KGO, in its present platform, is a disaster--a ratings dinosaur with mostly uninteresting and uninspired hosts and whose template has been largely rejected by an audience thirsty for vibrant, intelligent, thoughtful radio--a format that couldn't exist in today's environment, or could it?
I say yes, it could. It would require a heavy-duty infusion of monied people with a deep appreciation of the old KGO that needed simple tweaking and not the shoot-the-dog execution that has hastened its demise. There are individuals in the area--some of them not necessarily in the broadcast business that have the financial wherewithal to acquire a frequency, maybe even buy an established station rumored for sale. Other options also exist.
I'm of course presuming there's interest in such a complex endeavor that would be prohibitively expensive and unprofitable at the start. A break-even model would be worthy of a celebration of mass proportions. Then again, we have the people who could pull it off even if some others couldn't in the past.
The Bay Area radio audience comes from a different breed. It's an audience that is interested, invigorated and enthusiastic of its community heritage. I've always said that the old KGO was more than just a mere radio station; more than an local listening post--KGO was truly an original that captivated the market and became legendary lore. Now it's largely a shadow of its past glory brought about mainly due to corporate indifference and broadcast malpractice --and PPM is a good part of its demise.
PPM has no regard for intelligent people metering, if you can call it that. It's particularly sad that the conventional advertisers buy off the current model but that doesn't mean a viable alternative could exist and eventually thrive. Maybe this isn't such a dream and longshot. Maybe something or someone or a group exists out there that has the drive to pull off something great, something, well, invigorating --stay tuned.
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I say yes, it could. It would require a heavy-duty infusion of monied people with a deep appreciation of the old KGO that needed simple tweaking and not the shoot-the-dog execution that has hastened its demise. There are individuals in the area--some of them not necessarily in the broadcast business that have the financial wherewithal to acquire a frequency, maybe even buy an established station rumored for sale. Other options also exist.
I'm of course presuming there's interest in such a complex endeavor that would be prohibitively expensive and unprofitable at the start. A break-even model would be worthy of a celebration of mass proportions. Then again, we have the people who could pull it off even if some others couldn't in the past.
The Bay Area radio audience comes from a different breed. It's an audience that is interested, invigorated and enthusiastic of its community heritage. I've always said that the old KGO was more than just a mere radio station; more than an local listening post--KGO was truly an original that captivated the market and became legendary lore. Now it's largely a shadow of its past glory brought about mainly due to corporate indifference and broadcast malpractice --and PPM is a good part of its demise.
PPM has no regard for intelligent people metering, if you can call it that. It's particularly sad that the conventional advertisers buy off the current model but that doesn't mean a viable alternative could exist and eventually thrive. Maybe this isn't such a dream and longshot. Maybe something or someone or a group exists out there that has the drive to pull off something great, something, well, invigorating --stay tuned.
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If such classy hosts like Eason, Rodgers, Spann et al were allowed free reign oh hellyah.
ReplyDeleteFree reign? I want some of what you're smoking. Won't happen and the "old" KGO cannot come back. This is the digital world. Yes, KGO was the best in the past. But it's non-arguably older 55+ audience at $800 or so a spot is not, will not and cannot to a 25-year-old ad agency time buyer ever return. The PPM meter at many many thousands of dollars a month to Nielsen is now and tomorrow. Get used to it. Those are long term contracts signed by the unmanageable Cumulus. That money is already in the bank for the "ratings monster" because radio relies on ratings to make money - lots of it. It's the only standard available, and the only this business can make money and that it should and must.
DeleteRadio is not about liberty and freedom. It's not about speech. It's about a company to make money as a business on airwaves that we the people grant them permission on airwaves we own but do nothing with unless we pay ourselves to own them.
Business does not put up deep pockets just to run radio stations for us. They are in business to make money. Some do better than others, depending on management, talent, public interest and more. Some do it, like Cumulus in piss-poor ways, hence, they are the 20th ranked radio station in the Bay Area and of little interest to a younger audience that spends the bulk of dollars on "change" of personal tastes and likes. The older audience, which manipulated the "written diaries" from Arbitron for all those years, was what kept kept KGO at the top before advertisers realized it wasn't that audience in a bad economy it didn't want to reach. Hence, the PPM is "King" and will be from now on. There is no looking back.
Many of the great stars are dead and gone, not to come back. The inexpensive "up and comers" in the talent pool have lost touch and the talk audience is not catching on. The PPM doesn't, like the written diary, define what is listened to on Bay Radio radio. It only hears what is being listened to by a statistical panel of a representative sample of people. So, no good younger talent, telling lifestyle paplum, on an ancient medium of no interest whatsoever to younger people. So what do you have? An older, non-spending, non-changing, non-resonsive to advertising buying audience that thinks radio is about them. It's not. It's about the 35 year old soccer moms, period, who doesn't buy into the clues that Cumulus thinks is a winning formula. As they've proven, it's not. The PPM is not friendly to PPM methodology and has no need to be. It's just an electronic box hearing radio noise, but not listening. Get over it. And yourselves. Your kind of "talk radio" is long dead and AM radio is as well.
You make some valid points and interesting notes but you left out this nugget: at the time of its format sabotage, KGO was billing roughly $25-30 million dollars--now it literally cannot give spots away so your "get over it" rant rings hollow...perhaps you never heard of "content, content, content" --good anything, services, brand, even good radio content trumps everything else.
DeleteThat was never going to last. And at the rate cumulus wastes money they gain from cuts, only would have served to somehow line their own pockets.
DeleteIt's the lack of talent developed that's the biggest issue.
The other thing that is almost never talked about in the "PPM vs. Diaries" debate is, People Meters are only circulated in the immediate bay area, e.g., perhaps the 9 bay area counties -- if that; it may just be those that fall within San Francisco and San Jose, I don't really know.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to Marin or Northwards, much past Berkeley, or anywhere else in the state (besides LA), they still use diaries for Arbitron ratings: little paper books that are issued to people who write down what radio station they're listening to; e.g., the way everybody did it before PPM.
With a PPM centric assessment of KGO's impact, you are essentially IGNORING the entire coverage area of KGO *except* the immediate SF and SJ metro areas. In other words, the ratings that "advertisers rely on" to make purchasing decisions literally ignore 95% of the actual coverage area and listenership that is served by the station.
By selling to PPM, Cumulus is ignoring niche programming altogether, instead relying on a gross average accumulated by glorified pagers and an inadequate sample. They are ignoring people that are more than a few miles from their central "market," even though the signal blankets the west coast. Attempt to sell ads to, I don't know, businesses in Marin County? Why would we do that? Do you suppose there's any money being left on the table here?? No no, just concentrate on the Prevogen ads and make sure to rearrange programming weekly at the whims of a vitamin company.
Tangentially, have any of you ever actually seen what's inside one of those "Cumulus Sales Manuals" they issue to new hires in that department? This is a standard-issue 4-inch ring binder issued out of Atlanta that is filled with the most ridiculous gimmick-ridden way to attempt to sell that I've ever seen; mind you, I'm in programming so I may be pre-biased. Basically, AEs are expected to predicate their entire prospecting and sales strategy on this homogenized, gimmicky, dated and downright stupid dreck. They are taken to task if they attempt to use their own skills and instincts to close sales, they are required to sell "by the book" and penalized when it doesn't work -- which it doesn't, for local business or programming-related sales. It seems to work OK for attracting a certain quality of mortgage vendor, and a few non-profits with good ad-agencies and bad jingles.
One more thing (not that I feel strongly or anything): Advertising sales should be predicated on RESULTS GARNERED, not RATINGS.
ReplyDeletePer Rich's point, if we had a good radio station with dedicated listeners who cared, and we put some advertising up -- even if we have to give away the first flight free! -- when it WORKS, then we've proven to the advertiser that we can help them and deliver value, FUCK the ratings!!
In 1987 (dating myself) I had a job as traffic manager for a small radio station. I came to learn that the station was selling :60 spots to local downtown mom and pop businesses at the VERY TOP of the rate card, while they dropped their shorts for "national accounts" and crappy outfits like Mathews Top Of The Hill (remember them?). Those guys used to pay as little as $10 a pop while Joe's Bar down the street was paying $300 for the same airtime. It was ass backwards and wrong then, and it still is now:
Coca-Cola is not going to measure or appreciate the impact of their $10 ads; and Joe's Bar has a small fixed advertising budget, maybe $1000. Instead of taking Joe's money, playing his spot 6 times and calling it a day, how about take his $1000, play his ad 100 times and get him some RESULTS. Maybe next year he'll come back with a $2000 budget, 'cause it WORKS. If you manage to fill your logs with cheap spots, THEN start raising your prices.
Stuff's not rocket science, they're just doing it wrong.
its over johnny
ReplyDeleteas of wednesday, i plunked down 30 bux and signed up for xm/sirius
i can stand to listen to over the air radio no mo
they dont play the talk i wanna hear....and they dont play the music i wanna listen to
its its howard and oldies 24/7 for me
cya
But would you still pay for Sirius/XM if Howard left?
DeletePeople are listening to Sirius rather than AM or FM radio. They're listening without commercials. This is not going to fly, radio has changed, the world has changed. Time to move on.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear, most of the interest in satellite radio is specifically directed towards Howard Stern. Were he not there, I suspect the conversation would be completely different.
DeleteWhy anyone would pay to listen to Howard Stern is beyond me. He and his vapid sidekicks are the pits.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I was an avid listener when Stern was carried on live 105. When he moved to satellite I was puzzled as to why anyone would pay to hear him. God bless him, he made a ton of money but not a cent from me. Rich's point on a post above is spot on. When the Dickies bulldozed the old KGO it was still billing $30 million a year. Only morons would point to that as a "dying station".
DeleteHoward was only good when it came to his commenting on the news of the day. Everything else, from interviewing strippers to making fun of mentally challenged folks to the sophomoric homophobic jokes, was just crap.
DeleteThat's the only part of Sirius that grinds my gear. Came with my car and since I have to pay to have the service, it means I have to pay to have that cancer on it. Doesn't mean I have to listen, though. I don't.
DeleteAnyone not listening to howard the last year has missed the greatest year in radio history.
DeleteI'd suggest going to youtube and searching "howard interview." The man has taken radio to new heights.
Howard has $700 Million making your "he's only good" at argument worthless. That man does the best SHOW maybe in the history of any medium and it only gets better as he gets older. The people judging him from his private parts days have no clue what they're talking about. I have Sirius and became a fan of stern the last 5 years after never listening before. It's just entertaining from start to finish.
DeleteYou should Youtube Howard and hear what he has to say about Michael Savage. Let's just say he's not impressed and considers him a copy-cat.
DeleteI agree with these posters. Once you learn the characters on Stern Show its the fantastic. It's so funny. I'll Google the stern savage thing. That would be funny. I've heard Savage take shots at Stern. He wishes he was Stern. They all do.
DeleteI have Sirius in my car which I mostly listen to, but I also LOVE to stream from my iPhone LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) talk radio from London England. The hosts are fantastic, and the callers are quite entertaining. It reminds me a lot of the old KGO.
ReplyDeleteThrow in a local cable simulcast and video-streaming and a new "old KGO" shouldn't have a problem making ends meet.
ReplyDeleteIt would certainly be in KGO's ratings favor if they were to return to a talk format.
ReplyDeleteWe are coming up on another election year. The San Francisco Bay area deserves
it. If the station thinks we will all reregister as Republicans, think again. You are in the heart and soul of the Democrats! I do respect the other parties and would like nothing better than to have a good representation from both major parties. As it stands, I will be looking elsewhere for my political conversations!
If one has a good business plan, a bank or angels' will always fund it. Lieberman would have you believe he is a genius, why doesn't he and MZ buy it? Of course he won't print or comment on this... no courage
ReplyDeleteRich won't print this either. He, MZ and John Rothman should pool all their resources together, buy KGO and change the call letters to Zionist radio based on KSCO's last Saturday "Special". Did anyone catch Dick Lieberman brown nosing Rothman and MZ while at the same time talking about poor little Israel? The victim good card yet again! Two weeks in a row MZ with the Israel victim card. So sick of it! Go ahead Dick Liebernan censor away. Based on your little phone call to MZ I can tell Christine Craft would demolish you in an officially moderated debate.
DeleteThey hit a new low Saturday morning. Both KGO and KSFO are running the same syndicated Ric Edelman show at the same time. The exact same show, one is a couple of seconds ahead of the other, but the same show. If they don't want to give us a local show, how much effort would it be to at least put two different national shows on?
ReplyDelete