The mean and lean at Cumulus 810 AM carrries on...
KGO is doing 'evening' sports on weeknights to keep up with KCBS. Michael McGauley , a Metro guy who does traffic on KCBS, also does traffic on KFOG and sports on KGO as "Michael Green."
Am I surprised? No, it's a common practice that Metro people do traffic updates and use different names on various Bay Area radio stations.
What is somewhat surprising is that KGO, even KGOne, would use a CBS guy, albeit Metro...I mean, just listen to the voice. Embarrassing. What a lovely business. Ain't it though?
*Follow me on Twitter
My favorite part is when these Metro people screw up and use the wrong name on a station. They then have to correct their own, uh, "name." It's very funny.
ReplyDeleteTHIS BLOG IS TOO POWERFUL NO.5,672.: On the KRON evening news..Raddy tried to get Pam Moore to acknowledge that Raddy bought a used Bentley. I posted the other day "I bet Radnich has convinced himself his co workers are happy for him" to have that pretentious car. Tonight as Radnich goaded her...all she would say? "I'm happy when freinds have nice things"..He pressed her to say what he drives...she couldn't and wouldn't sink that far. Neither would the weather woman.
ReplyDeleteRadnich was humiliated..if he was normal. But,in reality, wasnt bothered.
"Sharing" is the dirty little secret of Bay area stations. Metro started out with traffic but is continuing to expand. So far, no TV station to my knowledge is using a Metro reporter for hard news reporting but that is about the only line that has not been crossed. Of course, the only reason for this is money. Metro is non-union, pays less and does not require the competitive level of excellence that is the direct result of free market, high paying jobs. It is one way for youngsters to get their foot in the door. It is also a way for those who have been laid off to pay their bills. However, Metro does not have a core tradition of journalism and lacks a statement of values. The major SF TV news operations have plenty of producers who want shows filled with stories about two-headed goats, but at least the more sensational-minded are somewhat tempered by others with ethics, training, experience and pride in their profession.
ReplyDeleteSo funny. I always get a kick out of listening to the local top of the news weekends on KSFO and then switch over to KGO. It is usually the same person just using different names. Rich, that is a great blog entry for the future! Name all the metro people along with their multiple aliases. I wonder how they come up with all those names. Perhaps do some interviews with them as you have done with major local news folk. I'd definitely enjoy reading about say...George Acevedo....
ReplyDeleteNext thing you know they'll be featuring the Lieberman show from 5 ~ 6 am on sundays
ReplyDeleteI like how Joe McConnell one moment is clowning around acting all "urban" on KBLX (especially his CatfishJoe routine), then two minutes later is all serious on KQED. Talk about a split personality. Actually he is an underrated talent around here. Surprised Rich hasn't given him props before.
ReplyDeleteLove Joe! Have enjoyed his smooth delivery for many traffic moons.
DeleteIf I'm not mistaken, he also does the voices on The Weather Channel for your Local on the Eights. Never checked into it, but it sure sounds like him!
DeleteHe's not a traffic guy, but a news guy, but you hear Clark Reid all over the radio. Heard him on KQED. Then on KKSF910 and the very next day on KGO. Since those are the only stations I listen to, I don't know what other stations he subs on. With all the layoffs and such, it seems these guys are getting a lot of work these days.
ReplyDeleteIf you're referring to McConnell, he's been doing KGO/KBLX/KQED (and perhaps others) for decades as a traffic person who occasionally does the news (at least on KBLX) as a fill-in. Never heard him do the news on KQED (but then again he could fill-in)... If not about McConnell... disregard :)
DeleteI guess I didn't write it clearly. Rich was posting about traffic guys working for multiple stations. It reminded me of also hearing Clark Reid on several stations in one week. I meant CLARK was not a traffic guy but a news guy -- but he similarly appears on many stations (although he uses the same name on all of them)
DeleteMetro is UNION...whoever said it's non-union is incorrect.
ReplyDeleteMetro, is no longer. This week it's called Total Traffic...and they are in the union albeit at severly reduced pay rates than the radio station standards.
ReplyDeleteCorrection for 7:57: Metro IS union/AFTRA.
ReplyDeleteI think many Americans would be surprised to find out that the morning traffic personality on their favorite "Assbag and the Goon" show was actually a middle-aged alcoholic woman who'd been farted out the other end of the radio biz and found her way to a burned-up console in a lousy office where she gets the privilege of working an amazing split shift everyday for about $12 an hour. Metro Networks: helping to lower expectations and making radio shittier for nearly two decades now!
ReplyDeleteReally not sure about this, but was Clark Reid the PD at the old KABL 960?
ReplyDeleteShadow/Metro/Total Hooey: Now you can hear the SAME incorrect traffic reporting on SIX different radio stations! Soon on TV and the Interwebs too! Content?? We don' need no steeenkin' content!!
ReplyDeleteThis latest revelation should come as no surprise. Cumulus, like all major media companies these days is going young and cheap. They could care less about content or credibility...it's all about keeping costs down...screw the public...they don't count...shareholders and upper management types are more important. Come to think of it..that's America these days in a nutshell...part of the reason this country has been going through a major recession.
ReplyDeleteYet another reason why a once-proud station such as KGO has lost so many of its listeners. Expectations for professionalism on the air are now at an all-time low. Hiring idiots and amateurs rather than professionally trained and experienced announcers is standard fare these days. Why even bother listening anymore if such crap is peddled to the public? I don't!
ReplyDelete1:48, 5:15, 5:55: Thanks for the correction. My apologies to all. I re-checked and found I was using outdated information. Very embarrassing but appreciative.
DeleteMetro does not hire amateurs. Some are better than others obviously
ReplyDeleteWhat's so funny is Joe McConnell, whom so many on this post revere, is also a metro-- or traffic network (whatever its called) employee! Why the hate for the new sports guy? You act as if he's the reason that the ivory towers at KGO have fallen and his bretheren at Metro are to blame for everything wrong with corporate radio. Don't forget, using a Metro employee for sports on radio stations has always been par for the course- Dave Lewis, Kate Scott, Dan Dibley, Joe Salvatore, the list goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteOh go screw yourselves. Quit bitching about stuff that doesn't matter. Most of you geniuses couldn't make it through a single traffic report if they spotted you the first 30 seconds to save your fucking lives. Radio buffs, in a digital world.
ReplyDeleteI have to defend my Metro/Shadow/Total Chaos colleagues...if you're working for that outfit you're either on the way up or on the way back down, and everybody I have worked with over the past 20 years is a pro and should be doing better (some of them are!), but we like the Bay Area and Metro/Shadow/Total Insecurity allows us to say things on the radio and stay in the Bay Area too. I have worked in other places, and this is the best of the lot and radio is the same all over so there is no need to go after "loftier" digs when stations are all broke-dick garbage dumps where all you're going to do is read liner cards and play the same records over and over again and deal with asshat program directors who failed as air talent.
ReplyDeleteMichael Greene/McGauley/whoever he is this week is one of those pros who has very high standards for his own performance and we all give him crap for it because those of us who do not measure up he tries to "help" but he's also a sports nut and this new gig is a great opportunity for him.
And, no, I am not he.
I agree with 10:39 pm. But of course the typical whiners who post on this blog seem to have some mental issues. Anyone who spends their time flipping between two stations to hear the TOH ID and the newscast is beyond strange. Typical listeners don't make this kind of thing a center piece of their lives. Or rant for 6 paragraphs on some perceived slight they felt by a sports or news talk host.
ReplyDeleteAs Rich pointed out, the strangeness is not so much the practice of using different names on different stations, but the tolerance of having one person appear on a direct competitor's station. THAT is something wouldn't have happened in the past. KCBS would have been jumping up and down saying "hey NOW!" and that would have put an end to it. I guess no one cares anymore.
ReplyDeleteYeah, back even as recently as the mid 1990s, you'd rarely hear one person working on the air for more than one station. But with media consolidation and the 'dumbing down' of the on-air product, the standards have alarmingly dropped.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for young people who want to get into broadcast journalism these days. The idiots who run these stations and their overseers have absolutley no clue as to how to put together creative, interesting, educational, significant programming. It's all about the 'quick hit' to try and turn those PPms on. So they keep churning out crap...as the announcers don't use the language or their voices in a professionally trained manner, and embarass themselves. But most people are now so used to this crap that they just take it..it's junk food for the mind!
It's just one more reason why this country has gone to the dogs lately; the majority citizens of the U.S. are too uninterested and uninvolved to do anything about it. They'd rather shut off their lazy minds by watching tabloid TV, or listening to corporate radio. SAD!