Saturday, July 6, 2013

The Enigma that is Alex Jones; KSFO is for Sale; Morning Show Hijinks; Saturday Media Notes


Alex Jones is big and bad; the thinking man's Glenn Beck. Whether or not you think Jones is a goof, one thing's for sure: he has an immense following, real guru status and that catches my eye which is cause enough for an appearance on my KSCO radio show. Tentatively, Jones is scheduled to appear this Wednesday on the Lieberman Live Extravaganza from 2-3 PM for an interview you won't want to miss. It'll be fair, honest and explosive. The interview you'd never hear on conventional radio.

**KSFO erased some hours from its Morning Show with Brian Sussman and Melanie Morgan. We highlighted here the brouhaha with Morgan supposedly leaving the show in disgust over treatment from the SussMAN and traffic gal with the chalkboard voice. Truth is, the bigger story is that, according to my insider, KSFO is up for sale and Cumulus is trying hard to dump it.

As for the Morning Show, it's never registered a blip on my radar screen since the late Lee Rodgers and Officer Vic, (Tom Benner), left the show. The problem mostly centers around misplacement. Sussman is simply out of place. Katie Green is too awful to even bother to contemplate. Morgan is talented enough to have her own show, (or a better co-host to play off of); Sussman's mix of ultra-right wing politics and bizarre morning-zooish persona has never registered with local listeners outside the mad scientist crowd.

*Follow me on Twitter


24 comments:

  1. Someone forgot to tell management you can't see breasts on the radio, but you can see dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jones won't put up with any of your interruptions and filibusters. I hope he goes Piers Morgan on you if you try to pull any shenanigans fedora boy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To put minds at ease:

      http://www.talkers.com/2013hh/cells/066.jpg

      Jones is, be it on KSCO, KOMY or whereever is a decidedly lightweight hack.

      According to "Talkers" magazine (Michael Harrison), :The Bible of Talk Radio & The New Media" -- Jones rates #66 of the 2013 "Heavy Hundred". #66 is getting down to the non-existant needle movers in the truly small and weaker medium markets.

      The vitamin pushing Jones is no threat to the heavyweights, the middleweights and many lightweights of radio.

      Much to do about nothing. Jones is conspiracy theorist "shtick" with little or no backing and no threat to the Democracy. Why Piers Morgan wastes time on this maggot is not comprehensable. He is a nothing. That's why he's syndicated to places like Santa Cruz.

      Delete
  3. Rich, which shows were erased? I went to the KSFO site and they all appear to be there. Can you give the time when this happened? I would like to hear it. Sussman is a one trick pony and beats the same drum every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one said the shows were "erased". They had been missing.

      Delete
  4. Rich, you are so insecure that you won't even publish an opposing opinion? What a frightened little man you must be!

    SF Chronicle Bruce Jenkins, today Saturday July 6, 2013:

    ... Wondering how long KNBR will be able to retain the treasure that is Kate Scott, currently working alongside Gary Radnich and Larry Krueger on the 9 a.m.-noon show. She knows sports as well as anyone and has tremendous presence on the air. That's a talent bound for national television.


    ReplyDelete
  5. I was eating breakfast and reading my favorite SF Chronicle Sports columnist Bruce Jenkins when I practically gagged at what he had written about Kate Scott. 11:39 posted if above if you missed it.

    "...a treasure that is Kate Scott." "..a talent bound for national television."

    Bruce I know both you and Kate went to Cal, but let's be real here. If you think Kate Scott is talented enough to work on national TV, you don't know much about sports announcing. Kate Scott is nothing but an underpaid, glorified traffic reporter who is also doing sports on one of the cheapest stations in town.

    She is NOT that talented, she is annoying, and if a guy used her over-the-top style of speaking (it's sounds like: "HEY, I'M AN ANNOUNCER!") she's be laughed off the air.

    C'mon Bruce, why don't you just stick to your analysis of basketball and baseball, because that's what you're good at doing. You obviously have no idea of what it takes to be a sports announcer.

    Next you'll be telling us that Bobby Fitz, or Paulie Mack, or even that whack-job 'P-Con' are national talents!

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you are trying to insinuate that there was an on-air blowup on KSFO you are wrong. Yes, the podcasts for July 2 are for some reason missing, but the show is on line in the Seven Day Archives section of the KSFO website. The fact is that the harpy was not there on July 1 for the entire show either, and the show was better for her absence. Melanie is annoying. Her constant and shrill interruptions are painful. She is well past her prime and knows it and you can hear in her voice, the contempt she has for the younger and more attractive Katy who is on her way to heights of which the sour one can only dream. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope she stays gone.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Actually at some point on the Monday in question I believe Melanie Morgan started talking to the audience as if she was saying "goodbye." I might be wrong, and it may have been on Tuesday. I remember hearing it, and wondered what was going on. If it was her doing it all by her lonesome it just goes to show how unprofessional she really is. As if anyone would really care that she'd leave when people are on their way to work? No one cares if you quit your cushy job, Mel. Hate to break it to you.

    As for Alex Jones, he is a joke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had the great pleasure of working with Melanie Morgan at KMBC-TV in Kansas City,many moons ago. She was professional then, as now, and a survivor in a broadcasting biz that eats most of us for lunch..

      As for that old, dim-brained, unoriginal divide and conquer attack on her femininity and the relative bleepability of Ms. Green, it is radio,not TV. I don't like her politics,but Melanie Morgan is a fun person and very attractive,whether on TV or on the radio.

      Delete
  8. Rich, are you going to ask Alex Jones if the Asiana flight was shot down by the government?

    ReplyDelete
  9. When KSFO "lost" Rush, (if you believe the station spin), that was it for me! SussMAN makes stupid challenges i.e. "Debate Me Al Gore!" that no one in their right mind would accept and has no idea how to be entertaining while presenting the views of the Right. KSFO tried to tout JD Heyworth as a replacement for Rush and we all know how long that lasted and resulted in abject failure. Officer Vic carried Sussman as far as the entertainment value of the program and KSFO lost him to KKSF where he has been allowed to add his own personal flare to the traffic and local news, he will be a headliner sooner than later. In short KSFO just doesn't "get-it, too bad to because I have listen to that fine station for over 50 years and it has been a fine station, maybe the new owners can revive a fine S.F.Bay Area fixture.

    ReplyDelete
  10. KSFO was strongest when it was Lee Rodgers followed by Rush Limbaugh followed by Dr. Laura followed by Michael Savage. Now the job is on Michael Savage to carry the whole station, which one man alone cannot do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Paging Mr. Mickey Luckoff, if he hasn't given up trying to make good radio happen in the Bay Area, this station may be available for a decent price.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's a decent price in your opinion? On that frequency and 5,000 watts, it's legacy (including as a Gene Autry "Golden West" station ... let's start the bidding at $10-million.

      Delete
  12. If KSFO is for sale, perhaps an individual or company with a little imagination could by them and do some creative programming, a mix of conservative, libraterian, and middle of the road conservative/liberal could be hosts. Keep Barbara Simpson, I guess they would have to keep Michael Savage, although I never listen to him. Find a spot for Melanie, get rid of Sussman and Katie. Put John Rothman on several hours a week, perhaps bring Tom Sullivan back to the Bay Area, I would love to hear Stacy Taylor on a regular basis. If 910 keeps Gil for 4 hours with his present awful and boring format, and same format for Frosty, they will go down hill, and it shouldn't be hard for KSFO to improve ratings, but they got something different. KGO has mixture of good, bad, excellent and awful host right now/ Excellent: Ronn, Pat, good Christine and Karel, awful Montemayor and"hanging with Langdon". Probably won't happen, but we can dream, righ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. karel awful. along with Langan and montemayor.

      Delete
  13. P.S. I wrote the blog about what KSFO might do, if they get sold.
    Forgot to mention Brian Copeland, I know Rich does not like him, but I always found him entertaining, even when Gil was better, I preferred Brian, he is definitely in the "good" category. Of course as the best of the best dies, retires or don't have a show, it is easier for others to shine.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I remember after 9/11 Lee Rodgers was badgering some Muslim caller to the show. This happened around 7:40am At around 7:50 there was some "technical difficulties" with the broadcast.From 8am to 9m they played a Bob Tanem rebroadcast. Lee was never the same after that. I knew at that moment KSFO was Dead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That simply never happened, you are making up the story or live in a different reality.

      1) In 2001 lee was in the SF studio. It was before his move to AZ

      2) There is no failure that would require Bob Tanem to be played while there were backup DAT tapes of every program to be played if needed. In the event of some failure that prevented the use of all studios in the building, a Lee Rodgers tape would be played from the transmitter site.

      3) From 1999-2013 there has never been a failure at KGO or KSFO that prevented a live show from going on the air from a studio in the building and requiring a tape backup. (this does not include transmitter incidents where a tape backup would be useless)

      Delete
    2. Yes you are correct I made up the "technical difficulties" part hence the quotation marks. The morning show went to a Break after Lee went off on the Muslim and simply never came back for the Day. I think Disney ABC was still the KSFO owner in 2001 When Lee returned the following Monday,he was a Far changed person. I was not bashing Lee Just pointing out how corporate radio works. You as a host and Disney cast member, Start pissing off Muslims. The Muslim groups boycott Disneyland.

      Delete
  15. As far as local content goes, KSFO was best when it was Lee Rodgers, Rush Limbaugh, Geoff Metcalf, Jim Eason, Michael Savage. Only Limbaugh was syndicated.

    Metcalf was replaced by Laura Schlessinger, Eason retired, and Savage nationalized and then moved to another station and was replaced by Sussman, who had left TV.

    Then Hannity and O'Reilly entered radio. Schlessinger retired and Hannity took over the noon slot. Mark Levin entered radio and eventually took over the afternoon slot, bumping Sussman. O'Reilly retired from radio. Sussman was being groomed to replace Rodgers in the morning when Rodgers was ousted by Farid Suleman because of Rodgers' Muslim rants.

    So now the Morning Show is the only local content, with Savage marginally local because he broadcasts nationally from here.

    The timing of events may not be 100% accurate, but you can see the evolution from highly local content to practically no local content.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your timing is not 100% accurate. KSFO lost much of its local programming around 2000-2001. Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura came together to KSFO, and it was then that the station dumped Geoff Metcalf and Jim Eason. Bill O'Reilly was never on KGO or KSFO. Dr. Laura and Hannity co-existed on KSFO. Mark Levin replaced Michael Savage and Brian Sussman's show came on after Levin.

      Delete