Thursday, December 22, 2011

Olbermann/Current TV looking at KGO Radio mess; Thursday Media Liners

*Keith Olbermann and his Current TV posse are examining the possibility of doing a segment on the KGO mess. My best guess is the angle will be the expansion of corporate right-wing radio. And like all of us, Olbermann has to know that KGO wasn't just another radio station.

*Yeah, I know Current TV is hard to get, (I get it on Comcast), but if Keith does a bit, it can't hurt. And I have a prime candidate for Worst Person in the World, (you can add your suggestion too).

*If a local, (and national, for that matter) talk-show host does "buy gold" commercial spots, then you can bet he or she is an ultra-right winger.

*Yeah, I finally heard the Ray Taliaferro/Kay Zwerling "argument" on KSCO. Hysterical. Vintage Ray. Too bad he didn't blow a fuse. (Wink).

*Yeah, little Rudy himself, Bobby Fitzgerald, on KNBR, didn't mention a word about the Monta Ellis Warriors sexual harassment suit. Truly shocking, I'm just forklempta.

*What's to come of KSFO? Probably not a thing. It has little overhead, 90% of its programming is syndicated, (save for Sussman and the nut in the bunker), and its ratings are tolerable. In effect, Cumulitis supreme.

*"Up to 30": Hey Ronn, what the hell happened?"...Up to 30: Hey Ronn, about that format change?..."Up to 30: Yo, Ronn, what's with the guests reading your mattress ads? 

*Put Spencer Hughes and the babe in the bunker in the KSFO basement. Just for an hour.

*About time mattress man writes a new letter on Facebook.

*Meanwhile, Jared Hart, KGO's new Napoleon, is telling people in the building that he's the power broker. Yeah, that should go over well. Time for another cold one at Grumpy's.

*Jared's new resume entry: "I protect Ronn." Yavoy!

*Irony of all ironies: Pat Thurston, Christine Craft and Karel ALL address the KGO mess with listeners for well over an hour, but the mattress guy can't do more than 15 minutes. And he wonders why all the fuss? Schmuck!

*Follow me on Twitter

25 comments:

  1. The Lieb at his best!

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  2. Rich, I am confused about the Jared/Mattress Man dynamic duo. Who is running whom? Does Boy Wonder keep Batman on the straight amd narrow for the Corporate Masters, or does he derive his power through a clause in Batman's contract?

    Bottom line, I do not see any permanence here for either of them. Batman is old enough to draw his Social Security, and once he's gone, Boy Wonder will have outlived his raison d'ĂȘtre.

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  3. Has anyone pitched this story to Michael Krasny (KQED Forum 9-11 AM)? Seems like a perfect one over there?

    Jared. I think if one lives long enough, one encounters the Jared's of the world. I know I have and witnessed their return to the Earth. Good luck, Jared baby. You'll need it!

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  4. I finally read matress man's third Facebook letter. He comes across as a whiney little prick. Is this the same "tough guy" war mongering hawk on Iraq? If there was anything worthwhile on Karel's interview of former KGO hosts, it was learning that matress man's agent went to Cumulus management and offered to take a pay cut in exchange for a contract extension. They told him to take a hike. His days are numbered. I only pray this whimpy weakling is not resucitated in a new Luckoff endeavor!

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  5. But it doesn't seem that even Jared Napoleon could get Cumulus to renegotiate Ronn's contract (to save his own job as producer). If the mess that KGO has become is due to Jared's handiwork, his resume may be tarnished forever. Re: the comment about Chuck Nevius the other day. Are they still trying to mimic KCBS who has Matier and Ross on a couple of times a week? Get Nevius, another Chron columnist. First "from the editor's desk", now this. Has Jared spent his time in SF listening to KCBS and is that the station his friends in his demographic listen to as well? Hard to believe.

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  6. Love to know that Olbermann will keep putting Tricky Dickey as the Worst Person In The World. This broadcasting wart needs to be exposed, as does Jared Fart, for his obvious muzzling of Owens. Bash the latter all you want, but a lot of his silence was clearly forced. Probably on a tighter leash than one would think, even as his contract remains rock solid.
    And while Keith is at it, could he also produce at least a Third Worse for Ditz Fitz? Here's one early 2012 Wish: That Lacob & Guber come to their senses and give the Warriors a much stronger and less egotistical voice to replace the clueless play-by-player!

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  7. You mentioned Lowell Cohn's blog and the new ownership. Well,what used to be a blog with dozens of post has dwindled to nearly none with the change to Facebook. The other day..I looked at the columns of Lowell,Monte Poole,and Mark Purdy...all using facebook. The three totaled three posts from readers.
    So,we see the real reason for Facebook..its to shut off the internet free speech. I also see that on many news storys..Yahoo has no place to comment at all.
    To hell with facebook and making more billions for the nut who stole the idea to begin with. Like Gates and Windows,its more a creation of who screws who..and why you never should trust FB.

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  8. Just guessing here: "Mattress Man" has language built into his ironclad contract that prevents him from disparaging his employer, and that inflicts draconian penalties on him in situations where such a disparagement happens. And the mechanism for resolving such claims by Cumulingus is long and expensive, and they would have the right to suspend him without pay while the dispute winds its way through arbitration. And if that happened, he'd be unable to work for anyone else until the term of the contract expired, plus some kind of waiting period.

    Kind of a lose-lose for the guy, so if this is anything close to true, it's understandable that he'd play it straighter than the part-timers who are at-will employees and have lives outside their weekend and fill-in gigs, which probably aren't looking all that attractive these days anyway.

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  9. How anybody can tolerate Bob Fitzgerald is beyond me. I happened to listen to Larry Krueger yesterday (sans Radnich.) He actually watches sports and is a million times smarter than Radnich. The funny thing is that yesterday he was about to rip the Giants for their lack of activity in the free agent market but stopped short and said "I want to still be working here on Opening Day (paraphrasing)."

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  10. I completly agree that Ronn involving the guests in the matress commercials can become annoying ... especially when the guests are reluctant and/or obviously have no clue what he's leading up to.

    However, he rarely has them actually read the script, anymore. My guess is that AFTRA put an end to that ... read commercials = please submit initiation fee, and dues.

    Some, like Marty Nemko and Tara Fields, still do the delivery from time to time. But, they have had radio programs of their own, and are already Union members.

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  11. All the "right wing, conservative" talk shows, radio and TV have all the scam advertisers like invest in gold (a real sucker bet) and dubious health remedies. That's because the audience is so gullible!

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  12. What will be the outcome of the Monta item?

    Obviously IF the gal said she was fired...the GWS's have to provide their version of for what reason.

    You can always take the kid out of the ghetto but not sure about vice-versa. Monta finally married the mother of his kids .... 'cept he was sexting stuff to an Oracle/GWS employee...

    Pretty weird Monta? Have none of our athletes learned from Favre or Woods?

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  13. Christine Craft on KGO this Saturday (Christmas Eve) from 11 - 2 pm. Originally listed Peter B. Collins, but Christine is now on the shift list.

    Yah!

    No Karel this weekend! Yah!

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  14. As bad as the KGO fiasco has silenced many local voices, SaveTheNews.org is reporting the Obama FCC today proposed a new set of rules that will expand media consolidation even more. They report the news rules are virtually identical as those proposed by the Bush FCC which met with a buzz saw of opposition. If these rules are adopted this will undoubtedly mean another round of losses of local voices. Consolidation not only affects radio diversity, but is beginning to affect television as well.

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  15. Wow,Olbermann is going to do a segment about KGO? A "National" host, doing a story about a local radio station? Rich, your blog gets more views than Olbermann's show. All of you lefties who commented on Savage, and other "right-wing" radio hosts, lets hear you defend Olbermann! Tell everyone that nothing but the truth comes out of his mouth, unlike all those "right-wing hate mongers"! Come on, lets hear you! Tell everyone that Olbermann, Randi "Rhodes" Buten, Mike Malloy, et. al. aren't complete psychos who fantasize about committing violence against, and have threatened people that they disagree with! Come on, tell everyone that those left-wingers speak nothing but the truth!

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  16. Having Fitz Giggles doing sports radio and being paid by the Warriors is just a huge contradiction of interest.

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  17. Now -- here's word of a "speculation" trainwreck that could happen ... but will it ?

    Enjoy:

    Clear Channel's 910 in San Francisco is teasing the arrival of "America's Anchorman".

    An on-air promo talks about the new Jan 3 talk lineup that officially includes Len Tillum 3-4 p.m. weekdays and Gene Burns 4-7 ... both following revised talk lineup at 910 AM, including former KGO (810) personalities Gene Burns and Len Tillem, both following the syndicated Tom Sullivan.

    Then the liner adds "also, America's Anchorman." Say what?

    Premiere Networks, which is solely owned by Clear Channel, called Rush Limbaugh "America's Anchorman" for almost forever.

    Limbaugh is on Hot Talk KSFO 560, KSFO and there is buzz "not filled slot" from 9-Noon remains unfilled ... but that Limbaugh could make the jump from 560 to 10,000 watt 910 AM.

    This wouldn't be a new or fresh idea. Clear Channel has yanked Limbaugh from the ranks of many stations to put him on their own stations. Look at Boston, for example. Rush was on WRKO that bumped when Clear Channel took over "Rush 1200" to get a signal with a Boston city grade signal.

    It has happened in numerous cities large and small.

    Oh, geez. Speaking of trainwreck. Limbaugh in the morning and Burns (blowing a fuse) in the afternoon.

    Just speculation at this point, but I've seen it happen as you may have. That mushroom cloud you see over The City is ...

    What next, Karel doing all night? Please ... no. Puh-leeze? JB

    Thanks to Tom Taylor for the tip.
    slot in 910's new schedule will be filled by Limbaugh. No confirmation from either side. Clear Channel's 910 is changing call letters from KNEW to KKSF, as the KNEW calls are transferred to its sister talk station at 960, previously known as progressive-talk "Green 960" KKGN.

    Tags: KGO, KKSF, KNEW, KSFO, News/Talk/Sports, Premiere Networks, Rush Limbaugh
    Email to Friend Twitter Facebook

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  18. Thanks, 4:56, for the heads-up about Christine Craft. One of these days someone will wise up and hire her full-time.

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  19. Rich, great appearance on KSCO today. Did you catch the John Lennon guy right after you signed off? The crew in Santa Cruz not only got Dr. Bill, but the Lennon guy has also found them! The host was speechless after the Lennon guy blamed KGO for the death of Lennon. Hahaha!

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  20. Hope they clean house at knbr especially tolbert and brooks two hacks on the air

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  21. 10:47 PM, I've heard Stephen Lightfoot preach his lennonmurdertruth gig on many a station throughout this great land of ours. One day, quite a few years back, I was listening to Baptist Talk Radio, and sure enough, there he was! The Opie and Anthony syndicated show mentioned that he had committed suicide, by jumping off the GGBridge, about eight years ago. Of course I was in shock and called his webhost, who told me he was very much alive. The best five bucks I've ever spent is on his Stephen King Killed John Lennon handbook. Gotta love his passion, even if you don't believe a moment of it.

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  22. Tolbert is not a hack.

    Nothing from Nothing = zero = you.

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  23. The real Boy Wonder has a normal sized head and thicker skin. Jared's stock in trade is to delegate blame. Co-workers can see that small market BS coming from a mile away.

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  24. If Olbermann does a segment on KGO, there's a good chance you will find it on MoxNews's youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/MOXNEWSd0tC0M).

    If it doesn't show up on his channel, you might want to send him a request for it to be uploaded. Moxy's doing a great service by keeping me up to date with all the cable news BS, without me having to subscribe to those channels.

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