Give Us Expanded Heat; Jon Miller Doesn't Have To Be Funny All The Time; Gabbert Could Buy KFRC But He's El Cheapo; More Radio Foolishness on Sunday Bridge Incident; Gene Burns, Lee Rodgers: Professionals and Damn Entertaining

IT's LEGITIMATE NEWS NOW; The Heat Wave ...for a change, weather is the story in the Bay Area but instead of the usual off/on shore winds ...high pressure...heat advisories...all legit stories, wouldn't it be great if the weather mavens gave us something a lot more substantive?

Why are we having a week-long heat-up? Where's all the fog? I'm not suggesting an all out "climate change" package. I'd settle for a Bill Martin and Paul Deanno five-minute rundown but that seems DOA in today's brain dead quickie environment.

*I'll get branded sacrilegious but does Jon Miller have to include a funny, little anecdote every five minutes? Don't get me wrong, I like Miller. He has a great voice and he's pretty good on play-by-play. There's no denying Miller is serving up more stories given the Giants season-long swoon but his (Miller) constant cackling and endless tales make the radio broadcast seem like a comedy loop. And if Miller says "...so goes" one more time I'm going to the broadcast police.

*The old KFRC is now "Family Radio" --actually it's been religious quite a while ...too bad someone with the money like, say, Jim Gabbert, couldn't buy up the call letters and frequency and turn it into a retro, old-style KGO. For one thing, there'd be a market. Secondly, Gabbert would become a Bay Area radio hero.

Here's the problem: Gabbert, who made hundreds of millions profit on his KOFY-TV purchase and sale, is notoriously an el cheapo. He'll probably die rich. It would take roughly 4-5 million bucks to turn KFRC into a KGO-lite; Gabbert simply doesn't want to spend the dough. How do I know? he told me. More like, lectured me.

Jessica Castro

There's an age-old line about Gabbert's thriftiness: "Why did Gabbert use dogs on his KOFY promos? So he wouldn't have to pay 'em."

*OK, so sue me, KGO-TV's, Jessica Castro lights up the screen like no one ever has since the days of Kate Kelly.

Gasia Mikaelian

*I pick on Gasia Mikaelian because she's so darn easy. She MUGS the camera. She cackles at the worst time. Not everybody wants to see you cackle, Gaas. You work for a NEWS station. Nobody says you have to go all out CSPAN3, I know you're a FOXite but dang, show a little deference. You're capable.

* Last Sunday early morning, when a police shooting on the Bay Bridge snarled traffic for over 5 hours this happened: KCBS began mentioning the incident on its regulartraffic reports --even when the situation was described as "police activity" countless times by anchor, (who else) Jon Bristow. Yet, it was well into the day until KCBS sent a reporter to the scene. As poo as that is at least KCBS eventually went into protocol...on KGO Radio, some guy was talking about fish oil.

*Gene Burns, Lee Rodgers: yes, they were special. Professional broadcasters that didn't have to rely upon audio gimmicks and acting like fools on the air to attract listeners. They were the attraction. And they were entertaining as all get-go.

I need to say this again: I mostly disagreed with Rodgers politics but still found him so terrific on the air; he was one of the best interviewers; he could take a boring topic and make it listenable; he took no prisoners.

*Ray Taliaferro is writing a book and alive, well, and kicking in case you wanted to know.

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