KGO Radio's Biggest Obstacles: Non-Performing Talkers in Morning and Afternoon Drive; Lousy Nikki Medoro and Ill-Suited John Rothmann; 415 Media Diner

KGO RADIO is mostly crappy because its AM and PM drive shows are terrible and unlistenable--which is why NO ONE listens to KGO and why it's about to go to brokerville.

I've tried to listen to Nikki Medoro time and time again. She simply can't carry a program. Part of it is her, part of it is having a lousy producer. A good producer can make a crummy talk-show host sound great, above average but Medoro has nothing. Inside station contacts have told me various KGO personnel has tried to talk to Medoro about various tweaks to her show and offered advice on how to run a smoother program; topics, pace, calls, interview ideas, etc. but to no avail. Medoro doesn't want to, apparently, listen to ideas on ways to improve her show or provide air to her four hours. Unless of course it involves talking anout lame Facebook minutiae or her kids, which she refers to every five minutes.

Medoro, say KGO brass, has decent ratings, especially men, but that's negligible because her female audience is nowhere to be found. That's right, you'd think a 40-something woman would have a good following amongst her peers but that's not the case. Women don't especially like Medoro, at least the few that actually listen to KGO and are not fixated on their IPhones or tune out AM radio like everyone else on the planet.

Morning drive radio is important to the bottom line because its time slot caters to the bulk of where advertisers pay top money. It also sets the tone for the rest of the day, good or bad. Since Medoro's numbers are so poor, she doesn't lend any help for the rest of the day's pickings which need a lot of help.

Her idea of topics are ludicrous. Just this morning she focused a good twenty minutes on the cost of parking. Parking. Real topical. For god's sake, parking? Then she morphed from that to transsexual athletes. It helped explain why I can't stomach her show because it's really mostly lame with a capital L. How do you captivate an audience when what you talk about isn't interesting and provides ZERO feedback? You don't. And not only do you have no help from a producer, you have to rely on measely, low-energy, alleged side-kick, the disaster known as Bret Burkhart, who thinks his colonoscopy precedure interests other people.

Medoro isn't terrible, just not very good. She talks about the same thing every day. The show isn't crisp and doesn't have any ebb or flow. Medoro would make a good #2 and could be a valuable asset to a stronger lead voice but KGO thought she could be a hit, solo. No can do. It's rather obvious and the numbers (or lack thereof) don't lie.

*Entering the third month of his 4-7 PM time slot, John Rothmann is out of his element. He too can't handle drivetime radio. It's actually a cluster-phuck, Rothmann's attempt to be able to chat about various talk-show, pop culture ideas has failed, miserably. It now borders on downright idiocy and unintentional laughter.

Someone at KGO, probably his producer, told Rothmann to talk about the Super Bowl halftime show. Ok, a good idea only one thing: Rothmann had no idea what he was talking about. His want to attract a more younger audience and not the 70 year-old white guys that call him is good. But when you try to make it sound as if you're a regular, constant rap music fan, then your cred flies out the door. Such was the case on Monday.

Rothmann doesn't know sports very well and it showed when he tried to talk about the 49ers during their playoff run. It was downright painful to listen to.

Rothmann should stick to politics and presidents which he does know well and for which I applaud his keen observations, for the most part. He drives me nuts with his tired "outrage" and "appauling" rants --that are comically aired with false bravado. Every injustice is OUTRAGEOUS!and APPAULING!in Rothmann's mind. I've put up with it because I generally like his analysis but Rothmann's fake emotion, mostly a desire to bait and entertain Trumpers, is no longer worth the time and effort.

Rothmann is a night guy, he's not a drive time host. To his defense, it's not his fault. He was placed at 4-7 because KGO had to can Chip Franklin, who was much better in that role. Franklin, sure, could be annoying at times but he could walk and chew gum at the same time. He could interview media culture critics for fifteen minutes and then talk about sports. He moved the show along and he was good topical listening.

Rothmann can talk politics and he knows the Middle East but he's not a pop culture guy and he doesn't know how to pace. An hour of Jan Wahl doesn't move the needle. (For that matter, a mili-second of Wahl is too much time). Rothmann has some sort of Wahl fetish because he has her on almost every day.

This is no knock on Rothmann, he simply isn't capable to work the PM drive. That requires the proper person. KGO (Cumulus) can't afford to pay someone who knows what they're doing.

Sad but true.