Friday, January 16, 2015

Damon Bruce at 95.7 The Game: Smart Sports-Talk Radio; Perfect Posty Tomsula; Pete Liebengood On Radnich; Radnich on Vicky Nyugen; KTVU; KQED Nuggets; Friday Rundown

 FRIDAY FIRST TAKES

When he's on, like he was after the silly 49ers press conference introducing new coach, Jim Tomsula, The Game's (95.7, FM), PM talker, Damon Bruce, can be rather spectacular. Can be.

Those of you that watched that rather unintentionally funny bizarro had the same thoughts I do: God, am I hearing what I'm hearing?

I listened to the presser, (or maybe depresser) on the all-sports station and immediately after, Bruce was pitch-perfect in his assessment. (Here's an audio link--give a listen) He ridiculed Tomsula like most of us. He also mocked the proceedings with near eloquence like a champion race-car driver. Better yet, Bruce, with an assist from an astute caller, did a hilarious impression of the NFL's domestic violence commercials with deep and heavy breaths --just like the actors on the screen. It was both entertaining and incredibly funny, and even more to the point, brilliant because it was completely spontaneous --no silly sound effects nor song parodies needed. (By the way, in case you're wondering, NO, Bruce didn't parody domestic violence).

Bruce is by no means everyone's cup of coffee, including me; he's an acquired taste --matter of fact, there's times where he becomes obsessed with telling all of you just how great he is, which is fine only that Bruce comes off as narcissistic and annoying. Sure, you have to have an ego because that's the center of gravity in the sports-talk business, all media members for that matter but there's also a fine art of keeping it on the inside. If that's Bruce's only negative issues, I can deal with that.

He's a breath of fresh air in a market that could use some. He sometimes wanders off into foreign territory and gets into trouble but that's a small price. He certainly learned a lesson. He's also helped immeasurably by a very nifty update woman, Gianna Suter-Franco, who's smart and compliments both Bruce and the show in general. Smart radio is good radio. It doesn't dumb down its audience nor does it coddle the stupid business that has become an unfortunate staple of sports-talk radio.

Bruce is a welcome respite from the usual suspects --he doesn't mince his words. I was delighted to listen to his show on Thursday and make it a habit of listening when I'm in the car. You should too.


ITEMS...ITEMS...ITEMS


*He said that: Pete Liebengood, who used to work with Gary Radnich at KRON checks into 415 Media with a potent quotable: On Radnich: "I'd never want to share a foxhole with him."


*It bears repeating: The rank and file at KQED is major irritated that almost every manager makes about $200,000.


*A constant: dead air on KSFO --especially in the late night and early morning. Maybe it's a sign from God.


*Allen Martin on KPIX: still not taking Liz Cook too seriously. Funny, I feel the same about Veronica De La Cruz.


*I get asked --a lot: "Why do you write about KGO Radio so much?" Respect for the once-mighty call letters. Which is a far different view from some of the miscreants who work at that place now--some of whom should know better.


*Sure, the Giants are the toast of the town but it's the 49ers that rule the airwaves. Just listen to the commotion post-Harbaugh. Yeah, I know the Giants still play in SF and the Niners play in Santa Clara, but that's all anyone is talking about.


*From a sage social 415 Media observer: If Willie Brown were mayor of SF, the 49ers would have never moved to the South Bay.


*The reason why KNBR's ratings tanked last month is the increasing migration of their listeners to turn the dial while they run a THOUSAND hours worth of commercials.


*Azenith Smith, a reporter at KTVU, has improved dramatically to the point where I not only like her work, I look forward to it. I would not have said that a few months ago.


*Dennis Richmond was universally detested at Jack London Square to a point where most of the staff avoided him.


*Gary Radnich said this the other day on Knibber: "Vicky Nyugen looks like a person that was terrorized in a prison for eight years without food."


*Those of you that will say I'm kissing Damon Bruce's tuchas should ask Damon himself about some of the things I've said about him---to his face.


*Kate Kelly is supposedly splitting from PIX although her on-air presence has been noticeably eradicated of late anyway. Kelly: at one time a spitting image of Princess Grace.


*The Mrs. Doubtfire house on Broadway and Steiner: did we really need 5000 live shots on that matchbox of a "fire." Slow news day ...again.


*If "The Game" had smart radio on in the morning, it would be near perfect. And yes, it's a helluva lot better than KNBR. But that's like saying a corned-beef sandwich at Tommy's Joynt beats Denny's.
As I said last month, KRON's Jacqueline Bennett is leaving --last day is Jan. 28.


*Underrated weatherguy: Paul Deanno at PIX.


*Overrated: Bill Martin at KTVU. Although it's not Martin's fault that they have more teases at Channel 2 than a Broadway strip club.


*The Tom Vacar, John Fowler, and Rob Roth watch at 2: still working but the suits wants all of them to depart the premises sooner rather than later.

*I'm glad the Chronicle hired a woman, Audrey Cooper, editor-in-chief. Now if only she can fix that crappy website, SFGate. What a complete disaster.


*Speaking of fixing: If Kevin O'Brien were to go to KRON --and that's a pipe dream --he could make KRON worthwhile again.


*Way overrated: Heather Holmes. Please, I don't get it. And that part too.


*If less than 1 percent of you were paid subscribers of this 415 Media I could sleep at night. (Psst, 9 bucks for a YEAR!--Or two Starbucks for God's sake.)


*Stan, I tried, I really tried. (And just like that, he's gone!)


*Follow me on Twitter


TGIF

27 comments:

  1. Bill Martin is fantastic on Tolbert when he's on on the occasional Friday. Maybe unintentionally so, but it's usually literally laugh out loud material!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I disagree. Thjat segment drags the sports show down, 30 minutes of talking about Foghat and Ford Pintos. I change the station, come back in 30 minutes and now they are talking about the same thing.

      Delete
    2. The poster at 10:19am is dead wrong.
      Bill Martin is out of place on radio. Like a fish out of water.
      Martin's segment adds nothing to KNBR's afternoon program.
      His is complete waste of time. I would rather listen to a commercial break.

      Delete
    3. You didn't read the "unintentionally so" part of my post. It wouldn't hold up as a daily bit, but on the occasional Friday afternoon, it's fucking funny as hell!

      Delete
  2. Ah,bullshit. I write what I think..I don't waffle like you "Gary is the best!' "Gary is an asshole". Post them,don't post them. I'm not changing.
    One thing I learned from the local media- even Lowell,is look out for not 1. - always.
    SO dont post my comments. Pay your bill with comments like the one who explained to you and readers how Damon Brice once worked at KNBR.
    THAT was mesmerizing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or the cranky old libs like the one that loves kraut cars. THAT will sell subscriptions.

      Delete
  3. "The reason why KNBR's ratings tanked last month is the increasingly migration of their listeners to turn the dial while they run a THOUSAND hours worth of commercials."

    This has to be the dumbest sentence Rich may have ever typed. How does Rich not see the direct correlation between the Giants season and World Series win and the ratings? It happened in 2010 and 2012 too. Didn't Rich see how the Game's ratings plummeted after the A's were out? Rich, you cannot be this stupid.

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  4. Gary Radnich slipped up yesterday on the 11 o'clock news. He blurted out that it was Jacqueline Bennett's last day at KRON. Which it wasn't. Pam and Jacqueline gave him a weird look like as if to say "that information was not to made public just yet." Jacqueline finally spilled the beans and said her last day is on January 28.

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  5. Stan, I would remind you to take your medicine but in view of what was mentioned here recently perhaps you should find a good therapist who can treat Celebrity Worship Syndrome.

    Yes, it's a real actual mental disorder described as an obsessive-addictive disorder where an individual becomes overly involved and interested (i.e., completely obsessed) with the details of the personal life of a celebrity.

    Finally an explanation for Stan's fascination with Gary Radnich.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I WORSHIP RADNICH?
    What dumb fucker thinks that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stan, please try to to read more carefully.

      Celebrity worship syndrome is a recognized mental disorder described as "an obsessive-addictive disorder where an individual becomes overly involved and interested (i.e., completely obsessed) with the details of the personal life of a celebrity."

      See: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201307/celebrity-worship-syndrome

      This exactly describes Stan's relationship toward Gary Radnich. It doesn't mean Stan overtly "worships" Radnich but rather that Stan is excessively obsessed with the with imagined details of Radnich's personal life.

      Delete
    2. The clown at 11:28am is getting testy again.
      Good English or is that your second language?

      Delete
    3. Ya know richie? your really now starting to get on my very bad side.

      Delete
  7. *Gary Radnich said this the other day on Knibber: "Vicky Nyugen looks like a person that was terrorized in a prison for eight years without food."

    This, from someone who looks like he's been ensconced in a 7-11 for eight years continually stuffing food down his throat. Clown.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You wrote "worship," not the poster in front of you. Freudian slip?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I find Damon's show really dumb and predictable. Like Jim Rome, he only attacks the people he can't get on his show - everyone else is somehow unbelievably cool. His opinions are also always black and white: everything thing and everyone is either the greatest or the worst and he delivers it all in a tone in which Damon thinks he is doing brain surgery and blowing your mind by telling you something you don't know. It's sports - has any sports talk host ever said anything that we don't already know.

    That said, its sad to see what has happened to Larry Kruger. After the Cream of Wheat fiasco, I understand he has to feed his family, but I'm embarrassed for Larry whenever I hear him defend the 49ers. Even worse, he has begun to take the Bob Fitzgerald tactic of insulting listeners who call him on it. He and Ted Robinson are two guys I used to respect who have been dragged down into Jed's swamp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does Kruger get paid by the 49ers for doing the post-game report? He sounds like he's brown-nosing the Yorks in the same way Fitz does with the Warriors and everyone at the station does with the Giants.

      Delete
  10. "And that concludes this morning's Ronnie Lott show brought to you by crack..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lott REALLY talks a lot, without taking a break...hard to follow

      Delete
  11. > *Gary Radnich said this the other day on Knibber: "Vicky Nyugen looks like a person
    > that was terrorized in a prison for eight years without food."

    She should shoot back that Radnich looks like a beached whale they couldn't roll back into the water.

    > Overrated: Bill Martin at KTVU. Although it's not Martin's fault that they have more
    > teases at Channel 2 than a Broadway strip club.

    You loved him till one poster here started point out his flaws. (I know the poster too, and he's right.) Screw the teases, he can't change that, that's management mandates. But his forecasts are inaccurate, and that's largely because KTVU's equipment is outdated and not as good. They're cheap, in other words, and with the Fox at the henhouse, don't expect it to change. (Geeze, there was a ton of happy talk last night between Somerville and Haener and Ibanez. At the TOP of the show too! I guess it beats paying a writer to provide NEWS!)

    > The Tom Vacar, John Fowler, and Rob Roth watch at 2: still working but the suits
    > wants all of them to depart the premises sooner rather than later.

    Sad, for when they go, the last of the old school REAL reporters will go with them. (I know them both out of work too and both are gents and super-smart.)

    > *I'm glad the Chronicle hired a woman, Audrey Cooper, editor-in-chief. Now if only she
    > can fix that crappy website, SFGate. What a complete disaster.

    Why should gender matter? Do you go around saying "I'm glad someone hired a white male?" That'd be verboten. Well, this is the same thing. Let's just hope she's competent. Don't care about her genitals, since she'll never let me fuck her.

    > Speaking of fixing: If Kevin O'Brien were to go to KRON --and that's a pipe dream --he
    > could make KRON worthwhile again.

    While crotchety, KoB is a genius and very unsung in Bay Area media. He could fix anything. But will he get the chance, and he's not getting any younger either.


    > Way overrated: Heather Holmes. Please, I don't get it. And that part too.

    Tits can get you far. For example, if you have 'em, you get middle-aged-plus bloggers all excited that you're running an irrelevant newspaper. --Oh, and you're 36, so they're not sagging yet.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1. Usual irrational VDLC cheap shot.
    2. Willie Brown WAS mayor of San Francisco and he didn't get the 9ers to stay.
    3. The not quite as usual irrational Heather Holmes cheap shot.
    4. "Azenith Smith, a reporter at KTVU, has improved dramatically to the point where I not only like her work, I look forward to it. I would not have said that a few months ago." Don't worry I'm sure you'll find a way to dump all over her too eventually...

    ReplyDelete
  13. @ 3:19 ~ 1/16/15....
    On the contrary, former Mayor Willie Brown got the "vote" passed in the City of SF to build a new stadium for the 49ers. But this is par for the course with the current ownership of the 49ers...No one ever holds them accountable for anything, it always someone else fault....Its SF's fault they didn't get a stadium, or Mayors Brown, Newsom, or Lee fault?! When its public knowledge that the Yorks wanted public funding for the stadium, and the elected officials wanted the venue to be built with private funding, like AT&T Park

    Incidentally, Papa York announced in 2006, when Willie Brown was still the Mayor of SF that his Family was moving the 49ers Stadium to Santa Clara...After 2 years prior of having the elected officials in his ears begging Papa York to build his stadium in Santa Clara...

    I guess it was also Jim Harbaugh's fault that he got fired too...Wake up people, we have a dysfunctional ownership that owns the Niners, and all of the other 31 teams in the NFL know it too

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    Replies
    1. The Yorks were mentioning the possibility of moving to Santa Clara (or elsewhere) while Brown was mayor, but the actual decision was made while Newsom was mayor.

      Delete
  14. Will somebody please tell George Noory on Coast to Coast to STOP POPPING HIS 'P's?? After hearing this for over eight years, I can't take much more. Maybe he speaks too closely to the mike.

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  15. Would love to hear Pete Liebengood's side of the Tom Nettles departure.

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  16. Of course Liebengood wouldn't share a foxhole with Radnich. There wouldn't be room for both of their collective egos!

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