Lots of talk inside and outside the KGO/Cumulus SF Cluster...*There's intense buzz with staffers about reports of a possible switch back to talk. How much so?
*What started out as innocent chatter between high suit, Deidra Lieberman and upper management resulted in Lieberman, (no relation), quitting in disgust. Lieberman has been complaining loudly about how the current format is not working.
That may have accelerated other managers in SF having a frank discussion with Lew Dickey--who was in town last week.
Nobody knows for sure what he discussed but KGO , its horrid numbers, its advertising base in shambles and Lieberman's volatile resignation was central on the discussion list.
*Monday should be an interesting inside 55 Hawthorne.
*Developing...
*NOTE: Because of the KGO situation, endless texts and phone calls, I will not be able to immediately answer your questions in the earlier post today. I will try to get to them later.
*Be advised as soon as I get something concrete or the skinny on KGO, I will post here so check back periodically and/or follow me on Twitter
*Remember, to get all the news and inside info, keep it here at Rich Lieberman 415 Media, your ONLY source to this and other Breaking News media stories in the 415 and beyond.
This December, a mere half a year from now, Bernie is getting out. How great would it be to have the Lion back on M-F evenings. (too soon?)
ReplyDeleteBernie is truly a great teacher!
DeleteMaybe that's how we change the world...
with lessons, great teachers and second chances.
I, too, would like to hear Bernie back on the air. He posts some commentaries on the "Lion of the Left" blog. On one, he said that he hopes to go back into media.
DeleteAnytime is too soon. I've read transcripts of what got him put away. He's a first class creep. He even spoke about his own children in detail as objects of his lust.
DeleteBernie is in Jail. End of discussion.
DeleteNot too soon, too long.
ReplyDeleteWhat, did they hold Bernie's contract open until he got back 7 years later? Wow! What are you people thinking? .
DeleteNote that Deidra's termination was announced via "the internets" on a certain website about Deidra's leaving KGO. She was escorted out the door with, allegedly, one other "employee" by security! Not to mention any names, but Karel told his engineer pal via "closed mike" that he had heard that HE HAD TO GO, TOO according to the rant from Deidra to Ron Escarsega (mid-level suit operations guy dude.)
The Tattooed One was told by Mr. Escarsega, "I don't work for her!" and that put Deidra in a car and off to "Current Chief Activity Director at Continue Moving Forward "
Past Vice President / Sales at Cumulus Media
General Manager at KGO / KSFO Radio
Director of Sales at KGO / KSFO Radio
"I told Ron I know they want to fire me," Karel said. "I know,".
We learned that Karel is now off his next to last radio outlet at KRXA in Monterey (reported here two weeks ago) as the vestige of far, far left radical "progressive talk" bites it again. Will he be on "the internets" tomorrow with Hal? Dunno..
A fund needs set up for the Karelster who is sad that he hasn't been invited to be in any Gay Pride games or arades so far. He, for the second time, has all but begged the City of San Jose to have him back as Grand Marshal. So far, no invite.
Memo (off mike, luckily, but loud enough for stalkers to hear last night -- "I'm supposed to do the All Star Debate, but I haven't heard if I'm getting paid. I just haven't heard. They did before, but so far, no word."
Ahh yes, before, when Wattenburg cold-cocked Karel in the limo and Karel landed in Gene Burn's lap, who did not spill his wine. Yeah, that time. Last year there was quite a ruckus too. It's been quoted on another post from someone in attendance. Look for it in another under "Debate" news.
Incidentally, if you're in New York, do not, according to Karel, visit the 9/11 Museum memorial. He says, "We need places, including in SF, to CELEBRATE people, not memorialize dead people. Those places will only make people cry. I won't go, for sure."
Super K paused and added, something about being creeped out at cemetaries. "I only went to a cemetary where my father is buried in (Southern California) twice. I only went to take my mother."
We learned last night that Jews should not be memorialized with buildings in Auschwitz. Right on the air. No, for millions of Jews who gave their lives "amid terror and horrid conditions in the Holocaust," Karell suggests that buildings still standing in rememberance "should be bulldozed ... and a beautiful park be built over where the buildings were. Not a parking lot or anything like that."
What was so funny about the joke you and your deceased mom were always saying, Karel, last week about "N*****s looking for peas up a chicken's ass?" You cackled off-mike like that was the funniest thing you ever said! Your engineer, Dominick, had to say, "That was close, big guy. That was close."
It was hoped Lew Dickey would have hung around and participated in the "Bay to Breakers" today, but, apparently, he got his hiney reamed by the worker bees while in town and left.
Come on back, Lew. Bring John and Randall with you. Let's get this done!
Is krxa....even a radio station these days? I thought it got sold, to be replaced by spanish christian hip hop...or such.
DeleteThe sale took a while to close. It did so last Friday. Hal had been on the intenet. Don't know if that will continue or not, yet.
DeleteBe careful not to celebrate a return to the talk format prematurely.
ReplyDeleteA - We've heard these rumors, before.
B - If the talk talent that Cumulus has hired since the "bloodbath," is any indication, KGO will be a pitiful shadow of it's former self.
Yes, and the latest batch of fill-ins they keep throwing on the wall are particularly awful. I can only hope they keep it live, local and non-generic. I'd love it if Karel was canned. He's the worst IMHO.
DeleteAnd - PLEASE, Cumulus....considering the egregious errors you and yours have made in the last few years, do NOT compound them by giving Bernie Ward a spot on KGO (or any other station). I realize he has his defenders (not the least of whom is Christine Craft), and of course they have every right to their opinions and preferences. But personally - pretty scummy material, is B. Ward. Here's hoping he's able to find other employment - not on the airwaves, and nowhere near children.
ReplyDeleteCemetery, cemeteries. Thanks. --bks
ReplyDeleteDear 5:13,
ReplyDeleteBernie Ward is my friend. He has spent six years in federal prison for looking at and sending forbidden images(some of them 30 and 40 years old) on his computer. there were nearly a hundred other such individuals snared in that FBI investigation,and only one of them was prosecuted.
He is working on a book about why it was a good thing that he went to prison. I think the sentence was disproportionate to the crime, which is essentially a thought crime. He didn't touch any actual children. If he had, his sentence would likely have been shorter.
That said, he has endured many things inside the prison walls of Beaumont, Texas and Lompoc, California. He has a lot to say about hubris, human flaws, and that good old Christian concept of redemption. He has much to be proud of actually. Despite the difficulties caused for his family by the situation, his own children are professionally accomplished and have turned out beautifully. His wife, their mother is a physician who has helped many, many children in her practice, despite the distractions and financial challenges of her husband's implosion. I salute that whole family and I wish nothing but the best for Bernie
I'm sure most people would say he'll never be on the radio again. I'm less sure of that. That's all
Christine: I am 5:13. I am a long-time fan and listener of yours, and certainly respect you no less for your views on your friend, Mr. Ward. You have admirably defended him here in this forum. But you and I do disagree on the issue, and probably always will. As I said above: we all have a right to our own opinions and preferences. And I will also add that I do not wish Mr. Ward any (additional) trouble or misfortune. "That's all".
DeleteAs long as you defend a federally convicted sex offender, Christine, you will remain irrelevant & forever relegated to bottom-of-the-barrel sub status on KGO.
DeleteYou assume that I dislike filling in on KGO. You'd be wrong.
DeleteI know it must be hard for you to disconnect from your assumption that I'm "defending" what Bernie did. Where have I offered a "defense" for his actions?
Did you think that by telling me I was "irrelevant" and damned to eternal sub-par status" , that I'd decide to abandon my friend and not hope for his redemption? Did you assume that I expected everyone to agree with me? Who the hell do you think you are? an imaginary deity? Go practice your sharia law, elsewhere.
Not to belabor the point....but "defend" means "support or fend for", and to "protect against a challenge or attack". So in those contexts, Christine, you ARE defending Bernie in your comments above. I don't think your "defense" is intended to include condoning what he did, nor, of course, "defending" him legally, as a lawyer (which you are) would.
DeleteTo add to all of the misery that Cumulus has put KGO employees (those who still work there) through, they are now trying to undermine the union there by giving them a pittance of a raise in their new contract proposal, while hoping to cut hourly wages for those who are not full time. The gall of these guys. Do that have any idea how they have wrecked one of the powerhouse stations in America? KGO was number one in the bay area for almost three decades. They were no longer at the top of the heap when Cumullus bought the station a few years ago, but KGO's numbers were still very respectable. Great move DickHead Bros. Why don't you just fire everyone, turn the station dark and walk away with what money you've got left? As ridiculous as that sounds, it would beat the torture of watching the Atlanta suits slowly strange the life out of this once-iconic radio station.
ReplyDeleteRight numbers, wrong older non-sellable age groups as an audience for years. Lazy "sit on our laurels" and watch the world pass by radio in a changing world..
DeleteTwo thirds less dollars coming in. $2 Billion in debt for KGO / KSFO and stations all over the country going out -- many, now, in the same shape as KGO. Take KABC, KLOS, WLS, WLS-FM, WABC, WPLJ, WJR, and others as examples. Someone needed to twist the tourniquet and press hard to stop the bleeding. Finally someone named Lew Dickey did. Meet the shareholders this week, Lew, and give them a little good news for a change.. End of story. .
Our neighbor, a well respected man, living with his young family across the street from us, also did time in the big house, for contacting/dating an under-age girl whom he had met on-line. She lied to him, saying she was over 18 attending collage. This neighbor's mistake/experience was a stark example or life-lesson for my 20-something twin sons!
ReplyDeleteWhat could be more beneficial to society than if Bernie were to serve as an open-book example for the world to see how insidiously evil can 'hook' someone in and destroy ones whole life and every precious person surrounding you.
“To err is human; to forgive, divine”