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| John Rothmann |
But a maddening policy by KGO/Cumulus still exists and nowhere is it more idiotic and insulting than Rothmann's show.
KGO, I've said in the past, thinks its listeners, at least the majority, have a short attention span. They regard the Bay Area, wrongly I believe, is just like Tampa and Sacramento, just to name a few locations ...KGO suits believe in the "TSL" mantra --that's "time spent listening" --where people, say the hacks, spend roughly fifteen minutes listening to their radio and then switching or tuning out. It's not just KGO that uses this stupid system to be fair, but it's more pronounced at KGO and it's completely frustrating.
Let me explain.
I believe the host and his/her style dictates both the program and program style --and the callers too. Rothmann gets a lot of callers, (and they're great callers by the way, for the most part) usually callers are talk-show killers but if you listen to Rothmann, his calls are mostly educated people; dare I say smart people who don't sound moronic and speak like they just left a Fresno strip mall. Rothmann is one of the few radio talk hosts who can make caller engagement with host a most enjoying element of the show. The TSL model doesn't fit that type of formula and it often screws up the cohesion-- the momentum of the subject matter. We got that again Friday night as Rothmann was engaged in a spirited discussion of the Russian/Trump connection --(the lines were all lit up and the calls were extraordinarily crisp and cogent) Everything was going great until Rothmann had to halt the discussion and announce that the next hour --hour!--would be a segment on movies and some movie guy. Essentially what was riveting radio and real-deal news-talk en-fuego was hijacked by a rally-killing, innocuously dumbing-down movie guy. How insulting and infuriating.
Not that talking about movies is a bad idea but the whole element of news talk and its function was ruined. And the callers pay the price and suffer. Furthermore, on a day (Friday) when there was so much actual news (again, the Florida tragedy for one) why not talk about our nation's situation with terror and how pathetic it is that an apparent lunatic; a man that we know now (and apparently, so did the FBI in Alaska) had mental issues and "heard voices"; that a guy like this could buy guns! That's a whole lot of radio talk-show red meat and yet the KGO audience was reduced to listening about inane movie chit-chat.
It wasn't Rothmann's fault, he was going by the KGO playbook but it sounded dreadful. There's ample time to loosen things up and "go light", particularly on a Friday night, I get it and think it's fairly reasonable but not when there's so many things to talk about that are far more serious and engaging --and besides, for the most part, that's what the listeners (and callers too) want and expect!
In its heyday, KGO was second to none when it came to issues of the day and the radio station earned its legacy mark, its brand, (I hate that term but it applies here) by performing the actual news and talk functions. And guess what? The ratings were off the chart. Yeah, I know TSL and AQH are in play now and the ratings system has changed but not to the degree that KGO suits have applied. People still are drawn by content and if content is good then people will listen, will watch. That never changes. I would love a world now not dominated by stupid "trends" or smart-phone futility. We're not all robots and simpletons --that's why people still buy an HBO and Netflix to watch, religiously, a show like "House of Cards" or "Ray Donovan", to name a few. Radio is no different just a different outlet.
If KGO suits were to concentrate on creating and nurturing quality talent and programming and investing in informative, entertaining and provocative radio then they'd be more competitive in the ratings game.
Of course, yes, I know I'm dreaming now but I know I'm right.
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I couldn't agree more Rich, I was listening to John driving from Palo Alto to Concord Saturday at 7 p.m. The first hour was just great, John was passionate, and engaged the callers, especially the ones that disagreed with him, not so much disagreed, but couldn't concentrate on the subject, and wanted to bring Hillary into the discussion. John was having none of that, he wanted to keep the subject devoid of politics and concentrate of the hacking from a foreign government. Several caller were quite hostile to John, but instead of hanging up on them, ala Levin and Savage, John took them to task, and tried to get them to answer his question, ala Gene Burns, it was just great. I can't help thinking his rating must be quite good, he gets lots of callers, and many who say the have missed him on the radio. Doesn't management take notice? Or is that too much too hope for?
ReplyDeleteIf they did, we wouldn't have this as an issue. Rothmann was deemed "too smart" by one of the suits, that should tell all you need to know.
DeleteHopefully, his appearances aren't temporary.
John is polished, professional, informative, educational, topical talkradio at its finest. I so hope these appearances generate some numbers that will enlighten KGO management to make Rothmann a permanent and enduring part of the KGO line-up.
DeleteThis post is amazingly cogent, insightful, serious, and absolutely spot on. Who wrote this; and, what have you done with Rich Lieberman?
ReplyDeleteCumulus will never develop talent...It costs to much. That's why you have Franklin on the air. Simply said, They want to sell SPOTS not Ideas. The Management does not know what they are doing. Rothman, who is very wealthy, and does not need to work EVER, just likes to be on the air, so no matter what they pay him, he will show up just to be on. My source says they pay him about $100 an hour
ReplyDeletewhich is about right. John is smart, he just can't bring the morons the right ratings demo. He is too old, so is Ronn, and the rest of the OLD WHITE MANS CLUB. Talk radio is dead. I am surprised that they have not dumped KGO, or flipped KSFO format on to it and tried to sell KSFO...I am shocked they have not tried to go sports with KGO, since it seems to be all they know how to do, but you would need teams like the Raiders and A's to make that work...Hmmmmm "Hello Entercom"
The reality is there are hundreds of thousands of former KGO listeners. They are still around waiting for a reason to tune in. They do when a host like Rothmann is on. The rest of them will tune in when other good hosts appear. Talk radio may be in hibernation here, thanks to total mismanagement, but it is far from dead.
DeleteTalk radio in the BA is dead due to the cost of producing it.
DeleteCost of living is wayyyy tooo high.
Why on earth would anyone pay a board-op $15 per hour???
A board-op is unskilled labor.
Perfectly and brilliantly said Rich. Every "suit" at KGO should be required to read your words. I can't think of any reason or point you made that could be refuted by the facts, let alone common sense. It's obvious that if callers are lined up on the board that the listening audience is that much more proportionately large. They, we, want to listen and talk about that topic, for all 3 hours if need be. Changing topic every 15 minutes just for the sake of it is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteIt's so bizarre and insane: the "suits" do everything possible to dissuade, alienate, and dismiss listenership. That they think we can't handle an hour, or two or three, of the same topic, that they think we can't handle intelligent discourse, that we must hear useless traffic updates every 7 minutes, that we are all helpless 4 year old children to be spoon fed tripe.....the irony is this describes the "suits" themselves as people rather than us!
At this time there is zero corporate support for ANY liberal media in the BA.
DeleteIf you want the old KGO back, then be ready to pre-fund it.
Republicans love the fact that KGO's liberal voice is gone for good.
I don't know that Cumulus needs to develop talent, John is talented they just need HIrE talent. Not a great fan of Christine Kraft, but at least was intelligent and often had a different view on things, wouldn't mind her as a fill in host, but not over Rothmann. There are even some syndicated hosts who would play in the Bay Area, like Bill Press, he use to fill in for Ronn. 910 use to have Alan Colmes on every night from 7 to 10, he was liberal, however I prefer Bill over Alan. As for age, Rush, Levin, Savage and others I believe are all in the sixties, Savage might even be 70 or at least close. I believe Tom Sullivan is mid to late sixties. Hannity is the youngster still in his fifties.
ReplyDelete>> Of course, yes, I know I'm dreaming now but I know I'm right.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't KGO employ you? ...
The Niner
Bright, but not a natural entertainer. Listening to that guy is like watching C-span.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Rich posted this comment.
DeleteTo 6:00 p.m. Not, Rothmann is passionate and knowledgeable, and frankly watching c span you can learn a lot, but I will concede it can be a little dry. I don't find John dry, he takes calls, he engage and challenge the callers, and let them talk for awhile, especially if the disagree with him. That is good radio. If you want entertainment perhaps you will like Chip Franklin or Maureen Langdon, she is hung up on having fun, she is fairly intelligent, and does okay when she discussed a serious subject, problem is she can't stay with it too long. She goes into her "Hanging with Langdon" having fun mode, ugh. I'll take John anytime over Chip and Langdon. Boring, not. Rich is okay with being critical of his favorite hosts, you just can't defend Ronn even the slightest.
DeleteSo much cheaper to hire one "creative" person at the corporate level and have his or her dictates carried out by the drones at the local level, than hiring creatives at each cluster, or dare I say each station.
ReplyDeleteRe: " ... a maddening policy by KGO/Cumulus"
ReplyDeleteIf by "policy" you mean a method designed to reduce the station's ranking from number 1 to number 25 in the Bay Area radio market, well it seems to be working.