Thursday, June 21, 2012

CBS and Cumulus to launch new Sports Radio Network; KNBR on the list of Stations; Can you say 'Consolidation'?

CONSOLIDATION, Consolidation, and consolidation.

It's the KEYWORD for the kings of the consolidators in Atlanta; part of the synergy and very much a key to the end game for the Dickey boys.

Here's the latest, a good cause for concern for the 55 Hawthorne Knibber folks. Might portend for the future plans and provide the basis for a wholesale content re-distribution and then some.

The story: CBS and Cumulus will join forces to partner a new sports radio network. Did you hear about the word, "consolidation?" Excuse me while I pause for the big boom I just heard coming out of the Hawthorne center.

Here's a key part of the post in case you didn't see it:

Among the CUMULUS stations adding CBS SPORTS RADIO programming will be KNBR-A and KTCT-A/SAN FRANCISCO, KTCK-A (THE TICKET)/DALLAS, WCNN-A (680 THE FAN)/ATLANTA, WGFX (104.5 THE ZONE)/NASHVILLE, and several more.

Psst, "consolidation."

I've been saying all along that the Dickey bros are not radio people. They regard broadcasting entity as a part of the bigger jigsaw puzzle. In other words, to answer a question I get frequently, what in the hell are they doing? They simply are trimming up the meat. You know, lean and mean--the more lean, the better when they decide to flip and make a tidy profit. This latest move is part of the overall end game.

They will, ahem, be able to shelve more bodies out the door. They'll add content, (thanks CBS) and need less local personnel. A Red Eye here, a Bloomberg News there, some sports here, (CBS Radio), are you seeing a trend?

First things first: Expect a few more chop-a-thons at KNBR. Who, how many, no one knows right now. Nobody knows for sure. And don't expect KCBS to be fretting because they don't carry any national sports content. They did a long time ago, but not anymore. CBS' other O and O's that do? That's another story. It's a strange combo nonetheless: CBS and Cumulus. And more ominous news down the road for the 55 Hawthorne sports girls and boys.

CONSOLIDATION.

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40 comments:

  1. It seems like Cumulus spends a lot more time creating new crap, rather than improving their current crap.

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    1. Although I don't listen to sportsradio ever, all I can say to the comment above is: AMEN, so true, so sad.

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  2. New "CBS Sports Radio Network" could become largest sports radio network in US

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  3. Anything is better than giants game rebroadcasts at night

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  4. I predict Radnich will kiss up to Lee Hammer even more in the days ahead!

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    1. So the cheeks are red due to the irritation from the hair on Lee Hammers ass?


      Good to know!

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  5. OTA is dead. Who cares. Sat in the car. Internet at home. Not sure where my home radio is at, guess in garage next to my fax machine and VCR.

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  6. The 1:41 post said it well.
    That guy (Radnich) will do anything to save his hide.
    And . . . Let's hope we never heard another birdbrain minute of ESPN's SportsRadio on the weekends. We do not need anymore eastern hacks with their hoodlum accents.
    Why does Amy Lawerance insist on sounding like one of the guys?
    Sweatheart done it down. Do us a favor and speak in a normal tone of voice. We can hear you. No need to shout into the microphone.
    End of lecture.

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    1. 3:06 - you totally hit the nail on the head regarding weekend ESPN programming. Predictable blowhards, with Amy Lawrence being a total tool.

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    2. Don't forget Freddie Coleman and Johnathan Coachman....more awful programming.

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  7. no matter. I don't listen. Sirius NFL. For baseball, I go elsewhere to listen as if you have a subscription service, then it carries the games that KNBR broadcasts. The guys from Atlanta are like the junk-bond raiders of the 1980s and 1990s and that helped lead to our economic meltdown. Maybe Radnich can practice his jump shot.

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  8. I figured with the Warriors paying his contract, and Cumulus being all about cost cutting, that Bob Fitzgerald would be kept around. With this development...it makes me wonder if this will be the scenario that silences the giggles.

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  9. Totally agree about giants rebroadcasts. They're awful and I always change the station at that time.

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  10. Looks like Hammer and Bunger-hole will get the knife sharpened.
    If, as Ralph asserted in his lawsuit, that Bunger-hole has repeatedly fired older employees, Raddy should watch his back!!

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  11. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cbs-creates-the-largest-major-market-sports-radio-network-in-the-nation-2012-06-21

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  12. CBS will be damn sorry they got in bed with these sleazeballs. This will not go well, unless it's merely CBS selling content...

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  13. I listen to KNBR every day during my drive time in my car. Call me a semi-captive audience or something. When they start talking about soccer or hockey I switch to KQED-FM.

    I got one question. WhoTF is Lee Hammer? For that matter, WhoTF WAS Bob Agnew? The on-air staff deferred to these guys like they were some sort of god or something. What's with the butt-kissing and ass-flattery?

    Excuse the dumb-ass question. I'm not in the business, obvious.

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  14. Awesome! No more soft sports talk radio. Murph and Mac, Brooks and Fitzgerald, Radnich and that other guy, Ray Woodson's annoying ass and Tolbert. Alllllllll goooonnnnne.

    This has been a fantasy of mine for ten years. And it's happening, it's really happening. All those broadcast that insulted our intellect, our fandom. They are about to pay. Real Sports Content!

    My only hope is that Damon finds a place locally. He's the only sports talent I listen to. This is a good thing. I'm happy that now our local sports teams will be held accountable thru the air waves. No more soft ball interviews and opinions. I love it.

    BTW - Nick and Artie is awful radio.

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    1. I agree Damon is the only talent worth keeping, get rid of the rest of them, this moved got to improve a station.

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  15. I love how some of you people think on the one hand, "the dickeys" and on the other hand, "knbr" or "kgo" makes decisions.

    The Dickeys made one decision: money for themselves, and for shareholders of Cumulus and Citadel. That's it. They chose Oaktree Capital, who told them what to do.

    Nothing more, and nothing less. Any discussion about what the individual stations are doing, or their employees, is so shortsighted and dumb it's almost not worth mentioning.

    The Dickeys, as well as others, see the radio advertising pool as a limited source of money, and believe they only need to achieve a certain rating in order to gather in some of it, across a wide spectrum. You are correct in assuming they do not care about the on air product at all. They only care about the cash flow.

    Any time someone on this blog mentions a particular person within one of these stations, claiming/assuming that he/she has leeway to make large hiring/firing decisions, that person is showing off just how little they know about what is transpiring, or has transpired.

    Oaktree Capital is no different from Bain Capital, which is no different from Sun Capital Partners. This is how they do business. Making 3-5% a year wasn't enough for the low-life Farid Suleman and the Citadel Shareholders. They had to make more in one fell swoop, and watch countless people lose their jobs. Cumulus figured they could clean up themselves, and still, people lost jobs, trimming the fat along the way.

    This is the field I work in, so I understand it all too well.

    We live in America, where right white guys have neighbors with more than they do, who work in finance, and talk to each other about how they can make even more money, while people lose their jobs. It's ironic that this is happening to a liberal talk market while the man running for President has practiced this business as well as anyone ever.

    You think the people you know about are making decisions? That's cute. You probably know as much about Mitt Romney's career.

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    1. Look Bowman, most of us know the strings are pulled from Atlanta. Still we would like to think people like Matress Man and Jared Hart have some balls. They don't. Our criticism of them and other KGO, KNBR types is not because we think they are loaded with decision making power. Rather, we would like a little push back. That is fine, they are pussies who bow down to the Dickeys. Our criticism does not discrminate, we will call out the a-holes wherever they might be. Now please get off your know it all high horse and stop your paternalistic attitude

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    2. Roy Bowman:

      I don't know Hart or who "Matress Man" is. I don't really know any of these people at all, but I do know how the back end works.

      Are these guys power players within the company who have the ability to push back, or are they just employees hanging on to their jobs? Has someone pushed back somewhere else during the first year of a paring-down and been successful?

      This idea seems pretty idealistic, and in corporate America, equally ridiculous. Then again, I really don't know who the inside players are, so maybe you are right to suggest their is some type of power struggle with the owners. Seems doubtful.

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  16. Well said 2:50p. My new car came with satellite, and even at my age I discovered listening to radio stations over the internet (check out KXJZ on Sat. afternoons - The Blues Party!). Just bought an expensive set of headphones for just this purpose. If it is between noon & 3pm, I'll listen to Damon if I'm running errands. Otherwise, I've joined the 21st century.

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  17. Poor Roy B, poor minded and probably broke. Liberal talk stations- No one listens.

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  18. Is this what the Dickeys were in town for last week --deciding who to fire at KNBR when they seal the CBS sports deal? Why some people think this is any better than having ESPN radio or Fox sports radio or westwood one or whatever the other sports networks are, I don't understand. IF you don't like ESPN with an east coast bias, why do you think CBS sports would be any different? They all come out of the east don't they, and I would guess they're not too interested in Northern california teams (maybe the Lakers or Dodgers) and don't care and don't follow them. This sounds like just another generic radio program that is national and probably cheap.

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    1. I'd rather have west coast bias, than this SOFT, mind numbing rambling yuck fest bullshit on KNBR 680 everyday.

      Blow that shit up and blow those bastards out of here. Keep Damon though.

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  19. Roy Bowman, didn't you know that President Clinton signed much of the legislation that led to this mess?

    Just like what he signed, along with pressure from Al Gore and the Democratic family, gutted The Examiner.

    And about "they don't care about on-air talent", that doesn't make sense. If they get higher ratings, they can charge more for their air spots.

    Yes, I agree that they want to trim costs, have "economies of scale", etc., and they may want to syndicate some news / shows / programs. I get that, and why not?

    But what they may not calculate is how many listens they lose b/c they lose the local flavor and local feel.

    But it's a tough market today. You're got Sirius, et al., and then iPhones, youtube, and such. The radio market is shrinking. I would / do listen to nationsl shows like Tom Sullivan, Savage, and even Rush on rare ocassion over having to listen to Craft, Copeland, Ward or the new woman. Conversely, yes, I listened to Burns, Owens, Gross and others who leaned or were / are Left, b/c of the quality of the (local) program.

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    1. Why bring up Bernie Ward, he is not relevant, he has been off the air for at least 4 or more years, he is in jail for another few years, doubt we'll here him ever again as a talk show host. I liked him when I agreed with him, he could be funny, but when he talked Israel he drove me crazy. (having lived in that beautiful country many years ago, I'm a strong supporter of Israel and its right to defend itself) I can listen to people who I don't agree with as long as they are fair, and not a one trick pony, and let their callers that don't agree get their point across.

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  20. When I read this press release early this AM when it was nowhere did I read/see it say KNBR would become CBS Sports. The press release mentioned a few CBS owned stations would be going 24/7 sports via CBS and that Cumulus owned stations would begin to use CBS Sports updates and carry some CBS programing (read overnight weekends etc). It also went on to mention that some Cumulus personalities/shows would be distributed via CBS Sports Network. This isn't a property owned 100% by CBS but a seperate company using the name *think FOX Sports Radio not owned by FOX*.

    This isn't the only Broadcaster getting into(back into) the radio/sports radio biz. It was annoucned a few weeks ago that NBC would be forming a NBC Sports Network. In outer areas you don't get local sports talk you get all nat'l shows. I highly doubt that KNBR would go all Nat'l talk shows, it'd never fly with the likes of The Giants and The 49ers. What may change is who broadcast ESPN, maybe it flips over to KGO on weekends (ABC/ESPN connection). Does 95.7 stay with Yahoo sports or do they sign on with NBC. Another unanswered question, does KHTK in Sacto now pick up some KNBR programing? Plus, you have other shows not owned by any of the majors that could come into play. Remember the Dan Patrick show is not owned by FOX or NBC but is owned by DirecTV. Do they take the show and sell it to the highest bidder to broadcast on their network? Does CBS Sports Network go after their old properties like The NFL and NCAA??? Still many questions to be answered over the next 6-9 months.

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    1. NBC is planning on starting their own sports radio network in September....http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57450315/nbc-sports-radio-network-to-launch-in-september/

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  21. Some of you people who would like to dump everyone on KNBR (except maybe Damon) must not live here. Who or what do you propose replaces these time slots? National sports programming all day? No name "talent" from other locales coming here? Get serious.

    What is in place now can't be improved upon. Gary, for all his faults, is an original, local, and he's smart. I would not like to have a Jim Kozimor-type guy replace him, or for that matter anyone. Ok, except maybe Bob Fitzgerald.

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  22. NBC starting their own sports network. We are fine with that.
    As long as there are alternatives to Murph and Mac.

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  23. Figure 1050 will definitely be a part of this. I envision something like Fox Sports Radio where they will use largely local-type shows/hosts doing a national show to fill the gaps between affiliates' local shows (overnights, maybe midday).

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  24. The apocalypse will be broadcast...but it will be a network feed with no local information.

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  25. Interesting note...ESPN radio 'invaded' the radio network world in 1995, and since that time, all of the radio networks that carried regularly scheduled sports reports, updates, and feeds have pretty much died. There was Mutual, along with NBC, CBS, RKO (which became United Stations, the USA radio network, ABC radio, and the AP radio and UPI audio networks. There was also CBC in Canada.

    All of these networks had sportscasters who did morning, evening or weekend reports, and they also supplied daily sports sound bites for their many affiliates. This went on from the mid and late 1960s well through the 1990s.

    By the time the year 2005 came along, UPI was gone, RKO and
    United Stations and USA radio networks were gone, Mutual and NBC joined forces, but then their sports updates went away, ABC and CBS stopped doing their weekend sports updates, and even CBC in Canada limited their update reports and feeds. ABC still feeds audio cuts and reports to its affiliates, and of course there are others who are still trying to come up some listeners.

    Fox sports, which started up in 1990s is still around, but they have a very limited number of updates and feeds, as they rely more on their talk shows to carry their radio network sports programming.

    ESPN is thought of, and rightfully so, as a TV sports Giant, and they are, as they, along with ABC are certainly number one overall. But ESPN has not 'taken over' all of the TV sports programming, as NBC, CBS and other regional and national networks such as Comcast still have a fair number of games and programs and talent.

    But interestingly, ESPN, which had been around for 15 years and didn't get into radio until 1995, had more of a negative effect on the RADIO competition, which as chronicled above, has mostly ceased to exist.

    I worked in network radio for most of the above mentioned networks from 1980 through 2005, while also working full time locally.

    It will be interesting to see how this new version of CBS which will work with Cumulus crafts the new sports radio network.
    Since it's going to originate out of NYC, I would imagine the quality will be fairly good, but in this day and age of consolidation and dumbing down the on-air'product,' to get more of the 'young demographic' (which by the way, for the most part doesn't listen much to radio...hence the lower ratings), there is no sure thing.

    Let's wait and see. Should be interesting.

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    1. Thank you for your informative post! Well said.

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  26. Kozimor??? he should be sent back to AAA Sacramento (1140) where he came from.

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  27. Good to hear KNBR as the other station say is tired and broken. At least it will be hopefully and proably beter no annyoing producer talk or mention i hope and beats the Fox Sports shows and NICK and arnie is the worst as well.

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  28. Let's get rid of ESPN Radio. ESPN Radio=JUNK.

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  29. So tired of KNBR yackfests. They seem to be interested in amusing themselves more than giving us the latest scoop and informed opinions. Give me Scot Van Pelt, Cowherd, Valvano any day of the week. They have access to movers and shakers that give us insight. Radnich and his acolytes are blowhards who just try to yuck it up. If I hear 'good knowledge' one more time I'll throw up.

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