I SEE TV-20 periodically and when I do, I see Celeste Perry hosting the evening programs which I never watch other than, every now and then, its news show which I generally like.Celeste Perry? I don't know anymore. She used to be on the old KFRC Radio which is going way back. I thought she had promise and a genuine personality but I'm more skeptical now.
She seems to do a lot of selling for cemeteries right now. Lots. I know KOFY is not like PBS and Masterpiece Theatre but good golly.
I'll give her credit, fake or not, Celeste is eternally happy. She seems to be enjoying herself. I'm just another observer who is always cynical. There's more to this than ever before and that's why I'm here.
Think of me as if Robert Mueller was a secret blogger.
More TV 20 stuff I observe: dance party and dogs. Only with the dance party I never know if its was taped a few weeks ago or in 1998. They never seem to tell. The same with the dogs who still do the ID's and there was a joke about them: back in the day when TV20 was owned by thrifty James Gabbert the question was: Why does Gabbert use dogs for the station ID? So he doesn't have to pay 'em.*GABBERT is an interesting figure and I'm not being funny.
He's got more money then God and could give away half and still be enormously wealthy. He bought KOFY for about a million bucks or so (give or take a few million) and sold it for about roughly $300M and even before that had a lot of dough in the bank.
For a time, there was talk he would buy KGO Radio and, being the nostalgia guy he is, would bring it back to its old heritage and restore its once-mighty image. Helping matters was that Gabbert, who is politically conservative, used to do a lot of fill-in at KGO and was hip to its previous glory days. It would cost a few millions to restore a little old KGO magic but certainly Gabbert had the juice and moxie.
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| James Gabbert and a dog |
I don't know why. Gabbert is into airplanes and investments. He's 82 now but still quite cogent and alert. He still has well over $500 million in the bank, according to those in the know. Maybe he wants to die rich.
Rich, I don't know anyone that still listens to radio. If anything, Sirus XM, which includes NPR, CNN, FOX radio. Local news radio is dead, just like music.
ReplyDeleteGabbert is a smart businessperson. Why on earth would he invest in a dying medium - local terrestrial radio?
ReplyDelete1) Celeste is a great person and doesn't need the money. She just loves the media like a lot of us. She has seen the inside and knows the idiocy of Bay Area media as well as anyone.
ReplyDelete2) When you are rich you don't buy things with your own money. Peope with money understand this. KGO has no sellable value for buyer or seller. They're doomed.
The only way KGO Radio has any chance of a return to the "glory years" is if Cumulus sells the station for one dollar. Much like newspapers (Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times). They sold for very little money to deep pocket people who were willing to invest in people and content while withstanding a couple of years of losses.
ReplyDeleteIf one were to buy KGO for a dollar, sizable sums would need to be invested in moving and rebuilding studios, renovating their transmitter/transmission systems, hired the right people withe the right format, and advertise everywhere including TV, billboards and the internet.
A daunting task!
Will that happen in my lifetime? I doubt it.
I can't even see KOFY on my over the air TV. No signal
ReplyDeleteRich, fer fuck's sake---read what you wrote. Gabbert buys stations for a million and sells them for $300 million. He's not gonna buy KGO, sink a bunch of money into fixing it up and then sell it for less, which is the fate of pretty much any AM station.
ReplyDeleteWhich is also why nobody's buying 610 and turning it back into something.
Gabbert is self-centered and pompous....talks almost solely about himself and the property and airplanes he owns.....please keep him off the air.....but - having said that - he's not stupid. NO one in his right mind would buy KGO...
ReplyDeleteKGO isn't quite dead yet... a beaten down shadow of its' former self, but it still gets listeners, even during the odious paid programming.
ReplyDelete@725am is somewhat correct; someone would need to put a lot of juice into rebuilding and promoting it to restore it to its' glory days. If we could get Cumulus and Clear Channel (iHeart) to disgorge some of their assets, radio would start to get interesting again; as long as 2 bankrupt companies control 80% of the stations, nothing much is going to happen.
Enter someone creative with some fresh ideas, some community-engagement, some guts and yes some dollars, and it could still be a powerhouse and could even start to generate serious revenue. We are unlikely, however, to see that under current management.
Does anybody have any charity stories about Mr. TV20? It sounds as if Gabbert is so miserly he would make Scrooge blush. Then again, I'm not sure Gabbert would ever make an idiot out of himself like Worse-than-Scrooge-in-Chief already has.
ReplyDeleteBecause he doesn't need the tsuris, that's why.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who's worked with or known Celeste will say the same thing: She's a joy to be around. Absolutely genuine!
ReplyDeleteExcuse me while I pick up my jaw which dropped and fell to the floor. $500 million?!? How much does it take to purchase a radio station?
ReplyDeleteSomething I didn't realize until I looked it up: not too long ago, KOFY vacated 2500 Marin St. in the Bayview (its home, I believe, since KEMO first went on the air 50 years ago) and moved to San Rafael, off Francisco Blvd in the Canal area. I don't know if their new facilities are big enough to record Dance Party. I know Celeste Perry seems like the only on-air personality nowadays. Has Granite whittled KOFY's resources down to Celeste and a couple of spare parts?
ReplyDelete