YES, I'VE BEEN BITCHING A LOT LATELYThat's why you come here. For the god's honest truth and nothing but.
What am I supposed to write? That everything is all warm and fuzzy and everything is all cheery --that's what you want to read? I don't think so.
I have never seen such a poor and pathetic market like the Bay Area Radio/TV scene. It's at best moderately deplorable and at worst, horribly morbid and disgusting. There are worse markets but the Bay Area stands alone.
Insipid and uninspiring reporters; reporters new to the area so devoid of credibility they don't even know the area; they are oblivious to proper street name pronunciations; they fail to do proper research and don't take their job seriously; how can they expect the viewers to take them seriously? Of course they just go straight on the air and don't get adequate training. I'm not saying all these people are inept and incapable of doing their job, just the majority and for an area this size and scope, that's deplorable.
*Local TV News is the worst I've seen in my lifetime. An avalanche of less-then-mediocrity has invaded the airwaves. New people. New Anchors. Phony people. People that can't ad-lib and mostly fill the air with their inane chit-chat and overloaded banality. Superficiality fills the screen with useless conversation and totally insincere and unnecessary questions that the viewers know is BS and shtick, and bad shtick at that.
*RADIO? Oh my god, died and went to heaven. Radio managers despise SMART PEOPLE. They are the lowest of the lowest common denominator. They hire frauds like Brian Copeland and Chip Franklin who cater to the dumb and dumber crowd.
*RADIO? Oh my god, died and went to heaven. Radio managers despise SMART PEOPLE. They are the lowest of the lowest common denominator. They hire frauds like Brian Copeland and Chip Franklin who cater to the dumb and dumber crowd.
There is no hope. The conditions and landscape of today dictate the complete monstrosity that rule the day and night. Inept, incompetent, and incapable news people who are supposed directors lack basic people skills; how can they expect performance excellence when they treat their employees like shit? And they still have jobs? Wow. What a bunch of useless, ruthless, folks that have no talent and only got the job because they kissed a lot of ass and curried favor to their bosses. Just plain pathetic.
You want to know something? I'm not going out on a limb. I do believe the vast majority of Bay Area people who watch and listen to the news are far more SMARTER than you think. They know real and genuine and can spot fake and insincerity. They realize that, yes, things are not the same as they used to be and that, yes, it's a different era. Mediocrity and dreck are king. Anything short of that description is a lie and you all know it. If you don't, welcome to the real world.
I'm here to call these bastards out, and god willing, with your support and financial backing, will continue to give 'em hell and make sure they are accountable. Hell yeah they HATE ME because they know I won't give you guys the BULLSHIT --the BS they purport to be "facts" but aren't. They should know better. You CAN'T FOOL Bay Area consumers. Never.
So, yeah, I'm going to bitch when bitching is necessary --this is not a site for "good, positive" news; never has been. You want that you've come to the wrong arena.
Now go eat a good tuna melt and diet root beer and have a happy day.
You want to know something? I'm not going out on a limb. I do believe the vast majority of Bay Area people who watch and listen to the news are far more SMARTER than you think. They know real and genuine and can spot fake and insincerity. They realize that, yes, things are not the same as they used to be and that, yes, it's a different era. Mediocrity and dreck are king. Anything short of that description is a lie and you all know it. If you don't, welcome to the real world.
I'm here to call these bastards out, and god willing, with your support and financial backing, will continue to give 'em hell and make sure they are accountable. Hell yeah they HATE ME because they know I won't give you guys the BULLSHIT --the BS they purport to be "facts" but aren't. They should know better. You CAN'T FOOL Bay Area consumers. Never.
So, yeah, I'm going to bitch when bitching is necessary --this is not a site for "good, positive" news; never has been. You want that you've come to the wrong arena.
Now go eat a good tuna melt and diet root beer and have a happy day.
Mmmmm...tuna melt. You made me hungry!
ReplyDeleteYo Baby Yo Baby Hoe!!
DeleteYo Baby Yo Baby Hoe!!
It's not the young reporters solely to blame... its the managers that hire and are supposed to lead and mentor them to do a good job... plus the producers.. someone took the leadership out of the biz... this was once a great tv/radio news market...no longer.. perfect example.. one station this week lead with tje 49ers stadium story about the heat/sun... they ripped Ann Killion, Chron Sports Columnist off.. in an interview the reporter even cited the example of Green Bay fans who sit in freezing weather, why not sit in hot weather... and when the story was done I knew no more about what was being considered than when I read the paper early in the morning.. if the Chron goes away, I am afraid tv n radio won't have much fodder to convert to stories...at least KCBS credits the paper... you be the judge...
ReplyDeleteok, now what?
ReplyDeleteAny idea why the rock music was playing on KGO last night several minutes before 10 until 10?? Someone's idea of a long bumper? Just god awful!!
ReplyDeleteSorry to disappoint, but the listeners and viewers have been zombied. They think Fatnich knows his shit. They say, "Well, Gary said this on KNBR" like he's some freaking master of everything.
ReplyDeleteNews flash: he's not.
We sit and watch/listen to the news and absorb their shit because that's what we do.
In reality, we've all been taken in. We need to be like the guy in "Network" and say, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
San Francisco is among the most interesting cities in the world and the daytime news/talk radio is a choice of either listening to Ethan talk about his food habits, Chip hosting a stupid questions bit about real/alternate facts, or 1220 AM's unbelievably overplayed scam show where the most uneducated unregulated 'tards ever are suggesting listeners go up against Wall Street with the Online Trading Academy (and then slipping in the fine print that it's an entertainment show and not actual advice...yeah, right). Truly remarkable the lack of options. I long for the days of Len Tillum...even Dr. Dean because they had some focus about what they were talking about. Gill Gross too was even trying to stay current.
ReplyDeleteHere's Len tillem in a nutshell.lessons in how to avoid paying for nursing home care when you want to ditch your ailing parent, and how to get out of a DUI....repeat, rinse, repeat...done.
DeleteRich,
ReplyDeleteI'm having a GREAT day! MAGA!
Yenta's,Menta's,full of Shenta's, give it to all of 'em.
ReplyDeleteIs Stan TheObserver trying to sound like Bob TheTamborineMan?
DeleteAnd with 100% sincerity and honesty...WHO?
DeleteThought you had Dylan in your ear for a minute when you were posting....
DeleteSo all of you people who are complaining TV and radio are so boring (they are!) -- Go read a book. Go take a hike. Go watch an interesting documentary. Go to a play. Learn a new game. Take flying lessons. Play chess. There's so much to do out there besides watch and listen to the rot that is local programming.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I feel like doing any of the stuff you tell me I should be doing, I lay down on the couch until the feeling goes away!
DeleteI'm retired and have no life, but it is a great way to live!
I wake up in the morning with nothing to do, and by the time I go to bed at night I have about half of it done!
I get enough exercise complaining about Radio and TV. As old as I am just standing upright is consider exercise!
Good advice. I'll read a book on my 2hr a day commute to work just like every other idiot is doing on their dumb-down phones on the road. Maybe chess with a car mate if I had one. Watch a documentary while commuting? Great idea. And the rest of your ideas for people that work? Good suggestions.
DeleteI'd love to hear what some of the respected news people who've toiled for decades, some in front of the camera like David Louie, Vic Lee, Barbara Rogers, Tom Sinkovitz, Catherine Heenan, Cheryl Jennings would have to say about what the solution is to the current state of affairs. It'd be great to hear their voices on the subject!
ReplyDeleteLouie and Lee are still at Circle 7 full time while Jennings has only been seen part time. Heenan still getting it done at KRON. Sinkovitz still strongly principled but still awaiting a call. Sink and Rodgers I'm sure wouldn't care for all the shenanigans happening right now. Rodgers, retired and deep into community affairs, also shows strong principles. That of course, doesn't exist in Bay Media now, thank you, Cloud Clowns and The Firm (FOX, not the 1980s rock band or 1990s movie)
Deletegreat suggestion for the drive to/from work! thanks for giving me a better thing to do than listen to radio and drive.
ReplyDeleteRich, radio has not 'died and gone to heaven." You really need to listen to what the readers of your blog are listening to: SiriusXm radio. Rich, I would love to read your "takes" on all that is going happening on the many, many channels of SiriusXm radio. You have such great insights. Terrestial radio is what is dead. Please listen to SiriusXm. I can't wait to enjoy your insightful insights!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen Ethan Bearman moved to LOG at first I liked him and became a regular listener, but he's completely gone off the deep end with his wacko food and vitamin garbage. I simply cannot listen to him anymore.
ReplyDeleteEthan Bearman does the vitamin food nonsense because Rich's boy who hired him first also does that nonsense. It's the only way these people make money. The station is terrible and no better than WSCO.
DeleteChip Franklin's alternative facts is beyond awful and should have been retired years ago. his stupid sidekicks Nicky and Heather have grating voices and add nothing of any value, just a huge collosal boring waste of three hours.
ReplyDeleteThat there, my friend is a PROPER Tuna Melt: Cheese on the TOP AND BOTTOM! The cheese acts as sort of a "glue" which helps maintain the structural integrity of the sandwich.
ReplyDeleteToo many diners/people only put cheese on one layer (Typically the top)--leaving the bottom slice to free-fall away from the tuna and the rest of the sandwich.
I do have an issue w/the lettuce, though. WHile I do love lettuce, I don't like it in my grilled sandwiches (melts/grilled cheese/panini)...because it means you must've inserted the lettuce in the sandwich before grilling it--ensuring you are served heated or cooked lettuce...or that you pull apart the perfectly-grilled sandwich to insert the raw lettuce--and thus tampering with the afore-mentioned structural integrity.
But all in all, a pretty damn good-looking sandwich.
Ah Yes, Anal Integrity...much like the glue that holds my drawers together.
DeleteI listened to KGO for many years before it was dismantled a few years ago. I decided to listen to Bearman, Franklin, and Langen and give them the benefit of the doubt. They are all absolutely horrendous. It is not because I disagree with them, as I like diverse opinions. It is because they are all metaphorically a mile wide and an inch deep. Trying to be cute and funny and being neither. Endless cackling with mindless commentary from staff members. The worse being the disturbing juxtapositions of their topics; talking about sophomoric fluff while our local area, state, and nation have immediate and serious topics that these hosts are intellectually incapable of discussing.
ReplyDeleteThat's the sad part: hideous 25 year olds running the show, with Atlanta 30 year olds orchestrating, telling, dictating what WE like, what WE want. Never in the history of human kind was there such out of control idiocy dumped upon a suspecting public.
DeleteEveryone knows that the Bay Area is not a destination place for career minded, talented television people. We may luck out and see a some talent now and then but the good ones move on to better places like the East coast or L.A. When inexperienced managers hired by corporate hire inexperienced and therefore CHEAP no talent employees you can just guess what the results will be. The Bay Area needs a few talented people that will stick around and re-structure the awful television news programs.
ReplyDeleteDo people watch much local news TV anymore? What are the demographics? Wouldn't they have to look away from their phone?
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe people listen to local terrestrial radio. Those of you bitching about it actually crack me up. Between the internet (Spotify, Pandora, etc) SiriusXM and all the various podcasts out there, local radio is dead and has been for a while. The only real use I have for it is if I am stuck in traffic and want to find out what is going on, or if I am in my car and want to listen to a local sports team. Otherwise it is pointless. With SiriusXM I don't have sit through 3-4 minute commercial breaks.
ReplyDeleteTV is pretty the same as well. With the internet you can access just about whatever you want. And thanks to Sling and PlaystationVue I don't need my cable TV service either. Put up a digital antenna and you get all the local stations. The streaming services cover the rest of the basics. If I want to watch a local TV station, just about all of them stream their stuff on their respective websites. TV is the next thing to go. Radio, newspapers are already just about dead. As soon as the networks figure out a viable way to offer standalone streaming services that can provide live content and make advertising bucks, game over. This includes platforms like Facebook where people can do live broadcasts on their own.
So stop whining about local radio. It is a dead horse. Local TV is slowly marching to its grave as well.
Have to agree with you there Rich about Chip Franklin; but I think Brian Copeland's show on KGO is pretty good, although he sometimes comes off as a little naïve, for the most part his show is quite listenable. Have to be careful what you wish for b/c Brian's show could be replaced by a Chip or Ethan or even worse, John Batchelor. I have to say I seldom listen to KGO since they started with the Ethan re-runs in the evening. With that change they lost their critical mass of listenable content.
ReplyDeleteYour assessment about Bay area broadcasting is spot on. I don't watch local TV and my go to radio station (about 4 hours each weekday and 2 hours on weekends) is KFI in L.A. via the iHeart media app. I'm not saying I agree with all the politics on the station and the hosts are engaging and entertaining and the news reporters are true journalist. I even listen to the traffic reports (with live KFI eye in the sky) to remind myself that someone always has it worse and in the hopes that I experience a historic report that "the 405 is free of traffic and moving well in both directions".
ReplyDeleteWatched Channel 2's special on homelessness tonight and it ended with an in-studio interview of Audrey Cooper, the Chronicle editor who said Rich wasn't a real journalist. I don't know what she is, but she's a lot heavier than the picture of her on the sfgate website suggests. Doing "real" journalism at the Chronicle must lead to the packing on of the pounds.
ReplyDelete