KNBR employees --some of them at least --who have complained about Cumulus' unwillingness to pay its workers livable wages --will be having a rally and press conference this Wednesday Morning. It figures to be an interesting showdown.The announcement from the union:
SAG-AFTRA invites you to join KNBR employees, radio personalities, sports fans and union leaders at a rally at ILWU Local 34
815 2nd St. (2nd & King)
San Francisco, CA Wednesday, 9: 30 AM, to draw attention to the outrageous business and labor practices of KNBR owner Cumulus Media that are threatening local radio. Speakers will be educating the community on working conditions at KNBR and encouraging members of the Bay Area community to join them in signing the petition at savelocalradio.org.
What's up with Keba, Rich? She's still on. They're still running promos advertising her. She doesn't look like she quit or was fired to me.
ReplyDeleteHer last show was 10pm news on Saturday. She mentioned at the end that she was leaving the news business and moving to Sacramento to open a kickboxing franchise.
DeleteRrrrggghhh....Nnnnggghhh...Plop.
ReplyDeleteI watched this poop and he only thinks of himself. He mailed it in and barely wiped. He even used the last square. Who uses the last square? People who only care about themselves thats who. Kawakami echoed my statement he read it on my blog first but then banned me.
DeleteSTRIKE!! Actually I would feel sorry for those guys. On air people like Gary Radnich and Larry Kruger would cross any picket line.
ReplyDeleteI would say to those guys working cheap- go to the Mayor and go to their local representatives. Get a big voice on yer side. How many stations does Cumulus have in the bay area? Too many.
Hahaha .... the bathroom janitor makes more $$$ then Cumulus employees.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for these guys because they make the station go. The talent level at KNBR is so average, but the teams they're signed up with keep the place going. Who are the guys who deal with those teams, the setup, the production? All the guys we don't hear or see.
ReplyDeleteIF they all got fired they'd not be easily replaced. Except Cumulus knows they love their jobs too much and don't want to move.
True story of a conversation I had with a Cumulus upper Exec:
Me: They don't pay a lot. I think it's about $19 or $20 an hour at KGO.
Him: What? That's crazy (he chortled). They only make $14 in New York City!
Me: You say that like it's a good thing.
Him: I'm just surprised is all.
And KNBR employees make about 30% less than KGO and KSFO employees on an hourly basis.
The company is an embarrassment. If the hosts cared one bit for the guys who help make that place sound like it does they would stand alongside them for better wages. Especially guys like Gary and Tom whose jobs are generally protected.
Just weak people who don't stand alongside their friends.
Not weak. Just too greedy and selfish. Radnich and Tolbert and Kruger don't care about fellow employee's living. They think- the less they make,the more for ME at contract time.
DeleteAnd Radnich will always say "for my family,I need it"..but if he was single? It wouldn't change a damn thing. Same for Kruger.
Agree completely, Tolbert especially is totally anti-union and would cross any of his co-workers like the hypocrite he is. And he'll be more of a joke now that he's paired with the gawd awful Lund. What fool thought of that combo? It won't last long.
DeleteKGO Radio on air employees (unlike those at KNBR who are underpaid) make $35 to $45. In New York they make more. That exec you talked to is a moron.
DeleteI don't think the person is speaking about "on air" employees. Person mentioned behind the scenes people, aka, producers.
DeleteWill Larry Baer be in attendance?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny - if you go to view the Tolbert & Lund pic and bio on KNBR's site, there's nothing there, unlike the other duos and shows on the station. You'd think they'd have something up on opening day.
ReplyDeleteHow about a salute to Warrior team cancer Draymond Green? He was one big reason the team lost a 3-1 lead in the Finals. He cursed out team coach Steve Kerr, He rolled down the highway at 100mph risking people's very lives-then posted it on the internet.
ReplyDeleteNow,he's attacking people for no good reason.
He's not of Lacobs' good character wants is he?
Oh,KNBR wont talk about any of that. What a surprise from Gary Radnich huh?
Radnich does only care about himself. He is happy to have more than enough to keep his family happy, his massage parlor habit plus his rumored sugar baby - a reporter at another station.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how Tardnich poops on others unionizing when it is unionization benefits that have made him "unfirable" at KRON. He is truly a piece of crap.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever look at the shows description for KNBR 680? It states that Murph & Mac are on from 6am to 10am ... and it states that Gary & Larry are on from 9am to 12pm. I know this is only a typo, but it needs to be fixed. This is pretty sloppy work. Lee Hammer has been notified. Let's see how long it takes to correct.
ReplyDelete24 hours later ... NOTHING YET !!! Here's the links so you can see for yourselves ...
Deletehttp://www.knbr.com/murph-mac/
http://www.knbr.com/gary-larry/
As any fool can clearly read, they say exactly what I said.
Can't they just fire Radnich and Lund and share that money with all the lower level people that will be putting together this rally? Seems like a win-win for everyone.
ReplyDeleteA freakin' untrained monkey can do the jobs of these people. I've done their job and frankly, I felt that there was more skill involved when I was 16 years old at my former job at McDonalds Pushing buttons and screening a call? It's basically all automated anyways. If you don't like what you are getting paid, then quit and work elsewhere. PERIOD. Or get some ambition and quit being someone else's bitch. Get some self respect people. No one owes you anything. It's a minimum wage job. Didn't you learn that in "Broadcasting school"? DAMN!
ReplyDeleteIn reply to 4:57- Then how is it that the on-air guys, who aren't necessarily better in any way, make 20 times what the non-air people do? Is Tolbert, Lund, M & M, Kreuger, et al., are they all so great at flapping their gums, which any untrained monkey can do, that they deserve 20 times what the others are getting? Do you seriously think these on air dudes are "skilled"?
DeleteBecause they are the TALENT. They are the reason people tune in. To hear them "flap their gums". They also negotiate their salary before they take the gig. These low paid workers took the gig at that low rate...that's their downfall. What it all comes down to is that programming doesn't value these board ops or "producers". They are replaceable. Go to any city college or any school with an internship and people will be lined out the door to do these "jobs" at half the rate. Why would you want to work at a place that doesn't care or respect you? Says a lot about the mentality of these board ops. Get some self respect. BTW...the union is only acting like they care because they want these board ops to keep paying their dues. If this union shop falls apart, the union doesn't get paid. SAG-AFTRA is a business. If SAG-AFTRA really cared about these low paid workers, they would waive the outrageously high union dues. Are they doing that? NO.
DeleteTALENT, ooohh. That's BS. The point is they are not in any way more "Skilled" than their board op brothers. You sound like you're Mike McVoy. Another Scumulus anti-union tool. Fool.
DeleteYes..."TALENT". They are on the air doing a show and making tons of $$$'s for the sales staff! An average seller on the KNBR sales staff makes roughly $250,000 per year. People tune in to hear the "talent" talk and in return, advertisers pay tons of money for those listeners and the sales staff gets rewarded handsomely! Listeners aren't tuning in to hear a board op push buttons.
DeleteYour head has been in the scumulus cloud too long. Sales guys make no where near that figure, it was just a while back they were running ads on cumulus owned stations like knibbier begging to hire any scrub off the street to come in to do sales. Classy. And TALENT isn't the reason for any higher book, it's the fortuitous position KNBR finds itself in as the home to 3 major sports teams, 2 of whom are doing quite well, that drive any ad revenue, NOT who the hell is on the air, trained monkey like, spewing forth talking about it. So if there is monetary discrepancy between among fellow scumulus radio employees it is the company's inept and ruinous conduct that is at fault for not giving a pittance to their other staff, including producers who make the shows go. Shame on that bankrupted company and shame on the unskilled lout blowhard hosts who say nary a word or care.
DeleteLook in the sales staff parking garage and tell me what a majority are driving? Ask a seller where their HOUSES are? Orinda, Alamo, Mill Valley, Redwood Shores... Walk the sales floor and talk to the sales staff. The veteran sellers (ones who have been there more than 5 years) are making a quarter of a million. You're fooling yourself if you think that a veteran seller at the #1 station in the 4th largest market in the country is making less than $250,000. Ask a sales manager what a good sales person makes in this market (not just KNBR but even K101 and KFOG). Do your homework before you make statements you know nothing about. The sales staff pays everybody's salary there. They are the most valuable members of the staff. More valuable than the "talent" and even the Giants and 49ers. They are earners. I know a couple sellers at KNBR making more than $250,000 during Giants season alone. Get your facts straight.
DeleteI've known of 1 guy, 1, who shows off his flash. It's all show.for him and not the norm. The norm is a bunch of newbies off the street making pittance like your revered board ops. Sounds like you've been "sold" a bill of goods by your worshiped sales clowns.
DeleteThe Fact that the "Frat House" that is KNBR pays so poorly, they know that none of these people will ever quit there jobs.Glamor Industries tend to attract people who will work for less or NO Money just to say the work there at all. They Fired the folks at KGO because they cost too much...Staff Air people were about $45.00 an hour, and it was senior people they got rid of because they made the TOP of the Union Scale. Wanna change KNBR...Stop listening. Hurt their ratings demand better On the Air product...Tell them to HIRE professionals, not Wannabe's who are waiting for someone to DIE so they can have their Air Shift...I know many of the beleaguered KNBR/Ticket producers, they work hard, BUT they are getting what they are worth to the ownership...Which is VERY LITTLE..."We can get more people for the same money or less when they leave". You see when you don't HIRE professionals...You don't have to pay them much. KNBR does not hire professionals EVER ! That's why Hammer is in Charge. The station and Cumulus are a malignant growth on radio...I wish someone would surgically remove them from Broadcasting...BUT Keep listening if you REALLY don't want anything to change.
ReplyDeleteYeah,in the free enterslave world. But those KNBR guys went union to change that. Like Radnich kept his KRON job when he should have been fired and walked out the door by security...them KNBR boys want protection and decent wages also.
DeleteNow,if they would also strike to break up the 100% all white hire's,I would guess the Mayor or such might help.
Just think,Cumulus doing that also pits the low paid vs the no paid -never hired.
How EVIL is Cumulus.
As unions have shrunk American wages have fallen with it.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing else that needs to be said.
KNBR pays poorly because over 25 years ago, the company that bought KNBR from NBC ran the union out of the building. Tony Salvadore, a supreme horse's ass, (he's the guy who hired Fatty Fitz, cause Fitz's daddy got him into the Olympic club), fired a bunch of the old KNBR news and talk show folks when he took over and went cheap. They did everything they could, and they were very successful in keeping the union out. Guys like Krueger, Barbieri, Brian Murphy, Radnich and others get paid well, but the rest? A joke. Hammer is instructed to keep costs down and he's actually got a guy doing a weekend pre and post game baseball show who doesn't get paid anything by KNBR. The guy brings in his own sponsors and KNBR also makes money off of his show by selling spots. This is what radio has come to. Of, and of course, weasels like Hammer who don't have a shred of integrity or creativity in their body and will do whatever he's told by his Cumulus bosses in Atlanta. What a joke!
ReplyDeleteThank you for reminding readers how it all went and goes down. I recall Barbieri saying he never even spoke to Hammer, ever, dismissed him outright. Well we saw what they did to Ralph. Do you know if Frank and Mike were in the union?
Delete