Nikki Medoro acted as stooge for Cumulus when she told everyone at the meeting at the cluster not to worry. Medoro was first to get her severance check.
Mark Thompson is livid because he knows I KNOW he was last on the microphone and acted sheepish when they advised to announce a guest and pause.
Another stooge for the cloud company and all-willing to pretend he was unaware of what was about to take place.
Smell the coffee, Mark.
*A veteran KGO talk host got a couple weeks vacation dough while a less-tenured guy got six weeks. You think these guys are swell? That's all you need to know about Cumulus.
And another, you KGO folks from the old days who have reunions and talk shit on Facebook with your cute, little, BS meetings so you can kiss up to the phonies--I have NO use for you. You're all a bunch of wusses and kiss-asses, including you morons who worked at KGO post 2011.
*To Mickey Luckoff: respect your history as the architect who crafted KGO and made it great.
But you're still a nasty man with grudges and eternal stick up your ass and along with Jack Swanson, made life tough for some people. It'll be in the book.
Dear Mr. Swanson, with all the good, there was a lot of bad.
*Oh Mickey, the Tom Snyder story is great. He could have kicked your ass.
*A quick Luckoff story: after the first massacre in 2011, Luckoff met with CBS brass in NY and pitched the idea of an FM property in SF formatting old KGO hosts. CBS liked the idea but had no confidence in Luckoff so the idea was turned down. Money wasn't an issue --CBS wasn't impressed with Mick's plan.
So Mickey, Ronnnnn beat you in arbitration and CBS told you to take a hike.
There is a god.
Saw Swanson a few times in public, not sure if he had allergies or no,t but eyes always looked red and swollen, like a boozer. No idea if he was or not. For certain, Melanie Morgan could have done better.
ReplyDeleteIs the guy on the right in that picture one of the villains from a Die Hard movie?
ReplyDeleteWho gives a shit about Nikki. She spent years with Chimp mocking and ridiculing basically half of the country. Karma is a bitch, bitch.
ReplyDeleteSo I assume then that you have similar feelings for all the hosts of KSFO?
DeleteDoes this mean no more of Nikki’s queefs and she blames the dog?
DeleteRemember when Nikki joined with the other ladies on that release and tried to have you cancelled?
ReplyDeleteKGO and the stooges deserve what they got! They knew it was coming. Once again.. Stupid people wearing blinders and avoiding the obvious signs of their impending demise. Now you tell me these idiots were fighting over who gets strapped into the electric chair first? Good riddance! Learn to swing from a brass pole or deal dope in the Loin!
ReplyDeleteCBS made a big mistake. The best radio ever was under Mickey's tutelage and you know it.
ReplyDeleteJust read a LA Times article mentioning KGO. They quoted Pat Thurston this past Monday from a Twitter chat in which she states another direction that Cumulus was thinking. Her quote from a Cumulus manager "We could make a lot of money doing infomercials, and it would be the easiest way to do it." (Referring to turning KGO to a 24/7 "all infomercial" station. Perhaps that will be next once this "spread" fails to spread.
ReplyDelete"We could make a lot of money doing onlyfans".
DeleteSince the announcement of KGO's demise there have on this blog and others been so many meanspirited comments. I understand that KGO, or at least some of the hosts, were not your cup of tea, but people lost their jobs, and the community lost a radio station that had been part of their daily routine for years. Why the need to gloat and being mean about it? I never cared for Rush Limbaugh, but I certainly didn't take any pleasure in his cancer diagnose and later death. Isen't is possible to disagree with someone without calling them morons and idiots? Those of you say karma got the hosts from KGO, you might have some karma coming to you.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure what Rich’s beef with Thompson is. If Mark was told before the others, before he went on the air so he could give the final sign-off, what friggin difference does it make?
ReplyDeleteWhat is he supposed to have done in Rich’s mind? Should Mark have shouted into the microphone the insurrection cry that always opened up Thurston’s show: “No justice, no peace!”?
I heard a clip of the final seconds of Mark Thompson. Very awkward. "Uhhhmm, Duh, something is happening in the studio... This is KGO a Cumulus radio station."
ReplyDeleteThat's it Mark? At least push back a little and show a LITTLE bit of outrage. Say something like, "Well, I am being told to take a break. Don't know why..."
Instead, some exec whispered in his ear to cut, and Mark complied like a corporate kiss-ass.
Wow. That is so EVIL. Nikki acted like a stooge while all her co-workers were about to get axed. You know the type. The one that helped open the doors for fellow prisoners at concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteSuch sweet memories...remember Owennns trash talking the SAG/AFTRA union? Used to do it quite regularly. Until he was put on a leash for 5 minutes a day. So for the last year or two he didn't have much to say about the union - now he's enjoying his pension and health benefits, but I'm sure he still worships the new and better 810...
ReplyDeleteafter the first massacre in 20112 [2012], .
ReplyDeleteJust curious - how do you know that CBS-New York liked the idea??
ReplyDeleteCBS liked the idea but had no confidence in Luckoff so the idea was turned down. Money wasn't an issue --CBS wasn't impressed with Mick's plan.
Yes the bashing of the former KGO and it's hosts is a bit off putting. They're all human after all. They had to try to string together programming that was somewhat entertaining and informative on a shoestring budget. Asking nearly the impossible. As someone else said, we need some tech millionaire to step up and finance a new progressive radio station for the Bay Area. These techies have all benefited from the rich culture of this area and need to give back. Having no progressive voice in the area is sin and will diminish it's vitality.
ReplyDeleteWhat is with this "Bay Area needs a progressive station" crap?
DeleteWhen KGO was most successful it had plenty of conservative hosts: Jim Eason, Dr Bill, Savage and Lee Rodgers. As well as moderate hosts: Gene Burns, Pete Wilson, Ronnnn. It was far from a progressive station. Also note that the progressives Bernie and Ray were on in the middle of the night when the audience was smallest.
How about a mix of moderate, progressive and conservative. I'm mostly middle of the road democrat, but the most conservative hosts these days seem extreme right wing. Gene, Ronn, Pete and even Dr. Bill was liberal when it came to social issues, gays, abortion etc.
DeleteThank you for the links.
ReplyDeleteI just looked and Nikki is already on there with Mark. So both Mark and Nikki now have Youtube shows. While I didn't mind Mark, I would rather be forced to listen to a 24 hour loop of Pat, Christine and Hillary cackling nonstop than ever click on Nikki's Youtube page.
Is the recent format change at KGO just a ruse? Maybe the actual management objective is something completely different? Seems hard to believe the sports-betting theme could ever be successful. If the new KGO were to broadcast sports games, pro and college, that weren't available elsewhere on the radio dial, that could conceivably be successful. But a primary theme of sports betting? No, that topic can never draw enough listeners to justify a 50K watt AM station's operating budget. Common sense says there's gotta be something else in the works. Maybe the plan is to move the KSFO content to 810, and move the sports betting to KSFO's previous low wattage frequency?
ReplyDeleteAgree I posted the comments at 12:44. Just listened to 2 hours of the hosts, producers and listeners on twitter hosted by Mark, it helped a little, explained more in details what happened and why. I'm not sure I agree with Rich on his take on Mark after listening to it, he could be right, but it doesn't really matter much in the long run, does it? Where will we turn when something catastrophic happens, like the fires, or mass shootings. Not only will I miss the hosts (or most of them) but also Alex Stone's news reports. I know KCBS will cover main stories, but there are no calls from listeners, that sometime have more information than the reporters, because they are right in the thick of it.
ReplyDelete"Not only will I miss the hosts (or most of them) but also Alex Stone's news reports." What news reports? If you are talking about the hourly ABC news reports, I found those 5 minute reports to be totally useless and intrusive. If I want news, I will go to CBS. I don't need hourly ABC news interrupting the KGO programming. There are enough commercials as it is. Dump the network news.
DeleteAlex Stone did more than 5 minutes news, sometime he did national news, but he also did stories for KGO that was of special interest to the Bay Area and California
DeleteWondering if the mp3 audio files will made available for download? For those who are unable to watch via utube, but would be happy to download some mp3's and listen later on a portable podcast gadget.
ReplyDeleteI'm not defending Cumulus, but I understand why they dumped KGO and flipped to gambling. I don't agree with it but it looks like they had no options. I'm trying to think what other format works as "spoken word" AM radio. News is too expensive for them, and they already tried and failed. Leasing the station to a religious broadcaster is an option, but Jesus already owns and operates 610 and 1000 AM. Spanish? The problem there is that when new immigrants become permanent, they switch to English, and all-Spanish broadcasters are trying to figure out what their next act will be. Financial radio is an option, but Bloomberg is doing a good job of that. Conservative talk is fading away. KSFO's numbers aren't much better than those of KGO's. Liberal talk doesn't make money. If it did, it would make money here. Not enough interest by listeners who have public stations that do it better. Sports was really their only option, though it's bound to cannibalize the KNBR audience. It's also unclear to me who will advertise locally on "The Spread." We have three or four card rooms in the Bay Area, only one of which advertises sporadically, but not on radio (Matrix). There are a couple of hour-away tribal casinos, but only Graton advertises. I can't think of any other products that want to be associated with gambling, certainly not cars, housing or health care. I guess the Cumulus plan is to go national with a gambling network, and chase dollars from A-list national advertisers. But you don't hear any of them on the national sports-talk networks now, so I'm doubting Toyota or Proctor & Gamble will buy time on "The Spread" national. I don't think resurrecting KGO, with the politically balanced approach it had pre-2011, would fly with the money people, who would say, "How long until this makes money? We were losing 20K a week on the previous KGO talk format!" And KGO's reputation was tarnished since 2011. Such a station would have a better chance of succeeding if it made a clean break from the past, and it would need to be simulcast on FM and AM, and SirusXM if possible.
ReplyDeleteif your theory is correct, how is kfi still at the top of the ratings in los angeles and very profitable?
DeleteWhere is Mal Sharpe, “the Man on the Street”, when we most need him? He was brilliant, hilarious, and just plain fun. Nobody today can hold a candle to him, sad to say.
ReplyDeleteThe greatness of Mal Sharpe was that he never took anything too seriously, most prominently himself. That's a lost art. It was for fun.
DeleteMark Thompson is a blow hard coward he absolutely could have said something before the show went dark. Listen to the post mortem show he barley let the ex employees talk give it up weather douche. The poor producer who ever she was is trying to get a letter writing campaign going.Look it’s over embrace your insignificance!!!
ReplyDeleteOK, so what I've gathered from you and many others on this site, is that nearly every person in local radio is an arrogant, back stabbing, conniving, self centered, blow hard, jerk. Seems to me, that people are just looking for controversy and a reason to hate. Yes, I'm sure they all have faults and are concerned for their own welfare. However, I doubt they are the devil in disguise. Give it a break....
DeleteEven if Thompson had said something it never would have aired. There is a delay and the engineers would have cut it.
DeleteCumulus replaced his engineer for the final show
Delete810 AM is now merely another frequency to be deleted in my vehicles' radios.
ReplyDeleteso the suits didnt trust the guy who kept kgo at number one?
ReplyDeletei love the constant bashing on the politics of the hosts....which means the bashers were listening....and that is the point.
talk radio pioneer, joe pyne, learned very quickly that to engage the audience, you have to make them angry.
a given in the radio industry is format changes.
but usually, these changes are organic.
the reason people are upset about what happened to kgo is that it wasnt organic...cumulus killed the station
they killed it in 2011, then spent the next 11 years keeping it preserved, until they could cremate it and roll around in it's ashes
As predicted, the tax man cometh,Mousey Moskovitz apparently is backing this new kgo in exile..he already did two "interviews" with mark thompson,and mark went into his brown nosing mode about how wonderfull steve is for doing this
ReplyDeletealready deleted KGO from the car radio and added KFBK
ReplyDeleteIf you want to blame someone locally who has done Cumulus’ bidding, first at KNBR and then at KGO, Look no further than that lapdog- idiot Lee Hammer. The only reason he ever got a job and kept it with Cumulus was because he knew he couldn’t cut it anywhere else. The guy is a soulless jerk who is also one of the most disingenuous people in a once respected profession. It would be appropriate if he were thrown out on the street like so many of the on-air employees he no doubt told: “we have to let you go, we’re h”changing our format to a bright new exciting one! We’re gonna call it “ The Spread KGO 719 AM. Pardon us Kes, while we all upchuck! .
ReplyDelete