Two Inspiring Ladies Behind the Anchor Desk at 'PIX; Goodrich and Cook; What's Not to Like? Thursday Open

Juliette Goodrich (left) and Elizabeth Cook

KPIX has a decision looming --who becomes the face of the station? I'm going out on a limb. I like a couple of underrated anchors both highly rated --one on the week night and one weekend lady I've often thought was under-utilized and should be on the 6 and 11 paired with....well, that's another decision for another time.

I'VE always loved Juliette Goodrich, smart as a whip and quite the visible personality I think PIX should immediately move to the anchor desk, it's right there in front of them. Even if I'm dreaming and pretending I'm the wizard behind the curtain, it boggles my mind why Goodrich has not been offered the fulltime Monday thru Friday gig. Maybe because she's comfortable in the field and not reading the teleprompter during the week. Can that be it? I don't have an answer there but I know business and KPIX should know business too. If they did, they'd immediately make Goodrich switch to primetime.

My thoughts on Liz Cook are completely different than her rep in the market. I like her. Yeah, so she's a little wooden and robotic but she's pleasant, she reads well and she has a nice look and delivery. If Liz were to open up more, she'd be a solid A, but why quibble now, we're in uncharted territory these days and I'm only here offering my opinion which I now you love and admire.

PIX has made some amazingly dumb decisions in the past. They will need to revamp and retool --if push came to shove and they paired Goodrich with Cook, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world and they'd probably get the entire PTA in Danville.

Yeah, two damsels not in distress but on the desk! It's not as radical as you may think. Girl power at 855 Battery, check me in. It's hella better than this!

Enough said. Grab your coffee and bagel and chew on it.

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Roberta Gonzales Back at KPIX? Maybe

Roberta Gonzales

ROBERTA BACK? Not Yet, But maybe. Maybe.

Roberta Gonzales, she of KPIX fame via the weather dept., would love the idea of returning to the CBS/SF 855 outpost. Her role? Probably same old weather but maybe more too. That remains to be seen.

The big story here is that Gonzales may be back at PIX but under her conditions. What's that? She is asked to come back. Or something to that effect.

Gonzales left PIX a few years back after 21 years to start up her own production company and shoot and perform her own private gig; it's been successful and Gonzales seems quite happy. But she loves the idea of coming back, especially to work in an environment where she can do so not in constant battle with the News Director. He's gone. Which might have accelerated the plan for her return to Battery.

STAY TUNED.

Storm Seriousness Highlights PIX Primary Weather Anchor Paul Deanno And He Steps Up To The Plate; 415 Media Tuesday

Paul Deanno/KPIX5

 I've slowly warmed to KPIX (CBS5) chief meteorologist,  Paul Deanno, but better late than never.

As the storm and ensuing rain events have hit the Bay Area en masse, the weather folks have become, in essence, as central as the news anchors.

The storm(s) are now news with major flooding in and around the nine-county Bay Area.

Deanno is smooth and steady; calm and collected too and what I like most about him is that even as the weather gets extreme, he doesn't. That's a big plus.

There is no on-air histrionics --there is accurate information, statistics and forecasts and Deanno doesn't miss a beat.

At first, I didn't like his ultra-smooth persona, I thought he was too slick. Then I was informed by a PIXie; someone who knows Deanno real well said what you see is the real Deanno, no fake or simpleton --sincerity counts a lot here.

I'm also impressed by Deanno's A-grade forecasts and explanation to non-weather geeks like me just how powerful a "storm surge" is, like the one that seems to have centered over the entire Bay Area and Northern California area.

Keep up the good work, sir.

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The Moment Of Reckoning At KPIX; 415 Media Tells It Like It Is; Blunt Force Analysis Of 855 Battery; The Real Thing You Won't Read Anywhere Else

 KPIX is at a pivotal point of time--its own moment of reckoning --and I say this matter of fact: The station has LOST ITS IDENTITY --wait a minute, KPIX HAS NO IDENTITY!

To be relevant to viewers, people have to care about the news anchors they are watching.  Nobody cares about KPIX --haven't cared for years. This is the point at PIX that has eluded its executives and is one of the main reasons why the CBS SF station has lost its mojo --if it ever had it to begin with you have to go back to the days of Dave McElhatton and Wendy Tokuda. That's a long time ago.


Today, PIX (Channel 5) is loaded with a bunch of bitter, no-talent, sub-prime news and sports anchors with a tremendous dose of blasé. There is NO there there. Nobody commands respect. The best talent, Ken Bastida, has been put out to pasture. Lost in the late-night abyss. Bastida should be on in primetime --everywhere. Allen Martin is a TOTAL failure. He doesn't warm the senses. He hardly smiles. Seriously, Martin sometimes gives the appearance he's having a colonoscopy on the air. That won't work to attract viewers, but Martin, unfortunately for PIX, is not alone.


Let's face it: The Veronica De La Cruz experiment is a bust! That's right, I said it. If De La Cruz put as much work into her news reading as she does with her hair and internet browsing, she'd be an extraordinary success. But she HAS NOT--(TRENDING!) De La Cruz looks completely LOST in space and often times sounds like a tortured canary. Please, GM Bruno Cohen and ND, Dan Rosenheim, something needs to be done here--trim the roster, cut your losses.


And what the hell is going on with Brian Hackney? Hey Brian, your pompousness has reached epic proportions! Hell, if you want to go audition for "60 Minutes", do us all a favor and get on the next red eye for JFK! You stink, Brian, that's right, I said it, you stink. Your air of superiority wreaks of cockiness run amuck --and get this? WHY? In order to pull off that bullshit you have to be someone, generate respect. Hackney, you come off as some dimwitted New Jersey public school teacher and I'm being kind. Go take a day off and try to reinvent yourself.


Then there's Ms. Prima Donna herself, Julie Watts--where do we begin? Honey, if your a consumer advocate I'm a stripper. It's not a pretty picture either way. Watts has all the warmth and gumption of an Oxnard Walmart clerk. "But she really works hard", I'm told by station staffers. So do humming birds in heat. Seriously, Watts is a complete tool and nobody takes her seriously --she ought to bunch up with Hackney and do Sunday community shows that no one watches--she's certainly not helping Monday through Friday.


And PLEASE, someone tell Dennis O'Donnell and Vern Glenn that this is NOT KRON in the 80's. Time passes, dudes. Just what the heck is going on in the sports dept? Dennis, we know you're a cute guy, we get it. But please, quit MUGGING the camera night in an night out--you're not Donny Osmond for heaven's sake. And Vern? Oh my god. Have you lost it, buddy? The copy shifting, the wink of the eye, the irritating-as-all-get-go frequent pregnant pauses --this is not good, Vern. You're beginning to act like some latent, Art Linkletter guy only this is 2015, Vern. Wake up and smell the teleprompter.


KPIX, you are a mess. I said what nobody will say. Management doesn't give a rat's ass, obviously, they're too busy drinking beers at Kokkari and staring at women's tits. Hey guys, the only reason you're in game is because New York only cares about the bottom line and, big deal, if I ran PIX, I too could maintain its profitability --better yet, I alone could make this chicken shit into chicken salad. You want proof? Ask the main man at Black Rock. Yeah, that guy!

The anchor who could not smile, Allen Martin

Seriously, now, PIX, your Moment of Reckoning has arrived only I'm not so sure many of you know it.






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Hey, Join The KPIX Weather Watchers So We Don't Have To Pay You, Dumbass

 KPIX has a great idea: "Join The PIX Weather Watchers"... Tracking The Bay Area’s Micro Climates. Wow, sounds groovy. Your chance to get on TV!

Translation: KPIX gets FREE content. FREE pictures. FREE video. We don't have to pay you, dumbass!

Checkmate.

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Radnich Play Book: Bring Up Controversial Topic Then Run Away; Notarangelo KPIX Split Inside; Matier Explores Giants-Warriors Situation; Morning Notes

 MORNING RUNDOWN


It's part of the Gary Radnich playbook: broach a subject matter on KNBR that doesn't possess your usual run of the mill standard sports-talk radio faire only Raddy just teases and moves forward.


Case in point, he sticks his nose out and defends Floyd Mayweather even though the excuse(s) don't measure up.


Raddy could have gone toe-to-toe with his co-hosts over this and callers too but he began to sound nervous and quickly ran away and went back to Warriors and Giants.


It wasn't just Monday.


Last week, shortly after the Bruce Jenner interview, he smugly told the audience: "This isn't 'sports-talk radio and we're not going to talk about this, but that Bruce Jenner deal--ok, Bruce had to do what he's doing and I'll just say, 'I don't need to know anymore. " Huh? So, Gary, then if it's not meant for sports-talk radio then why bring it up? I agree with Radnich that the whole Jenner deal was nothing more than major tabloid fare but Jenner's Olympics heroics in Montreal had a sports connection. Probably would have made for interesting caller feedback but Radnich pulled away.


Standard operating procedure. for Raddy.


*It would be perfectly normal if you were suspicious that ex-KPIX weekend Ann Notarangelo would walk away from a $175K a-year gig as weekend news anchor to work as the PR person for the Contra Costa County Welfare Dept.


Notarangelo lives in Concord and will be able to spend more time with her family but she's also taking a major pay cut. I do believe KPIX informed her that her contract wasn't going to be renewed and that she wasn't going to be in their long term plans.


*Phil Matier talks about the Giants development outside the ballpark and provides a Warriors connection. Don't tell me the Giants wouldn't care if the Warriors build their new arena nearby.


*Just a guess: Ex-KGO sports talkie, Kevin "The Rat" Radich will end up at KCBS in the afternoon, eventually.


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415 Media Friday; KPIX's Liz Cook Is Prego; Media Notes

 As some sage observer wryly pointed out to me, maybe "there's something in the water there"--in this case, it would be at 855 Battery: home to KPIX.

Another TV anchor is pregnant: Elizabeth Cook. Her first.

My 5 spy is everywhere.

Cook is part of "baby-talk central"--she joins Michelle Griego and Elizabeth Wenger, who are also expecting.

MEDIA NOTES FRIDAY

*Never met Erica Kato but by all accounts a really nice person and cheerful woman, KRON's loss, Erica, go out and breathe some fresh air.

*I have no idea how and why KSFO has been running old and outdated "Melanie Morgan--Brian Sussman promos." Morgan left the show back in July, 2013. I don't think they're coffee buddies, just a hunch.

*Desperate local weather people: "we can report some sprinkles are possible Sunday Night, but only a 10% chance and mostly in the North Bay." Thanks for providing us such informative updates. Fill more time.

*From a local radio broadcast observer about a certain painful, new local nighttime "talk-show": "It's bad when the show is merely awful and gets poor reviews--it's worse that it's so bad people just haven't even talked about it."

*Chip Franklin: started fast out of the gate but limped coming into the stretch.

*I would write more about FM radio in this town if their were something to write about other than Jack Kulp/KOIT and KCSM.

*Noted without comment: They were playing hip hop music under a concert tickets giveaway on the KGO Radio Morning News Friday.

*"I'm Jason Middleton, LIVE in the studio." As opposed to live from the parking lot. Thanks Jason.

*First known impression about the new Cumulus SF Cluster building on Battery: the coffee sucks.

*Voting for a union is one thing--negotiating a contract? Good luck.

*The only show on KPIX that did OK during sweeps was the noon news which has an older demo.

*Listen to a Savage monologue some day and understand why he's the best storyteller on radio. That doesn't mean you have to like him.

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Rich Lieberman

Girl Power at KPIX Rears Ugly Catfights; De La Cruz Diva at TV; Wahl-Taylor War at KCBS; Radio Hates TV; Drama at 855 Battery

 The continued CATFIGHTS at KPIX...astonishingly-- !! have begun to break out between PIX and radio sister, downstairs! at KCBS too! We already told you that Allen Martin still can't stand Elizabeth Cook and that weatherman Paul Deanno won't even look at Veronica De La Cruz! Real drama, ladies and gents! Girls Rule upstairs and downstairs --at least some do.

 

Veronica De La Cruz

Now we learn there's considerable tension between PIX and their CBS-owned radio relatives upstairs at 855 Battery--an uber-catfight supreme between the likes of Jan Wahl, Susan Leigh Taylor and other radio vets. The gals are aghast at the "royal treatment" by management toward some--but not others.

De La Cruz is at the center of the heat--PIX staffers are steamed that the "beauty anchor" and "hair goddess" (as she's been called) gets "star" treatment while less other glamorous women staffers are ignored.

"She's always touching her hair!--She never stops!", offered one disgruntled PIX source. "And she's always tweeting and going to her Facebook page--It's disgusting!"

Leigh Taylor in radio is supposedly irritated at movie critic Wahl's VIP status from management. Wahl does her movie reviews on Friday and barely pays attention to Taylor. All the while, Stan Bunger just gazes ahead-- It's a hodgepodge of "Girls Rule"--at Wahl's direction. Wahl has extreme power at KCBS and nobody seems to know why. Talk about mystery, this one could rival a Nancy Drew classic.

Meanwhile radio is also pissed at TV. Seems the TV divas and their dollar superiority has all of the radio folks quite unimpressed and disinterested --enough to the point of one staffer's suggestion: "Let's just kick their ass!" We assume this was a joke, but it isn't.

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Jan Wahl

855 Battery

KPIX Hires Joe and Jennifer Montana as Super Bowl 50/ NFL 2015 Season Contributors

 KPIX, which has begun pubbing Super Bowl 50 about a split second after the last one, has hired Joe and Jennifer Montana as "contributors" for the station's 2015 "Super Bowl" coverage" --not coincidentally, CBS, which owns KPIX, carries the game next year which will be played at Levi's Stadium.

In both his playing and non-playing days, Montana wasn't exactly a sound bite waiting to happen; let's just say even when he talked he didn't say much of anything which was (and still is) pretty much OK with Bay Area sports fans who still place Joe Montana in the permanent HOF charm department. Which presumably is the reason why KPIX went out and according to my station source, paid through the roof for Montana's gridiron growls.

Oh, and it probably helped too that Jennifer Montana worked as a contributor for KPIX News in the late 1980's.

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415 Media Exclu: Baby Bumps At KPIX Morning; Both Michelle Griego And Elizabeth Wenger Are Expecting

Elizabeth Wenger/CBS

Michelle Griego/CBS

  KPIX morning news anchor, Michelle Griego, and traffic gal, Elizabeth Wenger are pregnant --both announced their impending baby bumps to staff and my PIX spy got word of it.

Congratulations ladies: Is there something in the water at 855 Battery? (Extra kudos: both didn't announce it on the air--Amen.)

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Breaking: Layoffs at KPIX; Update

 KPIX layoffs ...

I'm hearing from a source it just broke late Wednesday and there's several Pixers who received pink slips. Must be quite a scene at Hunan.

It's across the board too, apparently concentrated to mostly off-air personnel.

Nevertheless something major has gone down at 855 Battery. We're on it.

***Developing...

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UPDATE: 9/11 --10:01 AM

I'm hearing it's editors --tape/online video editors who received pink slips from KPIX on Wednesday.

I'll update if I hear anything else.

Veronica De La Cruz Is Still MIA at KPIX and KPIX Is Mum; High-Profile Anchor Nearing One-Month Anniversary of No Show; Rumor Mill Heating Up

 Getting weirder by the day. Already the rumor mill is heating up.


Where is she? No one knows. Just what the hell is going on? We're hearing stories but nothing that hasn't been confirmed. It would be nice to know unless it was something really unusual and personal but so far that's not the case.


We think.


She was to have begun her anchor duties on May 5th. Next week will mark the one-month anniversary of her MIA status.
And "family matters" don't take this long and even if they did, KPIX could put out an internal memo to staff. Make it real general, it doesn't have to be specific.


But KPIX is mum, not only to their own workers but the general public as well. And yes, Ms. De La Cruz has a right to her privacy but she's not your normal individual--sometimes it sucks to be a splashy, high-positioned news anchor who was supposed to become the 6 and 10 PM tonsil for the CBS station in the country's #-6 market.


By all indications, De La Cruz will eventually begin anchoring at Channel 5. We hope she's OK and that her family matters are being dealt with and remedied. We wish no intrusion but this is ridiculous.


Of course when a high-profile anchor is hired and the station makes noise about it and then is mum regarding this mystery then clearly PIX might want to re-think its strategy --after all, like it or not, Veronica De La Cruz is a public person. She doesn't owe anybody an explanation but KPIX could do the public right by at least telling us what's going on. At the very least it would quell all the speculation. Of course by doing so it would require a degree of common sense--an apparent commodity in today's TV News business.


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Don Knapp Is the Hardest-Working TV Reporter In The SF Bay Area; Veteran at KPIX, KRON, KGO, KTVU, CNN; Still Steady And Gritty As Ever

 He's everywhere. Peripatetic? You bet. Busy? What, are you kidding me? On the go? Please, like you didn't notice? I suspect the man would give the Energizer bunny a run for his money.

To merely say Don Knapp is a TV reporter would be like describing the Mona Lisa as just another painting.

Knapp is a veteran Bay Area correspondent. He's worked everywhere--literally. Currently, he's holding down the fort at KPIX, but in case you were on Pluto, he's held down stints at KRON, KGO-TV and radio, CNN, for 12 years too. Did I leave out KTVU?

Knapp is good. Hold that. He's great. In an environment that is, well, un-Knapp-like, he's survived the current cutesy culture that's a haven for local TV news not just in the Bay Area but beyond. We know the story. So does Knapp. Like it's his middle name. Get that 49ers jersey and put "STORY" on the back above the number and put it in his mailbox.

Knapp is tenacious without being obnoxious; aggressive and hard-core-- get the story and facts and get it right, for the most part. He's also old-fashioned dogged and determined--how much so? I ran into Knapp on the Embarcadero a few months back and noticed he was carrying a notepad in his pocket. The old newspaper notepad and it was littered with a ton of notes--notes everywhere. I began laughing: "Don, what the hell is that?" I mean, it's not everyday you see a slick TV guy with an old notebook that would make Lou Grant proud.

I know, wait...you smell the irony too?

Yeah, Knapp is an old-school correspondent who doesn't have blond hair, big boobs and red lipstick. Knapp can get away with it because he's, well, Don Knapp. A good word is survived. And truth be told we're damn well lucky he's still out in the field hunting down the next story, the next interview with all the dexterity of a young thoroughbred. That's not just good for Knapp, but indeed the entire Bay Area TV news audience.

Here's to a pro. And a nice guy too.

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Gonzales Begins Weekday Morning Weather on KPIX Wednesday; Hackney on Weekend

 Roberta Gonzales will begin her morning weather anchoring duties this Wednesday on KPIX, in a move first reported by 415 Media

 

Station officials are meeting this week to go over various details.

 

Brian Hackney will replace Gonzales on the weekends and will also co-anchor news with Ann Notarangelo.

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Exclusive: KPIX5 Weather Personality Roberta Gonzales Moving to Weekday Mornings; Will Work With Karnow; Friday Starter

 Roberta Gonzales will be moving from the weekend weather duties, (and KPIX pretentious "mobile weather lab") to the weekday mornings, according to a reliable broadcast source.

The move, which is supposed to take place "in about a month" will see the enormously popular Gonzales work  with current weatherman, Lawrence Karnow. If that sounds awkward it should be, but reading between the lines, looks as if PIX wants to hit weather very hard and therefore, getting Gonzales back to give the mornings a jolt will accomplish that on a number of fronts.

As to how Karnow will react to all this is anyone's guess but my source indicated Gonzales feels a bit uneasy moving into his territory. In addition, the new move is not the only one on the horizon. Look for some more changes coming.

 The decision on Roberta back to a more prominent time frame was probably high-up, either NY and/or from GM, Bruno Cohen. Keep in mind it was not too long ago that Gonzales was aced out of the M-F front by the vanilla wafer guy, Paul Deanu. (And boy has that move turned out swell--I know, it's all about the money.)

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KPIX Completely Bizarre Post-Game Superbowl 47 Coverage on the Barren Bay Bridge

The 49ers guffaw in the last moments of Superbowl 47 was painful enough for most of the fans. At least they didn't have to watch one of the most bizarre, unintentionally funny post-game shows perhaps in local San Francisco TV history.

Let's set the stage: We know the final score. We switch from station to station and see the usual shots of bummed-out fans reacting to the crushing loss. Your standard fare of on-scene live shots of mostly empty streets and no bedlam, no bonfires, and luckily, no outward signs of trouble. Most of that could be attributed to the final score.

We now cut back to KPIX, the CBS O and O for their post-game "coverage" which bordered on both the absurd and stunning out-of-place, what the hell is this? dept. of questionable and indeed, unusual programming. While the other outlets kept it pretty much toe-to-toe from New Orleans and the Superdome to the Mission and Marina here in the city--quite expected and fairly timely and pointed--where was PIX?

On the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge. I'm not kidding. Was anyone there? No, not really. The governor switched on some sort of countdown clock that would signify that the bridge would open around Labor Day. Uh, OK. Now what?

Forget for the moment that what we were witnessing was sort of bizarre--at least those watching KPIX and given that a Superbowl had just ended, we again asked: Just what is this? Hello. To be fair, PIX had sports anchor, Dennis O'Donnell, back at the Superdome with the usual player actualities. Fine and dandy.

Then back to the bridge where aloof and alone reporters, (Ken Bastida and Stan Bunger, from KCBS) were cavorting on an empty platform with a lit tower in the background. Did it look nice? Yeah, if one were watching the National Geographic channel. It made no sense on Channel 5 and it looked damned foolish at best. Adding to this contrived "feature" was the fact that it was sponsored by an automobile company. Money is always the root of all evil and that was evident on KPIX's tortured screen on Sunday night. Whoever was responsible for this epic mess, the mother of all local TV quagmires needs serious therapy.

We like innovative coverage. We encourage something different than the usual after-game nothings from drunken fans and the requisite bar shots. But KPIX's blatant bufoonery after the game on a barren unfinished and uninhibited bridge was about as sanguine as the power outage at the dome.

I'm still scratching my head.

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Grace Lee leaving KPIX; More Murky Times at 855 Battery; Update; Headed to 'Hawaii News Now'



Grace Lee/CBS5 photo

Grace Lee, a KPIX, (CBS5), general assignment and political reporter is leaving the station and has taken a position back in Hawaii at an undisclosed Honolulu station, according to a reliable station source. Friday is her last day at 855 Battery. (Here's Lee's new destination) .

When Lee was hired at CBS5, she believed she was promised an anchor job, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the nature of the story.  Lee co-anchored the morning show for a time and was then made the station's political reporter.

Although she has a master's degree in international affairs and is well-liked and respected by many, if not all, on the staff, management blocked her from anchoring because of what was claimed to be a decision by CBS O&O executives in New York. Some in the newsroom suspect the company was looking for a "minority" other than an Asian female.

BACK STORY

*It has been an altogether disappointing start for CBS5's new GM, Bruno Cohen, with prospects for improvement on an unrelenting slide downhill. Newsroom staff had been hoping for a purge of an undeniably bloated mid-management bureaucracy. Reporters, writers and producers dread coming to work, not knowing who they must answer to or why. Worse, they may tumble into the loopy gravity of one or two of the managers who have so little comprehension that any information the managers are given causes their eyes to cross and becomes scrambled or forgotten almost immediately. Cohen, however, doubled down in a recent meeting and essentially told staffers that poor ratings were their own fault. Only the most Pollyanna-ish among them still believe Cohen has a plan to fix the glaringly obvious waste of money on executive salaries and expensive, inoperative and incompatible equipment.


*Rich Lieberman 415 Media Exclusive

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About KTVU; KPIX and Me; Tuesday Starter

When I think of Channel 2, (KTVU), I think of a dominant local TV outlet that has been the envy of not only industry people here, but nationally too.

I think of a TV station that had built its brand on consistency; a station whose news division has produced some of the finest reporters and TV anchors in the business. A station, up until of late, that has seen very little turnover amongst its rank and file; a station that has churned out some of the very best news directors, (Fred Zhender, to name one), ever. It doesn't stop there: the writers, the assignment editors, the producers, the people behind the scenes very few of you get to know.

With time comes change. Change is inevitable. KTVU is still the gold standard in the Bay Area, particularly at 10 O'clock. Still too, it has some of the finest people working in all platforms: news, sports, traffic, weather and all. It's very rare that so many of its core talent, (like Frank Somerville, Mark Ibanez, Rita Williams, Tom Vacar, Ken Wayne, etc), are still churning out quality work.

We hope the recent changes, including the very latest one, (News Director, Ed Chapuis leaving), will not impede the success of one of the finest TV news-gathering outlets in the Bay Area and beyond.


*Memo to KPIX PR Dept: If you're going to begin disallowing air talent to do interviews with me on my radio show, you're only hurting yourself, not me. And besides, it's not me that looks bad here, it's you. Moreover, the fact that you're going down that road, (quietly), suggests a mild case of paranoia. It's not me you have to worry about and frankly, I don't need your staffers on my show or this site. Some of them provide me with the information, unsolicited, that suggests you guys have issues. No big deal, we all do. But to begin to tell people not to do my show doesn't hurt me and makes you all look pretty lame. Parenthetically, I may add, some of my best guests have been people I've ripped, (civilly and jokingly), in the past. They know how to play the game. You guys at PIX, maybe change your thinking, but thanks for giving me an item.

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KPIX Moves; Stan Bunger and John Madden; Matier and Willie Brown; Have you heard this before? 95.7 FM is in Trouble; KGO-TV's Carolyn Johnson is the First Guest on Lieberman Radio Show Monday; Friday Buzz

New KPIX GM, Bruno Cohen, hasn't made any significant moves since he took over at the local SF O and O, but if a few sources are correct, expect something down the pike. The password is "sports." And keep in mind that the corporate people in NY in charge of the money have been doing a lot of cutting to people who make too much money.

By the way, there are those who insist to me that the current news boss should keep his resume updated.

*KCBS' Stan Bunger: just when you think he's slipping a bit, you get a dose of Bunger at his best, like on Friday morning...lobbing some good openers for John Madden and making the most of Matier and Willie Brown interesting when time interferes. Speaking of which, when it's obvious that there's really little, if any traffic this week, (which is the case), do we always needs a traffic update every 10 minutes? More Madden, less traffic. Every now and then it makes sense.

*An industry wag with about 30+ years in the biz tells me 95.7 FM The Game is in trouble. We've been down this road before haven't we? The wag offers this: "Listen to their ads--mostly all are national spots. Very little local box retail." He went further: "The A's, (the all-sports flagship station carries them), have begun looking for another station after next year." Plus this: "when you can never get a '1-rating and you have a weak signal it's a problem."

*No, I'm not going to suddenly tame down the critique on this site just because I'm about to do a daily talk show. If you'll notice, naysayers, trolls, the guests have been A-rate, some of whom I've been more critical than others, (see: Dan Ashley and Ralph Barbieri). There's a reason why they do the show: Because, like it or not, I'm a damn good interviewer and my show has staying power and will only get better. That's not chest-bumping, just the facts. Deal with it.

*Speaking of the radio show, the first guest to lead us off on Monday is KGO-TV's Carolyn Johnson, straight up at 1 PM PT. If you can't listen live, podcasts will be up the next day.

*Dear KRON: A source close to veteran newsman, Tom Sinkovitz, tells me he would be willing to come back and work with Pam Moore and/or Catherine Heenan and Gary Radnich. And money probably wouldn't be an issue. Food for thought.

*Raj Mathai and Janelle Wang on KNTV, (NBC Bay Area): an acquired taste that is getting much better with time.

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