I don't know Brian Sussman very well. I presume once he's off his KSFO Morning Show duties, he goes home and sips less Red Bull and acts like the rest of us. Even us "libs" as the SussMAN likes to refer to the loyal opposition.
I'm going to go out on a limb and hope that the Susser's shtick is merely a show. Not his bizarro politics nor his mad scientist act. We all know he can't stand Obama and that quite all right, it's a free country. I mean, morning radio guy hates the Prez? You're kidding! I'm just plain shocked.
OK, so for those of who who ride me because "how can you 'defend Melanie, (Morgan, Suss' co-host), and ride Brian?"
The simple answer is that while Morgan and I have vastly different visions of the world and think Melanie's politics are crazy, there's at least a certain professional protocol that Morgan understands. Sussman is all whack, 24/7. Perhaps it's the reason that while Sussman goes gooey-gaga over all his un-great libs, Morgan occasionally does Bill Maher's show and understands the biz. Whereas, Suss is over-extreme even by his conservative friends, Morgan seems poised to make her point on the air, then when the mike's off, she goes home and laughs a little.
That's not to suggest that Melanie Morgan is putting on a show. Quite the contrary, it is show biz on the radio after all. That's why she got the gig and returned to KSFO after a four-year hiatus. But once the light's off, her persona is intact and she's off the stage.
Sussman, by all accounts, a decent guy with, albeit strange maneuverings, takes his missive home. The "guns", the bizarre personal stories, the ravings against the Prez, the mad scientist act that still befuddle his ex-colleagues at KPIX where he once did the weather.
It's a far cry from Brian Sussman, circa 2012.
**One of the reasons why I don't listen much to the FM sports-radio show is that once they suck you in with a decent, cogent ten minutes or so of intelligent radio, they make you leave when it's time to utilize the moron card.
On Friday morning, I inadvertently caught the "Rise Guys", (Mark Kreidler, Whitey Gleason and Dan Dibley on 95.7 FM) They were discussing, civilly, and without the use of that annoying, idiotically dumb sound-effect machine, the situation involving Stan Van Gundy and the mess, (with Dwight Howard), in Orlando.
What sounded like an interesting, invigorating and girthy segment that, god forbid, reeked with simple intelligent conversation ended with the usual dumb, inane, over-the-top shouting from the likes of Dibley and Gleason.
See, guys, you're preaching to us that you're NOT like the other guys you consistently make fun of on 680 and we want to believe you, we do. But just at the moment you seem to have us fixated with your game plan, you make a left turn against the light and come out looking and sounding no better than the frat boys on Knibber.
**Ronn Owens is quietly scouting other venues as his tenure at KGO nears completion, (Jan, 2013). At this early stage, nobody has a clue what his next move will be. His seven-figure deal is merely months away from conclusion. Owens will be 66 at the end of the deal. Conceivably, he could look to satellite radio, but I doubt that his local act would play well nationally. It didn't work in Los Angeles at it probably wouldn't work elsewhere unless of course, he garnered a mattress sponsor.
**Follow me on Twitter
Right on Rich, the rise guys are becoming a joke, not that they were great or even very good to begin with. Dribley laughing at his own pathetic jokes is just horrible to listen to. Is that whitey guy the second most annoying beyond Shitz??
ReplyDeleteWhitey is actually talented I think. Too bad he's saddled with Dibley. They could just leave it to the adults and have a nice show in the morning but they needed to lower the IQ I guess. Still, better than the offerings on the other sports station.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Ronn is watching Tom Leykis's brand-new The New Normal Network closely.
ReplyDelete"Whitey" Glenn Gleason,is like Radnich a performer wanna be..sports is like the second hobby. Gleason does a great Nazi general impersonation-he says he's part German-and can do Bullwinkle dead on. Then,you have Dibbley doing Simpson and Spongebob characters. And somehow,they are sliver better then KNBR's Giant/49er infomercials with commercials every 9 minutes.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the Rise guys beeter rise to the challenge as I notice that the PD has moved the Billy Beane show to the Teirney and Davis show. Your readers may remember my lambasting the Rise Guys and Dan for their shameless fawning over Billy Beane and such tuff questions to Beane such as "What do you put in your Oatmeal,Billy?" I shit you not. They DID ask that.
signed,
the masked
"S"
I still say the best sports talk show on radio is Teirney and Davis. Other then Brandon I think,exaggerating his NY accent,not much shtick,they talk sports,and actually seem to truly disagree on major topics,often. KNBR hosts you notice,aren't allowed to do that.
ReplyDeleteAnd even though I have oodles of issues with there show (wanna get high?)..I know good sports talk when I hear it.I'm sure they have the same love for me,cough ,cough...
"S"
Are you kidding me? The crap on 'the Game' isn't much better than most of the crap on 'the sports leader.' The quality of sports talk radio in the bay area is worse than ever, despite the fact that there are now two sports talk stations. You would hope that one of them would at least put on a modicum of listenable programming for the local sports fans.
ReplyDeleteRonn is scouting other gigs, you say? I wouldn't mind if he replaced Limbaugh at 910.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I wouldn't either. I've lost respect for Ronn over the whole debacle, but in light of everything that's gone on over the past few months, I'd still take him over Rush Limbaugh any day. And if Gene is unable to rejoin the radio, I would prefer Ronn over any of these ridiculously over- saturated right-wing nutjobs. But I'd rather they keep John and Gil.
DeleteCouldn't disagree more with those critical of the Rise Guys; think they're clever, entertaining, and at times hilarious.
ReplyDeleteRonn looking for his next gig? As the next Paul Harvey?
ReplyDeleteMr Radunich, during his blink-and-you-missed-it pairing with Damon, described the millions he has made over the years.
What is with these guys? They just can't leave the stage.
Dennis Richmond did it right.
Melanie's friends on Cumulus owned KGO/KSFO get abused and fired. She then joins the team. I respected her greatly, but now she and Cumulus are one and the same.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe this is the same Brian Sussman that--let alone was KPIX's front-line "weather guesser" (as they say on News Blues)--but was once the nice-kid personality on KNTV, when that station was the small-town ABC affiliate with a signal that didn't reach much past the mid-Peninsula.
ReplyDeleteIn 1997 the powers-that-were at Los Angeles's KABC 790 defrocked the popular (and gently liberal) host Michael Jackson in favor of a simulcast of Ronn Owens--one week from LA and the next from Front Street--it was said that KABC tabbed him because if his ratings bested Limbaugh in the Bay Area, so he could there too. The simulcast lasted 50 weeks, dying of silence and lack of interest. An LA Times radio writer described Owens as deadly dull and relying on "the McTopic of the day." Some things never change.
Wow, is that photo of Melanie recent? I recognize that crooked smile. A friend of mine had that happen after some recent face "work". The nerve on the left side of her face got traumatized by the procedure, and one side of the bottom of her lip didn't work right for a couple of months after.
ReplyDelete