DICKEY BROTHERS FIRED!
*Marcus gives the heave-ho.
*"You're Fired!"
*Uncertainty rules the Cumulus SF Cluster.
*KGO staff "overwhelmed." --Never saw it coming.
*Former Cumulus employee: "Karma is a bitch then it bites you in the ass!"
*Ronn Owens future up in air.
*Developing Story...
If the KGO staff "never saw" the Dickey brothers' demise coming, they need to re-up their subscriptions to the trades. Or to have read the tea leaves from last month's visit by Jeff Marcus.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes around comes around.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, the stock is down from $4.50 to $0.68 per share.
ReplyDeleteWonder why they let these two sharp executives go.
Thank God they're gone!! Thanks for nothing!! Now they need to get rid of Owens' slappy ass & Copeland the Boy Wonder.
ReplyDeleteAnd whom do you want to replace them? It has been a pleasure to have Pat Thurston sitting in for Drex, and Christine Craft for Pat on week ends, when there are no sports on. Unfortunately, it sounds like Drex will be back next week. I (we) can only hope that the powers to be, surely much have seen Pat's rating's is better than Drex's and get rid of him.. I have always liked Brian, use to like Ronn more than I do now, but still like him when he talks politics. Now if someone would be bright enough to re hire John Rothmann, then I could see getting rid of Ronn, mostly because of his illness. I
DeleteI agree wholeheartedly with 12:18am that it has been wonderful to have Pat Thurston on instead of Drex. I am so disappointed this will be her last week in the weekday evening time slot.
DeleteStevie Wonder saw this coming.
ReplyDeleteFuck the Dickey bros; where have you been, Kemosabe?
ReplyDeleteKeep this shit up and I'm going to demand a refund, or at least a pay-per-view membership.
Broadcast everything behind the scene, more interesting than boring shows at KGO.
ReplyDeleteIn a cost cutting move expect Ronn (with 2 ns) Owens to be shown the door.
ReplyDeleteKQED might be his best bet. His kind of politics.
The Dickeys showed their total incompetence when they hired proven loser and serial harasser Randall Bloomquist to run their talk radio division. How did that decision work out?
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to tell us which local anchor was discovered to be using the Ashley Madison website. It is obvious by his haggard, worried look since the news broke, and his sudden frequent absence.
ReplyDeleteWe KGO employees never saw it coming? We've known for weeks that the Dickeys were goners and have been enjoying their fall. We have a chance now to turn things around.
ReplyDeleteWhat made Cumulus hire the Dickey bros in the beginning? How can we insure this doesn't happen again? Be Careful Cumulus- sounds like you could make the same mistake again-history sometimes repeats itself....
ReplyDeleteBuried in the details: (http://biz.yahoo.com/e/150930/cmls8-k.html)
ReplyDelete- Lew still gets a paycheck
- Lew gets a one-time random cash payout of $10,000. No reason is stipulated.
- The new gal will be making 1.4 mil a year "base salary," with lots of perks and opportunity for bonuses
- Plus a signing bonus of $1 million dollars just for showing up the first day
- Plus a golden parachute worth "1.5 x her base pay and bonuses annually."
Meanwhile, back in the trenches... union negotiations have faltered on the issue of paying new hires minimum wage.
Thanks be to Sweet Jesus that the Dickey brothers are out at Cumulus, but how can that be, seeing as how they own the company? Those two pricks did their best in a short period of time to destroy 'legacy' radio stations in Detroit, LA and San Francisco. How that can be accomplished in short order astonishes many, but then, they haven't seen the scorched earth policy that this pair of cretins dictated.
ReplyDeleteThe Dickheads created uncertainly in the work place by downsizing their stations, cheapening their on-air product, and alienating many long term advertisers. I have worked in management locally in radio for many years, and believe me, I know whereof I speak when it comes to these clowns.
They repeatedly brought in baffoons and dysfunctional twits over the last several years. At KGO, they have had five different people running their news department and not one of them has had a real clue as to what they're supposed to do. Cumulus beat up Kevin Metheny so badly, pushing him to make more cuts that he internalized the stress and died at his desk. How would you like that to be your last lot in life? Dying at your desk for Cumulus?!
Bad company and two really bad people who have been an absolute disaster for our industry. If they're gone as you say Rich, then we should all hold a party. This is the first I have heard of such developments however, so I hope you're right!
If you think Cumulus killed Metheny then you're just saying stupid things. I worked with Kevin in Chicago and he was a complete nightmare of a human being. He ate everything in sight, didn't take care of himself and treated people terribly. He wasn't in the Bay Area long enough to get grinded down by cumulus. As far as I can tell he was able to make changes including Chip Franklin and Drex. He was in the honeymoon phase.
DeleteCumulus is an awful employer and manager of stations but let's not pretend they're murderous.
Well said. What's confounding is how two loser brothers could get away with what they fully planned to implement all along: the aggressive accumulation of stations and the equally aggressive raping of said stations, in every way, all to pad their bank accounts. That they were successful is a sad commentary on what we've become.
DeleteI agree with 7:07. The Dickeys didn't cause Methany's passing; however I do hold them responsible for the early passing of the great Gene Burns by the awful way they treated that legendary host. BASTARDS!
DeleteAs much as I hate what has happened to KGO since 2011, when they fired all their great hosts (except Gil Gross), and Gene was just about my all time favorites, although John Rothmann was a close second, I do not believe that Gene's stroke and subsequent passing was due to his firing, although it might have contributed in a small way. Gene was diabetic, and had experienced serious health problems for years, he had a history of falling, due to sudden black out, which suggest TIA's (small strokes). It is possible that the abrupt and rude way he was fired (along with several other hosts) contributed to his more severe stroke a month or so later, but it would be very hard to prove. Having said all of that I do agree with your last summarization, they are BASTARDS.
DeleteThe demise of the evil Dickies made my day on Tuesday. Tom Leykis spent two hours talking about the Dickies and the flimsy offer they made to him in 2011 to work at Cumulus. I blame those two idiots for the untimely passing of Gene Burns. Richard, what does this mean for Michael Savage? As you know he was a Dickey hire.
ReplyDeleteDespite Savage, Levin, and the piss poor ratings of those shows nationally, it's relative cheap for them.
DeleteYears ago I did middays at old man Dickey's station in Toledo, whence the Cumulus monster sprang. He was a decent broadcaster and wasn't stingy on money for promotion, equipment, etc. Although he was a little quirky.
ReplyDeleteYoung Lew was maybe 14 and he would come into the station and do odd jobs like cleaning carts, taking out the trash, etc.
If anyone should have grown up to be a great broadcaster, it is Lew Dickey, Jr. It was in hid blood. Sadly he fucked his legacy.
BTW, he is not out at Cumulus. He's still on the board.