, Ralph! Cut loose!
ReplyDeleteLew Dickey won't be paying anyone anywhere near what they think they are worth. Not talent, not management, sales, staff, whatever. They are cutting costs period. They know that there really isn't anywhere for people to go so... it's over. As for Barbieri, he has sounded tired and bitter for a long, long time. Time to move on.
ReplyDeleteTolbert is just as bad all the juvenile humour and off topics get rid of him as well. Just have ted robinson host the show is fine with me or run espn radio is better than those pair.
ReplyDeleteI hate when 558 imagines me with my penis.
ReplyDeleteShameless Barbieri pushing his son out there to present the obviously Ralph written ("best dad in the world","his ratings are great","he has Parkinsons"-------sheesh). Then his speech clears the room. lol
ReplyDeleteBarbieri's performance has got to rank up there with Ed Baxter's long, droning, boorish speech from a few years ago that put most of the crowd to sleep.
Radnich shamelessly painting out Krueger as a great family man..because he cares about his kids. Not like those OTHER kinds who don't-lol. Even Krueger must feel embarassed at listening to grandpa Gary blather fake sincerity like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd now Gary's daily ripping of who's in the news will start for three hours...
Ralph is old and lazy, he used to follow sports and ask the tough questions to his guests. it's so obvious he no longer follows sports. Tolbert studies his craft but he can't ask a question under a 1000 words, and he can go off on a tangent and talk about stupid stuff. Larry King always said if you can't ask a question under 10 words don't ask it at all.
ReplyDeleteEven if they drop Ralph salary to a $100,000 a year its way to much but I wonder if Tolbert going to make more money then Ralphie do.
Also this Father of the year is bull crap, the guy had a kind in his 50's as he always wanted one, the poor kid has no Mom and his Dad is in the late 60"s, and he is probably 10 or 12 years old, eben take the Parkinson's out ofg it, the poor kid will be my him self when he in his late 20's or early 30's, that a Father of the Year, too me its not but a arrogant selfish, self abosrbed idiot.
Please, no more Ralpheroo, he his so past his sell-by date.
ReplyDeleteAnybody remember Ralph doing a show with Ken Norton Junior? There were some idiotic comments that Ralph-Barb threw Ken's way regarding his dad and then BANG! Next we knew it was Ralph and Jeremy Newberry....
ReplyDeleteHere is a good one. In 1991-1992 a friend of mine actually walked up to Ralph at a restaurant-club and for some reason tried to give Ralph a scoop that Barry Bonds was "coming home to SF Bay Area". Barbieri in front of an ENTIRE dining room full of people started shouting at my friend while calling Barry is PUNK. Must have been Ralphs favorite word because he went on to use his KNBR platform to call Bonds that name over and over again.
After Barry "got to" SF and was slotted on RB's show, Barbieri's first question of two minutes long ended. Barry did not answer, but instead opened up on Barbieri calling him a punk....Classic.
Lastly: Ralphs' on air 20 minute arguement with Rick Barry regarding Ralph "never having laced them up"...Most radio hosts would have been fired but Ralph has the dicey photos of Salvatore-Angnew-Isabelle Lemon at the famous Christmas Party...
Really can't say I ever heard anything good about KNBR lately, same old tired white guys, Radnich and Barbetetti perfect time period midnight to 3am.
ReplyDeleteCumulus should not renew Ralph Barberie's contract.
ReplyDeleteLet him leave for Europe. He hates America.
Tolbert talks about the stupidest things. He barely talks about sports. When he does, a lot of the time he doesn't know what he's talking about. At least he admits it, "I don't know a lot about _____". And then goes back to talking about wrestlers and 80's music and whatever else he thinks is funny. The Razor and Mr. T work because you can only stand to hear each of them 50% of the time.
ReplyDelete