Frankly, I didn't know there existed the deep passion for a radio station. A dang radio station. And believe me, I have been an ardent critic of KGO Radio.
You, at least a majority of you, are ANGRY. I get it. I'm trying my best to remain neutral here; after all, in this case, I'm simply the messenger, but I can also be an advocate too. I'm not as bummed to what's taken place, but I understand the disgust and angst a lot of you have expressed, both here and on the net.
Later today, I will offer advice that some of you may like. A simple way to channel that anger into action.
Check back later.
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I hope all the great KGO folks you let go, ban together at another station. Your treatment of the talk show hosts and Bay Area listeners was cruel.
ReplyDeleteCumulus, how about we let all your management go? You don't have well formed experience with delving into radio audiences that valued KGO. Nice job you fools.
May you totally fail KGO into oblivion. I surely will not be listening to KGO.
Regarding KGO. As a marketing guy (I worked next door to KGO) I think about things from a marketing prospective. I wonder why people have an emotional connection to a radio station. I think for KGO, people became attached to the personalities of the station. They think of them as pseudo friends. No they don't actually know them, but they hear their voices, their opinions and get to know them fairly well in some ways. So loosing them suddenly is like having a death in the family.
ReplyDeleteIt's an especially sad loss for the bay area since KGO brought the news to life by discussing events that matter. It's one thing to hear the news reported but it's another to have an intelligent conversation about it.
Why was KGO loosing ratings. I can only guess. Was it cumulative? Did they loose listeners when Dr. Edels retired? When Pete Wilson passed away? Could Mickey Luckoff revived the ratings?
How were the ratings really? How did they compare to other stations in the area. I bet ratings are down in general because of all the other competing factors, satellite, digital music players (iPods), the internet in general, etc.
A couple years ago when they got rid of the noon news hour I was happy. I can listen to the news on KCBS, NPR, or get it online or on television.
I'll give the new format a chance but, if the news is not local, if it's prepackaged dreck from Georgia I'll turn it off. If they're replacing local talent with satellite feeds from other places. I'm outta there. I even preferred to listen to Lynn Jimenez over Bob Brinker because she's talent (plus I just like her).
Maybe those hosts that were fired should start up their own station.
Speaking anger into action, if you want to listen to the new KGO to see what its' about but you don't want to help with their ratings, don't stream the show, listen to it over the airwaves. The can count the streams but they can't tell how many people are listing on the air... at least not that I know.
The good news is that Pat Thurston is still in the new line-up and Bill Wattenberg isn't.
ReplyDeleteThurston is the most intelligent and most principled talk show host on the air anywhere in the U.S.
I have listened to KGO for years. I have lived in Asia for many years, and I love to tune in to KGO to hear talk from home about relevant local topics (of course the time difference means that I hear a variety of hosts!). I shall miss them all and this is a shock to me. I think I speak for a lot of internet listeners over the world and the USA when I say that this change affects more than just the bay area listeners. All of us around the world (as Dr. Bill liked to say!) who listened have lost something special. I did not need to agree with the comments..I just enjoyed listening to the station. The change is now sad. KCBS is the the news station, KGO is the talk station...what is wrong with that? And if management believes the only way to improve is to go head to head against KCBS, then lets go back to fundamentals! KCBS is the leader in all news. I can listen for 20 minutes to get all the news I need from the bay area on KCBS anytime I like. Then I tune my ipod or computer to KGO to listen to interesting discourse. I don't have to agree, I don't have to like the politics, it is just nice to hear local presenters engaging in good conversation. Interesting radio! I am under 40, so I guess I am in the target demographic..but forget it now... To all those gone I wish you well, especially to the support staff in these days. A sad time for us all. An institution is just that, an institution..and if you want to change, you certainly don't take on the KCBS or KQED or others...a 2nd year business student could tell you that.
ReplyDeleteA sad day for listeners AROUND the WORLD, not just the bay.
In the late '60s, a fantastic FM radio station in LA fired all of their DJs and staff, for similar reasons to the KGO affair. Then, as now, listeners were pissed off and protested. Some of those radio personalities went on to bigger and better things. Some were never heard from again. Over time, the fans of LA got over it, and life went on. I remember reading a comment back then (I was just a lad) about the whole affair. It read, "It's just a radio station". Too true.
ReplyDeleteI must admit also that since I got a new car with satellite radio, all terrestrial radio is a big bore. I'm a big fan of satellite radio, even for the fee. I suspect folks like Gene and John will wind up there.
I can't believe any of the fired hosts couldn't find a home elsewhere if they were interested in continuing on. And with them the advertising revenue. Even smaller stations stream these days for the benefit of those of us beyond the reach of the less powerful signals. Damn I was lost at 10:05 Saturday night after all these years with Dr Bill. It's gonna be the same way without Gene's intellect too. It would be a shame to let these corporate clowns dictate what we are going to listen to..... KGO was far more to many of us than just call letters and a place on the AM dial.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Dianne.
ReplyDeleteYou don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Yes, changes were needed. Yes, too many white men, almost all liberal, in their late 60s, doesn't make for a "diverse" perspective. But there are 4 or 5 jewels that could be used to build a new station with, which would include Gene Burns, Wattenburg, and maybe John Rothmann. (I thought he was a complete shill for the left untiol he recently took on Eric Holder and said he should be whacked.) Maybe even bring back a Dr. Dean Edell.
But hosts like Bernie Ward (ugh), Pat Thurston, the young woman before Pat Thurston who moves from country to country (I forget her name), Karel, Christine Craft... didn't resonate. There was "no bench". No newbies coming up the chain. And if you're gonna hire another Bay Area liberal, if they beleived in diversity, than just hire Brian Copeland, at least he would be different.
Could Mickey Luckoff have another fight in him? A new station?
We KGO listeners should recruit JIM GABBERT and MICKEY LUCKOFF to organize and lead an investment group to buy KGO back from Cumulus.
ReplyDeleteI hardly listen to KGO anymore. I used to look forward to Copeland's Sunday show but it has become white bread boring, like most of the rest of it. After Bernie Ward was justifiably pulled off the air, I stopped listening in the evening altogether. When I don't want to listen to KCBS or KCSM in the car, I listen to some KGO talk radio. Occasionally I tune in to Owens. I won't miss any of it if it all disappears tomorrow (and much of it will disappear tomorrow). KGO isn't interested in listeners, they want to make money and if they can do it with canned out of state programming, that's what they will do. If no one is listening but they can still line their pockets, it doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteI am a soap fan. An overeducated, well paid retired professional who has watched General Hospital since it came on about fifty years ago. I will sorely miss GH when it goes off the air. Even though its ratings have gone up, everyone knows it is down for the count. In television land, apparently you can make more money producing a show cheaply that no one watches than producing a costly show that not enough people watch. I haven't watched the Chew and I have no interest in the Couric talk show and some other nonsense proposed. If I'm home, I watch HGTV and always tape GH. GH is just a television show. I'll find something else to do with that time. But I do relate to the sense of loss people feel about KGO radio. Old habits are hard to let go.
I bet that the salary dump had a lot to do with this, along with the "economies of scale" of bringing in canned radio filler from their network.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone here share what some of the big hosts might make? Can you give an estimate? I was kinda shocked when I read somewhere that Ronn Owens might make in the area of $1 million smackers a year, for talking about gadgets, sleep train, and Israel?
Dr. Dean and Rosie Allen, et al, saw the writing on the wall, hence the early exit.
Yes, Please let us know how to channel this angry. I did find a petition and signed it.
ReplyDeleteDo a Google search for Cumulus, and you'll find out this was coming far in advance and that KGO wasn't the first, and it won't be the last. However, it is the most-unique given its resistance to syndication as a talk station.
ReplyDeleteThen do a Google search for "Cumulus, SEC" or some other combo and read Cumulus' filing with the SEC. Look at who profits personally from gutting stations to cut costs.
That's all this is: cost-cutting. When Cumulus realizes it has lost many listeners, and it won't gain any over KCBS, it might revert back to a hybrid talk-news station, in my opinion, which it no longer is. However, the goal of cutting expenses was achieved and now less-expensive and potentially less-talented (although that's debatable in some cases) hosts will be on air.
Hopefully, it won't be the nutcase on Saturday night who is "really into the paranormal." If that's not an exact semi-quote, it's darn close.
Ms. Thurston is the only legit host left, aside from Brent.
Interesting that Brian Copeland is listed as the 9 a.m. to noon host, rather than have it say Ronn Owens with Brian as stand-in.
I did listen to Pat's audio podcast from her first hour yesterday. She has far bigger balls than Ron Ownes who ducked like a little sissy.
ReplyDeleteWHY has this resonated so much? Cumulus didn't do any "market research," and everyone knows it. If they honestly had, they would have seen the backlash coming. Instead, they looked at their Excel spreadsheet and decided to cut the ones making the big bucks. We all know that? It resonated because it is akin to having a group of friends all die in a car crash together. It is stunning, and we're angry about it.
hey 1046, dont you mean the 70s and kmet?
ReplyDeletethere is a diff. music tastes change over the years
kgo was much more than just another radio station...it had become an sf institution...
make changes...give her a coat of paint...make a painful firing or two...but a drastic format change? wasnt needed
KGO had changed from a great station to "nitwit radio" with Karel and Thurston.
ReplyDeleteAt least Taliafero was on when nobody was awake.
Those three are the Axis of Stupid on KGO.
I just couildn't listen anymore. I understand the change, but why keep Karel and Thurston? Or Christine Craft? Unlistenable!!!
@ bacci40, no I was talking about KPPC. They went from album oriented rock to album oriented rock, it's just they swapped the staff out for more turntable readers than unique personalities. ANd many of the folks fired wound up at KMET.
ReplyDeleteThis comment from the 10:30am post is spot on.
ReplyDelete"A couple years ago when they got rid of the noon news hour I was happy". Amen!
Give us more talk from live and local hosts.
I do not want to hear news (that is what The Drudge Report is for). If I hear another news cast, traffic break, etc. I will committ suicide. Give me more live on-air talent. Period!
I couldn't agree more.
Delete"I'm trying my best to remain neutral here."
ReplyDeleteYes, that's so evident!
People here are so angry that they fired this or that host, or kept this or that host. But there's little agreement in the comments as to which they should have kept or fired. Which means there is no agreement as to what even the most high-minded owners should have done to stop the bleeding in the listenership.
JW
Why anyone listens to an old, out of date, right wing nut job station based on AM is beyond me. Objectivity goes out of the window when the dollars need to be raised. Might as well listen to Disney radio and chew popcorn, if your into crap like KGO.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that you haven't been listening to KGO. Most of the hosts who were fired were center or left of center. Now, it is just a mess and most of us won't be listening, but really, you don't know what you're talking about. Len Tillem, Gil Gross, Gene Burns, John Rothmann were men of intelligence and empathy. They didn't down to their audience (well, sometimes Gene did...but he was sooooo smart, it makes sense), and they gave people space to voice their opinions, thoughts and feelings unlike right-wing radio, where, if you differ, you're off. In fact, you can't even get past the screeners. Now that Cumulous has taken over, dollars and cents became the bottom-line, but not really, because the blow-back from their mistakes is going to be so great, they won't know what hit 'em until they get to the bank.
Delete