*Newsroom chatter: Everyone loves Debs as long as you agree with Debs....Debs is a people-person, as long as you always agree with Debs...Debs is a seasoned pro--sure, in that newsroom, interns are seasoned pros....Debs is way in over her head. Yep. We could go on but I'm through for now.
Just put a lid on Lobertini!
Rich, you already proclaimed, "bay area radio is dead." What difference does this make?
ReplyDeleteOk Hillary
DeleteLooking at her resume, looks a little light for a major metropolitan-based radio station.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that matters anymore is how cheap someone will work. Just barely qualified is fine, in fact it's better because that person will work cheap.
DeleteI don't post much on the website but I was just listening in my car on my way back to the Bay from Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteRonn's show was on the air leading up to Chip Franklin's. I had not heard Chip yet and Ronn was talking about the use of the "F" word and how it should just be allowed on the radio. I think he was saying that. He also said he won't use two words in particular which are the "N" word and the "C" word but Ronn is okay with the "F word. I started thinking to myself after having listened to him since I was a kid that he sounded like a total imbecile.
Because HE THINKS it's okay the "F" word is fine but other words aren't. Or are those words allowed too, but he would not use them?
I don't want my kids using the "F" word even if they know the word, or really hearing the word because it's a matter of having societal respect. There should be things you can say, and cannot say, especially if saying these things would be construed as offensive to others. Ronn thinks they should be allowed over the airwaves now. Why? Because he's old and growing senile?
The last couple of years the Ronn Owens Show has been nothing short of terrible. Finally, I have to agree with my wife (although she listens to conservative radio, which I used to think was worse -- maybe I'm wrong!).
Then came Mr. Franklin. I had heard he was on the radio but did not have the chance to hear the show. Now I can say I have. He was discussing the drought, and did some live interviews on the street. It occurred to me (I am not in the media) that this guy should be doing the street interviews but FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOW!
After all these years since KGO was great, this is the person they find to give one of the programs to? He is so utterly generic and vapid it is beyond belief. 15 minutes went past and I finally turned the station to listen to Ed Baxter on 910. This was also my first time really listening to him. He was discussing Jerry Brown and why is it he didn't address the East Bay protests going on. I agreed with Baxter but the general way he discussed it was so uninteresting and entertaining. There was nothing making me want to listen.
Finally I turned to KQED where they were discussing Russia's current situation. Now I did not necessarily want serious news at the moment, but it was so much better than what i was just hearing I continued to listen.
Based on the commentary I've read here, and the hosts I am partial to (I'll remain mum on this), I get the feeling KGO is going conservative-light, or at the very least making these hosts talk about nothing. It really bothers me that over the course of an hour, on two different stations all 3 hosts were completely boring and uninteresting.
That's all I have to say. Sorry so long but it's frustrating.
Brian
God bless your wife! But careful mentioning what she listens to, some of the old libs that visit and comment on this website might start ripping into her. They're constantly cranky and set in their ways. I guess too much free love in their youth and no love in their golden years.
DeleteAgree 100%. Good Post Brian!
ReplyDeleteRonn has sat in one place while the station management and the industry have decayed around him. How much blame can we put on him for how the show sounds now?
ReplyDeleteThis same guy sat for two decades atop the Bay Area ratings. He was upheld by a superb machinery of well-paid, appreciated, experienced professionals - producers, engineers, call screeners. Top of the heap just like him. That's what a good show host needs to fly.
He could stretch out with his best instincts - honed through so much experience - as to what was provocative and entertaining. He was trusted.
Now he's cobbled with directives to play to Short Attention Span Theater fans. No more pleasing an audience who'd gladly leave the dial untouched for one, two, three hours. Now it's imperative to dumb down for dumb-dumbs whose twitchy fingers are down the dial at the first three-syllable word. Radio for meth heads.
The old KGO gave the smart, prosperous KQED listeners an alternative. Ronn was key to that. Who's he supposed to be talking to now? I don't think anyone even knows.
Then there's the rest of the schedule, and what that meant to him. Ronn's show once safely straddled the sweet spot between a heralded, entertaining morning show and a high-rated midday stretch. No more. He follows mediocre ratings and leads into mediocre ratings - on a good day.
And KGO's brilliant promotional machine is dead. No more high-profile charitable happenings that bolstered both the station and the community it (actually, really) served. No more fun events now. No sign in the big outside world that KGO even exists. That's got to take a toll, too.
So how much can you blame the host whose station has been gutted around him? Ronn is holding down the last semi-functional room in a glorious old mansion that's crumbling around him. Meanwhile the mad ferrets who hold title to the place are shitting all over the last of the support beams.
I'm amazed he even shows up any more. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he knew something we didn't about things to come - that he's got some reason to hope? I wish we listeners did.
If you call what he's doing "showing up" then he may as well not.
DeleteI never cared for Ronn one way or another, just like his position on things. I did expect the station to be different after all the firing, but I did not expect it to be this bad. I agree with Brian above who is surprised by the addition of Chip Franklin. I think "vapid" is the perfect word to describe this man, and this show. I would be willing to bet he has more talent and more to give than we're hearing on the radio, but as the post above alludes to there's this idea the host needs to be moving quickly, topic to topic. I once complained on the board about another one of KGO's former hosts doing too many topics during the show and was met with resistance. Ronn doesn't do this that much but I also think he goes on forever with this topics, and they're usually not all that interesting.
The whole KGO situation is just a mess. They have no connection to community and those running out don't seem to have any idea what the radio station even was. It's truly a shame.
As for this person you mentioned in this, Ms. Monroe, I don't think anyone knows or cares who she is. Why is there a blog person about her? What has she done wrong or right that we even need to care about what she's doing?
Breaking into radio right now is like breaking into a bank that's already been robbed.
ReplyDelete