KGO....lowest ratings ever. Sad, but predictable. (Maybe you should hire trained monkeys--couldn't be any worse, plus, you don't have to pay 'em).
KNBR: ah, what would you be like without the Giants? In the shitter, but #1 in the overalls, Pauuulie can keep his soundboard and drink free coffee now. Murph? Sweetjack for life.
KCBS slips, as does KSFO.
The entire numbers are here
I feel this may be a combination of both the Giants and just how far Bay Area radio has fallen. I was a KNBR fan. I miss Bruno tbh. I also somewhat miss Dibbley. I really dislike Fitz and Brooks. I have NEVER seen them admit to being wrong to anything, ever. It's so ridiculously annoying. And yes that's the reason I hardly listen to them unless I hear there's a guest with them I'm interested in. Any way we can get Fitz and Brooks ratings in comparison to others that timeslot? I'm really interested in seeing how bad they do.
ReplyDeleteI've got it.
ReplyDeleteA remake of The Graduate, 45 years later.
Young Benjamin, uncertain about his future, encounters a family friend at his graduation party who offers some career advice.
"I just want to say one word to you. Are you listening?"
"Yes, I am."
"Radio."
Smash hit, right?
The problem for KGO is that they are trying to attract the young and dumb demographic but they are already taken by KNBR. If Jared Hart is as brilliant as I think he is, he will give Patrick Connor a shot at KGO. Connor can attract the saggy pants crowd with his Southern charm and Alabama knowledge. Also, as a former Marine P-Conn has instant credibility in current geopolitical affairs
ReplyDeletelol! So are you Jared or Patrick? Unless you're just joking, which I can only assume you are.
DeleteP-Conn needs more MRE's...stat!
BTW..."southern charm"=annoying redneck to most people.
The "young and dumb" crowd is listening to XM, their iPOD, or are on three different electronic media at once, posting pictures of themselves acting like fools, smoking pot, getting drunk, or whatever. They have ADHD up the wazoo! Think they can listen to one radio station for several hours straight? Please. Times have changed.
DeleteI agree (while hitching up my pants)P-con is a regular Abe Lincoln and Franky Roosevelt.
DeleteGuys and gals, I posted the 4:29pm item. I was being sarcastic. With the departure of Owens and Montemayor it may not be far fetched to see P-Conn doing newstalk. I hope Jared Hart does not take my post seriously and follows my sarcastic advice
DeleteI see the big shake up at KOIT is really paying off for them.
ReplyDeleteSo - if the philosophy is to "buy low, sell high", how does it work for Cumulus that they have trashed the station and it's in the toilet? Doesn't seem to me that it would be worth more than they paid for it in it's current state...
ReplyDeleteI miss my KGO family.
Just. Sad.
KNBR's #1 rating must be occuring because of the amount of listeners during Marty Lurie's 18-hr post-game show after SFGiant games....what moron listens for more than 5 minutes from 5a-10p weekdays unless the tuner is broken?
ReplyDeleteI understand why KNBR is up (Giants) but why the slip for KQED and KCBS? Your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThe Game is low but stable. I guess the A's don't have an impact?
>> KNBR: ah, what would you be like without the Giants? In the shitter, but #1 in the overalls, ... <<
ReplyDeleteUhh, no it's not. Look down the list a bit and you'll see that KQED's Internet stream had a 0.3 share, and when you add that to the 5.0 for 88.5/FM, they're still beating Knibber's 5.1. AND ... that was in a month where 'QED ran a begathon for almost three full weeks! In a more typical month, they'd still be a solid #1 with something closer to a 6. (And before someone complains that KNBR also had listeners to its stream, scroll all the way to the bottom of the ratings, where KNBR's stream doesn't get enough listeners to merit even a 0.1 share.)
(BTW, I don't work for any of these outfits, just observing and commenting.)
It's interesting to compare KGO's ratings free-fall since the end of last year with the dramatic rise of KKSF-AM (formerly KNEW), which bills itself as Newstalk 910.
ReplyDeleteAfter KGO let go most of its cadre of talk-show hosts, making an abrupt and unanticipated programming change from news talk to mostly news in early December, KNEW saw an opportunity and swooped in.
KNEW, which several months ago barely registered in the ratings, added to their regular line-up several fired KGO air personalities, including "the loyah" Len Tillem (3-4 wkdays), Gil Gross (4-7 wkdays) and Dr. Bill Wattenburg (8-11 pm Sundays). John Rothman, Ed Baxter, Rosie Allen, also handed pink slips by KGO, make occasional appearances on 910 AM, too. Gene Burns had been slated to take the 4-7pm slot at 910 AM but was unable to due to health reasons.
In December 2011, KGO's AQH was 4.4% with a Cume of 594,000, according to Arbitron.
For May 2012, the comparable figures are 2.4% and 426,700.
That's a 45% fall in AQH in the past 5 months. By that measure, KGO lost half its former audience.
During the same period, KKSF (formerly KNEW) has more than doubled its AQH, from 0.6% to 1.4%, and its Cume has soared from 140,600 to 236,500. One can only speculate, but if this station had a stronger signal like KGO's 50,000 watts, it would have done even better.
A comparatively weak and directional signal notwithstanding, which makes it difficult to receive in areas further away from the bay, KNEW may be expected to steadily increase its audience share as more disgruntled former KGO listeners become aware that they can listen to their favorite talk show hosts, formerly with KGO, by moving 100 kilohertz up the AM dial.
KGO, a pioneer in locally produced and Bay Area relevant news talk radio, is no more, and the 50,000-watt clear channel assigned to it on the AM dial is being wasted.
When will 910 add a few repeaters, to strengthen their signal??
DeleteNever. 910 is boxed in and so directional that it would need several translators that would go virtually nowhere. You don't buy those things at Radio Shack.
DeleteA 1.4 rating is not anything to speak about, nor is its "soaring" cume. These "overall" figures are mere "beauty contest" numbers and reflect only a "trend" not anything worthwhile.
DeleteA 1.4 is a dog when it comes to making money or showing any appreciative audience out of 6-million residents in the market. Until KKSF gets within striking distance of 2.4 ... which is horrendous for KGO ... KKSF is essentially meaningless with no revenue -- hence why they play Clear Channel / Premier Networks programming like Limbaught, Sullivan, Colmes, Coast-to-Coast etc. etc. It has a long way to go before they start thinking about hiring Rothman fulltime.
I wonder if the raise in ratings for 910 might have taken some away from KCBS...also with baseball season active perhaps people are tuning in instead of news. Also, I wonder if there is a seasonal aspect of radio listening...perhaps as the weather gets better, less people tune in because they are outside on patios drinking beer, margaritas, sodas...and such...having barbecues, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf KGO is trying for the younger demo, it doesn't make sense that they have all news and then have hosts who in general are of lower quality (Monte)...young people who listen to news/talk radio aren't necessary dumb.
Rich, during the 9AM - 12 noon slot, where does Ronn Owenstein rank at K-Gone these days?
ReplyDeleteI haven't read your Ronn Owens comments yet from the past few days, but I have severe doubts that Owens will garner a Million smackers a year (his current contract?) at a new station, on the West Coast. He flopped in L.A. several years back, and I doubt that 910AM will dump Rush for Ronn @ $1 Million per. Maybe at $300,000.
And I see no benefit in having Copeland or Thurston host... the numbers will still stay quite low.
So much for Owens being a "Rain Maker".
Several comments have mentioned that Ronn flopped in LA seveal years ago. I'm not sure that is quite true, just to be fair. I have heard him say he hated, the one week in LA, the other in SF, he was commuting back and forth. I remember reading an interview with Mickey Luckoff, and as far as I remember he said that KGO was a local station serving the community and KGO bought out Ronn's LA contract, so he could come back to SF and do what he did (yes did) best, being a local talk show host. I don't know what Ronn's LA ratings was, it sounds like a short experiment that wasen't given they time to see if it would work, because both Ronn and Mickey felt it was not what KGO was. Mickey ran a first rate station for many years, and it slipped to 4 or 5, and the station let him go, and changed format and the station keeps slipping in the ratings. Real bright Cumelus, how about this "If it isen't broke don't fix it", but of course as we have learned since Dec. these people don't seem to have a clue. The keep putting the comedian on Sunday nights, and she filled in for Monte this past weekend, I'm sure they get lots of mail, telling them how awful she is, and she doesen't seem to get any better. I think the Candace deLong show is a disaster, she will have to "grow" and find a way to be as interesting as the host as she was as a guest to get some decent ratings. What an overall disaster.
DeleteKGO's ratings are well earned.
ReplyDeleteWho would have ever thought, a once mighty station, would just drop off the face of the planet?
So, "A-to-Z" did nothing for KFOG in May? And meanwhile Alice keeps trending up? No wonder Constantine is trying to clone their morning show.
ReplyDeleteI normally listen steadily to the KFOG A-Z runs, but this time I only caught bits and pieces of it.
DeleteWhy?? Because they've completely revamped their music library in the past year, or so. It's now more tailored to that 18-34 demographic that sCumulus seems so fixated on, despite there not being any real revenue generation there for their advertisers.
The A-Z series used to play older obscure tunes that I hadn't heard in decades. That made it fun, not knowing what would pop up from years past!
About all that's left now is what I'd call the Top 20 tunes from decades past. Most of the eclectic stuff that you don't hear elsewhere seems to have been purged from their library, probably at the advice of some asshole consultant.
I'm not saying there is nothing good in contemporary music. There are groups like Cold Play, Snow Patrol, the Dave Matthews Band, etc., etc., that I still really enjoy. But if it's anything with a (c)rap music sound, just forget it. I find chanting to a musical accompaniment, and sampling (stealing content from other more talented artists), to be a really amateurish-sounding yawner.
Today I listened to a great radio show from 8 to 9pm pertaining to California's economic and political issues. It was live and very informative and in-depth. Care to guess where it eminated from? If you guessed BBC 5 Live you are correct! Isn't Bay Area radio pathetic that in order for me to hear intelligent analysis about California I need to tune in to a station in England?
ReplyDelete@ 5.50 mostly morons like you that listen EVERY DAY and then complain about the show
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! Team can't defend, can't hit, both hated rivals are hot, and their long-time ace isn't! And sCumulus still gets away with it, even as KQED & KCBS still produce consistent work! Rubbish!
ReplyDeleteInteresting info, but it really doesn't matter. Radio as a whole, is slowly being suffocated by the Cumulus meanies,, the droids at Clear Channel, the clones at Infinity, and the boobs at Entercom among others.
ReplyDeleteA once proud, creative, and vital part of our free democratic system has been hijacked by cold-blooded, low level corporate Raiders. The Lou Dickeys of the world are only the small fry in the
Shark Tank. The real bastards are the people that nearly melted down the banking industry and then got propped up by our country as a reward!
20+ year KGO listener here. I just turned it on and they're piping that Bloomberg shit.
ReplyDeleteWow, they really just don't give a shit at all, do they? What a spectacular fall for a once super dominant radio station.
Cumulus execs, if you think there won't be consequences from this, you are very much mistaken.
Incredible, putting that Bloomberg crap on all night. It must be a near free feed so they still make some money off it, but still. KGO has this powerful signal and they just piss it away. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI dialed into KGO on this weekend, and it was that New York chick, Maureen (?), subbing for Monte. Why not have local folks/familiar hosts substitute instead? I would have listened to KGO if Christine Craft or Stacy Taylor had been on the air. Why weren't they?
ReplyDeleteYou are so right I especially like Stacy Taylor, I write KGO and complain every time the comedian is on, I have even since Dec. written a few times complimenting them on having Stacy or Peter B on, I'm sure I'm not the only one who complain, but obviously they don't listen. I also keep telling them that I listen more and more to 910 and other stations.
DeleteI suspect that KGO lopped enough off their payroll when they let their hosts go that they are ok with the lower ratings. I can't imagine that the stations history carries any weight in Atlanta. I bet they are right about where they projected they would be.
ReplyDeleteKGO, a national radio icon, now circles the drain. What next, Spanish language programming?
ReplyDelete@9:55 am-- Sounds like a pipe dreamer, Owens sunk KABC into a rating abyss, he didn't work in market 2, oh he was home sick? ...Tough shit.
ReplyDeleteI wasen't trying to defend Ronn, I just was trying to be fair. Leaving Ronn out of it, my point was that Mickey ran a first rate station for many years, he did with local hosts, and creating a feeling of community (leukemia fund raiser, thanksgiving charities). LA is not San Francisco, I'm not sure a John Rothman or Gene Burns would do as well in La as in SF. Just speculation, but because a host bombs in one market, doesen't mean he is bad. I use to like Ronn's show a lot, the week he use to do from Washington DC, etc. he was a good interviewer, I suspect he is having a hard time being a witness to what has happened to KGO, which he use to be real proud of, as he and any other host (Bill Wattenberg, Gene Burns, John Rothman) were, and could be. Not anymore.
DeleteCopeland is unlistenable but I guess the price was right.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just get it over with at KGO and lease the air time to ESPN or somebody else willing to pay a fortune for using a 50 KW boomer? Eliminates all the overhead and having to deal with all those pesky things known as employees. They can negotiate tons of avails for Sweet Jack, which seems to be their main focus these days.
ReplyDeleteCopeland, nice guy, but zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
ReplyDeleteFitz and Brooks.............Yawn. Does anyone really listen to them anymore? Good thing they really love themselves. Switch over to D Bruce on 1050!
ReplyDeleteKGO and Cumulus deserve everything they receive for sticking their middle finger at their bread and butter the millions of faithful listeners over the years. They have totally screwed up programming. Humm 9 hrs of Cal and 49er football now on the weekend taking what little "talk" radio they gave to try and hold us to 810! The bottom line = no listeners = no sponsors = no Cumulus = no KGO!
ReplyDeleteInstead of saying "Cumulus," say "Lew Dickey." (Lew Dickey is the CEO of Cumulus.) Lew Dickey is the one who signed off on destroying the old KGO, not "Cumulus." Don't let him behind a corporate curtain. Lew Dickey destroyed a great and profitable institution for a hill of beans and as mountain of ego.
ReplyDelete