*Larry Baer, Bill Neukom and the Giants hierarchy held a dog and pony press conference Thursday, explaining the ouster of Neukom as Managing General partner. Most of the assembled masses bought it, hook, line, and sinker. What a farce.
The official line was that Neukom was about to retire anyway, (sure, after Mark Purdy of the Merc broke the story that essentially said Neukom was told to take a hike by the other investors). And you know, yeah, I'm sure the Neuk guy wants to "retire" just after his team wins a World Series.
Classic Larry Baer. A guy who once worked for CBS chairman, Larry Tisch. The consummate politician--hell, there was even talk years back that Baer might run for SF mayor. Baer is slick. Good slick, if you're a Giants fan. It was Baer, after all, that was the key figure in getting the new ballpark built, give him that. He's a great company man and knows how to play the game.
He's also a crafty technician and plays the local sports scribes like Pearlman plays the violin. I wish someone would try to call him out and put him on the grill. Even the Amici's soul on Knibber has chided his good friend for his other side. But Amici's man will never step to the plate because he doesn't want that coveted AT&T yard parking pass revoked.
Bottom line is Baer as CEO will probably mean very little change on the field. The Giants will continue to make globs of money and Knibber and Comcast will continue their financially-glorious incestuous relationship. That is, until beer costs $20 and the Giants battle for fourth place sometime in the near future.
*KGO Radio as Cumulus property officially took place Thursday. The immediate situation? Nothing the casual listener will notice. Lots of rumors swirling. Ray Taliaferro, approaching age 72 about to leave. Ronn Owens, January 2013, (when his personal services contract expires--he makes a shade over a million bucks), retires, or decides to take a buyout.
One thing for sure. There will be a dramatic shift in programming, particularly in weekend programming. As stated here, expect a plethora of syndicated and re-run weekend programming. The news dept. will be slashed. Cumulus CEO, Lew Dickey, (Tricky Dickey) has already begun to look at implementing mass de-emphasis of local content. That's not only mean and lean. It's pure Dickey brothers SOP and it will never, ever be more apparent at KGO Radio.
*Word at KTVU is that veteran reporters are put off by the new "high-pitch, high-energy" style of the recent newbie hires. Management wants more up-tempo and flair. Sounds fairly reasonable but why mess with the system if it ain't broken? KTVU News doesn't have the dominance in the early evening, but still rules at 10 PM. Even at that, the Cox-owned Oakland Fox aff makes millions of dollars even in a depressed economy.
*The all-star trifecta of SF streets reporters: KTVU's Rita Williams, KCBS' Barbara Taylor and Bob Melrose.
*Growing on me: KCBS' financial reporter, Jason Brooks.
*Overrated 101A: KQED's pretentious foodie phony, "Check Please." Good intentions? Sure. But the "regular folks" fawning faint praise over local restaurants smacks of sheer commercialism. (And future KQED donors--OK, call me a cynic.)
*Ray Ratto on radio. Just as bad as Ray Ratto on cable. And the doom and gloom shtick jumped the shark many moons ago.
*Interesting. The "Insiders" on Comcast and 95.7 FM didn't have a clue on the Neukom story and got punched in the gut by a mere local columnist, Mark Purdy. Yeah, "Insiders", my tuchas.
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TIPS/Inter-office memos/E-mail: Rich.Lieberman@Gmail.com (All confidentiality assured)
Showing posts with label 415 Media Friday Media Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 415 Media Friday Media Notes. Show all posts
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