CUMULUS PURGE STRIKES AGAIN
Those various traffic and sports updaters you hear on Bay Area radio don't actually work for the respective radio station. Some even use fake names. They're part of an independent service that is fronted and paid for by ClearChannel.
No more...at least in the case of the Atlanta corporate raiders.
Cumulus is cutting ties with Metro/Shadow/Total traffic as of July 1st at midnight. Several local broadcast sources have told me the decision has been made and come July 1, many of your favorite talking traffic heads will be looking for work.
This will not effect people like Kim Wonderley and Sheryl Reines of KCBS, both of whom work for the station. And besides, KCBS is not owned by Cumulus. KGO is another story, as is KNBR (680, 1050 AM) and KSFO. (And KFOG and The Bone too).
No word on where or what service the Atlanta a-holes plan to use, but expect a lot of in-house bean counters and those staffers who will work cheap so they can get on the air. How lovely. Again.
**Hope you had a chance to listen to yours truly on KSCO Tuesday. What a day. We got a call late Monday asking to sub for Dr. Bill Wattenburg and were happy to oblige.
Did two phoners with my buddy, Patrick Warburton, (co-star of "Rules of Engagement" on CBS and a quickie with Raj Mathai of NBC Bay Area). Warburton is probably best known as "Puddy", Elaine's boyfriend from Seinfeld, and you just know I had to ask him to do the character...."Hey Jerry--high-five!"
And he delivered. The power of moi and 415 Media.
**No, I haven't forgot about listing the most powerful people in Bay Area Media; stay tuned--between going to Santa Cruz and Sacramento in less than 48 hours, I haven't had the chance to post. We will be in action soon.
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Please name names as to which traffic/sports people will be leaving our airwaves, thanks again to Cumulus. Grrr!
ReplyDeleteProbably all the night and weekend and airborne people on KGO and who ever does traffic during morning drive on the other stations.
DeleteSome of them could be rehired by the new company at a lower pay scale. The people at Metro were represented by AFTRA
Sheryl Reines I believe also produces KCBS' in-depth series too.
ReplyDeleteSo I assume then, the traffic people on KNBR (there's that one lady who does it during the Fitz/Brooks show) will be gone?
Typical Cumulus. Know nothing but burning bridges.
that means Kate Scott of KNBR 680 will be out of work! She's the best update person in radio.....
ReplyDeleteWhat about Stan Burford on KGO?
ReplyDeleteI believe Kate Scott isn't employed at Total Traffic, but hired directly by KNBR.
ReplyDeleteStan Burford is a KGO employee, not a Shadow employee (or whatever they call themselves now.)
ReplyDeleteWhile I have empathy for the employees of Shadow, some of whom will be pink-slipped, I would point out that Shadow's story is representative of what is wrong with radio today: It was originally put together as a cost-saving measure and an enhancement to traffic reporting; instead of having all these stations do their own primary research -- before the Web that involved actual phone conversations with a CHP representative, who would get called repeatedly every hour by every station. And/or, they had to fly their own airplanes and helicopters and employ their own field reporters. Enter Shadow, where they could pool their resources and serve multiple stations, thereby reducing redundant traffic research, leveraging their employees (both on-air and off), and pass some of the savings back to the stations they served thru lower costs. Better traffic for less money? Deal!
Later, they branched into doing news reports, which (unfortunately) are predominantly rip-and-read. They do a small percentage of local reporting, and then run those stories for 24 to 48 hours, on multiple stations (if I hear that actuality one more time this weekend....).
Some of their reporters -- Mike State, Scott Littieri, and Bob Gowa, for instance, and the long-gone Seraphim Leemon -- are actual radio / news professionals, but the majority are just out-of-work disc jockeys and wannabes, especially off-hours.
They weren't always a Clear Channel operation, and I resent that somehow CC is getting any credit for building that organization. As I understand it, things have been rather dismal there for some time, with layoffs upon layoffs, over the past few years, since becoming a subsidiary of that mega corp.
Cummmmulus and CC are (if you haven't noticed) in the midst of a pissing contest for being the biggest fish in the corporate mega radio conglomerate world, so it makes sense that Cummmmulus wants to stop giving money to their arch rival.
As for the quality of local news coverage and traffic reporting in the bay area once they have gone, well... this remains to be seen. Don't hold your breath on Cummmmmulus investing in any infrastructure or personnel to forward that effort, however. Probably they'll partner with some 3rd string TV station or some such to bring you stale traffic and recycled 'news' content delivered by minimum-wage wannabes and laid-off media workers trying to cling to their industry. The reporters will undoubtedly continue to make up different names for themselves on each station they are heard on, in a continuation of the effort to promote the illusion that the reporting on each station is unique.
What a memory invoking treat to encounter the reference to Seraphim Leemon.
DeleteShe spent years as a San Francisco journalist with true "PRO" credentials and she too did a stint in the Shadow labyrinth. Her witty and hard-hitting anchoring and reporting earned her the distinction of being the longest serving head of the Press Club of San Francisco in its 100 year history; while traveling I caught her nationally several times as a reporter on CBS and as an anchor on the now defunct AirAmerica network; and we still happen across her on the Bay Area airwaves (KSFO, etcetera) making rare guest Talk Show appearances from where-ever-it-is that she has relocated to. Maybe these newly formatted stations (the proposed Mickey Luckoff one, included) could lure her back to San Francisco?
As to the big picture of consolidation - we ALL suffer for the canned news & updates, a genuine tragedy in a media market as high profile as the one in which we choose to live.
Doesn't necessarily mean they'll all be fired, likely the best will be re-hired for the new in-house business. Cumulus probably hated having to contract out to Clear Channel for all these employees and figured they could run it cheaper on their own. Stan Burford is the lone KGO employee, and Kim Wonderly the only one employed by CBS for traffic reporting. Most of the KNBR update people though have been under contract to Clear Channel/Total Traffic. It will be a change but again, assume they'll keep those they deem worthy.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Joe Vincent at KGO? Since the Cumulus blood bath, he's been their regular PM commute traffic guy (cutting Stan Burford's double shift duties in half). While I have switched to KCBS to get my news, I still bounce over to KGO during my drives to and from work for traffic. Sheryl Reines drives me crazy with her monotone-style traffic reports done as one long never-ending run on sentence. Hers is a voice not meant for radio (in my opinion, anyway) which is why it would totally suck to see Joe Vincent go (unless KGO puts Burford back on the PM traffic beat - hint, hint!).
ReplyDelete-Wayne
"Effect"? "Affect"? Come on, this is sloppy writing.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect from Lou THE DICKHEAD? This is a guy who's only interest is to make money for himself and his shareholders. He could care less about San Francisco radio listeners, and especially how these firings effect KGO's status in the market. Dickey doesn't care about anything but keeping the bottom line fat and in the black. Cumulus moved into major market radio almost 8 years ago and have shown startling amateurishness from the beginning. They are totally unfamiliar with how radio works, and it shows in how they've fu...ed up KGO.
ReplyDelete