Jim Eason just chimed in to 415 Media:
Recently I was amazed at how NO names in SF broadcasting are familiar to me any more.
(Well, I did quit in 2000, but 15 years later it is "cleaned out"?)
It seems to me the old days were more consistently stable. Hell, Ira Blue was on KGO radio
forever "sports...talk from the Hungry I...even his radio show --- I ON THE TOWN"
McElhatton was on KCBS for years, then over to KPIX...(anyone remember Dave's piano player
and Second Banana, Friendly Clyde? Don Sherwood on the original KSFO, and the guys
at KYA, followed by a bombshell KFRC, and the carbon-copy failure trying to rock and roll...
KNBR? Ratings for years belonged to KSFO, KCBS, and a hodgepodge of third-place
stations - KGO, KNBR, and even KABL - like a strand of pearls strung across the Bay...
And, I am certainly on your side in the enormous invasion of commercials (I try to watch
news on TV, but when a commercial comes on, I switch stations -- no good, they are ALL
running spots at the same time.
KGO was #1 for what, 30 years? What is this "third-place station" stuff?
ReplyDeleteNo Names is correct looking at Talkers Website and Brian Sussman is in the top 100 Talkers listing along with Ronn Owens. Owens I agree with for his overall body of work but Sussman?
ReplyDeleteLots of names are still on television and radio from pre2000 . Hell, turn on KRON, you'll find 4 ore more. Next.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just Bay Area broadcasting. Who are the big name music acts today? The big name Hollywood actors...some, but nothing like in times past. Lost of second-string bananas and wanna-be "celebrities," but nobody with real weight.
ReplyDeleteHow true. In the news department,the only name I can think of is Hal Ramey.
ReplyDeletebeatnik talk show host,Jim and Lee
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from Jim! i fondly remember those great afternoon shows on KGO & KSFO...
ReplyDeleteBoo Hoo, the world is changing.
ReplyDeleteJim Eason hit it square on the head. Nothing else needs to be said. Except one word: sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim! 1 pm to 4 pm weekdays, following the 1 hour Paul Harvey 12 to 1 slot. Remember his frequent guest Mae Brussel? And, "do what ya can, but behave yourself." ! Great memories, and for a 10 year old I got it.
ReplyDeleteTell Jim Eason that we miss him most. (Well, after Don Sherwood, anyway.) I especially remember the pitter-patter of a North Carolina rain when Jim was doing a remote from there.
ReplyDeleteCertainly do miss Eason. As Browning put it:
ReplyDelete"As for Venice and its people merely born to bloom and drop;
what of soul was left I wonder when the kissing had to stop?"
With some exceptions, the kissing in SF radio has stopped.
As Hank Williams Jr. would put it now the audience is always getting screwed but never getting kissed.
Left out a line:
Delete"Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop,"
I should go back and look it up.
Well 'ya know. Do what you can just behave yourself! Man those were the days.
ReplyDeleteEason cannot hold a candle to Savage. I remember listening to him in 2000.
ReplyDeleteReading newspaper stories verbatim (yawn). Playing the Star Spangled Banner. No critical analysis or independent thinking whatsoever. Just a boring right wing simpleton.
Back in Eason's day, KVRE-AM in Santa Rosa had one of the funniest sign-offs each day. Here's a link to the audio that ended each day's programming:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/Cq5LZr_wsjk
By the way, it was produced by the station owner.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of talk radio, the KGO and KSFO websites are a mess! Have they been hacked?
ReplyDelete