This doesn't make sense. If the new owners wanted to save money, they would not switch from a guy talking on the phone to listeners to a full-time news gathering operation.
Len, stay strong. Don't drink behind this one. What a sad day today. I will miss everyone of those hosts except Wattenberg. He was great before 9/11. Suddenly he delved into politics and his show was not listenable any longer. It was better when it dealt strictly with science and diesel engines.
Wow! Len Tillem is gone despite all that "original content". We're going to miss all that "Oh, the estate is over $3,000,000 ... well, let me put you on hold and I will help you ..."
Don't forget to call my friend / attorney / "financial advisor" 'cause he can sure help you 'cause he's a good guy!!!
But that original content was a trademark:
Len Tillem 2011 Sunday Program History March 27 PRE-RECORDED April 3 PRE-RECORDED April 17 PRE-RECORDED April 24 PRE-RECORDED May 1 PRE-RECORDED May 8 PRE-RECORDED May 15 PRE-RECORDED May 22 PRE-RECORDED May 29 PRE-RECORDED June 5 “Live”; although looking at trend, not sure …. June 12 PRE-RECORDED June 19 PRE-RECORDED June 26 PRE-RECORDED July 3 PRE-RECORDED July 10 ?? I was out-of-town! July 17 PRE-RECORDED July 24 PRE-RECORDED July 31 PRE-RECORDED August 7 PRE-RECORDED August 14 PRE-RECORDED Monday Aug 15 PRE-RECORDED Tuesday Aug 16 PRE-RECORDED Wed Aug 18 PRE-RECORDED Sun Aug 21 PRE-RECORDED Sun Aug 28 PRE-RECORDED Sun Sep 5 PRE-RECORDED Sun Sep 12 PRE-RECORDED Sun Sep 19 PRE-RECORDED Sun Oct 1 LIVE !! Sun Oct 8 PRE-RECORDED Sun Oct 15 PRE-RECORDED Sun Oct 30 PRE-RECORDED Sun Nov 13 PRE-RECORDED Sun Nov 20 PRE-RECORDED Sun Nov 27 PRE-RECORDED
Ain't "original" programming great?!! Can you say: Sleazeball ? One less 5 per center around ... PRE-RECORDED!!!
Ah yes, a complete uneducated MORON who makes up BS as he/she goes along.
If this aforementioned IDIOT had been reading this blog for many months (as I and many others have), then this format change comes as no surprise. All the hosts now losing their jobs, especially the weekday talkshow hosts, represent the largest payroll expense for KGO.
A 'KCBS-lite' is not going to make it in the Bay Area. The acceleration to irrelevancy for KGO has just engaged warp speed.
Oh yeah, it's really hysterical that those radio hosts lost their jobs. And it's even more hysterical with what Cumulus will replace them with:
Cheaper, less qualified, less experienced talent and/or syndicated programs that are not even originated in the bay area.
You want cheap, bad radio....I give you Cumulus.
You want one individual that you can't point a finger at and blame for creating this mess? I give you Lou Dickey.
Lou the Dickhead may be a genius in business, but knows nothing nor does he care about actual broadcasting. That's because he's never pulled an on-air shift in his life.
Lou Dickey is a capitalist in the classic Hordon Gecko mold: His passion is creating revenue streams, making shareholders glow over quarterly reports, and most importantly, fattening his own overstuffed wallet.
And who let this happen? Who let Cumulus buy all of these stations and cheapen the stations that we once depended upon for news, information and multiple opinions?
Answer: The Communications Act of 1996 that deregulated the broadcast industry. Deregulation is one of the worst things that has happened to this country in recent years, and it's one of the chief culprits for creating the economic mess that we are in as a country today.
Now instead of many voices with many different opinions and takes on what's going on locally and nationally we have fewer and fewer.
Now instead of full coverage of events, we rely on some network or syndicated news report that emanates from another part of the country to tell us what is going on in our own backyard.
Congratulations America... Each and every citizen who is old enough to vote bears equal responsibility for creating this mess. We're all guilty of electing the people who did this, or not voting for someone who could have kept this from happening. And I don't think that's wishful thinking!
And as our broadcast media begins to wither, dry up and blow away, so too goes another valuable part of a free and open society that used to be the envy of the world!
The worst part of it is, there are even more Americans who don't even care enough about their own country to vote or make their voice heard. They'd rather get stoned, watch trash TV, or blame Obama and the congress for their own troubles. Well guess what...one of the reasons that we are having to digest this revolting crap that has sliding down our throats is because we've become lazy, dense, and ignorant. We've allowed corporations to run our broadcast industry into the muck, all for the want of a cheap buck.
Somewhere way out there in the ether, icons such as Walter Chronkite, Eric Severeid, and Edward R Murrow are all shaking their heads in disgust and sorrow.
Cumulus is violating FCC regulations by not announcing that they are playing pre-recorded programming tonight. Furthermore, the shows are slightly out-of-synch, so when Gene or John states the time, it has been off by several minutes on some occasions. Check this out from FCC regulations: § 73.1208 Broadcast of taped, filmed, or recorded material. (a) Any taped, filmed or recorded program material in which time is of special significance, or by which an affirmative attempt is made to create the impression that it is occurring simultaneously with the broadcast, shall be announced at the beginning as taped, filmed or recorded. The language of the announcement shall be clear and in terms commonly understood by the public. For television stations, the announcement may be made visually or aurally.
Len? Are they fucking kidding? Keeping that shitbore Owens but dumping Len? Time for KGO to change their twitter bio to "Just a pile of cunts committing radio suicide". I'm so disgusted, there are no words. Also, keeping that dull twat Copeland over Gil? Well, there's a term for that. I'll leave it there.
drbill.us no longer works, points to nothing at the KGO page. However wattenburg.us comes back with something. Hope Bill gives us an email link so we loyal listeners can properly thank him for his many years of service.
Posted to KGORadio's Twitter account: @kgoradio Unfollowing KGO due to all the firings. KGO fans are loyal to the hosts NOT to cumulus! I'll be contacting your advertisers.
While I have often felt that KGO's daytime lineup was a little "long in the tooth" for many of today's listeners, KGO did have a pool of incredibly talented talk show hosts evenings and weekends including John Rothman and Pat Thurston -- and I have to admit I always get quite a kick from Karel.
That said, it looks like there is an opportunity here for a Bay Area station to scoop up these hosts and instantly gain a dedicated following.
As for Ronn Owens surviving the cut, I assure you I am not going to tune in KGO to listen to him. I would guess the only reason he survived is his contract makes it cheaper to keep him than to terminate him.
Dr. Bill was their token "conservativeish" kinda' guy. I guess the Air America approach doesn't work even in the Bay Area. When they ditched Mickey Luckoff and hired Karel back, I knew the end was in the offing. It couldn't come too soon. Put it out of its misery all ready. No more, Thurston, Craft, Taliaferro, Rothman, Burns and those no discript lefties filling in on weekends; Peter B. Collins types. It's a great day.
What a mistake! As a loyal listner for many years, I can't believe KGO is going to turn into just another news regurgitation station. At least Ronn is still there, for now... I will miss most of the other personalities as well. Gene, Len, Carel, Gill, Ray. Oh well I was thinking about getting Sat radio subscription anyway. This might push me over the edge. Good for Sirus/XM too bad for KGO.
I remember KGO from 1983. The station slowly creeped over to the left liberal side with just Bill Wattenburg remaining from the old crew. I can't say I will miss KGO. The market has spoken: radio listeners are not that liberal.
Wattenburg is a stone creep. His daddy was a dumbass logger who clear cut "timber" and wanted it replanted as a monoculture crop a la corn, replete with herbicides. When the Sierra Club et al reformed such troglodytic behavior, why old Bill went on the rampage and slandered the environmental movement with scurrilous concoctions. Ciao, Billy...
By the way I've listened intermittently to the station since the 1950s went it had rock 'n' roll as a format: 'KAY-GO!'. I well remember Ira Blue, Les Crane, Owen Spann (I *think* he was on KGO...maybe KNBR. Anyway, KGO rocked as a talk radio formatted radio station. Let's boycott this Cumulus fiasco.
Is there some way to stay in touch, find out what's happening with people, where they are landing. Do they have websites, FB accounts? Gross and Rothman have children in college. I hope they've got some savings. This is terrible news to me. I imagine I will be going through withdrawal. What can I listen to? I know KQED, but that's another story.
People, People. Who really listens to commercial radio anyway.. "Drive time 'Zoo Crew?' Lame. To me, I aint wasting time on 27 minutes of commericals in a 60-minute hour. I would pay for compelling, intellectual content, commercial-free.. Like I do with streaming music sites. Top 40 format = lowest common denominator crapola. Ditched TV 2 years ago as well.
Definitely will miss Bill Wattenburg and Len Tilem. Too bad, KGO is completely going down the tubes. No reason to tune in now (did you call cut Laporte and the syndicated Bob Brinker too?).
they only kept ron owen a professional ass sucker. i bet you, its just a matter of time, ron owen will also find himself in unemployment line. may ron burn in hell for being a traitor. i know it is not he's fault for getting those 4 guys fired, but the least he can do is be sympathetic and don't try to defend the freakin cumulus.
re: the college offspring of Gil and John..Gil is a seasoned newsman with a great history at ABC net..hopefully he'll land there again. John Rothmann ..it's been noted before..is the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the country..who loved radio more than anything else ever..except his kids ,of course.
I stopped listening to KGO years ago when their liberal dribble spilled into all their "news reporting". Wattenburg was the only thing worth listening to over there, except maybe Len. Good riddance!!
For many years Bill Wattenburg provided an alternative, independent voice from the usual Bay Area "group-think" crowd. His commentary and show will be sorely missed and its a real loss of a Bay Area late night tradition
I looked forward to hearing from Gene Burns, Gil Gross, Ray Taliaferro, Len Tillem and John Rothmann for so many years its not funny. This station WAS part of my life, what i learned from all these guys is priceless.
I sure do hope to be able to hear them on the radio, or Ill just have to befriend them all and go to their house every day so I can just sit and listen.
Although I am sure this was a thought out decision, i strongly disagree. Now I gotta listen to Kerel whine and self gloat... plagh... fuckit.
I heard Reed Hastings of Netflix is calling the shots at Cumulus.
NETFLIX stock went from $305 to $65 in two months. 500% decline, KGO can expect the same in the # of listeners.
New management missed the memo about a little station a 1/2 turn of the dial away called KCBS. Wait until management realizes income is based on advertising dollars not by reducing hosts' income.
Is Cumulus a majority stakeholder in SIRIUS? If you follow the $ they seem like the real winner.
I noticed that at least Ray Taliafero had the opportunity to do a farewell show. Apparently that courtesy was not extended to Dr. Bill Wattenburg and his audience.
"Descent into irrelevance" is indeed a proper phrase to describe the future of KGO.
For sure I'll miss Bill Wattenburg and Joannie Greggens as well. KGO has gone down the tubes the past 20 years. They recently let that irrelevant big mouth back in after he got canned making rude remarks with the mic still on. KGO is irrelevant, just a bunch of flaming liberals. I only tune in when I want to know what the enemy is saying. After 10 minutes, I turn them off.
Dr. Bill was one of the most effective and outspoken critics of government corruption and fraud, and of bad government policies which are detrimental to working people. His radio pulpit achieved real positive changes to government policy and to the environment, including his most recent campaigns to eliminate the CARB bureacracy and to chastise the Obama administration to quickly adopt natural gas as a vehicle fuel. He regularly criticised any high-level individual or organisation which he believed was acting incompetently or unethically. I am wondering if the decision by Cumulus to dump so many hosts was a "tail wag the dog" scenario just to dump his show. Pressure to dump his show came from higher than corporate HQ? After all, it would have been preposterous to just end Dr. Bill's highly succesful show by itself. There is an election coming up, and his show reached 100 million people.
Just found out about the new format @ KGO. It's shocking to me that for all the years of it being successful (very successful), just over one year of lousy ratings merits a change? Can you say overreaction? Couple that with procedural changes about how they rate shows and then a panic stricken Cumulus has no clue. I wonder what the next ratings will show? I'd bet they're going to be worse. Much worse. I'm done listening to KGO. As someone said in here, maybe try Talk 91.0 AM?
Good riddance to those right-wing lunatics KGO just dumped!!! Now they can have Karel for 6 hours every day, and Bernie Ward will soon be released; they can bring him back on!!! I'm sure with all the progressives in SF they can find plenty of talent to round out the schedule to a 100% Progressive staff!!!
How funny, all these hacks promoted Obama 24/7. And now they all lost their jobs.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sad about Len. He actually gave very useful advice in a fun but factual fashion. Good bye Len! Sniff.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Raiders and Warriors take one step closer to joining Cal on KGO.
ReplyDeleteThis will forever be known as the "Cumulus massacre"..
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't make sense. If the new owners wanted to save money, they would not switch from a guy talking on the phone to listeners to a full-time news gathering operation.
ReplyDeleteI have posted a couple time a link to your blog on the KGO Facebook page and they keep removing my post and link... Ya, think are are trying to HIDE?
ReplyDeleteFinally putting Greggins out of her misery! Wonder if the Loyya wants to take on Tricky Dickey?
ReplyDeleteBill Wattenberg promoted Obama? Must have missed that! Gil Gross plugged Hillary.
ReplyDeleteLen, stay strong. Don't drink behind this one. What a sad day today. I will miss everyone of those hosts except Wattenberg. He was great before 9/11. Suddenly he delved into politics and his show was not listenable any longer. It was better when it dealt strictly with science and diesel engines.
ReplyDeleteBill Wattenburg was my weekend radio favorite for years. His experience and knowledge were always fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThe Ronn Owens show will be interesting (for once) tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Len is going. They said "news" from 2 pm - midnight. Len is on from 1 - 2, so maybe this didn't hit him.
ReplyDeleteOh no Joannie is gone? She had a face for radio that's for goddamn sure. She could get rich licensing her image for a Halloween mask.
ReplyDeleteI'll miss Len, too. I've been a KGO listener for longer than I care to state - no longer.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about the new "Talk 910 KKSF" to debut in January. Would love to see most of KGO's hosts resurface there and relaunch a KGO on 910.
ReplyDeleteWow! Len Tillem is gone despite all that "original content". We're going to miss all that "Oh, the estate is over $3,000,000 ... well, let me put you on hold and I will help you ..."
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to call my friend / attorney / "financial advisor" 'cause he can sure help you 'cause he's a good guy!!!
But that original content was a trademark:
Len Tillem 2011 Sunday Program History
March 27 PRE-RECORDED
April 3 PRE-RECORDED
April 17 PRE-RECORDED
April 24 PRE-RECORDED
May 1 PRE-RECORDED
May 8 PRE-RECORDED
May 15 PRE-RECORDED
May 22 PRE-RECORDED
May 29 PRE-RECORDED
June 5 “Live”; although looking at trend, not sure ….
June 12 PRE-RECORDED
June 19 PRE-RECORDED
June 26 PRE-RECORDED
July 3 PRE-RECORDED
July 10 ?? I was out-of-town!
July 17 PRE-RECORDED
July 24 PRE-RECORDED
July 31 PRE-RECORDED
August 7 PRE-RECORDED
August 14 PRE-RECORDED
Monday Aug 15 PRE-RECORDED
Tuesday Aug 16 PRE-RECORDED
Wed Aug 18 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Aug 21 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Aug 28 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Sep 5 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Sep 12 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Sep 19 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Oct 1 LIVE !!
Sun Oct 8 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Oct 15 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Oct 30 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Nov 13 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Nov 20 PRE-RECORDED
Sun Nov 27 PRE-RECORDED
Ain't "original" programming great?!!
Can you say: Sleazeball ?
One less 5 per center around ... PRE-RECORDED!!!
"...all these hacks promoted Obama 24/7..."
ReplyDeleteAh yes, a complete uneducated MORON who makes up BS as he/she goes along.
If this aforementioned IDIOT had been reading this blog for many months (as I and many others have), then this format change comes as no surprise. All the hosts now losing their jobs, especially the weekday talkshow hosts, represent the largest payroll expense for KGO.
A 'KCBS-lite' is not going to make it in the Bay Area. The acceleration to irrelevancy for KGO has just engaged warp speed.
Oh yeah, it's really hysterical that those radio hosts lost their jobs. And it's even more hysterical with what Cumulus will replace them with:
ReplyDeleteCheaper, less qualified, less experienced talent and/or syndicated programs that are not even originated in the bay area.
You want cheap, bad radio....I give you Cumulus.
You want one individual that you can't point
a finger at and blame for creating this mess?
I give you Lou Dickey.
Lou the Dickhead may be a genius in business, but knows nothing nor does he care about actual broadcasting. That's because he's never pulled an on-air shift in his life.
Lou Dickey is a capitalist in the classic Hordon Gecko mold: His passion is creating revenue streams, making shareholders glow over quarterly reports, and most importantly, fattening his own overstuffed wallet.
And who let this happen? Who let Cumulus
buy all of these stations and cheapen the stations that we once depended upon for news, information and multiple opinions?
Answer: The Communications Act of 1996 that deregulated the broadcast industry. Deregulation is one of the worst things that has happened to this country in recent years, and it's one of the chief culprits for creating the economic mess that we are in as a country today.
Now instead of many voices with many different opinions and takes on what's going on locally and nationally we have fewer and fewer.
Now instead of full coverage of events, we rely on some network or syndicated news report that emanates from another part of the country to tell us what is going on in our own backyard.
Congratulations America... Each and every citizen who is old enough to vote bears equal responsibility for creating this mess. We're all guilty of electing the people who did this, or not voting for someone who could have kept this from happening. And I don't think that's wishful thinking!
And as our broadcast media begins to wither, dry up and blow away, so too goes another valuable part of a free and open society that used to be the envy of the world!
The worst part of it is, there are even more Americans who don't even care enough about their own country to vote or make their voice heard.
They'd rather get stoned, watch trash TV, or blame Obama and the congress for their own troubles. Well guess what...one of the reasons that we are having to digest this revolting crap that has sliding down our throats is
because we've become lazy, dense, and ignorant.
We've allowed corporations to run our broadcast industry into the muck, all for the want of a cheap buck.
Somewhere way out there in the ether, icons such as Walter Chronkite, Eric Severeid, and Edward R Murrow are all shaking their heads in disgust and sorrow.
SHAME ON US!
KGO as mostly news will never match KCBS. Huge mistake!
ReplyDelete@10:40Pm Is that you Dr. Bill? BWAHAHAHAHA
ReplyDeleteKGO was painfully boring that is why they are going to an all news format.
ReplyDeleteConservative talk radio has the ratings.
Cumulus is violating FCC regulations by not announcing that they are playing pre-recorded programming tonight. Furthermore, the shows are slightly out-of-synch, so when Gene or John states the time, it has been off by several minutes on some occasions. Check this out from FCC regulations:
ReplyDelete§ 73.1208 Broadcast of taped, filmed, or
recorded material.
(a) Any taped, filmed or recorded program
material in which time is of special
significance, or by which an affirmative
attempt is made to create
the impression that it is occurring simultaneously
with the broadcast, shall
be announced at the beginning as
taped, filmed or recorded. The language
of the announcement shall be
clear and in terms commonly understood
by the public. For television stations,
the announcement may be made
visually or aurally.
/s/ P.O.'ed in Walnut Creek
Read it and weep:
ReplyDeletehttp://people.forbes.com/profile/lewis-w-dickey/24608
/s/ P.O.'ed in Walnut Creek
You know, if we fire everyone everywhere in America, think about how much money America would save??
ReplyDeleteRobots would run this country much better anyway.
Bummer. If I wanted news all the time there was KCBS. I'm pretty much done with KGO now. Did they not learn anything with the Netflix debacle?
ReplyDeleteThe new owners of KGO have diminished the brand that has ruled the Bay Area airwaves for decades, with this decision.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that they will regret it as the fired talent land elsewhere and take listeners and advertisers with them.
I just left MY personal rant ( NOT that anyone will probably get around to reading it )@CumulusMediaNetworks.com
ReplyDeleteLen? Are they fucking kidding? Keeping that shitbore Owens but dumping Len? Time for KGO to change their twitter bio to "Just a pile of cunts committing radio suicide". I'm so disgusted, there are no words. Also, keeping that dull twat Copeland over Gil? Well, there's a term for that. I'll leave it there.
ReplyDeletedrbill.us no longer works, points to nothing at the KGO page. However wattenburg.us comes back with something. Hope Bill gives us an email link so we loyal listeners can properly thank him for his many years of service.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the status of Leo Laporte?
Posted to KGORadio's Twitter account: @kgoradio Unfollowing KGO due to all the firings. KGO fans are loyal to the hosts NOT to cumulus! I'll be contacting your advertisers.
ReplyDeleteI will miss Bill Wattenburg, the best show on radio.
ReplyDeleteTo 11:00 p.m.:
ReplyDeleteAMEN! (Is that you, Gene?)
Dr. Bill's show was one of my favorites. I loved the combination of science and politics. That's really a shame. And Len was great, too.
ReplyDeleteI'll no longer be a KGO listener.
While I have often felt that KGO's daytime lineup was a little "long in the tooth" for many of today's listeners, KGO did have a pool of incredibly talented talk show hosts evenings and weekends including John Rothman and Pat Thurston -- and I have to admit I always get quite a kick from Karel.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it looks like there is an opportunity here for a Bay Area station to scoop up these hosts and instantly gain a dedicated following.
As for Ronn Owens surviving the cut, I assure you I am not going to tune in KGO to listen to him. I would guess the only reason he survived is his contract makes it cheaper to keep him than to terminate him.
Ahhhh, when they came for the Savage Nation, the blacklisters by the bay...you all rejoiced. But now the shoe is on the other foot.
ReplyDeleteDr. Bill was their token "conservativeish" kinda' guy. I guess the Air America approach doesn't work even in the Bay Area. When they ditched Mickey Luckoff and hired Karel back, I knew the end was in the offing. It couldn't come too soon. Put it out of its misery all ready. No more, Thurston, Craft, Taliaferro, Rothman, Burns and those no discript lefties filling in on weekends; Peter B. Collins types.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great day.
What a mistake! As a loyal listner for many years, I can't believe KGO is going to turn into just another news regurgitation station. At least Ronn is still there, for now... I will miss most of the other personalities as well. Gene, Len, Carel, Gill, Ray. Oh well I was thinking about getting Sat radio subscription anyway. This might push me over the edge. Good for Sirus/XM too bad for KGO.
ReplyDeleteI remember KGO from 1983. The station slowly creeped over to the left liberal side with just Bill Wattenburg remaining from the old crew. I can't say I will miss KGO. The market has spoken: radio listeners are not that liberal.
ReplyDeleteThe market has indeed spoken: KQED FM has a hell of a market share thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteWattenburg is a stone creep. His daddy was a dumbass logger who clear cut "timber" and wanted it replanted as a monoculture crop a la corn, replete with herbicides. When the Sierra Club et al reformed such troglodytic behavior, why old Bill went on the rampage and slandered the environmental movement with scurrilous concoctions. Ciao, Billy...
ReplyDeleteBy the way I've listened intermittently to the station since the 1950s went it had rock 'n' roll as a format: 'KAY-GO!'. I well remember Ira Blue, Les Crane, Owen Spann (I *think* he was on KGO...maybe KNBR. Anyway, KGO rocked as a talk radio formatted radio station. Let's boycott this Cumulus fiasco.
ReplyDeleteKGO-current hosts = 0 ZERO! You have lost your devoted audience. This listener, 40 years strong.
ReplyDeleteIs there some way to stay in touch, find out what's happening with people, where they are landing. Do they have websites, FB accounts? Gross and Rothman have children in college. I hope they've got some savings. This is terrible news to me. I imagine I will be going through withdrawal. What can I listen to? I know KQED, but that's another story.
ReplyDeletePeople, People. Who really listens to commercial radio anyway.. "Drive time 'Zoo Crew?' Lame. To me, I aint wasting time on 27 minutes of commericals in a 60-minute hour. I would pay for compelling, intellectual content, commercial-free.. Like I do with streaming music sites. Top 40 format = lowest common denominator crapola. Ditched TV 2 years ago as well.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely will miss Bill Wattenburg and Len Tilem. Too bad, KGO is completely going down the tubes. No reason to tune in now (did you call cut Laporte and the syndicated Bob Brinker too?).
ReplyDeletethey only kept ron owen a professional ass sucker. i bet you, its just a matter of time, ron owen will also find himself in unemployment line. may ron burn in hell for being a traitor. i know it is not he's fault for getting those 4 guys fired, but the least he can do is be sympathetic and don't try to defend the freakin cumulus.
ReplyDeletere: the college offspring of Gil and John..Gil is a seasoned newsman with a great history at ABC net..hopefully he'll land there again. John Rothmann ..it's been noted before..is the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the country..who loved radio more than anything else ever..except his kids ,of course.
ReplyDeleteKGO has completed its descent into irrelevance. I've listened to it since the Ira Blue days. No mas. Cumulus = idiots. You'll pay the price.
ReplyDeleteI stopped listening to KGO years ago when their liberal dribble spilled into all their "news reporting". Wattenburg was the only thing worth listening to over there, except maybe Len. Good riddance!!
ReplyDeleteFor many years Bill Wattenburg provided an alternative, independent voice from the usual Bay Area "group-think" crowd. His commentary and show will be sorely missed and its a real loss of a Bay Area late night tradition
ReplyDeleteI looked forward to hearing from Gene Burns, Gil Gross, Ray Taliaferro, Len Tillem and John Rothmann for so many years its not funny. This station WAS part of my life, what i learned from all these guys is priceless.
ReplyDeleteI sure do hope to be able to hear them on the radio, or Ill just have to befriend them all and go to their house every day so I can just sit and listen.
Although I am sure this was a thought out decision, i strongly disagree. Now I gotta listen to Kerel whine and self gloat... plagh... fuckit.
Ron Owens is a legend in his own mind.
ReplyDeleteFunny to read the anti-science illiterates bad-mouthing Dr.Bill.
KGO just killed itself.
I heard Reed Hastings of Netflix is calling the shots at Cumulus.
ReplyDeleteNETFLIX stock went from $305 to $65 in two months. 500% decline, KGO can expect the same in the # of listeners.
New management missed the memo about a little station a 1/2 turn of the dial away called KCBS. Wait until management realizes income is based on advertising dollars not by reducing hosts' income.
Is Cumulus a majority stakeholder in SIRIUS? If you follow the $ they seem like the real winner.
I noticed that at least Ray Taliafero had the opportunity to do a farewell show. Apparently that courtesy was not extended to Dr. Bill Wattenburg and his audience.
ReplyDelete"Descent into irrelevance" is indeed a proper phrase to describe the future of KGO.
For sure I'll miss Bill Wattenburg and Joannie Greggens as well. KGO has gone down the tubes the past 20 years. They recently let that irrelevant big mouth back in after he got canned making rude remarks with the mic still on. KGO is irrelevant, just a bunch of flaming liberals. I only tune in when I want to know what the enemy is saying. After 10 minutes, I turn them off.
ReplyDeleteWe KGO listeners should recruit JIM GABBERT and MICKEY LUCKOFF to organize and lead an investment group to buy KGO back from Cumulus.
ReplyDeleteDr. Bill was one of the most effective and outspoken critics of government corruption and fraud, and of bad government policies which are detrimental to working people. His radio pulpit achieved real positive changes to government policy and to the environment, including his most recent campaigns to eliminate the CARB bureacracy and to chastise the Obama administration to quickly adopt natural gas as a vehicle fuel. He regularly criticised any high-level individual or organisation which he believed was acting incompetently or unethically. I am wondering if the decision by Cumulus to dump so many hosts was a "tail wag the dog" scenario just to dump his show. Pressure to dump his show came from higher than corporate HQ? After all, it would have been preposterous to just end Dr. Bill's highly succesful show by itself. There is an election coming up, and his show reached 100 million people.
ReplyDeleteNO MORE KGO FOR ME!!!!!!! WE'LL MISS YOU LEN....HELLO KCBS FULL TIME NOW.
ReplyDeleteJust found out about the new format @ KGO. It's shocking to me that for all the years of it being successful (very successful), just over one year of lousy ratings merits a change? Can you say overreaction? Couple that with procedural changes about how they rate shows and then a panic stricken Cumulus has no clue. I wonder what the next ratings will show? I'd bet they're going to be worse. Much worse. I'm done listening to KGO. As someone said in here, maybe try Talk 91.0 AM?
ReplyDeleteKgo just shot theirself in the foot
ReplyDeleteBad business decision
Good riddance to those right-wing lunatics KGO just dumped!!! Now they can have Karel for 6 hours every day, and Bernie Ward will soon be released; they can bring him back on!!! I'm sure with all the progressives in SF they can find plenty of talent to round out the schedule to a 100% Progressive staff!!!
ReplyDeleteKGO now equals drivel and nonsense.
ReplyDelete