KCBS has lost its soul. It used to be a non-stop, 24-7, all-news, all day and night AM powerhouse with traffic and weather updates and sports alongside. Now, just listen to it and gradually, the brand is suffering mightily.There are now annoying contests. There are noticeable extra giggles and news anchors talking gibberish for the sake of talking gibberish. And my question now is why? Is it because the new ND has decided to tinker with what has always been something that need not be tinkered with? Good god, cannot one just leave the damn thing alone! Apparently, Madame Seelig, has never heard of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Maybe she should look it up in the dictionary and back off. I'm not gonna hold my breath for that.
KCBS has a virtual monopoly on news here. It has perennial good ratings and has loyal listeners who frequently tune in especially during morning and evening commute for its traffic reports and breaking news salvos. Now, that platform is being deluged with gimmick contests and trivial banality up the ying-yang --no wonder the place is supposedly in a siege mentality with Seelig in the cross hairs. I understand changing times and reaching out for new, younger listeners but at what cost? It defies logic.
Entercom has taken over the
The CBS all news stations have long had sports play-by-play contracts. WBBM in Chicago does Bears football, WCBS in New York had the Yankees for a couple of years. And why the hatred of the news director? There's a general manager, no?The GM makes the decisions, and you can be sure he made the call to carry football. You've worked in radio and you should know that. The 10 football games (3-4 hours out of the 168 in a week) will bring in premium advertising dollars and that's what pays for the news product.
ReplyDeleteThe other ex-CBS radio stations all broke into sports if there was major news. I'm sure KCBS would do the same. And by the way, when the engineers do their annual proof of performance tests, there's no news programming (though it may continue online or on the AM or FM station that stays on).
I might find this blog worthy donating to if it wasn't of innuendo and speculation. Entries like this cheapen the occasional good entries. I know you survive on clicks, but this blog would be more interesting and more worthwhile without the garbage.
The ratings are good on the surface but the audience is getting older and time spent listening (tsl) is down. I’m sure the suits are nervous about that — how do you keep the current audience while reaching out to younger potential listeners? So they’ll keep tinkering.
ReplyDeleteThe commute cash contests obviously coincide with ratings. And besides the sainted Jack Swanson used them in his time at the station, when CBS owned it.
ReplyDeleteOne other note: CBS News is owned by CBS. The CBS Radio stations are now owned by Entercom and some other companies. The sale of the stations included contractual provisions for them to continue the carriage of the CBS newscasts. Further, there is no longer a CBS Radio division. The slight distinction is that it used to be CBS Radio News, now it is CBS News Radio.
A few facts.
I don't have a problem with the anchors showing a little personality once in a while. The complaints I would have are too much repetition, the necessity to repeat the same weather report every 10 minutes(unless there are storms,etc.)and of course some of those hideous commercials.
ReplyDeleteFirst there are 16 GAMES not 10...20 if you carry the Pre Season. The Raiders are on a network, so they get the BIG MONEY...and 3-4 hours for a game is not including PRE/Post games where the Station makes there money. Plus the usual PrePre and PostPost Games...ask KNBR and KGO about that.
ReplyDeleteKCBS sucks. Pure & simple.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't call it fake news.
I'd call it.. OLD NEWS.
Seriously beating down on 3 day old insignificant reports every 10 minutes....fine... but for 3 days?
Fridays report is sat & sun + Mondays re-runs.
Worse yet is most of the crap reported is stolen from channel 5 from yesterday.
Let's not forget all the carp from their "all-new" sister station.
All new .. as in 10 years old.
Seriously? We need crap from L.A.?
Traffic reports are rushed & incomplete. Does not have time to report ALL traffic issues.
They skip & hop on some traffic not complete.
Weather reports suck as well.
Do we REALLY need weather reports while driving? ...NO
It's called looking out the windshield dummy.
That's the weather report.
The format is ass backwards.
Another goof ball segment is 7 minutes of re-broadcast of CBS news from the TV.
Then they abruptly cut it off.
Usually during something you want to hear.
Thanks KCBS...for nothing.
All news not all new. Clean out your ear wax
DeleteAs my lovely wife says, they repeating. Listening from Stockton to San Jose, we were curious to see how much new news was there and how accurate the traffic reports were. The news was gagging, so repetitious it tried our patience to listen. The traffic reports were horrid, missing three major accidents along the way, and construction backup from about five miles east of Altamont all the way into Livermore. How could you miss that? I guess those commuters don't matter. Not only that, they don't have the staff to provide compelling stories. It is very sad. Next time, we're taking my wife's car. It has Sirius or we can plug in a podcast. We'll use Google for traffic on her dashboard display because Google on her phone was precise. Who needs radio traffic reports? Esp. from a "news" station that is a shell of itself?
ReplyDeleteExactly. A shit poor news station.
DeleteThat's because they have shithead talent like Dan Dibley.
DeleteKCBS sucks. Larry Chiaroni belongs in Modesto. Sports twice an hour is a waste of 5 minutes. The repeated stories over and over and over and over again defies what a NEWS station is. Are you sure this clownish station isn't being run by Cumulus?
ReplyDeleteKCBS has always been a Disneyland of weird, awful radio voices. Chiaroni is one-note & monotone. John Evans sounds like a sleepwalker with a lobotomy who could make a meteor crashing into Salesforce Tower seem dull. Rebecca Corral needs decongestant. She's best when she trips, stumbles and steps all over the top of the hour I.D. often getting the date or time wrong. Doug Sovern is the Seinfeld high talker.
DeleteThe CBS network readers aren't much better. Former KCBS'er Jim Taylor has an awful radio delivery. The worst voice may be Tom Foty on weekends. The entire 5-minute report is one, long run-on sentence read at breakneck speed like a nervous newbie who can't wait to be safely off the air.
You used to need a decent voice to get on big market radio.
Agreed. Charoni sounds so nasal, it makes me want to lend him a snot rag. Where do they get such horrible announcers? Remember KGO's Bob Trevor, Jim Dunbar, Ted Wygant? Now those were voices. I listen to Charoni and I feel like I woke up in Turlock.
DeleteJeff Bell sounds like Bullwinkle. Who even talks like that?
DeleteI'll tell you right now what's driving all of this -- it's the same affliction that's been raiding American corporations since, oh, sometime after 1/20/81: hedge funds and shareholders. Don't do anything to annoy them. Just bend over and take it.
ReplyDeleteIt is about money. It is about the aging audience. It is about the shrinking audience. No amount of tweaking the format, bringing in sports team broadcasts, are going to change the directory of terrestrial radio. Younger(than Medicare eligible) listeners don't have the habit of tuning in. Many new cars don't have AM radio and if they do, drivers don't use it. So if the your prime audience is the listeners in cars, and is shrinking, where are you going to expand? This problem(shrinking and aging numbers) is also affecting on tv station owners. Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the biggest economic disruptors, like Henry Ford, Edison, and others.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why "grown ups" always assume if they want the younger audience they have to resort to silliness and games. ("GAME OOOOON!") It has never worked, yet they keep doing it.
ReplyDeleteKCBS has gone the way of KGO: crappy management and even crappier talent. When you have to put Charoni in the afternoon drive time, it's time to fold the tent.
ReplyDeleteWhat a dedicated group of hardcore listeners! Ratings don't care if you hate what you're hearing but it's funny you'd keep listening to something that's supposedly so awful.
ReplyDeleteKCBS isn't about news, it's a socialist propaganda machine. They have one story, with only the left-leaning side of the story, and then tons of 'opinions' from liberals on why they hate Trump. They're a one-trick 'we hate Trump' pony and not worth listening to.
ReplyDelete