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| Jack Swanson back to KGO Radio? |
To wit:
I've heard, on good authority, that the Cumulus suits, Doug Harvill (Market Manager) and Lee Hammer (new KGO/KSFO opps/PD) have EITHER: talked to former KGO Radio bigwig and former KCBS big, Jack Swanson, about becoming the new KGO Radio PD; keep in mind, Hammer's gig running KGO is "interim" --plus, Swanson knows Harvill very well from their KCBS days. (Swanson ran KCBS for two years and then split under a schedule he wanted)
OR: are in the process of; negotiations to begin in earnest, possibly already in process.
I know this: Swanson has the old KGO roots and acumen. He's probably the only guy that can make KGO percolate again (albeit slightly tweaked) --I mean, he ran KGO for over 30 years!
A big asterisk: Would Swanson want the job? I asked him a few days ago via email. It was on a hunch sentiment. His response was sort of negative and vague.
I've reached out to him again and a few sources. I await their response.
Swanson might have to be offered a Brink's truck to take the new KGO gig but he just might and they (Cumulus) just might offer him the world. That's another hitch too because Cumulus/SF, (like Cumulus in general) has little money coming off a recent Bankruptcy Re-Organization but they do have some operating capital, they have to.
Gees, Ronn Owens and John Rothmann have to be chomping at the bit.
Again, pure speculation, but I know the Swanson item has legs. 100 percent certain.
*415MEDIA EXCLUSIVE
*UPDATE 8: 04 PM PT
A 415 MEDIA source aware of the situation tells me an industry figure who knows the business very well and has programmed various radio stations here and other markets said to him:
"It's his {Swanson} job if he wants it."
I sent two emails to Swanson for comment; Swanson answered back with information nothing to do with the story; he neither confirmed nor denied my information.
Further emails requesting comment have not been answered.
*Developing story...
This is one of several blogs Rich has written about changes at KGO. There have been many comments, a lot of them, seem to think KGO is dead for good. I disagree with that, many companies have been on the verge of ruins, and someone comes in and save them. KGO has a strong signal and a long, long history of a very successful station. The current KGO is severely ill, mostly due to mismanagement, and ignorance of what the Bay Area audience wants to listen to. Certainly someone competent, smart, positive and who knows the radio business can revive it. I could see Ronn on for 1 or 2 hours, he sounds fine on his 10 minutes report, he is still better than Chip, Bearman, Dr. Drew and Maureen Langdon. Of course Rothmann should be on 3 hours 5 days a week, Brian 2 hours or week ends. Keeping John Bachelor late night is fine, A&G not sure, they can be heard from Sacramento, don't really need them in the Bay Area. Get rid on coast to coast, can also be heard on 2 Sacramento stations. If the want a syndicated show Bill Press would be a good choice, either night or 10 PM to 1 AM, and move Bachelor to 1 AM.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at KGO, it was a living, breathing thing of beauty under Jack Swanson's stewardship. A radio station only comes along once in a lifetime, and there's only one guy who could do it twice!
ReplyDeleteWell if I were Jack, I would sign on as a Consultant, NOT the PD. Any one remember that Cumulus dismissed Jack when they bought Citadel in 2011? And to make KGO successful again will take some money and latitude from the Corp People. I wish KGO luck, but I have done that a few times in the past 5 years and it has all been for naught! Have Jack program the place and have Lee give the orders. The most successful parts of KGO were thrown away during there ownership just to prove they were in charge. They fired most all of the KGO/ABC folks because they were making to much money. Just listen to the rest of there stations and you will know that they really don't care how they sound, just that it makes money and runs cheap. KGO needs a solid Talk line up, a Local news presence good production and marketing. It has none of those things now. I like Jack, I wish him luck, But, with a Company owned by Bankers right NOW and Lew Dickey looming and wanting to get his company back, I would give it a lot of thought before I decided to start rearranging DECK CHAIRS!
ReplyDeleteIt will be a big improvement for KGO if they can convince Jack Swanson to return. However, it's gonna take a lotta work to bring that station back to where it once was.
ReplyDeleteThat would be the WORST IDEA EVER and here's why. Jack was able to create a good station in his hey day but when he left KGO who was on-air? How did he change the future of the station in any way during his last years? What are/were his new ideas? Assuming he has any new ideas, what in the world could they be? Do you think he spends his days listening to podcasts and finding new talent? He didn't leave the station with any "new talent". When Jack succeeded he did so at a time when A LOT of radio stations were succeeding and when radio stations PAID TALENT. Back then Jack GOT PAID. Giving money and power to Jack is a complete hail Mary and it's no different than hiring all the old hosts back.
ReplyDeleteKudos to Jack for a nice career and getting paid well but lets not pretend he's a programming savant. Who was the last person Jack managed to make a good host?
KGO has to be GUTTED and it will take a new idea. That idea may not even exist! Maybe Jack wants his last programming job to be a failure. Probably doesn't care. But that's what it would be if he was doing what he knows.
2.02 PM. I agree with most your statements except; I want to keep A&G. I want to keep Coast to Coast. Both shows are unique, especially in the Bay Area. No Bill (SnoozeButton) Press, please.
ReplyDeleteInstead, let Jack bring Ms Melanie Morgan ever so slightly out of retirement. Give her a short shift to fill up with guests and callers, or find a Yin host to match her Yang.
Oh, and what is Spencer Hughes doing these days? Asking for a friend.
@533pm...you want KGO to be even more conservative? You have KSFO and 860 24/7 for that. Since A & G have joined the 5am to 10am hours, KGO's ratings have sunk even more, under a 2.0. Adding the hateful Melanie Morgan is not a good move. Put her back on KSFO with the other kooks, don't ruin KGO even more. Coast to Coast is a snooze fest. Bill Press is much more interesting but his show is done live in the morning...put him in A & G's slot? Spencer Hughes had a mediocre run in Con radio, he's done in the bay area.
DeleteSorry, but couldn't disagree with you more. A & G are not a good fit for KGO, and personally I can't stand them. Coast to Coast is bad and getting worse. Gorge Noory is a snoozer. He has stupid guests and asks dumb questions. Everyday another paranormal guest or snake oil MD.
DeleteIf Swanson comes back, I hope that he will give Bernie Ward another chance. Bernie has paid in full for any errors that he may have made. Also; I am a big fan of Ray T., I would enjoy hearing him again. Rothmann could perhaps bring KGO back if given the right time slot. Dr. Bill would also be a big help.
ReplyDeleteYES! Bring Bernie Ward back during his old nightly time slot. And find a place for Peter B Collins. He currently does an excellent weekday podcast. I used to enjoy Dr. Bill, but in recent years I think he has become a senile close-minded cranky old fart.
DeletePat & John each do good shows, but they do their best work together. Perhaps they can individually work a 2-3-day per week time slot & also do a 7-10PM weekend show together.
Bill Press is good, but he would need to be on when he is live, which is from 4-6AM Pacific. Being that Bill's show starts so early, the show is dated if you try to play it later in the day plus he doesn't take live calls anymore, just Tweets.
It's about time KGO returned to its roots. What the bean counters forget is that us "old geezers" in the 50+ category control a lot more wealth than most younger listeners. The bean counters are missing an important demographic.
problem is, we will still be commercialed to death. So that will not change
ReplyDeleteChanges may have already started. I tuned in to 810 twice today and their hosts were talking about a breaking news story — the newsroom shooting in Annapolis!!! No lifestyle crap. Phone interviews with experts, live feeds from news conferences. You wouldn’t have expected that from KGO a week ago or a year ago. It would have been a story and monologue from Bearman about low cal salad dressings or Chip talking about his comedian friends. You could hear how hard Bearman was trying to keep his job. I hope this change wasn’t a fluke.
ReplyDeletei heard franklin too, it was extremly odd not to hear him with sex and bathroom talk with his two stupid lady "hosts"
Delete5:33 I wrote the comments at 2:02, where do you live? I live in Concord on the border to Walnut Creek and work in Palo Alto, I easily get both Sacramento stations both at my house, the whole way on my commute and in Palo Alto as well. My point was that there is not a great need to have A&G and Coast to Coast on KGO, since I believe most of the Bay Area can get 650 AM, which is the station A&G is on, and Coast to Coast is on both 650 AM and 1530 AM Sacramento as well. Frankly I don't care who is on after midnight, since I'm usually asleep or not listening to the radio. There are not that many choices left, Hannity, Rush, Dave Ramsey, Coast to Coast and A&G are on the both the Bay area and Sacramento. Use to listen to Spencer Hughes can't say I was ever that impressed with him, although if I remember correctly he is better than both Chip and Bearman.
ReplyDelete8:22 PM, I wrote 5:33. I live in Marin County, and cannot get 650 Am very clearly. I can just barely get KSFO, but have already given up on that station in the AM, until Sussman is gone.
ReplyDeleteJohn Batchelor is an acquired taste, rather eccentric, often rather tedious. I still miss Rabbi Lapin on Sundays.
I don't even know if 'The Happiest Gardener' is still on the radio. All the upheavals of the last few years mean I pretty much stopped looking for more survivors. It would be nice to meet some newer or younger hosts, but there may be little upside for someone under 35 to pursue any on air career with Bay Area Terrestrial Radio. Terrestrial Radio is becoming like walking the echoing halls of a dimly lit, poorly dusted Museum. Squeaky floorboards in need of repair, with some verging on collapse.
Yes Batchelor can be a little tedious, I don't listen to his whole show, but although mostly liberal, he offers a conservative view that I can listen to, unlike Hannity or Rush. He has some very well informed guest, I like David Drucker and Gordon Chang knows China and Korea. I think Lapin was more tedious than Batchelor, but to each his own. Perhaps you should explore getting a Crane Radio, I believe they have some with quite a range. I have a Sangean portable available at Fry's or of course on the internet, it's only about $70.00, some stations I get better on my car radio, especially 860 at night. Also 650 after 7 p.m. or so is not so good in my house, but find in my car.
DeleteBatchelor mostly liberal???
DeleteNo I meant I'm liberal, but can still enjoy a conservative host, like Batchelor, also like Medved and Tom Sullivan. Rush, Hannity not so much. Too one sided.
DeleteI'll listen to anyone that doesn't say the Democrat Party. Guess these dumbos don't know the difference between a noun and an adjective, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DUMMY!!!!
DeleteJohn Batchelor is so depressing. Every time I hear his monotone voice, I just have to switch stations. It is like listening to an automated voice.
DeleteEven the best PD in the world can no longer turn a dead station into #1 in six months, which is what every corporate owner still demands. The days of hitting the radio lottery are long gone. No knock on Swanson for taking the gig, but if he does, the best he can hope is to get a living wage, a couple of benefits, and a modest back-end payoff in a year or two to dump him out of a three-year contract. Still, if I were him, I'd do it, because talent is the only thing that might work.
ReplyDeleteCan't go backwards in the radio biz. Nice memories of how it "used to be" won't help Jack or anyone else. Remember, it took Mickey more than ten years to build the brand.
ReplyDelete7:59 says it best. KGO needs a new start. Thurston, Owens, Rothman PT Fill in, Franklin, Copeland etc Have been there for the past 5 years and they have not moved the meter. What makes anyone think that keeping them now that will change that? Jack will need money to hire NEW Talent, They will need to market what they do. They will need to produce entertainment that is worthy of Word of Mouth. Better Spots, Better Voices. Which all just boils down to TALENT on and off the air. For instance why keep Chip Franklin? Because he has a contract? He has done nothing for KGO so far, so why keep him? Well in "Cumulus World" they would rather keep him than pay him off because they are fools. Lets pay someone that is hurting us because we don't want to pay him off. BRILLIANT. Talent, Marketing, Production and Corporate NON INTERFERANCE is the only thing that will help KGO. KGO is a mess and needs to be Blown Up. I fear all they want to do is bye a new shade of Lipstick for their Pig.
ReplyDeleteA lot of commenters here seem to think that to get good ratings they have to come up with something new. They did, they tried the lifestyle stuff and mediocre hosts, anyone remember Drex?? Or Tim Montemayor? Is Hannity's, Savage's or Rush's show "somethibg new" I don't think so, yet they have ratings. KGO was number one for years, then the dipped to 4 or 5, but still a good station with respectable ratings. Why try too fix something that is not broke!
ReplyDeleteThey have ratings with a dying 55+ audience. Savage numbers are paltry.
DeleteI have to believe there are enough people under 55 with curiosity and a brain to still want to a good Newstalk station. It takes the whole package. Good hosts, along with a quality news crew, to keep people up to date on local happenings. It needs once again to be a part of the community. Mix in some new hosts, but don't dump all of the old ones.
DeleteDr.Bill, Ray T, Bernie Ward....good gracious... why don't we see what Ira Blue and Arthur Godfrey are up to? Somewhere out there are the future Gene Burns, the future Ronns....find them, hire them let them do their jobs.
ReplyDeleteIf they’re returning to “news talk” they need to do a better job with news. Dump the weak CNN radio top of the hour news and pick up ABC News. They need a half dozen aggressive local reporters. Not a KCBS-size newsroom, but some hungry reporters who don’t want to sit behind a desk all day. Reporters who get to the scene first and dig into a story. Reporters who so thoroughly cover a story that they can bring them on the air during a talk segment to expertly converse on a story. KFI Los Angeles does this all the time and you really learn a lot about a story when a host talks to a reporter live for 10 or 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteSo Cum-u-less is going to dump all this money into KGO and not all the other stations they gutted?
ReplyDeleteExpect Swanson to come loaded with years worth of old KGO airchecks so they can just run "The Best of KGO" for the next few years.
Problem solved.
PS: KFI knows what the hell they are doing. PD Robin Bertilucci runs a tight ship. The quality shows.
Don't forget Melanie Morgan is married to Jack Swanson. Let's see who has chairs when the music stops.
ReplyDeleteMiz Morgan and B. Sussman do not get along any more, if memory serves: she left in a might huff. Unless time somehow patches that up. Can't see them working on the same floor.
ReplyDelete