KGO Radio reporter, occasional anchor--the veteran SF correspondent tonsiling for KGO is hands down the best news guy in the building; maybe in town; but his standoffish persona and arrogance is a big turnoff in the newsroom.
Go figure.
My advice: Get a cocktail with Izzy and the Fish spiders and settle down, dude.
Have a double in fact and walk a little prouder inside the studio but check the ego at the door. And while you're at it, quit acting like a supreme asshole.
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Didn't you just proclaim radio is dead?
ReplyDeleteWhy are you still writing about it?
The Death Throes of the deeply entrenched media monstrosity that is Radio don't start or stop all at once. The wry and wriggling Roach may still have one more dance to perform. Such a demise will be perceived in various stages, with the obligatory Dead Cat Bounces here and there. And then there is the illusion of death, which may in some cases only be a form of hibernation. The life form strives to save it's self for a least one more season of productivity. Think more Cherry Blossom Boulevards, not Grey and gritty fields of Tombstone Pillows for the Dead.
ReplyDeleteHope springs eternal. N'est Ce Pas?
Lieberman pronouncement: "Bay Area Radio is Dead"
DeleteIf something is dead, it's dead.
I wouldn't say it's "dead", but anyone with a grip on reality realizes that it's dying.
DeleteWorked with him in (2) markets. 2nd generation Nashville TV News "wunder" kid. Dad was a weather dude. Pissed at the world and anyone else within shouting distance. Sued PIX for age discrimination but didn't win. Surprised he hasn't sued KGO ( but he will! )
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, 3:28
ReplyDeleteHe guy is overrated. Average at best.
ReplyDeleteThis guy does know he is on an AM radio station in 2014 that has the lowest ratings it's ever had, right? What is there to be arrogant about. I've worked in the market for 15 years and never heard of this guy.
ReplyDeleteGreat guy. Works hard. Has fun. Loves his Vols.
ReplyDeleteNo Christmas party this year ? ...... KGO ?
ReplyDeleteNo potluck .... like last year ?
Entertainment provided by KAREL ! ...... the entertainer ... : }
Not even Dickeys Barbecue Pit ?
Christmas Party? Last year's "Holiday Party" was a joke. A day time lunch for 2 hours. Yet the corporate parties in Dallas and Atlanta were quite large. The peasants? Stop it.
DeleteWhat has Lobritini ever done to earn him the title "the best news guy in the building?" While the competition for good reporting at KGO is not much, I've never seen Lobritini do anything remarkable, or even noteworthy. That's not a knock against Lobritini so much as an overall comment on the deplorable state of the news department at KGO. Hell, If I worked there I'd be in a bad mood too!
ReplyDeleteNot even the 2nd or 3rd best. Scott Lettieri (sp?) is their best by far.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if he's talented or not, he has an amazing rack and I'd totally f**k him.
ReplyDeleteOh. Right. That's only appropriate when discussing female talent.
Sorry.
Traditional over-the-air radio has seen its best days and is likely headed for the dustbin of history. Many people who I know from within the industry delude themselves using self-financed “studies” that show this not to be the case, but looking over a long time-horizon, using long-term credible data, things are bleaker than they were, and it’s bound to get a lot worse. To wit, the sale of the Lincoln Media Group stations that went for a fraction of what they would have sold for 10-12 years ago.
ReplyDeleteSome industry people take solace in the 1950’s situation when television was supposed to kill radio. What saved radio then was that the industry came up with something which was unique and marketable (constant music) that Jack Benny or Amos and Andy weren’t going to provide on TV. In addition, this desirable new service was provided in autos where TV couldn’t compete…eyes on the road, you know.
Now there are new competitors to traditional over-the-air radio: Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, and streaming stations, and others. Traditional over-the-air radio offers no known marketable advantage to these new forms of competing for audience. Even internet stations can provide local service. Someday, over-the-air stations may be turning in their licenses to the FCC because they’ll no longer be needed. They’ll depend on their online stream to compete with the seemingly unlimited number of competitors on the Internet. Their problem is this, a situation that will always exist: The spectrum in any market is limited. So, there could only be so many radio stations in a given area because of this spectrum space limitation, policed by the FCC. Now this protection for them is gone. With the Internet, practically anyone in their bedroom with a computer and a limited amount of software can compete worldwide. How many ways does the pie get sliced now? 50-million? How much revenue is that going to bring in when advertisers find out that the kid in the bedroom reaches about the same number of people for a “dollar a holler”? Game over?
While some of what you say is both common sense and true it doesn't mean there's no place for really talented people. Cumulus SF is a great example to discuss when it comes to talent.
ReplyDeleteWho is Cumulus SF's most talented local broadcaster or talk show host? Why have they developed? Their national talent is conservative, or people who are pretty terrible like Geraldo or a Perez Hilton. They don't develop anyone, and it's pretty much the reason they are such a failing company. Even at KNBR, who have they developed in the last 3 years of significance? Nationally they've tried to add talent through CBS, ESPN, and other outlets, but they have done nothing to create talent. Who would even be the person responsible for developing talent at KGO in SF? Rich mentions this Randall Bloomquist fellow. Has he ever developed a talent anyone knows of? If so I would be interested in knowing who that person is. Previously they had Kevin Metheny who became famous trying to stifle arguably the most talented radio talk host in history.
It's because of their inability to create talent that they cannot sell anything locally, and why they the industry is dominate by national advertising. All of the hosts are national, and most of them are both conservative and bad. Another reason why none of them have really grabbed an audience, and what they have continues to shrink.
These big companies cut costs, and with that came highly paid programmers, who created talent. Now they do things on the cheap, with weak programmers. Now they have no talent. It is an industry which has completely cannibalized itself. Yet if you are talented you may as well work for them because they have the money to keep even the poor hosts in the pubic eye. Ronn Owens, Chip Franklin and John Batchelor as a weekday lineup on KGO?
You have to be kidding me. It's the worst lineup in the station's history, and it's not even close. None of these people have moved the needle, and this includes Owens. He was unable to hold an audience on the flip, and was carried by other hosts. Just a joke of a station because it's run by a joke of a company.
I agree with what you are saying, that no new talent is being weaned and nurtured. However, maybe the reason for that is that taking the time to farm such talent is not cost effective, as people regard traditional broadcast radio less and less and revenues sink further and further. Certainly, cutting the talent reduces the appeal of the medium, but for them in the slow death spiral it may not be worth it and on some level they realize it. The slowly dying medium may be falling faster than an uptick blip of improvement that could be realized with new talent that is patiently helped along.
DeleteExactly. The major owners of radio stations cannibalized their own industry, and now claim "it's dying." They killed it.
DeleteThey have the money to pay talent as they are paying some pretty average people as it now stands. Karel, Brian Copeland, Thurston, Owens, Chip Franklin and others. Who is the programmer responsible for this talent?
The owners of the company have no problem paying themselves millions of dollars, but they certainly are not going to invest money into the company. Limited Liability.
Yes, it's like a Catch-22: Profits are down, so what do they do? They reduce expenses by cutting talent and other programming features. This in turn reduces the audience, revenues drop, profits are down again. So what do they do? They cut talent and other programming features some more, and the cycle repeats. This creates a swirling death spiral into the abyss.
DeleteCorrect. That they created.
DeleteThe Dickeys have enriched themselves while helping to destroy the industry. They won't pay for this in the long run, and they won't care.
It's just sad that they have destroyed so many great stations.
Partial credit can also go to the state of technology. Step on BART sometime and note the number of people staring at their smartphones, on the internet or texting, or listening to MP3s. Teenagers listen to radio far less than they did just a few years ago.
DeleteHowever, the Cumulii of the world sped this process along.
Again, you're wrong on this one Rich. John is a likeable guy who happens to be a very hard worker. He used to be in TV news, but like Jeffrey Schaub at KCBS, he has made the transition from TV to radio news quite nicely and is a solid pro.
ReplyDeleteOMG - I know I'm a day late on this post....but I just tuned in to K-a-r-e-l (as someone said previously: everyone loves a train wreck) - and in his first hour, he was at it again: completely talking over and stepping on every single caller....it's always all about him -
ReplyDeleteALWAYS. And now - he's talking (again) about how poor he is!!! And along the way - throwing in some little tidbits about difficulties that other hosts are having.....and now it turns out he's using this diatribe as an intro to his guest - and HE'S TALKING OVER HER, TOO!! So - my early New Year's resolution is to NEVER listen to this clown again - EVER!! It's embarrassing to admit that I do!!!
Karel also spoke of sitting at a person's desk at KFI, a person he replaced, and that a bill collector called for that person. He mentioned the person by name. Then he went on to say how embarrassing it is to talk about your financial issues publicly. But apparently it is ok to air someone else's? Jackkass. Pure and simple.
Delete8:14PM...Don't worry. We all have our guilty pleasures. Mine would be watching "Jesse" on the Disney station. when no one else is around. Jesse has got it going on! P,S, since both Good Luck Charlie AND the Ant Farm have been canceled on Disney, well, I am at my wit's end, practically Verklempt, as the Germans say.
ReplyDeleteNice Hair!!!
ReplyDeleteJohn "Dino" Lobertini and KNTV's Tony Kovaleski graduated the same year from SJSU. I should know--because I was a fellow student. They were both pretty intense back then--but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteYeah, both of them may be a little arrogant. But they're both pretty darn good. We used to stay late at KSJS radio back in those days--talking sports while working on our stories.
@8:50 pm says, "Certainly, cutting the talent reduces the appeal of the medium, but for them in the slow death spiral it may not be worth it and on some level they realize it. The slowly dying medium may be falling faster than an uptick blip of improvement that could be realized with new talent that is patiently helped along."
ReplyDeleteThat is a self-fulfilling recipe for disaster if I ever heard one! "Why should I bother maintaining my car? It's just going to break down some day." "Why should I buy firewood? I can just cannibalize the furniture and the siding off the walls; look: I made heat without spending any money!" All of these "work" and make "sense" in a penny-wise / dollar-foolish, short-sighted sort of way that is, essentially, a prelude to disaster. The logical conclusion of that line of reasoning is to simply fold the transmitter to save the electric bill.
It's coming to that. When these companies decide that the real estate where their towers are located could bring in a lot of revenue if they were sold (since a lot of the AMs, especially, are on desirable land at the edge of urban areas), and their electric bills could be cut a great deal by closing their transmitters, as you mentioned, then their entire revenue stream will come from online, especially if over-the-air audience dwindles more and this process accelerates.
DeleteThings are already starting to slowly move in that direction. Clear Channel (excuse me, iHeartmedia) appears to be starting to throw in the towel already on their old school broadcast properties. They’ve even renamed the entire company for their new online presence, iHeartRadio. That’s where almost 100% of the recent promotional push has been focused, but the potential competition grows more fierce, as the revenue compared to what they were used to for their older, broadcast properties gets sliced smaller. The old FCC protection of only a certain number of transmitters in a given area goes away. iHeartRadio competes with Tuned-in, Spotify, and nearly every other streaming provider. It’s a jungle. Old fashioned broadcast radio doesn’t seem to factor into their growth plans. My guess is that behind the scenes they’re trying to unload some of those stations. FM is in somewhat better shape, as they still have significant audience (although dwindling as well), but there may come a day when these companies sell their mountaintop towers to cellphone or WLAN providers and close their transmitters as well.