One of the various posers at current KGO mentioned "how great we are." Really? Are you serious? Unfortunately, no they're not. KGO is about as great as a Petuluma 7-11.
If Ray Taliaferro were alive, he'd call all of you out. He'd castigate the entire outfit (with the exception of Pat Thurston, who has some backbone)--he'd rail on the entire Cumulus clown show and make mincemeat of the latest bozo execs that killed KGO and turned it into the crapper it's become--because Ray had stones. Sur
Oh god, what Ray would say.
Dunbar, Wygant, Blue, Spann, Eason... The list goes on and on. What's on there now can't even touch what these people brought to the party. It's the difference between true professionals and amateurs who think they're professionals.
ReplyDeleteSleepless nights listening to RT.
ReplyDeleteWrong! KGO's current revenue is shadow of what used to be, they would never be able to afford all that talent. It's revenue and P&L results that are driving KGO's programming. You could hire make all of the old KGO talent at their old rate of pay and reveue wouldn't never increase enough to cover the cost. Internet, blogs, 24/7 news cycle, times change...
ReplyDeleteGo to an airport and watch people. Everyone is staring at a device. No engaging conversation. Dulled senses and lazy. This what this country has become. There are no more Unicorns, just a grand parade of lifeless packaging mailing it in.
ReplyDeleteTimes have changed...and they would've changed, too...after realizing that talk radio has drastically changed. Those old goats were comfortable railing out because they knew they were at the top of their industry...because lots of people were listening.
ReplyDeleteNot anymore. The industry is now automated and money-conscious. I think they'd be smart enough to know not to bite the hand that feeds them. Worse yet, other than Taliaferro, they'd all be on the pro-Trump/anti-Newsome bandwagon.
No...no...I don't miss them.
I surely do miss the old KGO. Owens, Burns, Tillem, Hamilton, Wilson. Did not agree with them much of the time but listened every day.
ReplyDeletethen pay their salaries, no way does KGO these days eran enough dough to pay those cats
DeleteTaliaferro'a show was truly awful. One long speech, no entertainment value, nothing compelling, just boring. I once asked a KGO guy why this hack had a show. He said it didn't matter because the overnight shift wasn't measured in the ratings books and this allowed Micky Luckoff to tell the FCC and EEOC that 21% of the station's broadcast day had an African American host. Because of that Talliaferro was worth his weight in gold to KGO.
ReplyDeleteHe was interesting enough to keep me up too often.
DeleteI remember Ray Taliaferro very well from the old days and he was OK where they had him on the graveyard shift. I don't think he could have carried a show during the 6AM to 10PM hours. I'm a progressive Democrat and I thought Taliaferro was my least favorite of the old time KGO talk show hosts. The current John Rothmann and Pat Thurston are better than he was.
ReplyDeleteRay was always a gentleman and would address callers in a civil manner.
ReplyDelete"Sir, sir, sir, you ignorant fool"
HaHaHa!!!
DeleteKGO was a monster in the Bay Area radio market, but sadly, it really didn’t matter the Cumulus bought them and downsized them. Kids today, and I mean anyone under the age of 30 does not listen to the radio anymore. They all stare at their phones, and go to their favorite websites or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or they text or take pictures of themselves or look at some shabby stories about the vapid lcelebrities who are dysfunctional and irrelevant. That’s why this country is so effed up today. People don’t get spent any time learning how to think critically. They let the Internet and cell phones do everything for them. A bunch of zombies. This country is going to to hell in a handbasket because people like Trump use the Internet to spread their disinformation and hate and lies, and a lot of stupid, ignorant people don’t go to credible news sources anymore. It’s all about ‘entertainment.’ In Ancient Rome, they called it ‘bread and circuses’ and it led to the downfall of their empire, just as cell phones and Social media is leading to the downfall of our once great country. It has ruined our industry. But people who are addicted to cell phones don’t care, They are more interested in watching Johnny Depp lawsuit proceedings and they are learning about what is really going on in this country. Sad!
ReplyDeleteRay did electrical work in his spare time, did you know that?
ReplyDelete12:36 nailed it. Ray served a purpose in the license and station renewal, that’s where it ended. He was the weakest link, and never promoted because he wasn’t good enough to be prime time.
ReplyDeletethere was nothing weak about Ray.. He must have gotten under your skin with too much truth. He was way too volatile and not at all an ass-kisser, which was why he wasn't on in the daytime.
DeleteAt least the Petaluma7-11 has fresh coffee at 3AM
ReplyDeleteThe latest execs didn’t kill KGO, the Dickey Brothers killed KGO overnight because they “don’t cater to ego”. It’s very difficult to finance a successful talk station once you’ve killed the ratings. Without a significant financial investment, it’s a catch-22 situation between low ratings and low revenue.
ReplyDeleteRay had a better way to deal with problem-callers than the current KGO talk-show hosts. Problem-callers are those who attempt to divert to a different topic; or who over-talk the host; who attempt to run the clock out; are impertinent, etc. What Ray did in that situation, instead of hanging up, Ray would say "since you refuse to be polite, I'll have to pipe you down" . The caller's voice would quickly diminish to inaudible, giving Ray an opportunity to voice his own comments sans interruptions. Then Ray would turn the caller's voice back up. Sometimes the caller was still spewing forth, and would be immediately piped down again. But in many cases the problem caller would quickly realize their best bet to get their point of view out was to immediately stop their bad behavior. Something the station's current hosts might want to try.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he would have called on his "long time dear friends" steve moskovitz and kevin from anchor funding or consulted with joe starky and chip franklin about termites and rodents running around his home
ReplyDeleteKGO ratings in the toilet again
ReplyDelete"Well, sir... Well, sir (press dump button), you don't have the slightest idea of what you are talking about (que: 15+ rant/monologue)"... Biggest surprise of Ray's life was when he got dumped decades ago by KGO, and suddenly no longer had a bully pulpit... I remember when he tried out for KSCO (still have the recording), and he was shambolic!
ReplyDelete