There are a lot of nervous people at KGO and KNBR. As a matter of fact, the entire Cumulus human factory are probably going to have a few extra pops later at Grumpy's. After all, angst and anxiety is a virtue for the Dickey brothers.
Oh, one of the Dickey, brothers, John, the COO of the Cloud company that has destroyed a few radio stations in town, is set to come to 55 Hawthone and hold a dog and pony show. That's on Tuesday, a day after the ratings are released, and right smack around the time KGO will abort its studios and offices on the Embarcadero and move into the Cumulus Hawthorne Center.
Trouble.
"Nothing good happens when a 'Dickey brother makes a visit. In fact, bad things usually happen," said a source close to the goings-on. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the affair(s).
Ratings. Trouble Part 2.
KGO has been a mess and the mess will be messier come Monday when the trends, (the int. ratings), are announced. The once-newstalk giant has been in the toilet in recent months; the overalls are bad, the cume is even worse, and come Monday, will be worser. My, what timing, a Dickey visit and the ratings are in the shitter, can you imagine that? Nothing good will come of that--well, it could, if you're a Dickey and you're fast-pacing the consolidation route with radio stations in markets like this one.
Put it this way, the rank and file, the "little people"--engineers, traffic people, the folks that essentially mind the store and make the bigger little people sound good are nervous. Hella nervous. Some of the veterans are far too put off by all this bullshit and have taken early retirements and said to hell with the Dickheads. Some have not, be it that they have families and rent and food to pay for, you know, those especially sensitive things that are vital to life.
But I digress: Trouble Part 3.
The general feeling of gloom around the building centers on this: layoffs. How many? No one knows, but it's highly likely come next Friday, (the 15th, payday), that some engineers, accounting people, the traffic dept., (commercials/spots) will be trimmed down. For one, according to the source, "they don't need a lot of people they had over there at Embarcadero--they'll be in one building and they can chop." It's never pretty when they, (Cumulus) chop." Yeah, they are the Morton's of choppers.
Keep in mind that for the Dickey dudes, this (SF acquisitions) is a big deal. True, these guys, that company--are.not.radio.people. They are content whores, but that's a whole big issue for another posting down the road. Let's get back to basics and understand some things.
Dickey will meet with KGO staff Tuesday. He'll probably have lunch with all the managers; definitely Bill Bungeroth, the market, (SF) mgr. who will tell him that KNBR is doing fine, (thank you Giants and 49ers), KSFO had a decent bump, (thanks, election) KFOG? (oh hell, we just fucked them up too); and that KGO Radio is in the toilet. Which shouldn't surprise anyone with half a brain who has witnessed what's transpired the last six months, but we do have certifiable morons out there. Some of them work for the company. Some are given titles and 100 square ft. offices with nice business cards emblazoned with the logo so they can tell their girlfriend that "I'm the assistant program director of KGO Radio--will you fuck me now?" And then they wake up in the morning, go to work and get their name mentioned by the morning host, you know, things like that. Between writing this blog under anonymous posts, they build up quite a resume for themselves. They are the radio equivalent of birthers. They're in denial, really, and that's both good and bad. Good, because they'll work for cheap as long as they get that title; they'll be loyal too and because they're young and foolish, you get 'em on the company missive until they get tired and let 'em go. By that time, the company will, (probably) have new owners. That is, after all, the ultimate Cumulus end game. Buy low, sell high. It's ingrained in the system--these guys are no different, only they are far more evil and deranged. The usual suspects? They don't even have a clue.
WHAT'S COMING....PART OF THE BIG SURPRISE...
This is just a part of an on-going story. It dwarfs, by comparison, what's been told to me and I can't go into detail now because I'm still gathering data and facts. I want to be right and I want make sure on THIS ONE because THIS ONE, not the above account, is a biggie. It's potentially the mother of all bad things put forth by the Cloud people.
*RICH LIEBERMAN 415 MEDIA EXCLUSIVE
*Follow me on Twitter
Good reporting Rich.
ReplyDeleteLarry Krueger must be sweatin bullets . The office types aren't paid much..how much more could Dickey save if Raddy just had minimum wage Kate to chit chat with?
ReplyDeleteThey need to blow up KNBR,other then Bruce, everyone else is horrific.
ReplyDeleteNot much here, Rich. Let's have something good when you tease so strongly.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Dickey brothers coming to town, yeah so, why are posters considering this a big scoop?
Delete@811, if you were a Cumulus employee you'd see a Dickey visit in the same vain as the Grim Reaper coming to town. Good job Rich!
Delete@8:56 Really?
DeleteThe only way for Cumulus Media, a corporation with approximately 7,000 employees, to get rid of people is have the CEO come to town and fire them personally?
What rock have you been living under?
@1105pm can you read? Employees report that each time a Tricky Dickey comes to town it is not good news. The Dickey COO is coming not the Dickey CEO, but you want to play the disingenuos game so go ahead and keep playing it.
DeleteCOO or CEO, the point is the same.
DeleteOh, and you might want to get a dictionary and look up disingenuous. I suppose you're proud of yourself using a 5 syllable word but you should find out what it means first.
Here's a suggestion, how about we sit back and see what comes out of this ominous visit and we'll see if you and Rich are right about all of this.
Disingenuous: "Not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does."
DeleteIt applies to you buddy. Perhaps your command of the language is not as strong as you believe it to be.
Congratulations, you have a dictionary. The next step is learning to understand the words.
DeleteIf you mean to suggest I am pretending to know less about something than I really do, I am pleased that you think I actually know more but that contradicts your repeated claims about the extent of my knowledge.
Seems like you're very confused, how about we sit back and see what comes out of this ominous visit and we'll see if you and Rich are right about all of this or if you're mistaken once again.
For someone who thinks the Tricky Dickey visit is such a non issue you sure spend a lot of time harping on about it. Historically a Dickey visit does not bode well for station employees. What part of that sentence do you not understand?? That is why you are a disingenuous fool. You are arguing against proven facts and predict nothing will happen while at the same time saying "we'll see if you are right". Thanks for correcting yourself about the usage of disingenuous....
DeleteHuh?
DeleteInstead of tying yourself up in tangles trying to explain your misuse of the word "disingenuous" perhaps you can explain another mistake of yours:
"You are arguing against proven facts and predict nothing will happen while at the same time saying 'we'll see if you are right'"
Please cite anything I've written that either argues against proven facts or predicts nothing will happen.
I have said that it makes sense to see what happens but as you continue to demonstrate, you have a hard time making sense!
Why don't you go back and read your own dumb posts? I am not going to get into a silly ass discussion to rehash what you wrote. You tried to play the wordsmith game and it backfired. Keep the dictionary and thesarus handy to continue the grammar "gotcha" game with someone else
DeleteBitchin blog Rich.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Krueger he got into a argument with Sam Spears..as spears "educated" he said Krueger about sportsmanship.
ReplyDeleteLets see,that's Spear,Cohn,Schulman,then Cohn again and a few others. Larry just cant seem to get along.
Oh, isn't that terrible? Larry Krueger got into an argument on a sports radio talk show! How distressing!
DeleteYeah,makes you wish Alou had beat the shit out of Larry doesn't it?
DeleteLooks like no chance in getting rid of the Fat which includes
DeleteMac
Fatnich
Fitzerald and Brooks
Eric Byrnes.
Not that Krueger and Tolbert are great but at least they follow sports.
Also Bruce needs to get on KNBR.
Damon was on KNBR and #failed, you and the 7 other nudnik bruce fans are still welcome to listen to him on 1050
DeleteDamon Bruce is the only on-air talent that has any guts.
DeleteYes, Rich has a huge story but he can't tell anyone....
ReplyDeleteGimme a break. All the more to bring back eyeballs to a tired blog. He's done this before, a lot. Just to keep the view count up. I'm betting he knows shit. Maybe Dickey's around to see his new studios on Hawthorne for KGO. Maybe it's a chance to bring in the summer flight of a new Smartjack campaign. Whatever, this place is becoming as smelly as swamp-gas.
DeleteI don't understand the "end game". KGO's ratings are going into the toilet. Radio is fueled by advertising. If fewer and fewer people are listening, the advertisers will get less money...so why would they continue to advertise?
ReplyDeleteWhy does Cumulus want to destroy radio?
Because they can. So, they do. And they have the power to do so, thanks to "consolidation" circa 1996.
DeleteCumulus doesn't care about radio and never has. The Dickey brothers are financial whizs; (Lou graduated from Stanford Business School) and they have hired people like Bungeroth, who may know marketing, but like Dickey, really doesn't understand radio.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they destroying local radio? They really aren't destroying local radio...they're just 'downsizing the product' and turning it into a more irrelevant medium. They don't care, because they've brought properties that still have a recognizable
'brand' in the area, so they still get some advertising dollars and respectable ratings, (nothing like they used to have, but still reasonably respectable, compared to the rest of the stations in the area.)
The same situation here in the Bay Area isn't that much different in Dallas, Atlanta, and some of the other cities where Cumulus has bought properties. If you don't like Cumulus, you're not alone. But Clear Channel, Infinity, and Entercom aren't much better. These four companies alone control and own about 90 percent of all of the radio stations in America.
Is that a good thing? That answer to that question is pretty obvious, even for those who don't follow radio closely.
Ben Fang-Torres won't have this in his "Radio Waves" garbage can liner on Sunday. He'll be pumping himself up (how many time can you spot the word "I" in his stories) or lip smacking someone's buttocks. Good stuff Mr. Lieberman.
ReplyDeleteIt really diminishes you when you get nasty with people. Bringing someone's girlfriend into it is an ugly way to take a swipe. Why don't you just stick to the facts. Scare the crap out of all of us with the threat of more layoffs and sit back at your computer and giggle - because I am starting to think you enjoy hurting people that come to work just trying to do a good job.
ReplyDeleteJared Hart deserves it. Doing a good job means he gets rid of the NY witch once and for all as well as the chef show. I can not believe Jared has a gf.
DeleteI've seen her. She's not all that.
Delete8:43 AM...let's not stoop so low as to evaluate someone's girlfriend. She has nothing to do with this and on behalf of all the posters who themselves "aren't all that", male or female, and their loved ones, let's not be mean spirited.
DeleteJared Hart is a self-admitted THIEF. He said so on the air. He said he is a part of a generation that believes STEALING music is ok.
DeleteIf you are a musician, this pathetic little fascist believes it is his right to steal music, at the same time he blames the unemployed for their own troubles if they have to resort to maxing their credit card to say afloat.
So, the moral of Jared's story: steal if you can get away with it. That way, you won't have to max out your credit cards.
Ronn Owens is also a self-admitted thief (on-air), admitting to stealing music as well, although he says he stopped.
A guy who makes a million-plus said, while on-air and discussing this with Jared Hart, he was given a Web site by Jared Hart to steal music. Ronn Owens admitted this on the air, Rich, last week, I believe, so please allow this post. It is not libelous.
And, downloading copyrighted music without paying for it is THEFT. That is not libelous. It is a crime. They admitted to it. I suggest the district attorney ought to listen to Ronn Owens and Jared Hart admitting to stealing music on-air and do the legal legwork required to bring them to court. Then, the recording industry would swoop in and sue this arrogant pair of miscreants into bankruptcy, so Jared Hart the thief would no longer "be comfortable" financially for his age. Make these two jerks the West Coast test case, Capitol, EMI, or whomever. You have self-admitted thieves who admitted their thievery on air! Slam-dunk court case. They should be gone after civilly and criminally because, by their discussion, they encourage others to do the same.
I don't care about Jared Hart's girlfriend, except to feel sorry for her, unless she is the same type of arrogant, narcissistic and snobbish bottom-dweller that Jared Hart the self-admitted THEIF is.
Again, Rich, check back to last week on Ronn's show or so, and Jared Hart and Ronn Owens both admitted ON AIR that they are THIEVES because they said they did not pay for music but illegally downloaded it. They laughed about it.
Ronn said he thought a lawsuit against a man alleged to have illegally downloaded music was a bit too much.
Really, Ronn? Tell that to my friends who are Bay Area recording artists who are struggling to make it.
Yeah, Jared Hart, it's nice that if you illegally download their music, they might not exactly have income if you and all your spoiled buddies steal their work.
Pathetic.
No better than the gang-banger who robs a store, Jared Hart and Ronn Owens. You are the same type of thieves, except you do it the high-tech way.
Ronn Owens and Jared Hart are self-admitted thieves who laughed about their stealing of copyrighted music online.
They deserve to spend time in a county jail for a week or two and to be sued into bankruptcy.
Then, maybe Jared Hart will have more sympathy for those who have lost jobs and had families and had to max out credit cards so they could keep themselves afloat.
And if you don't like Rich's blog, then why visit? Because you do like Rich's blog. And for those who don't, they visit because they are people, like Jared Hart, whose names are mentioned here.
Rich, you know who I am by my IP. I can find the show that Ronn Owens and Jared Hart admitted they are thieves, if you desire. Send me an email if you need it.
Not many layoffs occur on Friday's or paydays anymore. They're now mostly scheduled on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. My money says that if they're going to lay off anyone, it will come early in the morning on the day of John Dickey's visit. That way, the visiting bigwig gets to oversee the HR person(s) is/are doing the hatchet job correctly and then gets to gather together all the remaining employees and give them the corporate pep talk. He gets to talk about why the loss of headcount was impossible to avoid and how much better the remaining business will be positioned for future growth, based on the sacrifice of a few for the benefit of the many. And how they truly care about each and every employee. The bulk of the dog and pony show will be 99% pure Bandini, including promises that this was it... there will be no further layoffs.
ReplyDeleteI went through this exact same scenario when each of the last three corporations where I worked was acquired and downsized. The first time, I believed all the BS and was unpleasantly surprised later on. The second time I had some serious doubts, and wasn't caught off guard when the BS aroma began to truly ripen and the second crop of heads began rolling. By the third time, I skipped the pep talk altogether and went home early to update my resume, on the premise of having a doctor's appointment that I forgot to mention. If they're going to lie to me, why shouldn't I lie to them?
Good reporting. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWell, here's the thing. It is 2012. We don't have to be beholden to car radio anymore! HELL-O!
ReplyDeleteFormer big KGO fan but that ended six months ago. I pretty much have KQED on full time, except at 3 PM when 910 starts four hours of great talk.
And I upgraded to MP3 and a portable speaker for the car. Music has been DEAD on Bay Area radio for some time. That's why I went to to talk radio. But now, for a couple of dollars and some technology, I have all I need now.
What damn FOOLS the Cloud Company are! We consumers QUIT the product when it fails to deliver. I have, and I suspect thousands of Bay Area radio listeners are figuring a way out of this as well!
I truly feel for those souls working for damn idiots! Bless your hearts and hang in there. WE the PEOPLE do want better and we will FIND IT.
Could'nt have said it better myself. It's unfortunate but Radio is dying, the only way for a station to be profitable is pay as little as possible or go syndicated. BTW Rich, do you know what Jim Eason is up to? Last I heard he was up in Grass Valley with Dennis Richmond.
DeleteYeah ... in Seattle, maybe! Just not here.
DeleteUpgraded to MP3? That's an oxymoron. MP3 is a downgrade to a highly compressed & tinny sounding file. An eight track sounds better. An upgrade would be flac files or Wave files.
DeleteIt's amazing,audio was better in the 70's on most consumer systems than this MP3 & thumping bass shit. Oh AM radio, yeah it's worse quality too.
This is off topic, but not off KGO. Anyone listen to Candace DeLong's new show mid-night-2:00a.m. week-ends? That is late for me, but I really do find her fascinating, so I checked it out. I have no idea why 810 is putting on that type of show at that hour. It really creeped me out. Hour one, she spoke in morbid detail with Marc Klas about the many abductions and deaths of young girls. Hour two, she started talking about the recent canibalism by people using "bath salts". I had to turn in off at that point and needed a sleeping pill to fall asleep. Watching a horror movie at that hour would have been better because at least you know it's all pretend. Why are they having that type of show on at that hour? Why do they do all the stupid things that they do? The real question, why did I tune in?
ReplyDeleteYes I listen to candace de long, I have known who she is for several years, I always found her interesting when she was on Ronn's show and other shows as well. Usually she would give her insight about current crime cases in the news, that was interesting, her show this weekend was not. Not enough callers, and too much talk about boring things. When she does analysis of people in the news (Scott Petersen, others) it is very interesting, her show last night was not. Perhaps she could fill an hour, anything more than that does not make programming sense. Tonight the comedian from New York is back, she filled in for Monte yesterday morning and actually spoke the following sentence: I'm filling in for Monte this morning usually you can her me sunday nights at night. I hope Gene Burns was not listening, or he might have another stroke, listening to the tasteless, unprofessional mess KGO has become. I just can't believe they keep putting her on, who listens to her? Even if we do listen for a little, who actually likes her? Her voice, her laughter, her use of the english language all a disaster.
DeleteSounds like all Cumulus employees would be wise to take a thumb drive or two with them to work and copy anything they might need in the future (contacts, files, correspondence) - forwarding all needed e-mails to an outside account would be smart as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how much of a stack of stuff you can have in front of you one day to get done - and the next day - someone decides none of it matters.
Understand that if layoffs go down this week, they've already been decided and there is nothing to be done. At this point, HR is preparing the paperwork and the choreography is being scheduled.
You really want to take a shot at Cumulus?, clean out the desk now, so you won't have anything to have to go back and get while being escorted out by a supervisor or guard.
Check out the opening scene of the movie Margin Call if you want to know what's coming.
12:14pm- truer words were never posted. A great heads up!
DeleteRich may be right about what will go down this week. However if he is dead wrong will you all believe him in the future?
ReplyDeleteIt will be an interesting week.
The over/under is that Rich is must closer to "guessing/speculating" than being accurate. Been there plenty of times before. There's more to media than Cumulus and KTVU - KPIX & KRON. More than KNBR and "The Game". Get a grip, man.
DeleteWhat do we expect of a company whose co-COO is named "Jonathan G. PINCH?"
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to dump on the Dickeys. But remember who really owns the joint: a bunch of private equity companies. Crestview Capital owns nearly half. One of its partners, Jeffrey Marcus, is the lead director on the Cumulus board. His background says a ton about the nature of Cumulus as a company.
Jeff started out in the 1970's as a broker for buying and selling cable systems, involving all kinds of creative financing, leveraged buy-outs etc. He was very successful at it. Later, he became the owner/operator of his own cable systems and traded them around like baseball cards, backed by cable industry magnate, John Malone. No background in broadcasting. He back-doored into radio courtesy of his Dallas buddies, Tom and Steven Hicks, who were in the leveraged buy-out business. When they got into radio through ownership of Chancellor Media (later AMFM and later merged with Clear Channel), Hicks installed Marcus as CEO. Hicks also installed George W. Bush as managing partner of the Texas Rangers. Marcus was also one of the partners in the Rangers, and Bush later nominated him to be ambassador to Belgium, a role for which he had little qualification and ultimately withdrew his nomination. Hicks ultimately got entangled in bankruptcies and divested of both the radio holdings and the Rangers. So, a guy tied into that background, Marcus, is really calling the shots and is, no doubt, "suggesting" to the Dickeys that they squeeze every drop of blood out of the radio properties.
I think you have this all wrong. The Dickeys don't come into town to fire people, they're cowards. The people get fired after they go back to Atlanta. What will happen is this... John Dickey will conduct a series of phony pep talks with various departments trying to keep people from quitting before they are ready to fire them. (They are well aware at corporate that the morale is miserable) Then there will be a series of closed door meetings with local management where he will be read them the riot act and blame them for the lousy results that all the corporate decisions have gotten. Later on, Dickey and Bunghole will dine at one of San Francisco's finest restaurants, followed by a little Dickey in the Bunghole SF style you know what. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteRich, in J-school, you are taught to "tell what you know, not what you suspect or imagine. You do this in a timely manner, protecting viable sources and, again, telling what you know." Ever do J-school Rich? I think not. No wonder you get no ads. What next? "Alien saucer lands on 55 Hawthorne HQ of Cumulus". Would be as true and factual as these. You watch too many teases on KPIX.
DeleteSad part is that Rich pretends to be a journalist.
DeletePretty good posts at 11:40 and 12:28. Not bad.
DeleteThe post by the person at 8:42 pm is very enlightening. We shouldn't be surprised. It's a such as shame that corporate raiders and deal makers who love to climb over others to get to the top have taken over radio, among many other enterprises
ReplyDeleteBut again, this shouldn't be a surprise. Big business is as corrupt and as venal and and incestuous as ever. The real losers aren't really the employees or these stations, but the American public, which has been cheated out of an important part of our
Democratic system: a free and unfettered press.
If you think things are bad in radio, check out what's been happening to the newspaper business in the last ten years. And please don't start with that tired old refrain: "people just don't read as much anymore."
That doesn't hold water. The reason people don't read as much as they used to is because they've become clones, groupies and
followers of the social media, which is generally geared to a pre-adult level of content. Or they feel that have to stay busy to keep their jobs, frying out their eyeballs while staring at computer screens for 5-6 hours (or more!) a day.
I'd love to be an eye doctor in the years to come, because in about 10-20 years, there are going to be millions of people who are going to need either eye surgery or glasses to correct the damage that's been done from staring at print on small screens!
And the folks that run these tech firms aren't any higher a class of people than the Lou Dickeys of the world who have invaded radio. Unfortunately for the most part, they've sold their souls to have their egos salved and their wallets fattened. They seem to be in the process of striking the matches to eventually burn their own houses down, as they will eventually preside over companies that can no longer function or compete in the market place.
The people who run this ''new-world' or '21 century world' economy are certainly strange birds!
After KNBR dumped Barbieri like they did...spoke volumes, just like the KGO purge. On air talent is afraid to say anything not PC, so the say very little. That plus the endless commercials = reason to turn off. KNBR is lucky the have the Giants and 49ers. Else they'd be in real trouble.
ReplyDeleteMorning show - working @ 50% effort most days
Radnich - cashing checks, but fun
Fitz/Brooks - snoozer
Mr. T - OK but this was Ralphs gig...he said something
Burns -- not listenable, nothing to say and the initial promise shown with FP gone
Marty Lurie - stud. hardest working man at the station. laziest suffer by comparison
What about the KFOG morning show? How do we Fogheads communicate with Dickey and turn the morning show back to a credible show that Bay Area residents listen to?
ReplyDeleteThe Dickeys don't care about the listeners. Period. All of the personnel moves are cost cutting moves. The PD has no clout. He was instructed to cut X dollars from his department so bye bye morning show.
DeleteIs it true that KGO will change call letters to KJAK and go to a 24/7 Sweet Jack format?
ReplyDeleteStop ripping Jared Hart. He is not the problem. He's a bright young guy who is just trying to make a living. At least he knows more about radio than the folks at Cumulus who hired him.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to blame anyone, blame this country, blame President Clinton, blame our Congress, and blame each and every one of us for voting for people who allowed the destructive Communications Act of 1995 to pass. That deregulated the radio industry, and opened the door for companies such as Cumulus, Clear Channel, Infinity and Entercom to come in and take over the industry by outbidding everyone else when it came time to purchasing radio 'properties.'
Cumulus swallowed up the stations once owned by Susquehenna/Pfallzgraff, a 'botique' radio company that owned some 35 stations nationwide. Cumulus outbid the competition by offering a whopping 1.3 billion for the stations owned by S/P, clearly beyond what anyone else would offer.
Then to cover their losses at having paid so much, they simply 'downsized' their stations, taking away quality and diluting the
'product.'
Blaming someone like Jared Hart, or any of the other young people who have taken jobs at these stations is pointing the blame at the wrong person(s). Let's put some of the blame on ourselves for not keeping our eyes on what was going on.
I hate to sound like a refrain, but many Americans seem think that big business should play by the rules. Unfortunately, in this case, they have. Our former President, our Congress and our people, changed those original rules that allegedly "stymied competition," giving us the onerous Communications Act. And when offered this chance to step up and be big players (Cumulus never owned any big-market stations outside of a few in Houston before the deal to buy S/P's stations), Cumulus did what should have been, but unfortunately, wasn't expected.
The company and it's front office folks acted like someone who has just been given the keys to a Ferrari sports car, but didn't know how to use the stick shift.
Herman Cain had his nine-nine-nine tax plan. For broadcasting, maybe we need to go back to the seven-seven-seven ownership rules.
ReplyDelete