Metro blew out a number of local traffic/sports voices, including Ryan Leong plus Bob Pryor, long time traffic producer and Vanessa Gil, Saturday PM KCBS traffic anchor. In addition, Christine Samra, a weekend overnight KCBS traffic anchor was pink-slipped.
This wasn't a big surprise as ClearChannel's been rumored to let go a number of people since buying the traffic service. And they have, and it's not only here in the Bay Area.
*Gene Burns has confirmed his latest health setback to his listeners. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect to Burns to return anytime soon to the airwaves. Some think he'll never return.
A number of factors points to the conclusion that Burns, according to a local source, won't be back. His age, his relentless health issues and its effect on his body, not to mention a plethora of medication. Here's hoping to a speedy recovery.
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Anyone else catch the (apparently taped) "live" sports report in the segment before Wolcoff rolled in this morning on KGO? Chock full of 24 hour old scores and news. "The Warriors lost last night to the New Orleans Hornets etc......."
ReplyDeleteThe game being 2 days ago. Same with rest of report.
Sorry to hear about Ryan. He's a good, hardworking pro who covers a lot of sports at well and does some weekend evening shifts on KCBS. I'm sure he'll be fine. It seems that none of these mega-companies have any interest in trying to enhance their ''product.' All they want to do is
ReplyDeletecut, cut, and cut some more. I guess that's one of the many reasons why people don't listen as much to the radio anymore. The quality has markedly dropped in recent years, thanks to
de-regulation...a favorite cause of the skin-flint
Republican party. I have give the Republicans credit for one thing though..at least they're consistent; they were the party of big business as far back as the Civil Way when Abe Lincoln was their first president (you think honest Abe would anything something about today's Republican Party? NOT!
It's not like the doors and windows are wide open to Asian men in the media,it figures big business would find that one in radio is one too many.
DeleteThey do though stick solidly to the White male-Asian woman who defers to the male,formula.
Nope, they dont care.
DeleteSadly, I concur with your assessment on Gene Burns. Hope he recovers fully even if his stellar carrier in radio cannot continue. A pro's pro.
ReplyDelete10:38am: I totally agree. I am a HUGE Gene Burns fan. Loved his KGO evening and Saturday timeslots for all the reasons so many others have stated. Wish him a successful recovery and hope it leads to his return to the airwaves!
DeleteGene...don't count him out! He just needs to continue speech therapy..there can be huge breakthroughs for folks in his condition..He also must be careful to avoid sticky sweet trojan horse baked goods..no matter how tempting. HIs diabetes is very severe and dietary control,while boring...is the key to keeping him on the air..and getting him on the air again. There is no one as good as Gene Burns when he is healthy.
ReplyDeleteBut how realistic is it to think that he really can come back and be relevant again in this changing market? To need extensive speech therapy at his age just to be able to talk doesn't seem like a good prognosis for a radio personality in a market looking to attract ever-younger listeners. Granted, he is intelligent, a grammarian, a thinker and all of that, but that doesn't seem to be of any significance in today's talk world. He's had a great career, but I would surmise it's all but over.
Deletetalk radio isn't going to attract younger listeners..dumber listeners in a dumbed-down strategy..but not younger.
DeleteI would so love to hear him as a guest, anything, read a blog, something. His tone, demeanor, historical command of language is incomparable. A lot of us are pulling for him.
DeleteMaybe we need a Gene Burns Harmonic Convergence Day.
Why do you think that advertisers want younger and younger folks? The younger folks I know of are in their mid-20s and later and live with their parents. They have no money and lots of student loan and credit card debt. Why are they an attractive demographic?
DeleteAnd I think you are completely off base by saying that his intelligence and grammar are insignificant in today's talk world. Boy are you wrong. I miss it so much.
He's insignificant to the powers that run the radio monopolies who don't seem to care too much about quality, just care about attracting a certain demographic. I don't mean he's insignificant to those who listened to him but we're not the ones the programmers care about any more. Remember, we all wanted more "news", not talk!! Look who are the big players in talk radio now. Not the Gene Burns prototype, but the entertainers who yell and scream about anything or nothing.
DeleteTo save money, Clear Channel could just rebroadcast Los Angeles or New York City traffic updates.
ReplyDeleteCan't do that, really--while traffic can be awful anywhere, the street names are all different.
DeleteIt may not be good but yes they can have people do traffic for other cities In many major cities they have people doing it now for stations in the suburbs. the technology exists some one in SF can look up traffic conditions elsewhere and even talk on the air with the locals. people on major market stations already use different names so they can be on several stations Some santa rosa stations have traffic from San Francisco
Deleteof course the technology exists. Traffic reporters get the bulk of their incidents from the CHP website, I'd say about 90 percent of the reports come from there....http://media.chp.ca.gov/ Then pick your region you want to check traffic for the entire state.
DeleteDid anyone hear owens this morning ,do his mattress ads with guest ,from the chronicle,a new low for owens,no class whatsoever,time to move on!
ReplyDeleteWe'll all need new mattresses as KGO lulls us all to sleep. Good news for Sleep Train!!!
DeleteSorry to hear about the cuts. Of course they let go of the people who have put in the time and effort to be full-time and valuable. Here comes some part-time wasted college kids to do 2 or 3 shifts a week and not care, it'll be great for the product! Yet another reason nobody I know bothers to listen anymore. It's all cheaply-made junk.
ReplyDeleteIs there not just a bit of irony in that Gene Burns, the articulate and well-spoken talk show host and gourmand with his "dining around" prowess, is afflicted with aphasia and restricted to a bland and narrow diet? It must be very frustrating for him, and he has my sympathy.
ReplyDeleteof course and what about the rest of us? who loved dining around(still on kksf 910 with Joel)? Some dining shows make you want to go get or make great food...others make you want to fast until they just go away..really.
DeleteWhatever happened to Teri Lee from Metro traffic? Used to do afternoons on KNBR...
ReplyDeleteTeri was a Metro 'lay off' in the last round of cuts. She has landed on her feet at KGO radio where under her real name Teri Rouse, she is a news writer there.
DeleteShe was blown out months ago.
DeleteBut she gets her identity confused at times. She was on the other day on KGO (either Wed. or Thurs.) and was introduced as Terry Rouse. When she signed off, she said this is Terry Lee reporting. I wasn't sure I heard it right, so I did a google search and found out about her "dual identity".
DeleteGene Burns is a heck of a lot more relevant that Ronn is. His annual smooch-fest with the Chron over the 100 best restaurants was an instant tune-out. This SFGate roundup of pricey fooderies is an insult to average working folks, who must watch their dollars and cents. (Sense, too, Ronn) I'll instead go for the best local new Mexican and Indian joints in my neighborhood, who please my palate without drawing blood from my wallet, thank you.
ReplyDeleteWhen Owens does the mattress commercial I always changed the channel and usually forgot to go back.
ReplyDeleteSince the mass firings I know longer consider KGO relevant!No need to listen.
Gene is a fighter, he will be back and I'm looking forward to it.
You can add another to the list of pink slips given.
ReplyDeleteKeith Obermann. Formerly of Current TV.
Keith why are you so angry?
When President Reagan decided that media should be deregulated, that spelled the end for small radio stations and jobs in general. As a result, we're seeing all of the nonsense that's taking place at media outlets throughout the country. It's a shame that Ryan Leong lost his job today. Hard worker, dedicated, enthusiastic and loved his job. That's a big mistake in our world today. The worker needs to have the employer fall in love with HIM/HER and not have the employee fall in love with the job. Because some MS-Excel loving number sucking son of a bitch won't see the person, just the numbers. Thank high-tech for all of this. High tech employees are just like lemmings. Oh yeah, we'll have fresh fruit and bagels on rotating days, offer you restaurant quality meals at affordable prices, have a place to work out and give you free snacks and drinks. All you have to do is show up, keep your head down, work hard and go home. Bleech! And if we're not making enough money, see ya later. Disgusting. But that's our world. What a wonderful place we live in. It's all about show me the money. Stinks.
ReplyDeleteTeri was layed off at Metro and now works for KGO as a full time writer - and lately, has been doing a few on air things here and there.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that surprises me in all of these comments is that people still listen to Ronn Owens.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly the majority of KGONE news team are female. Has the quality of news improved? From my vue, their news choices and broadcasting sucks. Look at the rating.
ReplyDeleteI have to defend Ronn Owens Show, I listened to Ronn long before all this mess started and most people wouldn't be knocking him if he hadn't brushed off the firings the way he did. If he got fired with the rest, people would be supporting him. Yes, his mattress commercials are cheesy and I wish he didn't put his guests on the spot but I can let that slide. He's a good interviewer and has had some really good shows. The reason why people are still listening to Ronn is because of the same reason they listened to him in the first place.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am tuned into RedeyeRadio (Trucker Radio) yuck, and it is not geared to the Bay area but to right wing middle America quite the opposite of Ronn Owens. Finding good talk radio is hard, I listen to Gene Burn's podcasts everyday but when they are all listened to I have to turn to Ronn's podcasts.
Yesterday I accidentally tuned into Laura Ingraham, and after a few minutes of listening to her I wanted to crawl through my radio and strangle her, I never had that same feeling listening to Ronn.
How about the Chronicle giving Gene a column. Just because his speech is impaired doesn't change the fact that he is brilliant with incredible insights.
ReplyDeleteThis is a brilliant idea!
DeleteI don't know why anyone listens to the ridiculous traffic reports on bay area radio stations anyway. I'm driving all over the bay area and have listened to the reports over the years, and it's amazing how consistently late or inaccurate these reports are. Unless they have someone overhead in a helicopter, or a 'super-communiter' who is actually stuck in traffic, the information we're getting is usually 15-20 minutes late.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I was driving down the Nimitz in Oakland one late afternoon and I heard two different traffic reports talk about how the roads were clogged near Fruitvale and 880. In fact, whatever traffic had been there was now cleared off and the ride was smooth and unimpeded by traffic.
Another time, driving into the city over the bay bridge I heard one traffic reporter chirping cheerfully that: "You'll have no delay coming into the city as the upper deck is moving along at the limit," when in fact there was wall to wall traffic moving at a snails pace. If you're stuck in traffic, it would be nice to know that you're hearing from someone who actually knows what's going on...not someone sitting in a studio reading the lates reports from the CHP. As I said, the only truly reliable traffic reports come people who are doing their updates live from their cars in traffic, or from those circling overhead and viewing the messes below them. Most of these other reports? A waste of airtime!
The news stations - KCBS and KGO - promote their traffic reports every 10 minutes as a strong point of their stations. I've had similar experiences. If I'm approaching slowed traffic and listen to both stations to find out what's going on, it seems that they are never covering the jam I'm experiencing. So they are relatively useless. Also, if you're not out on the road all day long, they are a complete waste of time and take up a lot of the broadcasting time. During commute time maybe they make sense, but all day, NO.
Delete11:50 and 3:17 you are totally correct. Any traffic reports not during commute times when there's an airborne or mobile unit a TOTAL waste of time!
DeleteI get a kick out of right wing fanatics who call the media: 'Liberal.' Give me a freaking break!
ReplyDeleteDo these cretins know who owns the media? Mega-companies that put blowhards and ideologues such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on the air. Why do you think America seems to have a more conservative bent these days? Could it be because most of the talk radio stations have sweating, screaming commentators who love to use scare tactics, obfuscation, and out and out lies to sway listeners to believe their flawed points of view?
And why is that so many fanatic right wingers are so angry at everything and love to use hate-filled terms for any who dare to disagree with them? And then they label those who aren't buying their crap 'un-american.' They are the true un-amercians who probably would have gone in lockstep with people such as Joe McCarthy, who perverted fairness and due process to smear innocent people in the 1950s.
SMany of of these fools also like the parrot the idiotic rantings of well-heeled talk show hosts such as those aforementioned gents who have also helped put many well respected and listened to broadcasters and talk show hosts out work. Thanks a lot Republicans...and good old Ronny-baby for allowing deregulation. It really was good for this country...wasn't it!
I listen to Joel Riddell every week on Dining Around and feel he is a great replacement until or if Gene returns. He is enthusiastic, well planned and prepared. I like him and have learned a lot from his shows.
ReplyDeleteThere is not enough variety even on KCBS with all this,too many of the same voices are being heard. As long as the air time is filled its as if the public doesn't even notice!
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed listening to Ryan Leong. He is a minority and it is quite rare to hear on the air. There are not too many Asian men in the media let alone the radio. I feel it is being overlooked especially, since we are suppose to be one of the most diverse areas in the country! It was refreshing to have that diversity. It was wonderful to hear him. He did such a good job. We actually looked forward to hear his voice on the radio. He was articulate,and sharp and his voice was perfect for radio. We are really sad by this now it back to the same type of voices nothing unique sorry to say!!