KGO Radio Confirms It Is Truly The Shits In Trump/Comey Washington News; Cumulus Thinks Bay Area Audience Is Stupid; Thursday Opener

 IF THE PAST FEW WEEKS didn't formally reveal how a once-mighty radio station has become so much awash in out-of-touch reality and irrelevance --just take the case of KGO ...the news-talk juggernaut that continues to spin out of control and leave behind sprinkles of realism.

KGO managers --the latest--seem destined to further erode 810 AM credibility ...we know their ratings continue to flail away; not that they were going anywhere up long term only now the scene at KGO provides just how the mighty have fallen.

THE BIGGEST, latest setback has to do with KGO's awful performance in light of all the Trump/Comey news and subsequent decision by the Justice Dept. to bring a Special Council into the investigations(s).

Normally, like some time ago even in the latest KGO iterations, the station would have news of such event; discussion and analysis by its various talk hosts; a chance for listeners to call in and both respond and offer their own reaction.

Not so much anymore.

KGO has been ill-prepared to handle all the Washington news; asleep at the wheel at best and downright inept and rank amateur at worst leaving a radio station in dismay and providing ample displays of incompetence across the board --which has led to many personnel questioning the policy and direction of its management and embarrassment throughout its rank and file. Even by poor Cumulus standards, KGO has sounded and looked like some nimble college station trying its best to be grownup.

FOR STARTERS...KGO reacted to the initial Trump Firing of Comey (which started off the upheaval and has hit its highpoint, for now, with the appointment of a special council) And how has KGO covered this? By looking foolish; by relying on talk hosts some of whom who literally said on air they'd have to pause and "wait for an expert" --I'm sure listeners, the few of them, were just thrilled. And that's the problem; (of which there's plenty) just how pathetic KGO sounds.

KGO simply doesn't have any faith in its listeners interest in such Washington matters; even if the stories are BIG and sensational and even if they are headlines and TOP of the mast at the networks and cable domain; even if the story involves TRUMP--a sitting president and the topic is what everyone is talking about at the office.

KGO insists on making its puny talk hosts instead offer up human-interest stories and daily, trivial mush that might work well in Des Moines and Fresno; wait a minute, both Fresno and Des Moines are talking Trump/Comey, not so much KGO where off-topic minutiae rule the day and night.

Oh sure, Ronn Owens has tried his best to manage a conversation about the news but Owens' repertoire has become aging and trying at best. Ronnnnn used to give a meaty, concise, and fairly thorough examination over such events but now Owens has to rely on guests at the start and doesn't say much at all after the guests leave. In fact, Owens doesn't offer anything new or fresh, simply a re-hashing of what has already been revealed. In other words, there's no fresh take, no authentic rendering --it's like day old Chinese food. Yuck.

Ronn's day-old morsels are not as bad as his other amateur hosts who simply don't know how to carry on a news-talky segment without benefit of useless audio snippets and unworthy, ridiculous takes...one host was so inept he decided to go away from the discussion and talk about ice cream. I'm not kidding.

KGO has a first-rate political expert in John Rothamann but seems only ready to use him at the last minute as if to say, "well, let's not embarrass our self further; we better get Rothmann here'" If it weren't so seriously out-of-touch, it would be comical.

Rothmann is a heavyweight and has astute, pointed and ready opinions on such matters but KGO seems to think he's (Rothmann) too smart for the audience. That's right, KGO thinks you're dumb otherwise they'd have Rothmann on nonstop and cease ice-cream talk and the banality called Ethan BEAR-man.

BEAR-man has been promoted, I guess, if you call repeating radio dog-doo in the nightly 7-10 PM slot as a promotion. I would call it DESPERATION --and symptomatic of an operation that has absolutely NO IDEA how to run a radio station. Sounds like a Cumulus station. It is.