*KTVU has polluted its once-mighty "10 O'clock News" with incessant, massively irritating teases; it's one thing to highlight a special report that consists of newsworthy content in twenty minutes --but its embarrassing weather alerts--most nights it's at least 3-4 notices and that doesn't include the actual weather report itself. It cheapens Bill Martin's forecast and makes him look like a carnival barker. *KRON's sounders: Out-of-date, out-of-touch and old. Even by KRON standards, low, the scant independent Channel 4 needs a more modern sound and look for that matter. I'm not talking about the talent now. Of course a new desk and studio and new sounds costs money, a foreign concept at soon-to-be departed 1001 Van Ness. Maybe when they finally move across town to KGO they'll have a new look. Anything will be better than the current one.
*Jose Spencer Hughes-Silva: The KSFO 9-Noon guy has an anglicized name. He goes by "Spencer Hughes" but his real name is Jose Silva. Fine. Only Silva is vehemently opposed to any sort of immigration reform. That's smells to high heaven. Sort of hypocritical don't you think?
*Jan Wahl's movie reviews on KCBS: Wahl's syrupy over-the-top material is bad enough but even worse on Friday morning when hat diva gives us her lengthy, sloppy dissertations on the weekend movies --and that doesn't even count her pathetic Sleeptrain mattress Hollywood commercial spots. Real classy.
*Gil Gross and Frosty the Snowman on 'Talk 910': Many of you have complained about the no-calls policy on both of these slackers programs. I myself don't have any issues with that if only the hosts had anything even remotely interesting to talk about--Gross is a nice guy; too bad his show is boring and the wifey-on-Friday is flat out embarrassing. The station seems not to care because no one is listening and Gross is on because they need someone, I guess. Frosty the Snowman, an LA retread and uninspiring divot, I have no clue as to how he survives; maybe he has pictures. His stories are cringe-worthy.
*The KNBR "Morning Show": I've resisted many an opportunity to write any extensive critique of the fratboys of late, mostly because I don't tune in anymore and when I do just hear the latest cacophony of four hours worth of noise, endless stories that go nowhere that extend to other endless stories and so on. A mixture of useless minutiae that have all the authenticity of a wine shop in the Tenderloin. Worse and getting worser.
*KGO Radio on the Weekend: The circus meets the abyss. 'Nuff said. If you want to torture yourself tune in same old shit less a few programs that might be worthy of ten minutes. "Guest Host" on its own website: no one seems to have ever heard of the word: director. Shit, then again, it's KGO, the albatross with fake news and traffic anchors in Texas.
*Non-24 ads: Call the cops!
*Follow me on Twitter
Weekly plea to Cumulus and KGO. Look, instead of playing kids games-in-the-sandbox about Savage parking in the handicapped space and free lunch, why not do something about Karel, the Chef and get something settled with Weintraub and tighten the reins a bit on some of the nonsense from Pat Thurston ... just a little.
ReplyDeleteLast night, Karel had to play scientist and lecturer maven about quake preparation. Hey, numb nuts, in case you forgot, the Bay Area when through a 6.9 earthquake in 1989. Northridge a 6.7 in 94. The Central Coast a 6.6 in 2003. A fricking 5.1 in La Hambra with a tickle in your arse in Long Beach is nothing, or, as reported, very little. Noticible? Yes. But not deadly nor damaging much except the areas like yours that would crumble in a 3.0 because of the poor construction.
Karel, no one (and a 2.0 share proves it,) no one gives a shit about your clueless crap. Nor the drama of you wanting to go dancing when your friends car started shaking and 'Oh my god, it's an earthquake!" You watching plate glass shake and "It could have killed me," is such bullshit. You need to worry more about real prepararation that you preach but "have no money" and quit relying on your boyfriends who make you sit in the backseat as you described it. You are such a sick queen, bitch. People in San Francisco and the Bay Area look at their radios in wonder how you've made it this far. How's that renewal coming, asswipe? What a creep.
MZ, please put Rich back on the air from noon to 4 with more relevant music than 40s 78 rpm tunes hosted by a malcontent misfit in Charlie Friedman. Listeners - please understand that your ancient old-age rants because you don't like change don't matter. A radio station isn't programmed by an audience or by your schedule. Get over it.
Please, get rid of Karel, KGO! Please?
MZ needs to realize the days of right vs left, liberal vs conservative are over. Dinosaurs like Chuckie Friedman are relics of the past. It's all a sham and people are onto it. Only intellectual midgets like Friedman think the right vs left dichotomy is real. The best thing to come out of the Friedman demotion on KSCO is that he won't be able to play any of his shitty 1920s music from noon-2pm.
DeleteAll the best to Dave "El Mexicano" Michaels. As to Jose Silva de Hughes I cut him slack for his anglicized name. Let's go through the short list of Jews whose names are anglicized: Whiner and Lowensteinnnnnnn. Are they self hating Jews Rich? Of course not (even though Whiner pretends he's a Christian on his show and Lowensteinnnnn only attends high holiday festivities). I'm no fan of Jose but let's be fair and balanced. When is Lieberman Live starting? Still working on the Gremlins? Ethan Bareman was supposed to have been on KGO this weekend but wasn't. Did he quit KSCO in vain!?
He was on Sunday morning, I'm not impressed, he is a tad better than Montemayor, seem like he at least is a little more pleasant than Montemayor. Sunday there was a new woman instead of Maureen Langdon, Mary Walters I think was her name, not impressed by her either.
DeleteRich and @12:18
ReplyDeleteWake up and smell the coffee. The world has changed.
You can either adjust to change or waste the rest of your lives banging your heads against the wall and pretending how great everything used to be.
It's called growing up.
Your point, 123, makes no sense. What's your point?
DeleteRICH, r u saying has to be in a favor of a policy because of their ethnicity?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I think Spencer was the "Great Sven" on KGO in another life
Sven Silva is how KGOers knew him in the early 90s.
DeleteHe was conservative, but without the angry persona that comes out on radio. Very pleasant to be around.
Like others, I see no reason why a surname should necessarily dictate a point of view. Performers changing their given/original names is nothing new.
> Of course a new desk and studio and new sounds costs money, a foreign
ReplyDelete> concept at soon-to-be departed 1001 Van Ness. Maybe when they finally
> move across town to KGO they'll have a new look. Anything will be better
> than the current one.
When Young Broadcasting took over at KRON in the early 2000s, they remodeled the entire newsroom. They did this by taking the assignment desk, which had always been on one side of the room, and moving it to the other. There's absolutely nothing to be gained by this, but they did it. They didn't buy badly-needed new furniture (some of the chairs' backs had fallen off, and writers and producers were sitting on what were essentially stools); that would be too intelligent. Now, KRON's set had always been in the same space as the newsroom, with a view of the producers and the newsdesk visible through back windows. With the desk now on the same side this would be impossible; also, the suits for some unknown reason, now wanted the set upstairs, reachable only by one very unreliable elevator.
So they made this move, but wanted the same look for the set (!!!). Then they installed screens behind the new news set, which looked and looks identical to the old one, and had a camera downstairs taking video of us and projecting it onto the screens behind the anchors on the new upstairs set. After so much time the video relooped, so a careful viewer would see the same video behind the anchors at different times during the day. They also kept using the same video over and over. It became sort of a sport to watch the background images of the employees on the broadcast at home and say, "Ah, I remember him. He got fired a year ago."
And I won't tell you how many breakers we got beat on because our old elevator couldn't haul a new script up to the newsroom fast enough, whereas before someone merely had to get it off the printer and walk it twenty feet onto the set and place it by the elbow of a Pam or a Tom or a Catherine.
So after all this hard work (the renovation actually ran out of money and was never finished; to this day ceiling tiles have no been replaced and cables and wires hang down from the ceiling, and there are unlit pockets of abandoned desks and chairs that have been piled up for a decade or more) the result for the viewer at home is EXACTLY THE SAME. They spent millions and there's no difference on screen.
These were the geniuses who took over KRON. They made up some of the money by laying off real reporters and hiring 22-year-olds with no experience and paying them a Burger King wage, and they'll get more back when they sell the elephant at 101 Van Ness, but the truth is they blew over 800 million buying the station and millions more on "renovations" that made it look exactly the same on air, while news vans died on the way to stories because the oil hadn't been changed in 20,000 miles. Yet these people are considered "businessmen," even though they couldn't with their level of skill successfully run a Subway sandwich shop for a week.
Believe me none of this is exaggerated for effect. If anything I probably forgot additional stupid, money-sucking things they did. KRON has been and still is that incompetently-managed. By a bunch of people who think they're geniuses.
Rich, what about the Jews in broadcasting who have anglicized their names and are against immigration reform?
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with Rich? So what if Jose Silva uses a different name for his broadcast career. A lot of people in media do that and have been doing that since the early days of broadcasting. He needs to give it a rest.
ReplyDeleteLike ... Ronn Owens. He's Ronn Lowenstein and Owens has been his stage name forever. Nothing wrong with that.
DeleteFirst of all, Mr. Lieberman, Leave "AUNT JAN" Alone!! (Most) Everybody loves her! She's a sweet and gregarious lady who knows a lot about show business and the personality types that have made it big . Jan is here for us in the Bay Area, just like you. BOTH OF YOU are Bay Treasures we are better off with, however different. Sometimes there's a need to visit our friendly neighborhood Yenta, while I'm waiting on Bart or while I'm eating my Submarine and Canada Dry. So what if she's not shaped like Bar Rafelli, very few women are in real life. Jan provides something irreplaceable, a welcoming eminence that is comfortably quaint.
ReplyDeleteNow, as for your terse and biased remarks on Spencer, you surprised me Rich. You sound like the typical Liberal who thinks they know how everyone should be voting or should be thinking, and that assumption is based on what? on the color of the speaker's skin or the ethnic group they have a genetic link to. I am quite familiar with the Know-It-All Liberal-Profilers. As a black conservative I encounter it all the time in this area. Please know that the fact of race does not equal the assurance of homogeneity across the board.
What Spencer and many other conservatives usually mean when they come out "against immigration" is that we are AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, but we WELCOME LEGAL IMMIGRATION. That is what we mean. Same sort of rules that all the other countries have outside of our ever wavering borders. Let's not spend too much time wiping away the tears about children who may be left in the USA if their ILLEGAL parents are deported. These parents knew they were ILLEGAL before, during and after their children were produced. This is not something that has 'happened' to them, this is simple cause and effect. Under this president, they will get there way for now, because he needs to make new Democrats and union members out of them. In fact, I hear sometimes promising to vote Democratic is often used as a condition of acceptance for some of the 'new people'. It would not surprise me in the least!!
Jose Silva could be a Portuguese name. As far as I know Portuguese don't really identify as Latino despite their huge numbers in Brazil. They identify as Europeans not in Europe. Mexican and Central American immigration means nothing to them.
ReplyDeleteMexicans and Central Americans mean nothing to most civilized people.
DeleteWell,I'm sure 99% who read 617 don't need me to point out the racism or that 617 thinks the same about Asian's.African's,..even Russians. If he was in a all white country..he would hate the dark haired whites,or the thick lipped whites. I know how it goes...
Delete10;37 am, What makes you jump to the conclusion that 6.17 is a white person? I personally know of more than a few black people who feel that same way if they think a Hispanic person 'took' a job or accepted a government benefit they should be receiving instead..When I look at that remark from 6.17 I see the image of a Grinning Troll, just stirring the pot, looking to get a reaction from somebody, anybody. It's theatre, not serious.
DeleteWrong again Stanley! I'm married to an Asian woman and have found in my years of experience that Asians for the most part are a very hardworking and intelligent group of people with good values. When they feel that something has gone against them in society, they don't riot or block the commute or demand that everyone speak their language. For starters.
DeleteOh, and I have Spanish heritage but feel very strongly that English is the (de facto) official language of the U.S., and that the central Americans (including Mexicans) need to get it in their heads that if they want to immigrate here, they need to do so legally, and assimilate to the culture here.
Well, 1125,I guess no need to say I was right and you wrong?..read 1150..So 1150,your are only racist with Mexicans? not Asian's? Glad you cleared that up.
DeleteAnd how much did that change anything I said about you?
I'm not racist against Mexicans, as they're not a race.
DeleteI got a severe case of the Sads today, because Melanie Morgan is going to be speaking on the air tomorrow, on KSRO AM 1350, and I cannot receive that station in San Rafael. Nothing but static. I guess I'll have to try getting it online. I don't know if that will be for free or what. Who gets to decide to make a station's signal stronger? The Program Director, or does it all come down to how much money you have to purchase the right to utilize the now available power? I'm probably not using the correct terms, but someone may know what I'm asking.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable there was no Bay Area Station with a better signal she could have gone to. However, this is a new start for her and for us, so there's that.
The website, KSRO.com is free. Hit the Listen Here button and it works fine. May not work during national syndicated shows.
DeleteNo, you can just go to, say, Radio Shack, and up the power. The FCC, through the government, does that. For 5000 watts directional to the northwest, KSRO has a damn good signal. You won't hear it in a lot of the Bay Area because Santa Rosa is still quite a distance. Because of terrain, you may or may not get it. You car would probably be your best bet.
You don't "purchase the right" to get usable power. 1350 is there to protect other stations on 1340 (lousy frequency), 1350 (good regional frequency) and 1360 (lousy local freqency like 1340.) She could have gone to where else? No one else, like Clear Channel's 910 and 960 didn't want her for whatever reason, due to money she'd need, probably. They don't do much local news and their signals are trash, too. KSRO made her the best deal. She's doing news, not the show she did with Sussman. She's also news director, not talk show hostess.
U can get that station on ur phone with the Tunein app
ReplyDeleteOh God this morning at either 9 or 10, the Texas news person said the following:
ReplyDeleteReporting on the snow ... called them the SIERRAS.
Reporting on an event in San Rafael ... in MARE-IN county.
Reporting an event in Pollack Pines ... POLE-ACK Pines.
It's worth listening just to hear the MISS STAKES.
Tonight, it was "San Ray-mun" during the Karel carnival. The big K also dropped the F-bomb twice before his circus on his link and complained about posters who didn't like his "Ratt's butt" rant last week. So, at least you know he reads here. If only his engineer wasn't paying attention, instead of saying "Yeah, that's rated PG" when he let the first F-bomb fly, he'd be gone tomorrow. He's pushing the envelope again. Tonight was sick dog news for 30 minutes then "shattered plate glass could have killed me" and the "LA will be destroyed by a 7.3 earthquake within 30 years. I will be in my early 80s." The Puenta Hills fault hasn't ruptured in 3000
Deleteyears with a quake that big.. You've been warned.
Note to Karel: If you're afraid of shaking plate glass, DON'T stand near shaking plate glass in an earthquake, ass-hat. That simple.
Now, now. Aren't we supposed to celebrate die-versitty?
DeleteThe real person to blame for all the mispronunciations is KGO's Program Director. Do you they even have a PD? After being told traffic reports would be done in Dallas, the first thing the PD should have done is compile a Bay Area roads & towns pronunciation guide. But that would require someone in management who actually cares about the product.
DeleteRegarding "Silva" and immigration reform. There are many people with hispanic backgrounds who came here legally, or whose families/ancestors came here legally who are disgusted with the notion of giving amnesty to illegal aliens in the name of immigration "reform". There is nothing wrong with people coming here legally, by going through the processes in place. But to give blanket amnesty to a bunch of people who have already displayed their contempt for the law of the land is beyond foolish, it's a slap in the face to the many who DID wait, pay the fees, and submit to background checks.
ReplyDeleteTo HELL with the immigration "reform"ers.
anon at 7:45...and amazingly enough, many people with Hispanic backgrounds who were born here!! As were their parents, and their parents' parents', and their parents' parents' parents!
DeleteKGO has another awful fill in host tonight. I was just kind of warming up to Maureen Langdon, now there is someone one named Mary Walters, she is as bad as Maureen, and she appears to be right wing. not that there is anything wrong with that, except we have enough right wingers in this area, and some of them are very bad, like Sussman and Katie Green, Spencer Hughes and a recent fill in at KGO Eathan Bearman, thank God Tim Montemayor is gone. However, what happened to Christine Kraft. This woman is awful, defending Chris Christie saying he handled the bridge scandal just right? First of all we have our own scandal here named Leland Yee, do we really have to hear about an East Coast scandal? Then she berated a caller for defending ObamaCare, saying he was stupid to believe what Obama had promised about Obama Care. Right now she is interviewing some female movie critic even though she admits she doesn't like movies and rarely go. What happened to good fill ins like Christine Kraft??? Why do KGO think we like these no talent fill in, that are from out of nowhere?? She is hemming and hawing, having trouble getting the phone number out. This is so embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately with baseball starting the KNBR morning show is going to get exponentially worse. I'm not a fan, but Brian Murphy has potential, but he needs a real partner (and a male role model) who can pull him back from his creepy fanboy tendencies. Paulie Mac is so helpless and in over his head that all he can do is follow along and parrot whatever Murph says. Larry Krueger's been great in reigning in Gary just enough and I think KNBR needs to give Murph the same kind of help. Otherwise, I will continue not to listen.
ReplyDeleteThe worst is the fat with bad teeth Karel and always leading with his "dead husband" wow no one not even Joan Rivers with J. Carson has milked a dead dude like he has to no avail. He has no talent and his shows just get worse and worse. Turn it on for a few seconds until he mentions the dead guy and all his leachy trips to Ireland and off it goes. There must be talented talk show hosts but then Cumulus would have to pay money for them. K must work for almost free. And P. Thurston has the Shrew down to a tee. Does she work for free also?
ReplyDeleteKGO will soon be in the 1.0 rating bracket.... (As soon as next quarter)
ReplyDelete.... I would suggest anyone listening to give the few advertisers they have the treatment.... (After you call system pavers for a free in home estimate) .... tell them to "take a hike" because they advertise on kgo.....hahahaha
Same thing with Ovation Cell Therepy Miracle snake oil treatments.....Cancel...hahaha
Hopefully a format-flip coming soon.......with 48 hours of annoying music.
Can't wait....!
Send Mary Rose an ..... Unemployment Application.
Play more Kars for Kids spots!
DeleteLooks like "kars-for-kids' has dumped KGO as of late.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ronnnn should lead by example ..... and donate HIS car for this cause.
Ronnn said in 2011 ...."the ratings were down".... give the change a chance.
hahahahahahahahahahah............Look NOW Ronn ..
Mary Rose to the rescue !
"Traffic is stopped at Trous-a-dale rode in 101 freeways.
Gil Gross was an excellent radio talk show host during his KGO tenure. I expect the problem to which you allude is not Gross himself, but the far-right station on which his show appears. He probably could get plenty of calls, but they'd all be right winger confrontational nonsense, and for most listeners make for an unpleasant listening experience. As it is, even with few or no callers, Mr Gross brings on a lot of interesting expert guests, especially those from the political arena, and I think the show makes for an informative listen. Maybe it isn't perfect, but I'm not aware of any other radio show on at that time in the SFO area that is as good. I'm a reliable listener to Mr Gross's show.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mr Frosty's show, well, I'm just not very interested in programming filled with scatology-chat. Likewise with that same station's morning duo. Me, I'll continue to give those hosts a twist of the dial and instead visit the local NPR station.
Gil Gross was a good talk show host during this KGO tenure, he was not one of my favorites, but that was the days when we had Gene Burns, John Rothmann and others. He does some good reporting at times, but his voice grates on my nerves, and although his expert guest are just that experts, that is fine, but it comes off as lazy, and I miss callers input, even if they were to be conservative. 910 is not a strictly conservative station, Randy Rhoades is on for 2 hours midday, and Alan Colmes 3 hours at night, both are (thank god) quite liberal. On certain subjects Gil's guests can be informative an interesting, especially on the recent disappearing of the Malasian flight, but he has too much air too fill, and can't hold my attention for long. Too many silly stories and dumb criminal stories. Interesting? NOT.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you Rich. I think that Gil is very interesting and astute and I enjoy what I can catch of his show. Don't care for Rhoda's input or high pitched laugh. I'm not sure how I would feel if I could listen to all 4 hours of his show. I like Frosty well enough and have no complaints. Ethan Bearman! I will check out KGO because he was terrific on KSCO and I thought he belonged in a larger market although he really did a great job with local Santa Cruz issues. I hope he gets a few chances to prove himself because I think he has the goods to be a good talk show host. I wouldn't mind if you Rich were back on KSCO. My only complaint is that you didn't cover local issues and maybe consistency was a problem, but I would tune in if you were on because I was usually entertained.
ReplyDelete