From a well-placed Bay Area media source who knows the ins and outs...KGO Radio and its Opps Mgr, Ron Escarsega took Gil Gross, a former KGO yapper and current Clear Channel tonsil, to dinner and offered him a shift on KGO-- It was around the beginning of this year. Not going to happen, however. Gil told the source the money they offered was "laughable."
What we learn here is that Cumulus began reading the tea leaves as early as four months ago that its all-news platform was a failure and began scoping the area for "live and local" voices.
Only problem in this case is the human sleep inducer, Gross, would be one of their first targets. Gross is a nice man with solid news credentials--that's news as in NEWS and not talk ---Gross ratings, like "Talk 910"'s have flat-lined at around the 1 area and hardly inspires anything inspiring --apparently a prerequisite for CC which has a $15B debt payment looming in 2015.
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Have to disagree with you and some of the other detractors on this website. Savage has his place, so does Krasny and Gil Gross as well. I listen to all of them from time to time. I enjoy listening to Gils show although the 910 signal is FAR too limited in the car.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing I want to do is listen to aggressive hate radio when I am on I80 crawling through the East Bay. No, I'll take Gil Gross any day over chewing on the steering wheel along with Limbaugh, Savage or a Randi Rhodes type. Gil is a good guy. Far more listenable than an outsized ego like Owens.
I agree!
DeleteI'm with you 7:05 Gil is a breath of fresh air. I go out of my way to listen to 910 on iheart. So glad Gil showed KGO the door. I am also happy Randi Rhodes is gone. What a nasty, bitter show that was.
DeleteGill Gross is a BORE, he repeatedly tells the same boring stories, interrups guest for a lame stupid joke and has his equally talentless wife on far too much. The reason he doesn't take calls is no one is listening. It'd be the same three callers everyday. Same with the Forest Stilwell.
ReplyDeleteActually Talk 910 has better ratings than KGO in 25-54.
ReplyDeleteLol. 910 doesn't even have half the audience KGO has. This story is bogus because Gill would return to KGO in a heart beat. Probably for minimum wage.
Deletehttp://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb009
Good G-d almighty! Talk about faces for radio. The Loyah and Gross take the cake.
ReplyDeleteCumulus is going low ball everyone's salary who is offered a position at KGO.
ReplyDeleteJust ask Ronnn. He knows first hand.
DeleteAgree with 7:35 a.m. Gil is a bore, a BIG BORE, he also interrupts the news person and traffic reporter for his stupid stories, which I guess is suppose to be funny, looks doesn't matter. 910 had a chance to become a decent station a few years ago, they have totally blown it. Now since Randi retired there is Joel Riddell (he does dining around on Saturdays) with some other guy named Corey (I think). I listened a little for a few days, they don't take calls, they talk a lot of personal stuff, marriage etc. and some news stuff. Same format as with Frosty, Gil and now these two, just one big bore. If and when KGO returns to talk they don't have to try to hard to become better than 910.
ReplyDeleteGross is so boring and his wife is a joke. Please do not put them on the air.
ReplyDeletei understand gene burns is dead, and I guess bernie ward is a non-starter...but please egocentric ron owens, boring gil gross..there has to be some intelligent, articulate and entertaining talk show hosts!
ReplyDeleteWho would you pick in the on-the-burner retooling of KGO? Gill Gross or Karel fulltime?
DeleteThere are, John Rothmann, Stacy Taylor, Peter B Collins, Christine Kraft, Bill Press. To 5:53 none of the above.
DeleteThey need to bring back Bill Wattenburg.
ReplyDeleteHe is so full of himself.
When a listener tries to tell him he is wrong he starts yelling and screaming at the caller.
It is great reality radio.
Bring him back.
And bring back that other blow hard Ray Taliferro.
He would go ballistic like a psycho when you had a different opinion of what he was saying.
KGO should label their new talk shows, BLOW HARD RADIO.
It will be a listeners favorite station to hear those old fools on KGO again.
Please, NOT Bill Wattenburg, the man is so in love with himself...much worse than the m. man. I remember calling Bill and confronting him during George Dubya's reign of terror, he defended every crazy thing Bush/Cheney had done and even now, he still thinks Dubya was a great President! Wattenburg only turns-on the selfish, "I've got mine, so screw you" rightwinger's.
DeleteBoth shows were hilarious, of the two Wattenburg going nuts when someone dared question his 1950's view of science, that and his 'plant' caller or two that allowed him to get on his high horse about various pet peeve subjects were highly entertaining.
DeleteDr. Bill is great. Now you're talking like a guy with a paper hat!
DeleteThe key sentence was the money offer. Most likely the talkers will be minor leaguers unless some of the seniors are willing to work for a fraction of their former salaries.
ReplyDeleteThe best host the old KGO had was clearly Gene Burns. He was professional, knew his craft, knew his subject and demanded respect without being obnoxious.
DeleteRonn isn't the same. I saw it when we met him at the Commonwealth Club. Frankly, it looks like he's on some sort of medication and it's dulled his senses. Not his fault but the man should retire. It's time.
Agree with 7:35 am and :9:30 am, Gil is not nearly as clever and witty as he seems to think he is. Always interrupting the news, weather, and his guests, whom he seems to have on just to let them know how much he THINK HE KNOWS. Then there's ROH-DUH...
ReplyDeleteThe word is vanilla.
ReplyDeleteThese hosts need Ed Busch to show them how to conduct a talk show.
Rich, please send an email to your good friend Michael savage and tell him to stop chomping food on air. What an unprofessional prick. I have my headphones on and this jerk is chomping food during the show. I almost want him to gag on air.
ReplyDeleteI want to like Gil Gross. I really do.
ReplyDeleteBut I am really put off by his constant vocal affectations. "Welllll, eeeeeeeee-ahhhh" and various others.
Why the hell a professional broadcaster does this is beyond me.
Sounds like the guy has nothing to say and wants to fill time. Boring.
Sounds more like a geriatric affliction to me. Agreed, however, it's highly annoying! And his constant interruptions of everyone (news, weather, guests) are very off-putting as others above have stated.
DeleteMy comments: You hit the nail on the head. Can't for the life of me understand why Gil does the show he does. He has loads of broadcasting experience, he is smart, he knows the business. I'm totally baffled.
DeleteGil's been around. I remember him from twenty or more years ago.
DeleteMy sense is the Dickeys will convert KGO into a supposedly marketable (from a corner office guy's point of view) version of what they already have elsewhere. Forget the wild stuff, Cumulus isn't gonna have it and San Francisco is getting away from that sort of thing anyway. The city is changing. I worked there about five years ago and then spent some time there recently. It's different now, driven by economics. You can feel it.
It has nothing to do with age.
DeleteGene Burns was much older than Gil and I never ever heard him doing the annoying vocal affectations that Gil constantly does.
It is so phony and forced.
I hadn't listened to him in a year and tuned in last week, hoping things had changed... But within 2 minutes Gil was at it again... Switched back to FM music.
You are so right, I just don't know what is up with Gil, he is not a stupid man, he has worked with many broadcast legends, I don't know how much older Gene was, he died about a year ago at age 71, I believe Gil is in his mid sixties, or a few years older. I'm 69 I work full time, I take classes, I can learn new things, absorb things and still have a lot of energy, although physically I can tell the difference from just 4-5 years ago. I know a woman who is 102 and although she is bedridden, you can still have a conversation with her, she keeps up with the news, and can voice her opinion.
DeleteThis thing from younger people about age is obsolete, first of all, if you are all lucky enough you WILL get old. I think age has a lot to do with the individual.
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ReplyDeleteIf he declined the Cumulus offer over money and he's presently working for Clear Channel, it must have been around minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteGood point, kind of funny, for a minimum wage he could go to work for Macy's, McDonalds, others, at least you don't take your job home with you.
DeleteRich, next time you see Frosty at the Barber Shop or local Waffle House, please persuade him to stop those radio blurbs with him 'spontaneously' talking or kvetching about stuff. He usually has some young lady trapped into giving him an audience for the duration of the spot.
ReplyDeleteShe tolerates him like a good noble radio soldier,, just wait for him to finally finish. It almost sounds like.... Well anyway, tell him we already know he is there for us. Frosty is a nice guy, with compassion. I can tell that. He's just very complainey.
I like Gil (a million stories to tell...one at a time) Gross in small doses. He's a good interviewer, has some interesting guests, and doesn't come across as a raging lunatic but the Misses has got to go!
ReplyDeleteI stopped listening to Gil last year for the reasons already stated previously. Out of curiosity I tuned in last Friday and to my shock RHOOOOODAAAA was piping in during an interview. Promptly I changed the station. What does 910am not understand about a 1.0 rating? Why does RHOOODAAA continue to soil the airwaves with that awful voice? If I go to Christine Craft for legal advice do I want her non-lawyer spouse to pipe in as well? Of course not! Why is this allowed in broadcasting!? Same with Copey when he was bringing his son on air.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the shows are stale due to the lack of calls from listeners. That leaves the host(s) to stew in their own opinions based on their (perhaps limited) knowledge of a subject.
ReplyDeleteIn my own case, there have been a number of times that I've listened to a host state incomplete/incorrect information, and wanted to call in and tell them the NYT or another source has uncovered this or that which would change the conversation entirely.
A minor example was during a program where a host was discussing a gathering of past Presidents. The host denigrated the fact that George W. was not present, while stating that George H.W. was in the hospital, so got a pass. What the host didn't know was that George W. was also in the hospital at the time, having a heart procedure. A listener could have corrected him, but the host wasn't taking calls.
Listener participation is an important part of talk radio. People can engage in passive listening by watching TV, with the added bonus of moving pictures.