At 10: 53 AM PT, KNBR, the all-sports SF radio station owned by Cumulus, ran 14 straight minutes of commercials --minus a one-min tease, Knibber went back to programming at 11: 07.Followed only a few minutes later with more spots.
This, by the station that pays most of its on and off-air staff minimum wage.
Sports Bleeder.
This, by the station that made north of $25M dollars last year yet refuses to pay livable wages to its call screeners, producers and various other personnel who have to drive Uber cars as second jobs to afford their "dream jobs."
This, by a station whose 10-1 PM host brags about paying 4 grand for a brake job on his used Bentley and sends interns to get him orange sodas at the canteen. No, the interns weren't tipped.
One such intern muttered about the hallway: "I'm ready to go right now."
Rich, putting aside your bias against KNBR for a moment, how does the pay there compare with the other radio stations? You say they are paid "minimum wage", which implies that the others pay more than that.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And, you can always, you know, quit and go work somewhere else. I hate the KNBR commercials as much as anyone. I wonder where Rich's 'made over $25 million' last year comes from. If you look at Cumulus Media's financials, they are not exactly breaking the bank, they lose money more often than not. And their stock is a whopping $2.00 per share. Tough business to be in, no doubt.
DeleteYeah,Cumulus and Trump lost a billion dollars according to the financials.
Deletebtw,Compare to other stations in the top ten. Don't compare to "Me and Ma" radio stations.
KNBR 680 THE Commercials Leader . . .
ReplyDeleteYet another example of what has happened to the media in this, and probably other, markets. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteYes Rich. You're right to continue ranting about the train wreck that KNBR has become.
ReplyDeleteI was a long time listener throughout the 2000's but stopped listening on a regular basis around 2014. The commercial ad time simply became unbearable. I too have timed-out the number of ads during various segments. It's grown significantly and continues growing. So too with KCBS (and I'm sure nearly every other terrestrial station in the country). I continue to be amazed at who they (Cumulus) think their audience is. They were people like myself, in the 30-50 demographic. Ha! We're gone! Ray Woodsen is about the only personality I can even begin to tolerate the few times that I bother tuning in. Now that they've lost the Warriors, it's truly over. Now it's just the Giants and the Niners - ugly. Just ugly.
Ray Woodson? You mean "Arthur Chavez"? Gary and Larry gave up his real name this morning in a discussion on on-air talent that have changed their real names.
DeleteAgree with everything you said...except I've stopped listening so I don't have an opinion on Ray Woodson. Always commercials...no thanks.
DeleteAnon at 2:31pm...happens all the time in tv and radio..and "Arthur Chavez" grew up pretty comefortbly in LA given his mother was a producer of Falcon Crest and other tv shows...what's your point?
Delete14 Minutes of ASS!!! ASS ALL THE TIME!!!
ReplyDelete14 minutes , that must have one heck of dump?
ReplyDeleteReally? 14 minutes? There's not one single 14 minute segment of actual programming on KNBR. 14 minutes of commercial ads - YES! YES! YES!
ReplyDeleteRadnich is a double downer. If he thinks you hate it..he does more. Pretty much the reaction you would expect of a wildly out of control ego,a jerk,and a ...ass.
ReplyDeleteSort of like how Stan comments more here when people complain that he comments in the first place... =p
DeleteI never took a best friend of 24 years+ and ground her down live on television. I dont invite Sid Rosenberg to say black people are apes. I also dont say I root for the Dodgers and THEN claim "real fans want the Dodgers to win".
DeleteI DONT rip Lowell Cohn via my pet attack dog Larry Kruger.
btw,I never groped a woman in the pu**y uninvited.
So if I post opposed to all that..it might be you.
What does all of that alleged stuff have to do with the fact that you stated that, "if you hate it, he does more of it"? Nice pivot.
DeleteStan, be honest, does all of your hatred all of these years stem from the fact he married a black woman?
LOwell banned Stan, Rich banned Stan, and he demeaned both of them. They both let him start posting again and all of the negative postings stopped. Stan has an obsession that consumes him.
DeleteI have an obsession of Amy Adams that consumes me.
DeleteMan there's an awful lot of Radnich hate here. I use to like the guy. I thought he was pretty good. I liked that he didn't always have to talk about sports. His Bruno segment could be very entertaining. I liked that he was "off-the-cuff," off script and not the typical Teleprompter robot on TV. But yes, he's definitely grown boring and predictable. Heard him doing a commercial recently and it was awful - sounded totally uninterested and disingenuous. I think he knows his time is almost up.
ReplyDeleteWhen will the advertisers wake up and realize that many people tune out the ads by switching stations or just not listening to KNBR? I just flip it off when they have marathon ads. I don't mind ads. They support the station, but this is ridiculous. If I want NFL talk, I listen to two stations on Sirius and to another sports station on the radio. Niners are so bad, they are often talked about.
ReplyDeleteyes ,you were thinking about the KNBR scene and how it's managed, and what comes on the radio??..''hi ,i'm gary radnich for so and so incorporated''...LOL...
ReplyDeleteWith all these commercials and the extra revenue that is being recognized by KNBR, how is the Union organizing coming along?
ReplyDeleteThe Union guys are being awfully quiet.
These young liberal Democrats can't even organize a decent rally.
Doesint SFO Giants own some of this radio station? Maybe you should get on the Giants if they pay slave wages
ReplyDeleteTomorrow they are going to go for 15 minutes
ReplyDeleteKNBR - The Ad Leader -- All Ads - All Day - All Night - All The Time!
ReplyDeleteI've taken 14 minute shits before, what's the problem?
ReplyDeleteVery good at 10:40pm.
DeleteA little humor to start the day.
Even the Dill Years didn't allow that long a commercial run. Not sure the Giants are even aware of the advertising recklessness going to this extreme.
ReplyDeleteApples and Bowling Balls. The "Dill Era" was what - 20, 25 years ago? Come on now...
Delete14 mins of SPOTS...Not surprised. You know if they were good spots, I would not mind listening...Spots used to be entertaining...Round Table Pizza, Mercury Cougar come to mind. BUT what we get on KNBR is the product of their Under talented Production dept. and sell anything sales dept. You heard less spots in the old Days...say 10 years ago...because the Ad Rates were Higher, so LESS was more. NOW MORE (spots) is less because the ad rates are so low. KCBS suffers from the same thing...Mediocre Production, Voices and Creative Copy. Part of the Corporate Radio theory that "ANYONE" can do the job. KNBR and KGO suffer from the same problem, one of their own creation, The LOW standards allow anyone to work there if the price is right...LOW, The guys who want those "Dream Jobs" will never go any farther than KNBR, because if they were ANY GOOD, they would be working for someone better than Cumulus. They are foolish enough to take Event Tickets, which Cumulus would tell theme is REALLY part of their PAY. Lee Hammer is a No Talent as is Mike Anthony...They think that running a radio station is something that needs only be done on a Spread Sheet. What EVERYONE in Corp Radio has forgotten is that Radio is (WAS) entertainment, and that is the last thing on their minds. One Spot at $300 OR 6 Spots at $50. To them it is all the same thing. Sad part is/was that the spots used to be part of the entertainment. KNBR/KGO/KCBS and KSFO should be ashamed, but they are not the only offenders...This is why AM Radio is DEAD in 5 years.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why, with the exception of sports, I no longer listen to ANY terrestrial radio stations while in my car be it sports talk, or classic or alternative rock, or news talk. I have a 160 GB iPOD and it's ALL my music ALL the time without commercials...I rarely even watch live TV anymore either. I record almost everything I watch. The commercials have gotten ridiculous. TV shows used to be 54 minutes of an hour. Now they are 44 minutes.
ReplyDeleteRadio has been ruined by deregulation which allowed a predatory company such as Cumulus to buy up 'legacy' stations such as KGO, KSFO and KNBR, and downsize them, cheapen them, and turn them into mostly on-air mediocrities. KNBR still has a good reputation because of its huge 50,000 watt clear channel signal that allows to to be heard from Mexico to Canada and inland to Colorado, and they also still have the Giants and 49ers. But they let the Warriors get away, they put interns and board ops on the air to co-host shows, and they pay their 'little people' peanuts. Plus they don't really cover the games as 95.7 does with a real reporter going into the locker rooms, asking questions and doing segments with the talk show hosts. KNBR actually used to do this, before they fired Shrader and Magowan about 10 years ago, and replaced them with mediocrities like Kate Scott who never go to any games or does anything outside of quick updates and traffic reports. And KGO? Wow, they first decided to beef up their news staff and fire all of the old talk show hosts, (that immediately caused them to lose half of their audience), then after nearly four years of failed movement in the ratings with the all news format, they got rid of nearly the entire news staff and all of the sports folks. Really smart moves. We don't even need to start talking about KSFO. Cumulus' stock is in the toilet, the 'Dickhead' brothers who ran the company were both shunted aside, and they have a guy running KGO now who isn't really in charge, but who made the impulsive and stunning decision to fire nearly the entire news staff without checking from his bosses in Atlanta first. As you might imagine, they weren't too happy they hadn't been consulted, although now they're probably thinking it was a good move because it has saved them about 25 full-time salaries and 4-8 part time salaries that they were paying to the news and sports folks. What a horrible company.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said 10:35. That company is the Enron of radio. If only they could end up like them.
DeleteWhat's worse than the 1050 Polymac podcasts? Their crappy podcasts on simultaneously with Espn, Sun.,8/13. Anyone at the station listening to this pathetic production?
ReplyDeleteInstead of getting rid of Ray Woodson and Ted R., need to change people in charge of 860 and 1050. Station will end up like Kgo, now terrible with people like Chip Franklin selling everything all day long.
ReplyDeleteKNBR needs to change callsign to KNBA - nothing but ads!
ReplyDelete