Entercom's All-Sports 95. 7 FM 'The Game' Has A New PD That Replaces The Old Schmuck

The All-Sports (occasionally) FM station, The Game (95.7) has a new Program Director. 

Here's the Press Release before the house shills move forward (Notice the following hyperbole)

Dear Entercom Team and Valued Partners:

 

"After an exhaustive international search, we are thrilled to announce that Don Kollins will be joining Entercom / San Francisco as Program Director of 95.7 The Game, effective Friday, June 12^th. Don comes to us from Rogers Communications’ Sportsnet 590 The Fan (CJCL) in Toronto where he served as Program Director since 2008."

An "exhaustive" search? For what: to replace this schlemiel? Maybe the new guy's first missive would be to can the shitty morning show.

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Jason Barrett Leaving 95.7 The Game As PD; Pens Cute Letter That Doesn't Provide (Real) Details; The Real Reason(s)

 Jason Barrett, the embattled PD of all-sports 95.7 FM The Game is leaving the station in June.

Here, he spells out in roughly a few couple thousand or so words why he's leaving...it reads lovely and cutesy and cuddly and all that but other than mentioning family, Barrett conveniently leaves out the specific reason(s) why.

Funny, I'm not surprised. I've been wondering for some time how Barrett has been able to hold down his Entercom gig despite the station's relative irrelevance and truth be told, The Game, while holding down marginal demos like adult males who covet beer, boobs and sports, has never reached a ratings crescendo --hell, hasn't even come close.

 You're probably going to read the press-release version of this and take it as the positive gospel but it's mostly bull. It's anecdotal verbal messing that's designed to imply that the honest PD misses him and wants to explore his next life. Which would be nothing out of the ordinary and make perfect sense only Barrett doesn't mention some of the things that more than likely accelerated his departure.

As I said, The Game has never registered any real traction in the Bay Area. Never. Its attempt to be an alternative to KNBR, which would have been nice, hasn't materialized. Part of that is sports-radio on FM doesn't work, especially when it's hard to actually listen to that station. The Game's signal is barely audible in most parts of the Bay Area. I can pick it up fine and even better on my car stereo but I'm in the minority. That's not Barrett's fault but it's on his ledger that other variables are and were--

*It was Barrett who hired contest winners--listeners--who became immediate air talent on the radio station. That would work well in, say, Tulsa--not so much in the Bay Area. Furthermore the idea of placing contest winners on the radio station speaks volumes about Mr. Barrett's style of management.

*Both the A's and Raiders want out on The Game. The Raiders have been looking for an alternative for months now because they're unhappy with their Bay Area flagship--so too the A's who have complained about promotion and are also unhappy with the signal. Again, that's hardly Barrett's fault but there's ways to schmooze the suits and get around this--Barrett didn't get the memo.

*The constant reshuffling of the air-talent. There's been a significant fallout on Barrett's every-other-day rearranging the furniture on The Game--his mishandling of the morning show features has been woeful and disruptive --the very best morning show, "The Rise Guys", were held out to pasture and replaced by a startling bad current program whose hosts like to talk about their penises --how thought-provoking and creative.

Simply stated The Game went kaput before our very eyes and ears. There's nothing wrong with that --hell, lots of radio stations are like restaurants --most fail even under the best of intentions. And while everybody would relish an alternative to wildly less-than-mediocre KNBR, The Game struck out. For now and more than likely, the future too.

How Does Jason Barrett, PD, at 95.7 FM The Game Keep His Job? All-Sports Station Continues To Swing And Miss; Advantage, KNBR

 Any alternative to the painstakingly bad KNBR has my vote. Seriously, sports-talk radio should be entertaining, funny, provocative and interesting, and yes informative too.

Which is all the more frustrating that 95.7 FM, ('The Game'), continues to flail away aimlessly, seemingly rudderless without a leader, without any sort of vision and programming run by a clueless radio retread.

The August ratings are out and once again, The Game has bottomed out. At this stage of the year that shouldn't be happening, not when you have a major league baseball team fighting for the playoffs, although sure, the A's are the second team in the market. And yes, the Raiders are mediocre at best, but still an NFL team.

95.7 relies on its sports-talk shows. Too bad PD, Jason Barrett, has no clue what the hell he's doing. Barrett somehow keep his job even though The Game's talkers keep being moved from one place to the other; shows have come and gone, other shows are in the wrong time slot. The best show on the station, Greg Papa and John Lund's, "The Wheelhouse" is lost from 12-3 PM --Damon Bruce should have that slot where he wouldn't be preempted by A's baseball.

And then there's this pure foolishness. An infomercial would be more compelling.

Then there's the morning show: a complete and useless failure. It would be nice that two of the three hosts knew something about sports, but why be so picky. Aubrey Huff, the ex-Giants jock has essentially quit the program and has now been moved to part-time status. Ric Bucher is on his way out. Chris Townsend remains but the show's future is in doubt.

All the while, again, despite its amateurish programming direction, The Game could and should beat KNBR in various parts of the day. The Game is smarter, more cogent and doesn't lob 140 thousand hours of commercials at its listeners like its AM competitor --greedy KNBR.

But The Game needs a better programmer. It wouldn't hurt to have a stronger and better signal too, but that's sort of uncontrollable. Too bad too. With some innovative thinking, 95.7 FM could be a vital sports-station listening device but as long as Barrett is running it, it has no hope.

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How 95.7 FM The Game Screwed Up Taking on The KNBR Big Boys; Product Is Still The Missing Equation; Plus Friday Media Notes

 When Entercom's 95.7 FM-The Game debuted in April, 2011, I was intrigued. I always thought sports radio on FM was a clever device and that in this market, it could work. It works in sports-heavy Boston, why not the Bay Area. Moreover, it seemed to me KNBR had worn out its welcome and was largely living on its Giants, 49ers and Warriors affiliations --their talk-radio, for the most part, was mostly meh.




As the latest dynamic duo hits the street, a few things need to be aired, so to speak.




*The Game has never been known to be bold and take a chance. I suggested something fairly radical, but it can't be any worse then their current presentation.




*It continues to mystify me that their, PD, Jason Barrett, is still employed. Barrett's programming menu has been nothing short of a disaster, with experiment after experiment going nowhere.



Barrett's tenure has been largely defined by a knack for bringing in out-of-town unknown loud-mouths who don't know the Bay Area market--this is not exactly rocket science, but SF is not NY. That's not in any way denigrating NY nor the city but the point is what goes in the 212 and 718 doesn't naturally resonate in the 415 and 408/510. Pretty much common sense unless your Barrett and it's still mind-boggling that his boss doesn't see that. I don't know Barrett, never met him, but you can learn a lot from a guy who does contests to get hired hosts literally off the street. That's a wise business model.




It goes on. Hiring human junkets like Brandon Tierney--(boy, that worked well, didn't it?), was a foolish move from the get-go. There's been other puzzling moves too. The concept of originality, I guess, is something that's not on the sticky pad in Barrett's office. And spending globs of money on radio-TV ads making fun and belittling the competition was a ludicrous move at best. What was that all about? "You suck, we don't---you have old, stodgy listeners, we're fresh and new--listen to us, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!" KNBR was nervous enough to tweak their schedule and pass out a few memos but the bottom line is KNBR still has the dial position and the dominant teams, advantage Cumulus.




Truth be told, I welcome an alternative to the sports leader. But if you're going up against the big boys you have to have a firm, legitimate game plan, (no pun intended); you have to have original ideas and a long-term commitment and business model to implement. A Brandon Tierney, (who lives from radio suitcase to suitcase), is not a well-thought-out hire. Tierney lasted about as long as expected and never registered an ounce of traction on the local sports radar. His blustery was far more pronounced than his results.



Local, fresh, and engaging personalities make for successful radio. By and large, it's not a science but it goes a long way to reaching out to listeners begging for something different, something edgy, something, well, that's not the half-eaten omelet called "Murph and Mac". The Game's "Rise Guys" mostly do it right but the hodgepodge of manufactured shtick and reliance on a curious brand of humor isn't working. I like Dan Dibley, to a degree, but he's not a dominant personality. Of course, sad for the Game, neither are his partners.




The fundamental problem with 95.7 is a lack of original programming, a very lousy signal and extremely poor guidance. You can always help yourself as the flagship of MLB and the NFL because, like KNBR, you build your talk shows around your clients, (although Knibber does it better)--but franchises alone don't automatically lead to ratings nirvana particularly when one of your teams doesn't win a lot of its games. That's where the PD earns his living and in the case of Barrett, he's done nothing to earn any sort of respect let alone job longevity.




FRIDAY MEDIA NOTES...




*That hot microphone that Michael Savage didn't know was hot the other day on his KSFO, (and syndicated), show created quite a storm. Savage was heard ripping another local host, (who frankly deserved it), and lecturing a producer rather, uh, pointedly. It wasn't especially juicy but it was enough to spring a rumor that a head might roll.




*I'll be filling in next Tuesday on KSCO from Noon-2 PM, (following Rush Limbaugh); we'll do some media material and a few surprises. Management is also talking about a weekend show that will concentrate on radio, TV, the Net, sort of a "Reliable Sources", stay tuned and be sure to listen on Tuesday.




*Changes, I'm told by a mole, are coming to KRON faster than you can say Van Ness Ave.


*Speaking of KSFO, have you noticed the frequent amounts of dead air lately? Maybe someone should wake up the engineer dept. On the other hand, the dead air is far more superior to the actual content at times.




*I figured it out: Maybe Raponi over there at KTVU doesn't have a computer.




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