That BIZARRO, grating, spectacularly AWFUL overnight voice/anchor on KCBS is so bad/awful, I had to keep listening. I'm a glutton for punishment.
Do this: pretend you're reading copy, any copy, and read it with a grin on your face while you laugh. Do it. That's Alisa Clancy reading the news. It's crazy. It's mass-irritating. Oh, and it sounds like shit. For all I know, KCBS is playing a joke on us --how can this be happening?
I heard Clancy on KCSM in the morning. For a jazz outlet with a quirky sound, she's fine. On a news station (allegedly) she is terrible. Her voice is awful. Her awkward laughs and giggles aside sound simply out of place. And I'm being kind.
*KCBS runs REPEATS, actually, the SAME story at least, by my count, six-seven times every day. On Saturday morning, it was much the same. And it wasn't even a rewrite, it was just the same. I understand TSL models; I know about people leaving; KCBS takes it to the extreme.
*What I already knew was confirmed to me by a few reputable sources: KCBS is going to the KTVU model. They're utilizing the rotating-anchor process in the morning. It's cheaper than hiring a permanent replacement for Stan Bunger, who retired almost a year ago. They've been trotting out everyone under the sun and that is why there's a new voice every other week.
They've been using business anchor, Jason Brooks (Peter Brady on steroids) for the past three weeks. Brooks is not ready for prime time. How cheap is Audacy? While anchoring the morning news, Brooks was told to do his business report. What a travesty.
*Here's the deal. KCBS people know the station sounds like shit, and yet the suits carry forward. The traffic/sports MGR who's in charge of operations, Don Bastida (no relation to Ken) has, according to a source, no clue on how to direct. The ND, incompetent Jennifer Seelig, presides as if she knows the big boys won't dare touch her. And they won't.
Meanwhile, KCBS is a joke, a mess of a station, a rotting corpse of what it once used to be.
They're running promos now: "we're the #1 news station in the Bay Area"--you're the only news station in the Bay Area!
*A hallmark station that is being run into the ground needs a better set of managers. The current crop of morons have no business letting this legacy outlet become what it's become. The current people couldn't lead a sailor to a strip club. The inmates are running the asylum. It's a disgrace.
It's a TOTAL ABOMINATION.
Pass the chicken soup.
I was listening to KCBS and heard their (I think new) business approach, getting their business news from the local Bloomberg Radio station. So they are just taking content from other stations like you said instead of hiring their own people. I like business news but KCBS is failing in that area so why not farm it out from somewhere else on the cheap. Not a good look for a once interesting station with huge ratings.
ReplyDeleteYeah Rich, I was just going to say to you...didn't Alisa Clancy retire from KCSM? I thought they threw an on-air retirement party for her a few months back. And while she was excellent on KCSM (she knows her sh[t when it comes to jazz and blues- her knowledge is formidable), I can't imagine her reading the news on KCBS. Man, I didn't hear her but that must have sounded like fingernails scraping a chalkboard. Brutal.
ReplyDeleteShe was forced out by the station management There's an interview with her about it somewhere on the interwebs. She was treated pretty badly, at least from her perspective.
DeleteThe interview is with Andrew Gilbert 6/28/21: https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/kcsms-alisa-clancy-signs
DeleteOy vey! Off to the deli!
ReplyDeleteyes u tried to listen to Kurtenbach but that constant chattern under the mike when hes talking to someone, 2 people crawling over each oter. had to turn it off, ---checked back later and it's stil ''uh huh um yeah sure! yea''.like he doesent notice it-the ''other'' guy did and he noticed Kurtenbach not letting him finish.
ReplyDeleteRich,
ReplyDeleteYou "HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD" thank you for putting my exact thoughts in writing.
"KCBS runs REPEATS, actually, the SAME story at least, by my count, six-seven times every day."
ReplyDeleteKTVU does that every *hour.*
KCBS still has great ratings. They have always run half hour cycles of the news of the day. It has always repeated many of the earlier stories, adding others and dropping some as is required. The whole point is that you can pick up the news, reliably , every half hour. It's a news station.
ReplyDeleteYEP!!
DeleteFriends, it's the only game in town when it comes to news. What a surprise that it gets "great ratings." It sucks. It's a shell of what it used to be. Get your heads out of your butts.
DeleteYou acknowledge, 12:20, that I was correct is stating a fact, that they have great ratings, still and yet. I made no assertion that they were perfect or didn't have talent issues, merely that they had great ratings and still do half hour complete news cycles like they always have. You are imagining I asserted something I did not. Remove your own arse from your conjoined head.love, 10:57
DeleteKCBS is only good for one thing, the hourly national CBS News report
ReplyDeleteSorry to burst another bubble, but even the CBS Net hourlies have deteriorated in recent years. Nothing more than a headline service, a sentence or two and onto the next story. They've also trimmed 20 seconds off their primary 3 minute news block with the canned intro and 10 second mini-spot at the end, so 3 minutes is now 2:40 or so. It's not much better than the ABC hourlies, and a pale shadow of what NPR airs at the top of each hour.
DeleteThe hourly national news, which used to be flawless and go back to the storied days of Edward R. Murrow, now suck suck SUCK. Flubs, wrong facts, anchors who sound like broadcasting students. Hardly any content--a sentence or two on each story, all of which you can get my logging into Google or Yahoo News and glancing at the headlines down the page...which is probably how they compile them. Sad sad sad.
DeleteYou're right, the hourly news has gone down in quality. The last great anchor who passed away was the late Christopher Glenn. He was amazing!
DeleteDavid Hollander hates taxes,but steve Moskowitz LOVES taxes..I want kcbs to pair them up weekdays at 725,825 and 925 traffic and weather to follow..
ReplyDeleteI'm now with Bloomberg 960. Not great coverage in south bay, but, just stream it. Lots of grown ups there.
ReplyDeleteI am with Bloomberg 960 now too. Love it actually. Like you said, it is run by adults. I don't understand much of what they are talking about when they talk stocks, but their traffic is great and no commercials. They are pretty easy on the ear and don't piss me off when I am driving. KGO and KCBS got my blood pressure up, now I drive calmer. But, I hear they have the horrible A's on there so that is a big minus.
DeleteOne SURE way to improve KCBS is to take Lisa Chan OFF the air! She is the absolute worst....she has NO IDEA what she's doing, and she sounds TERRIBLE on the air! Rotate her OUT!
ReplyDeleteRIGHT ON @945. She has no clue. Her sound levels were off AGAIN today. What a surprise. Might as well get a network feed. It can't be any worse. Glad I have satellite radio. I only listen to KCBS at the top of the hour for news headlines. Can't take it after that.
DeletePer her Facebook page, Clancy has been at KCBS since December.
ReplyDeleteClancy, while knowledgeable about jazz, was just as annoying at KCSM, constantly giggling and laughing. She seemed to find herself very amusing and entertaining, while I certainly did not. In that mode, she managed to get away with it, but I can't imagine how KCBS could allow her to do that in a more serious format, or would even have hired her in the first place. I'm sure they could have found an intern who could do better, since she comes across as buffoonish at best.
ReplyDeleteI found your post because I was wondering why they were rotating the anchors. It drives me crazy. I like the confort of knowing what voice I will hear when most of the time. I actually liked Jason Brooks anchoring with Holly Kwon, but he was rotated out again. This must be so degrading for the hard-working people who work there, and not great for the listeners. We can only hope management reads this site.
ReplyDelete