Shortly before the KGO/Cumulus bloodbath last month, Ronn Owens, who's personal services contract is up in January, 2013, went to the top brass, (via his agent, Don Buchwald, who also reps for Howard Stern), and requested a contract extension.
There was a kicker: Owens, who makes a shade north of seven figures, offered to take a pay cut in exchange for the extension. Cumulus management turned down the offer.
Owens, who began working for KGO in 1975, signed his current deal in 2006, (when KGO was owned by Disney). Although his ratings remain high and he makes money for the station, KQED's Michael Krasny, (who host's "Forum" from 9-11 AM opposite Owens) has, actually, more listeners.
The move made by Cumulus indicates two things: Owens makes far too much money in the Lew Dickey compensation handbook. Second, barring something thoroughly out of the blue, come January 1, 2013, Owens tenure at KGO will likely end.
Sad day for the mattress industry.
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"Sad day for the mattress industry."
ReplyDeleteOk, that's the funniest line I've read in a while.
Sleepworld is having a really good sale. If Owen's had shown any respect for his listeners and "friends", there would not be the tremendous anger and we would not all be learning the details of his "business arrangement". I for one did not know that he is making more than 1M per year. Seems to me that since he has a contract, he would have been in a better position than the other hosts who remain to say what he really thinks .... or maybe he did? From what I hear, however, he doesn't sound all that happy about the changes.
ReplyDeleteDon't think we will need to give Ronn a charitable event in case he loses his job, and a another local station will pick him up most likely, not for the jack that he is making but hell I can live on a third of that, no problem.
ReplyDeleteThus mattress guy's reaction after the mass firings becomes more perplexing. The suits had already slapped him down by refusing an extension, so what did he have to lose by talking about the KGO mass firings? He should have cancelled Tony LaRussa, the rock and roll hour and talking about cell phones. It is obvious he does not do well dealing with adversity. Mr. Softie is a materialistic schmoozer with no backbone. He was so "ballsy" and "decisive" sending off an intoxicated Norm Macdonald a few weeks back, yet after the firings he was indecisive and let Jared make the decision not to talk about it. Weaaaaaak! He will spend more time talking about the Grammys.
ReplyDeleteI think 10:13 am is right on the money in his or her analysis.
ReplyDeleteRonn has demonstrated his spineless core despite years of pretending to be otherwise.
First, there was always the frequent boast that the day his bosses told him what to say, he'd quit. That day has come and he cowered before Jared of all people.
Second, I often heard Ronn excoriate public figures he perceived to be weak and spineless, and -- like or not Ronn has placed himself in a position where he is a public figure -- he failed his own test by his own measurement. Pathetic!
The question is who is going to even want to listen to him when he moves to another station? He is not the hip, decisive, middle-of-the-roader he told everyone he is. He is a fraud and there are already plenty of those folks on the radio.
Great! Our having to listen to his review of the latest episode of Survivor, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are numbered.
ReplyDeleteSame goes to the Bad Joke hour, new gadgets and the latest Rap music video.
Excellent posts at 10:13am and 11:22am.
ReplyDeleteRight on the mark. Two points.
You both expressed exactly what I have been thinking for the past 6+ years.
Now, now kids ... come on. Lighten up. Think (and look) at what you're saying. OK. You don't like Ronn. You don't like Jared. You don't like Paul Hosely the News Director and the "new" Jack Swanson. Last, but not least, you don't like the new GM, who is also the Cumulus Market Manager. Let's call him, "BOB".
ReplyDeleteFrom the top of the food chain down, THOSE are the people to blame, not just for Ronn's sake, but for changing the format, firing the talen, keeping "talent" like Karel, underusing Christine Craft, Pat Thurston and others, using others like Spencer Hughes and the giggle-fest in the AM known as "The KGO Morning News."
Ronn's in a position. Cumulus is not willing to buy out his $1.xxx million one-year-left to go contract. That's business. So, he stays until or unless he really effs up and they have "just cause" to fire him and tear up his Don Buchwald "bulletproof" contract. They don't want to do that and ...
Ronn doesn't want to lose over a million dollars in cash for his remaining year. So, he plays the game and place nice with the other kids who are over his head.
Question: Wouldn't you? Unless you are happy in your probably uncomparable job and just walk, but, no ... it's not in his best interest, nor in yours -- if it was you. Now Karel walking ... that would be fine. He makes $500 a week working for KGO and is at the bottom of the AFTRA rate scale, period. Would you walk away from a $2,000 a month job? He has no reason too, unfortunately ... and it would mean nothing if he did. But walking away from a million plus (and the plus is more that most of us make in a decade or two,) is ridiculous to expect.
Not that Ronn is perfect. I date back to when Ronn was in Philly as, then, a kid talk show host. He wasn't doing any better than Karel is, but he found ways to get out and, eventually, to KGO for 35 years and the biggest salary in the market. It's not his call to just walk for principle sake. It's in that tricky little bulletproof contract ... a contract that still leans toward what Cumulus (or, actually, the 2006 Disney contract now in effect -- he doesn't have a contract with Cumulus per se.)
So, he has a choice ... stay or leave. He's stay to rake in the crackers, that's all. And to that end, he'll stay "Ronn" and if Cumulus tells him to jump, he'll say "How high Bob, or Paul or Jared" ... and then he'll laugh all the way to the bank next Jan. 1 when his contract is over and the "old" KGO will be long forgotten as AM will be a year "deader" and Cumuless still hasn't changed it's news format to FM.
And incidentally ... it's not a matter of how high the "cumes" are over at KQED in the point of Krasnay having "more listeners that Owens." It's about "rating" ... and advertisers by off of "rating" not "cumes". Rating has to do with all that the radio station in that daypart with that personality has done while cume is an "estimated" number of people who make up that rating ... but it's the rating and the "CPM - cost per thousand" that draws the bucks, not the numbers outside of "rating." (I've done this for many years.)
So, you have a thousand pissed off people on Rich's real estate here and 500,000 people who "tune in for at least 5 minutes in a quarter hour" to get credit for listening to KGO and Ronn Owens. Big whoop. The station is still making shiploads of money and with less than the million dollar a year talent they once had.
It's called ... business.
That's all. Owens owes us nothing. It's not about "us" -- it's about him banking a million dollars plus in the next 370 days.
Nothing dumb about that.
Spineless or not, from a business stand point, if would have been a great deal if his agent could have pulled it off.
ReplyDeleteHe would have painted a slightly less target on his back when they looked at bloated paychecks.
If they did cut him now, they would have had to pony up more money. Keep him, and he'd make more money over time than when they would be letting him go in January 2013.
Either way, while I don't blame Ronn for staying, it just lessens the blow with KGO having a year to transition him out. Leave now with all the other firings and it makes for an even louder bombshell in the local media. Leave in a year and no one really cares. There won't be anyone left to throw him a going away party let alone even care.
No question Ronn is in it for Ronn. Wouldn't expect him to do anything other than hang in there for the bucks.
ReplyDeleteLets not forget he was one of George W Bush's biggest cheerleaders going into Iraq. Once the deed was done and the swimming upstream in the Bay Area got too tough the "voice of reason" decided it wasn't so reasonable after all. No matter, the boots (someone else's kid) were on the ground.
How many of you are in envy that Ronn is making the cash?
ReplyDeleteA bit off topic, but has anybody noticed all the sales recruitment spots KGO is airing? Are their sales people walking? Or are they planning to turn a bunch of inexperienced, starving, straight commission people into the market? Nothing wrong with using your own medium to recruit, but why now? Maybe the "who killed John Lennon" guy will sign up!
ReplyDelete2:26 pm. Not me. My income is modest but entirely adequate to meet my needs and aspirations at this point in my life. I am retired ( in a demographic radio stations do not particularly value) and thus am old enough to realize that neither true success or happiness come from money.
ReplyDeleteKudos to 11:22 am! For the last few years I have found the choice of topics boring.
"...has anybody noticed all the sales recruitment spots KGO is airing?"
ReplyDeleteSince I don't listen to KGO, I haven't heard them. I have been hearing these types of recruitment spots on KNBR, though.
Ronn Owens is like a peice of overpriced bay area real estate, circa 2007. Cumulus is underwater now on this "investment" and sooner or later they will walk away and let the Mcmansion foreclose.
ReplyDeleteI tried listening to KGO again. It's *horrible*.
ReplyDeleteIt's all network news, with lots of entertainment pieces. Bleh!!
Goodbye KGO. See 'ya.
THAT's what he's really sad about--not the loss of his "friends"....good bye Ronnn!
ReplyDeleteWhen Ronn discuses "most popular phrase of 2011" as a topic, I lose interest.
ReplyDeleteRonn. Now do you understand why KGO ratings have fallen?
I've listened to Ron Owens for 23 years, and I've heard him often say that no one tells him what to say, and if they did, he would walk. And count me among those who said that when push came to shove, he didn't walk.
ReplyDeleteWhen Bernie Ward was in hot water, KGO had an embargo on the biggest local media story going. Everybody talked about it but them. So they began to lose their trust in my eyes back then. And now they want me to trust KGO as the, uh, "news and information leader? THEY DIDN'T REPORT ON THE PROTEST GOING ON RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR DOORS.
KGO IS A JOKE!!! And Ron Owens has become one as well. He'll be gone in a year, and he and his agent know it, and no one will care where or if he lands.
I"m going to agree with 12:44.. I think he nailed it perfectly AND, in this economy, I agree that Ronn needs to think about saving as much $$ as he can because, well, it's clear that those high salaries are not going to last much longer. It's going to be interesting to hear Ronn go through the events of 2012... for "the last time." Will that change his tone?? His insight?? What will he say when the curathon should have happened?? How about the Thanksgiving Day parade. I will respect him more if he becomes a bit more pointed and critical of the station... not to the point of risking his contract... but he could bite their asses a few times a week. Nothing wrong with that. Think of how David Letterman used to critique CBS. I'd love to see Ronn take a similar stance.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that his boss, Jared has het a few opinions slip in.
ReplyDeleteLMAO: "Sad day for the mattress industry."
ReplyDelete