Alex Bennett, the longtime Bay Area broadcaster, (stints with the old KMEL, The Quake), has been fired again; this time by Sirius Satellite radio in NY where Bennett has been working the past decade.
Bennett announced his firing on his show on Monday Morning.
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It's hard to work with an asshole. It's hard for an asshole to fool the public for any length of time. The chickens have come home to roost for a Grade I asshole...
ReplyDeleteDon't talk like that about Rich.
DeleteIt seems unusual to me for a "broadcaster" to allow a personality who has been "fired" to continue on with his show, even if only for one more or part of a broadcast.Seems like the "broadcaster" would have nothing to gain by it generally. But I guess if the "firing" was just a non-renewal of contract that might be a different animal. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
ReplyDeleteAny length of time??? The 'asshole' has had a career that spans over 4 decades and is considered one of the top radio personalities in S.F. radio history, numbnuts. You must be mistaking the asshole in the mirror for the one on the radio.
ReplyDeleteHe was an asshole and his longevity shows sick the game is played..
DeleteHoward Stern owes Bennett his career. Stern ripped off Bennett's old WMCA show.
ReplyDeleteYeah, without Alex Bennett there's no Howard Stern.
DeleteYou really nailed that one...
Alex Bennett needed to retire anyway. This is a young person's profession and always has been. These guys who 'hang on' well into their 60s should move out of the way and make room for the next hip, edgy younger talent who appeals to the 'young demographic.'
ReplyDeleteThat may sound Darwinian, but that's just the way it is. Older on the radio usually means boring, slow, and too pedestrian. As an exibit of what I'm talking about, I give you the work that Ralph B. put on the air during his last years at KNBR, or the way
'Cranky' sounds when he co-hosts the late morning show with Kruger on KNBR.
Well, that's really not Darwinian. It's just stupidity. If he was senile, yeah, ok - but he's not.
DeleteI guess they think older people don't listen to the radio? Still have my boots from when I marched on Washington in the 60s. Alex is the last person on the air who gets it. The others are all just a political form of the Morning Zoo.
Amusing revisionist history, 4:12. Talk radio a young person's profession? really? Is that why there are no successful "young people" in talk radio these days? Is there one? or some? where exactly? Talk radio is one of those places where more, rather than less knowledge of the way the world works is a valuable thing. What is the average age of the all the talkers making up the top 100 list? Are any of them under 40?Are most over 50?
Deleteand there's tons of women as well...
DeleteFootball is a young guys profession as is an infantryman. Sounds like this dweeb goes to a day care center for stimulating entertainment. Alex was alright. I would listen to him when I used to drive truck. This is what gets to me... nobody wants to die or at least most have a strong sense of survival. So why when one gets a few years under their belt do a lot of people start trivializing older folks? They're successful! Weird society we live in. I think in most societies around the world older people are very respected for good reason. They just know more. Get it?
DeleteBennett is 73. That's a good long run. Probably time to move on.
ReplyDeleteHere's a story about Alex: Back in the days before the earth cooled, a bunch of us SF radio people would post messages on the old Prodigy on-line service in a "SF Radio" section we created. In the early '90s Bennett returned to Live 105 and a few weeks after his return, we were talking about his show; I pointed out that I didn't care for the schtick because he "imitated Howard Stern". (Heck, I was 19!) Well lo and behold, Bennett suddenly appeared on our little board attacking me and explaining (in caps) how Stern stole his act. I was a hero because I got Bennett to post something. It was the only post he ever made.
ReplyDeleteGood story! One day I will share my "how Paul Wells is a douche" story
DeleteGreat story! Thanks!
DeleteLove Alex Bennett. Old for radio, yeah, probably. I heard him on Sirius a few years ago and he was still brilliant. A more politically oriented show than his comedy show on Live 105 -- where I grew up listening to him from '86 through the mid-'90s (and I admit, I gave Alex up for Howard when Howard was on 98.5 FM in the early-mid '90s) -- but he was still a brilliant radio entertainer with the more serious format.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't have to be a bad thing; come back, Alex, come back to the Bay Area......!
That means I have to rely on the good sense of the current radio bosses to hire him. Good luck with that.
-- Gaga V
Interesting how his incessant whining and complaining resulted in a new head of hair.
ReplyDeleteI miss his old sidekick Lori Thompson. She was so smart and well-informed; she also admitted to being a female fan of gay male pornography, which I thought was a hoot! I'm surprised she's not on KGO or any other Bay Area talker.
ReplyDeleteAlways found their chemistry to be quite genuine-sounding. 5 or 6 years ago, she moved back to the midwest to be near her aging parents. She was doing voice-tracking work for Clear Channel iirc.
DeleteLori is now working for some generic "jack" station somewhere in the midwest. Intersting that before that she was working for XM Radio. She was on the Christian station, complete oposite of Alex's career haha
DeleteWould someone kindly post an audio link to Alex's last Sirius show? If we heard what Alex said, then we might better understand the situation and comment appropriately. I saw Alex several times as a member of his "live studio audience", and the man was always professional, congenial, and gracious to us. Served up damn fine coffee, too. Stern definitely took his cues from Alex back in the day. It would be a treat for the ears to once again wake up with Alex at the control board, Joe in the newsroom, and local comedians here, there, and everywhere, but the sad state of SF commercial radio these days all but precludes the possibility...
ReplyDeleteWhether you spin a disk or ride a horse, all jockeys get tossed eventually.
ReplyDeleteYou answered your own question "smart and well informed" isn't on Bay area radio anymore
ReplyDeleteBad year for radio irreverence. Alex gets the pink slip from Sirius and Santa Monica's KCRW-FM stops broadcasting "Le Show" hosted by Harry Shearer: http://www.lamag.com/laculture/culturefilesblog/2013/04/24/le-show-host-harry-shearer-moves-on Both radio legends hang on to a percentage of their audience by default via podcasts, while "The Decline of Western Civilization" is personified "Around the Dial"...
ReplyDeleteOkay we all agree radio sucks. And it always will. New topic.
ReplyDelete-- Gaga V
I hate that this is true. Same with newspapers, and apparently, books.
I was a huge Alex fan for decades. First heard him in 1969 (I was 14) when he was the "house lefty radical" on WMCA in NY. He had a lot to do with the formation of my political consciousness at the time. Followed him to WPLJ and lost track of him after that, but on a vacation trip to SF in the mid-'80s was glad to hear his voice on The Quake. And when I moved here in '91 it was like rediscovering an old friend. His Live 105 Morning Show was truly one of the great creations, whether he was an asshole or not (in real life, that is; yes we've all heard stories) was immaterial. Was very sad when they canned him. But a few years later when he re-surfaced very briefly on KNEW he was, sad to say, pretty awful. It sounded like they were holding a gun to his head and forcing him to be "cheerful". It was not the Alex I remembered and I soon tuned out. I've never heard his Siruis incarnation, but it's not really surprising that he'd still be doing some variation of his Cranky Old Man shtick. From what I read on some message boards yesterday, the Left hates him now for not being pro-Obama enough, or something. He remains one of my all-time radio heroes regardless.
ReplyDeleteI can now remove Sirius left from my "Pre-programmed" channel list. Alex Bennett was the only progressive voice on the channel who had the audacity to speak truth to power. Thank God for podcasts where one can still find bastions of progressive thought. Now the channel will be truly MSNBC "light"...very light!
ReplyDeleteAlex was kick ass when he was on KMEL in San Francisco!!!!!
ReplyDeletenew.livestream.com/alexbennett monday to friday 10-12 est starting 7-1-13
ReplyDeleteHis last show is Friday June 28th on sirius xm Left in the morning. I hate that he's leaving. I'm done with that Chanel now.
ReplyDeleteHe's the only reason I listened to "Left" 127 on Sirius.
ReplyDeleteStern is a smart, LOUD, charlatan. He ALWAYS screams who stlole HIS act and his herds of sheep should get their heads out of their asses FOR ONCE and know THE TRUTH...
STERN STOLE HIS ACT FROM BENNETT!!!! AND THERE ONCE WAS A TIME (MANY YEARS AGO) WHEN I HEARD EVEN HOWARD ADDMIT THIS ON THE AIR!
You know there's some truth there when even a egomaniac like Howard Stern would ever even hint to something like that on the air but there was a time when he did.
Alex Bennett is broadcasting live from www.livestream.com. He begins his program on Monday, July 1, 2013. He had a trial run for 2 hours today and it was great. It's free.
ReplyDeletequit relying on being such a (hollyer than thow) JEW!!!
ReplyDeleteLoved him in SF, I don't know if it was The Camel or The Quake, in ’82-’83 when
ReplyDeleteBobby Slayton was the sidekick!
Maybe Howard “stole” Alex Bennett’s schtick but Howardis making billions of dollars and continues to be the King of All media. Alex is jealous!
ReplyDelete