TALIAFERRO BULLET POINTS
1. I spoke to the still-feisty ex-KGO Radio talk-show host vet. He's alive and well, writing a book and eager to get back on the air in some capacity down the road.
2. I asked Taliaferro if he listens to the new KGO--he didn't answer. "Uh, hello, Ray?" Silence.
3. I told Ray I get at least five-ten e-mails a day inquiring about his health, his whereabouts, his status. He laughs. He sounds like the same old Ray which is comfortable. And he's fine by the way.
4. I found the bulk of Ray's KGO program about the best, most unique and funniest show on local radio. Nothing quite like it --it transcended politics.
5. I asked about rumors making the rounds once again about the possibility of investors acquiring a SF-area frequency, (think KFRC or FM), and ask Ray directly if he's a player: "Oh, most certainly."
6. Taliaferro is close to finishing his book. We agreed once it's complete we'll do a more extensive interview. He wishes all his and her fans a Happy New Year.
If you have any message you'd like for me to forward to Ray, send them my way and I'll make sure he gets them.
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*E-mail: Rich.Lieberman@Gmail.com
He could drive you up a wall with his antics and politics, but he kept me up on many nights working the graveyard shift of my old job. Very interesting guy.
ReplyDelete"I got another liiiiinnnnneee open on the board now."
ReplyDelete"Ashcroft!"
"Sir! Sir! Sir!"
Thanks Rich for bringing us this interview.
ReplyDeleteRay Taliaferro was great...his music was the best!
And 'Poetry Night'...remember that?
Rich, it would be terrific if you'd interview other former KGO Peeps.
Some folks exchange Christmas Cards this week but we get Race Cards at 415 Media...
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Brother Ray, who was notorious for playing that tattered, greasy old Race Card, till it didn't trump anymore? I tend to agree. I admired Ray's energy and intelligence, but yes, with him all roads did tend to lead straight back to racial division, where the white or conservative was always wrong and dangerous. I would never watch it, but if MSNBC has just gotta have a talking head for black separatism, Ray would be better at it that is Al (Resist We Much!) Sharpton. TV is much more confining and controlling of the talent than is radio, so Ray may not wish to try such a career experiment at this stage of his life. Or the News Channel does not think Ray would command a high spending demographic viewer. I expect his book will be out shortly before the next December anniversary of Bludgeon Day at KGO.
DeleteDING! DING! DING! DING! We have a winner! Yes, I was referring to Rays ability to sum up EVERY injustice as being caused by the melanin challenged. That was card #2. The first being the unnecessary me culpa for "underreporting" of the McMath story.
DeleteHurry back Ray.
ReplyDeleteRay, miss your show in the wee hrs. of the morning. Need you back !
ReplyDeleteRothmann and then Ray...That was great radio evenings.
ReplyDeleteYes, if you wanted to go to sleep it was perfect.
DeleteAh yes sleepless nights were not so bad when my man Ray T was on the air. My respect for him grew to unprecedented levels when he went after that right wing hag Kay Zwerling. He put that hoe in check! In front of her own spineless son nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI happened to catch the beginning of Ray's last show and was wondering when he was going to retire. I also happened to tune in the next morning to hear the "news" of the change of format. I was not pleased by the news, but there was some truth in it. Ray was amusing, and I was awoken more than once by his tirades. There is a time to hang it up, and ray has passed that point.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is a large group locally that loves that nutty stuff
ReplyDeleteAnd now....now....KGO is a swirl of toilet bowl programming.
ReplyDeleteRed Eye Radio ?.....Who wanted that shit..? ....And Bloomburg WTF ?
For 2 day old news.... with commercials every 60 seconds...You can count on KGO.
High school radio station quality at its best... !
First KGO then KNEW. The ONLY station to listen to these days is KQED.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for his book! Ray T is on my list of the 3 people, living or dead, that I'd like to have supper with. He's a gem, and I sure do miss him on the radio.
ReplyDeleteAlways amuses ne; some people love to complain about the torn, tattered race card; that is, until it's their turn to play the race card.
ReplyDeleteI listened to Ray for years,very entertaining!! Miss your Energy Ray!!
ReplyDeleteRay, you were the best company I could have asked for while working by myself into the early morning hours, back in the 90's. In the old "Edge of Night" days, you and my father would go round and round on various topics, and once he got so frustrated he hung up. I still remember you calling out to him, "Bill....Bill are you still there,was it something I said?" And he was a Democrat, go figure! Thank you Ray and I hope to hear you again some day on a radio station as good as KGO was!
ReplyDeleteKGO ' s signal would many times be the only station I could receive while driving a semi late night & early morning while traveling in the western states. I remember receiving KGO as far away as Wyoming. I rarely agree with Ray but he made his point in clear and reasoned statements. I truly enjoy listening to many points if view while choosing mine.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid growing up in Oroville where my adoptive family lived, I listened often to Ray. A voice crying in the wilderness. My adoptive family got me when I was 5 years old but I was always a dyed in the wool radical and loved listening to Ray ... even when he would occasionally run amok. He was ahead of most curves most of the time. I found out at some point that my biological father was a late night Ray junkie and it really made me wonder about the genetic component of political belief. Oroville provided pretty thin gruel for a young leftist and late night KGO kept me going. And there is no such thing as a race card and to think there is just shows an ignorance about what racism is really all about.
ReplyDeleteTruly miss Brother Ray Taliaferro, used to listen every weeknight and loved it! Poetry Night was always great too! I'm happy to hear Ray is doing well, and I'm very interested in his book. And, of course I really, really want him back on the radio, I'm selfish I guess, but I miss him so much. - Frank From Seattle (Ray might remember me).
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, much in line with the other talking head idiots of the day, Ray had a show about Skinheads. Or, more to the point, how all whites are racist. When confronted with a caller who was, at the time, a student at Stanford and had done significant amounts of research for a sociology/history project. Said caller pointed out there were, albeit perhaps confusingly, groups such as SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice), who included blacks amongst its membership...and when it was pointed out the origins of the first "skinheads" (Google is your friend these days, but back then teh interweb had yet to be invented by Al Gore) who were influenced by and following the fashion/style/music of West Indian/Jamaican "rude boys" and were not a group based on race or politics, "Brother" Ray simply dismissed the caller as an idiot who clearly could only be awake at that hour and listening to his show because the caller was worried about "bruthas" coming to his door to beat his ass. Ray then hung up on the caller rather than make any effort to offer a voice or a discussion that might not be in line with his clear agenda. Still, as asinine as a such a retort by "Brother" Ray was, I suppose it accurately reflected the opinion "Brother" Ray held of his audience...and served as a commentary of the crap hour to which he was relegated.
ReplyDeleteYeah...what a fine, upstanding commentator.
"Brother" Ray has his legacy - that of a failure. An irrelevant, has-been that never even was. A very distant second to even the absurdity of Art Bell or George Norie. A side-show, race-baiting, brownshirt, forever beating the haggard drum of the left. Now, the deviant gets what he deserves...a legacy of nothing more than a blip, a cursory footnote, one who is remembered as someone who kept people working the graveyard shift awake, a distant memory tucked away in the dusty, cobweb-ridden backrooms of history of a failed talk-radio station.
Good riddance to bad trash.
No, in actuality Ray Taliaferro is a great person, a lover of people, and a terrific radio host.
DeleteWhile Ray did fine work in the community over the years his name calling tactics were and remain indefensible. If that is terrific, then we have different standards.
DeleteHe often struggled to get callers. Progressives loved him because he berated conservatives.
I found his more important points overshadowed by his overwrought theatrics.
This was getto late nite radio.Ray was constantly stuck on stupid, lets see it was the evil President Bush hour after hour,nite after nite.Then it was a west coast version of Rev AL-Funny we never herd a peep about his Mom stealing a small fortune from San Francisco State College or The angle store fraud in Lafayette CA-Please RAY don't forget any of that in your book.
ReplyDeleteI miss Ray 's show. I don't even listen to kgo anymore since ray and rothman left. I too now choose npr on kqed radio. Maybe they'll invite him to speak about his new book.
ReplyDeleteRay, I've missed you since the day you left. Please come back soon.
ReplyDeleteBonnie
I miss you ray the voice of intelligence and reason are too few hope u make a comeback and please let me know hat station you will be on and ill be there
ReplyDeleteI've listened to radio (DX-ing AM night stations) since I was building and taking apart radios as a teen in the 1950s. For years north of Seattle the masters: Larry King, Art Bell and Ray Taliaferro (KGO in San Francisco) were companions too much of the night.
ReplyDeleteray miss u we need some intelligent conversation in America after Trump we need it a lot hope to hear u soon
ReplyDeleteAll of these folks up in here talking about Ray playing the Race Card look like a bunch of fools implying that, especially with the fat, self-described pussy-grabbing, sloppy, dumb, putin-puppet racist who plays the race card DAILY, as he sits INSTALLED in the White House. Damn illegitimate clown.
ReplyDeleteRay.....Speak to us, please.
ReplyDeleteMiss you!