Don't know Brian Sussman that well. Had a few e-mail exchanges. Just know that the experiment with him and Melanie Morgan wasn't working and Mel wanted out. And now it's happened.
Sussman's politics are ultra-ultra right and that's fine and well; so were Lee Rodgers, only Rodgers was the master broadcaster and knew how to do radio and make it entertaining. Sussman is too glued to his mad-scientist act; occasionally morphs off to being an on-air boor and now has to sound artificially excited next to a giddy, angry, out-of-place female traffic yodeler. Have fun.
**A KGO Radio News reporter sent me a message on Facebook excoriating me for "not listening to the news coverage of the SFO crash." Dear "dude:" I don't doubt the good work many of the folks over at KGO do. Too bad they are the exception to the rule. And as far as lecturing me to "listen after the 'talkshow guy left", that's not my issue, it's yours. Next time it might be prudent to have a game plan in place in case a major news story breaks on a weekend.
**Alex Jones Interview: Did the best I could and I'm OK with it. In fact, just getting Jones to sit down and talk was a miracle in and of itself. The object of an interview is to try to get out some info and be fair and tough. There's no point to start screaming and yelling over one or two points with Jones. I challenged him on some issues as humanly as possible. Didn't pretend to be Piers Morgan who didn't accomplish anything with Jones other than a lasting scowl, short-term ratings gain and mud on his face. I confronted Jones on gun-restriction, his 9/11 rants, Obama, etc and offered out the opinion that using Hitler references was not good for the cause. He sort of agreed. All in all I thought the interview was solid and entertaining. Case closed.
**Lame Central: The morning show mental midgets, (think 680 and 560), whose "ad-libs" are repeated later in the morning as if they were uttered spontaneously. They can't even elicit off-the-mark basic conversation--they literally repeat it as if it were original and un-planned. That's why they have to resort to cheap, contrived sound effects or dumb and mindless "bits" that are about as original and genuine as a Turlock Target store.
**KTVU, as I noted here, did a fine job reporting the SFO-Asiana airliner crash---not so swell: the shameless self-promotion PR ad campaign perpetrated by the station's marketing dept. touting KTVU as "#1 this---the 'first station that was on the air...'first station in digital", etc." 2 people were killed in that crash and countless others seriously injured. The investigation is on-going. So KTVU, and namely, GM, Tom Raponi, it is indeed tacky el-supremo to begin doing promos on radio and TV, sending out press releases 2 days after the crash. Dumb, dumb dumb.
**That ubiquitous KNBR traffic gal that is getting false admiration from the frat boys likes to use the phrase, "frickin' and "nobody cares." Yeah I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid, chicky-poo, because a few schmuckos have decided to embrace you. Embrace this.
**Follow me on Twitter
Your infatuation with Kate Scott is off the charts!
ReplyDeleteNo, I just won't settle for the bullshit. YOU can.
DeleteThanks, KNBR intern.
Love KNBR morning show, but cannot stand KT Scott. She was a flat out embarrassment last night on Yahoo live as well.
DeleteRich, You won't settle for bullshit?
DeleteYou just swallowed a car load of bullshit yesterday from Alex Jones and then thanked him for it.
I did the best job under the circumstances; you're entitled to your opinion.
DeleteRL,
DeletePlease stop apologizing to those who claim Alex Jones is full of b.s. BUT NEVER ONCE cite an example.
Alex Jones is part of a growing litany of alternative media personalities that are FIGHTING the good fight against Tyranny.
If you can't see the tyranny developing all around, your part of the problem. Micheal Hastings had his "a-ha" moment recently, and lucidly went public with his motive to fight back against the tyrannical nature he saw in our government...and then he died in an auto accident the next day.
The entire mainstream media knows its a hit, but they don't talk about it. Just another brick in the wall...Kudos to Alex Jones and all the other alt. media types fighting back and exposing the curious nature to Hastings death.
@5:52
DeletePeople don't cite examples because anyone with half a brain can tell he's full of shit.
Example: Jones has claimed on several occasions that the "elites" are poisoning us with GMO foods and chemical additives in order to kill off the population.
Totally agree on Kate Scott. She adds ZERO to that show. She must, however, have a hell of an agent if they can get Bruce Jenkins to tout
ReplyDeleteher for national work. How can she be a national contender if she makes no dent as a third banana at the local level?
Jenkins is not GOD; maybe he drank the cool-aid too.
DeleteRich, it amazes me to listen to "antics radio" from San Francisco. I understand the game is ratings, but, really! Stupid is stupid and there is no cure for that (unless you fire the bastards and hire real broadcasters).
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote comedy for a living I spent most of my time teaching new comedians to play straight to the joke and not use "blue material" and hype, since its a game that can only play for a limited period of time.
Its the same with radio. The "hosts" would do well to be natural, play straight to the material and let the audience vote with their radio tuners. Be entertaining, not stupid, especially in one of the largest and most influential radio markets in the nation.
I listen from Seattle when I need a good wretch in the morning.
No talent means: NO TALENT.
DeleteNote: no one is in charge at KGO. There is still no news director since Hosley was fired. No one is running the joint so no wonder there is no plan in place. Beyond ridiculous especially considering how green some of the "air talent" is these days.
ReplyDeleteThis was largely the thought I had with KRON after the plane crash. Their new "VJ" system, which hires green (cheap) "reporters" and pays them french fry wages, works okay when they're covering an Oakland shooting or a fire in San Jose. But when it's something that's a bit complex, like the plane crash, they look like a bunch of kids playing reporter at a community college station. After the first NTSB presser (I think it was on Sunday) the totally-lost male anchor was trying to recap what had just been said and was getting lots of it wrong. I literally laughed out loud when a (presumably) producer corrected him just off camera right on the air! He was like a widdle kid giving his first stand-up book report at school.
DeleteHey Rich. Me thinks you have a serious 'man-crush' on Kate Scott. And truth to that?
ReplyDeleteYeah, and your Justin Bieber.
DeleteHey Rich-why not lay off Kate Scott? She's a nice girl and has a reasonable amount of talent. Just because they have her reading the traffic reports, AND doing sports on top of it isn't her fault. And she's having to work the Beevis and Butthead of bay area morning radio, which can't be easy. No, I agree, she's not a national talent as some local sports columnist suggests, but she has a pleasant voice, is likeable, and seems to know what's happening in sports. She can't be all bad, because evidently she's good enough to be on Comcast home TV doing some high school sports events with play by play. What have you got against her anyway? Are you offended because she's a lesbian who had the guts to step out of the closet?
ReplyDelete**ARE YOU OFFENDED B/C SHE'S A LESBIAN...**No, I'm offended that I answered your dumb question and I don't give a shit about here sexual orientation...does that make her untouchable if critiquing her work? She's god-awful and I'm gonna say so.
DeletePerhaps, the KSFO morning show would have worked better if Melanie Morgan was in charge and Brian Sussman was her co-host. Katie Green should have just stuck to doing traffic and weather and not much else.
ReplyDelete> KTVU ... it is indeed tacky el-supremo to begin doing promos
ReplyDelete> on radio and TV, sending out press releases 2 days after the
> crash. Dumb, dumb dumb.
Those were my thoughts exactly as I started seeing these. They haven't done much else reminiscent of the old days in maybe eight years, so they pound their chest on this one ridiculously. Makes them not look like the serious news organization they try so hard to look like.
Could you imagine this from CBS in the glory years: "We were the first on the air to report President Kennedy took a bullet through the head. We were first to report that the president had died. We had the best coverage of his funeral. We interviewed the florist and the undertaker! We were on board Air Force One as it flew the casket back to Washington. That's why we're No. 1!"
Disgusting.
Couldn't agree with this assessment more. Absolutely embarassing to capitalize on a tragedy like this. When I saw that promo run I nearly vomited; the glee in the voice over was really disturbing. Anyone involved in putting that on the air should be fired immediately. Extremely poor judgement and tarnishes the otherwise stellar job of reporting they did.
DeleteI agree with you Rich regarding KTVU. They should be embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts on the June ratings that were just released? And a big game of musical chairs going on at the Cumulus FM stations...any insider details?
ReplyDeletePlenty of ccchanges....
DeleteI think I've heard the KNBR lady also use the creative expression 'full of s'.
ReplyDeleteThat would certainly apply.
You got the interview and asked relevant questions.
ReplyDeleteCan well all agree to ban the tiresome and woefully inappropriate "frickin'"
I, for one, am frickin' tired of hearing it, which makes me less likely to turn on the frickin' local sports radio frequency, which means I can do more with my frickin' free time like read a book or do my artwork while I listen to a real sports channel: Sirius NFL or the hyper Mad Dog Radio on Sirius.
And before the trolls tell me Sirius isn't ONLY Bay Area sports: duh.
What makes it compelling radio is that Mad Dog and the NFL channels on Sirius usually don't resort to all the frickin' over-warmed lingo like some stations do.
Then again, perhaps it's a frickin' generational gap and I'm just over the hill and out of the frickin' station's demographic.
Sirius is worth the money, since local sports coverage, aside from the NFL and MLB broadcasting crews, is sadly lacking in many respects.
Before I heard it locally, I think the last time I heard it was about a decade ago when my twin daughters were in high school and one or both used frickin' because using the other word would have guaranteed solitary.
I don't like frickin' any more now than I did then.
I enjoy Scott's work despite the balance of the show on KNBR. She knows her sports Rich, get over it.
ReplyDeleteNo, YOU get over it, Kate.
DeletePart of what makes Rich's blog so entertaining is that he doesn't "get over it" and let stuff go. He's somewhat similar to some of my college journalism instructors in the sense that he is difficult to satisfy with your work and he'll let you know when he isn't.
DeleteIf I were to do news again, either on radio or in print, and Rich ripped me, I'd take a look at what he had to say, but as with my college professors and adviser, I wouldn't hold it against him. In other words, any successful journalist or host should have a thick skin and if s/he doesn't, then that person is in the wrong business.
As for as who says frickin' and who doesn't: my comments were aimed at anyone on radio who uses frickin', whether it's a sports or a talk-show host. I've heard more than one person use it, locally and nationally, and I'm frickin' sick and tired of it. Call me old and grouchy.
Furthermore, my tastes for Sirius may not be someone else's, and obviously it isn't, because local sports stations are well-listened to.
As a former KGO Radio News producer, I have to agree with the unnamed reporter. Rich, you almost never mention the work KGO Radio News reporters do -- and do well. I understand you're a talk show guy, but it's odd that you obsess about certain TV NEWS personalities (both good and bad), but mostly focus on the TALK side of KGO Radio. You complain about all the "green" reporters in the Bay Area -- fair point. KGO Radio actually has many veteran reporters who still clean up at award shows. These are people I worked with 7-10 years ago and many are still there. I understand these aren't "big names" that you want spend time complementing or criticizing. That's too bad, because they've been quietly doing very good work for years. It's too bad you fail to acknowledge that.
ReplyDeleteKevin:
DeleteI lauded KGO many a times. They have some good people over there. I'm not in the PR biz. And I don't cover just the "big names." Right now, outside of a few veterans, I don't care much for their work. Quote me.
And beyond that, they have one SHILL reporter over there who is a joke--I'm not going to acknowledge if the product lacks. Sorry.
You cover stations and programs where you think "the product lacks" all the time. In fact, it's a cornerstone of this blog. It's what makes you a good critic. I don't understand why KGO Radio News (which has "some good people") is dramatically different. I'm not looking for PR, I'm looking for a critical eye (good, bad or ugly). BTW, this blog has plenty of PR for certain anchors and stations and I'm fine with that. You should be able to help out the people you support and respect while criticizing the ones you do not. (full disclosure: I now work in LA radio -- and not for Cumulus. Also, I'm not in the PR biz. Quote me.) Gotta go, NTSB presser is under way...
ReplyDeleteJonathan Bristow, Scott Letterie (sp?) and Brett Burkhardt (sorry I know I'm likely spelling these wrong) are quality. Both of the sportscasters are better than anyone on KNBR hands down with Rich Walcoff and Kevin Radich ("the rat")Some of the younger anchors just sound weak and they've gone and neutered their traffic dept. No planes means they lose to KCBS every time. I feel sorry for the vets who are hanging in there in a shrinking market with a station that clearly floundering.
ReplyDeleteAnd man Rich, Kate Scott at worst is not that bad and at best, she's pretty okay. Amy G or Kate Scott? I'd take Kate in a New York minute.
Kate Scott or Amy G?? Holy crap, do I HAVE to make a choice? This is
ReplyDeletelike choosing death by either hanging or electrocution!! I think I'd rather be hung. Kate wouldn't care, but Amy might enjoy it!
Was KTVU's coverage really THAT good. The tosses I saw to Sal "deer in the headlight" Castenetta were awful. On one particular toss Sal told Frank that his computer was frozen and to "come back to me later"! Sal's information was also uninteresting...reading tweets. Really? I don't watch local news to see some guy reading tweets and dealing with malfunctioning equipment. Frank was solid but Sal is always so painful to watch.
ReplyDeletegotta love cumulus for launching their own radiate media, as if it's separate from the rest of the crap.
ReplyDeleteKTVU ran a similar promo during the BART strike that was equally horrendous. The announcer even said "and if you're stuck waiting in line you can watch us live on our app!"
ReplyDeleteHoly crap what is going on over there in that promotions department?! I'd hate to see what they do when a major earthquake hits....
Sussman is the absolute worst person on the radio. It is stunning that KSFO has let him crap hate out of his mouth for as long as he has. He is awful.
ReplyDelete