At KGO Radio, there is no news director. Repeat: NO news director.
When Paul Hosley was shown the door last week, Cumulus quickly replaced the ex-PD/ND with a SoCal guy named Ron Escarsega. Escarsega is already at work but is the Opps Mgr and has no news position.
Cumulus News/Talk/Sports Corporate Program Director Jim Mahanay added, "Ron has done a great job for us in Los Angeles. We’re excited at the skills he brings north to the Bay Area." Except for the fact that they haven't hired a news director. Not even an interim ND! Who's running the show over at KGO? Nobody. Literally.
Longtime staffers, including one who spoke to me directly, say people inside the newsroom can't believe what they are seeing and experiencing, even by Cumulus standards. Said the source: "I have never seen such an operation like this in my entire professional life--it's simply unbelievable."
Haven't we heard that before?
COMING SOON: Is Cumulus/KGO thinking of shelving news altogether? There's a lot of talk about this in the back offices. Stay tuned.
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Shelve news...then broadcast what? Back to talk...local, propably not. Syndicated national...yawn, but probably. KGO will be a business school case study in a couple of years!
ReplyDeleteYou should apply for the position Rich. You always have the answers.
ReplyDeleteRich bashed Hosley relentlessly -- wouldn't even extend him the dignity of spelling his name right -- still won't -- but now that he's gone, KGO's going to hell, implying Hosley held it together. Could it be that they intend to promote someone from within, but want to observe the candidate in action as an interim ND first?
ReplyDeleteRich isn't a journalist, he's a rabble-rouser. He jumps on anything as an excuse to bitch and moan, consistency be damned. He styles himself as the next coming of Herb Cain, but lacks the late Mr. Cain's style and flair with words, not to mention his ability to spell and pick the right words (or at minimum, a proofreader). Rich is barely literate, but criticizes everyone else except his friends and sources. Objective journalism, indeed.
(Let's see how fast you make this comment disappear.)
And yet you read this "barely literate" journalism. Humn....maybe as a sort of self-therapy, you should stop reading me. Maybe it'll ease the pain...then again, you probably work at 55 Hawthorne and are one of the company boys. That's painful enough, Mr/Ms Anonymous. Have a lovely day.
DeleteRich, I say this because we know you're better than this. Two comments:
Delete1. "If you don't like it, don't read it" responses comes off as petulant. Some people just disagree with you but I assume ultimately you are encouraging discourse.
2. Dismissing critics as 55 Hawthorne employees is kind of lame. Just like Stan who constantly accusing everyone og being KNBR interns.
More like Herman or Matt Cain. Herb Caen, no.
DeleteAnon 10:40 back again. I can assure you, Rich, I have no relation whatsoever to 55 Hawthorne, or any other broadcast company. I post here as Anon because I don't want to be spammed, and because I also post under my real name in other broadcast forums (where, btw, I've written some of my own harsh words about Cumulus and the Dickeys). I'm harsh on you because I think you can do better. I've heard a few of the podcasts and I know you're not illiterate, but your writing is way too often careless and sloppy (and not just grammatically). If you want to be taken more seriously, do more serious writing. Write like it matters to you.
DeleteAnd in answer to "you should stop reading me", maybe *you* should stop sending me LinkedIn requests. It works both ways, my friend.
p hose was a 1st class ass!
DeleteLets take a step back here into a place I like to call reality.
ReplyDeleteThe News Room has people in control. Anyone who is questioning where they should get their direction from are probably the people who didn't like the direction they were headed in the first place. If Paul Hosley had been ill for 2 weeks no one would be sounding alarms because professional people know how to do their jobs. In addition, there was a hierarchy in place, which still exists.
It would be different if KGO was trying to remake itself, and needed a leader to change course, but at the moment this doesn't seem to be the case.
As for what becomes of the station is anyone's guess. I'm not willing to put a wager on anything Cumulus will, or will not do, but if I had to guess I would say they will in fact flip back talk if in fact they cannot change their ratings in a couple of months. I do expect they will give News a shot because they believe in the concept. You don't flip the switch because one former News Director couldn't get the job done. Now if they sense the second group can't get it done, then maybe they make the play. As for now, expect news.
There is definitely some fuzzy logic going on here. Cumulus owns stations in Boise, Idaho that make a lot of money for the company and, except for abusing the sales staff to death, the rest of the employees are pretty much left alone. I am guessing that stations in the 101st market are too low on the radar to care about.
ReplyDeleteThe fuzzy part comes when dealing with their major market stations which should be their bread and butter. Instead of putting something worth listening to on the air and keeping the talented people who can keep the operation profitable, they tear everything apart and then wonder why they aren't making the money they should.
Cumulus is proof that the old saying is true - There's no cure for stupid.
Herb who? How about Herb Caen. I believe you said something about spelling.
ReplyDeleteI did, you're right, mea culpa. (I know other people who spell their names Cain, and it didn't look wrong when I proofed it.)
Deleteif you were a San Franciscan with even half a brain, you'd know it didn't look right.I'm betting you are a long way away from ever understanding or ever feeling the San Francisco ethos.
DeleteIt's quite obvious that Cumulus has no clue how to run a radio station, let alone a radio company. In an earlier time, when there was more competition in radio and more talent on the air, Cumulus would have perished very quickly. But because there is a such a lack of foresight, creativity, originality, or innovation left in the business of radio management (i.e. Cumulus Media), we are left with much of the current dreck thst passes for programming in local radio.
ReplyDeleteIs it any wonder that young people have turned away in droves from radio and listen instead to their i-pods? And yet management and lame-brains like Gary Radnich continue to pander to the 'young demographic,' that simply doesn't exist anymore. Cumulus and companies like it have never been able to get the younger listeners, and they've alienated the older ones with their disdain for the industry and what was considered quality radio for two generations.
Radio, which is still a very viable medium, is being slowly strangled by the likes of Cumulus, Entgercom, Infinity, and Clear Channel. And the losers?
The public of course.
But I'm sure Lou Dickey's (Cumulus CEO) attitude is: 'THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED1'
Traditional radio as we knew it is dead. We in the era of personalization. My song choice. My format choice. Not someone who thinks they know what I want. There will always be room for a Giants or 49ers game on the radio because it's live. But the days of shoving top 40 playlists and old fogie talk show hosts are long gone. Same with news.
ReplyDeletewe is?
DeleteAs far as I know KTVU has not hired a new News Director either. Is there chaos in the channel 2 newsroom? Why no reporting on this important change in the market?
ReplyDeleteKGO is being run by the assistant news director and by the layers of other authority in the station who assign reporters and stack the show hours. There is no question that people are worried about the future, but I question Rich's constant assumption that he knows what's going on in "our" news room based on the one person who seems to be his unnamed "mole" who has clearly has had an ax to grind for sometime now. Are there problems? Yes, but weirdly they are never accurately reported here.
If you want to report about us, why not - you know - ask the people in question? You can always say that Cumulus refuses to comment, then your "whistleblower's" comments would have more context and might actually shed light on what's happening for the small number of the general public who actually care about the office politics at KGO.
Others have rightly questioned how all of the sudden the firing of Paul (who you clearly hated for changing the station you hoped desperately to work at some day) has created chaos. Did he hold us together then or is consistency something you are completely incapable of?
The thing that made some of the great talk show hosts great (Gene, John, etc) was that they were consistent. There arguments came from a solid philosophical platform. If you lack that core, then at least use the tools of journalism to back up your arguments.
One of the tools of journalism is proper spelling. "There"-- Use "there" when referring to a place, whether concrete ("over there by the building") or more abstract ("it must be difficult to live there").
DeleteSorry, Mel, but your grudge against Rich is not working here. Especially for those of us who attended the "Outrage" protest in December 2011. Folks made a definite effort to attend that rally and you took the mike and proceeded to castigate the good citizens there (and that's where "there" is proper). Completely inappropriate behavior on your part. Those of us who grimly suffered your verbal assault will not forget.
Thus, your posts here are met with eyes rolled.
To give you your due, at least you comment under your own name.
I agree June. I don't know Mel and I was very upset when KGO dumped their hosts. Having said that Mel has been beaten up pretty good here whenever he posts and he always posts under his name. I have a lot of respect for him for doing that. Same goes for Christine. So many say mean spirited things here and post as "Anonymous." I ofen think as I read that I doubt they would say what they say if their name was attached. I use my name even though I am a nobody but at least you can follow my thoughts. I would not say something that I was not prepared to attach my name to.
DeleteDon, you're a brave man to post your name! The reason a lot of posters don't post their names is due to to the fact that they work in the profession, and a lot of bay area media folks, (including Cumulus Management), reads Rich's blog on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteIf you're making accusatory or negative comments about a particular station or host or management type, and you work for a station, it would be career suicide to post your name alongside.
Mel Baker and Christine merely defend some of the good people who are trying to hold it together and stay employed at KNBR. These are the on-air reporters, anchors, and hard working behind the scenes producers, who are as good at what they do as anyone I've ever worked with in the radio business.
I think Mel in particular, gets unfairly demonized for being a 'mouthpiece' for Cumulus, and that's not right. I would say that he and Christine are merely trying to give readers an inside look at some of the things that are going on at KGO radio from their prospective, without getting sensational or 'over the top' in their criticisms and observations.
That is a fair point! As I mentioned before I am no one of interest so my name means nothing although a comment by me means a lot to me. I can certainly understand why an insider would not want to post their name if they are posting something that could come back to haunt them. More specifically to the point some people go right for others throats instead of making a intelligent comment and I often think they are saying it in a way that they would not be proud of if their name were attached.
Delete