Sarah And Vinnie: Family Feud

 Looks can be deceiving at the Sarah and Vinnie Show

*Internal bickering from staff over duo's nitpicking --don't bother letting them know, even diplomatically, that the show needs an upgrade.

*Vinnie continues to fail to understand that she's the one who's the straw that stirs the drink.

*Sarah: well-paid priestess struts ego around the CBS-SF building --tells interns on no uncertain terms, "Careful 'bout my coffee, or else!" (She's not kidding.)

*Sarah: Just recently re-upped at Alice--laments insiders: "She left money on the table!" --no kidding. Maybe she should have called this guy.

*Management: "Shut up and go to work!"

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KGO-TV Internal Strife Grips 900 Front Thanks to Incompetent ND 'Trixie'; KTVU Mis-Management and Sports Dept. Jealousy over Ibanez $$; Sarah and Vinnie Bitch-Slapping; Media Thursday in Hot City 415

 **Thursday Chatter**


It doesn't matter how you try to spin it: Carolyn Johnson's exit to SoCal leaves KGO-TV in a mini-crisis.


The anxiety level in the newsroom is far over the norm and there's griping that NO ONE has any confidence in Tracey Watkowski, Channel 7's "The Woman who wore Prada" News Director.


To be blunt, says a well-placed station source: "She's in over her head. Nobody has any faith in her nor trust."


Making matters worse, KGO and the other stations are in a sweep period and while the ratings are good, there's a significant polarization inside the newsroom --those that support Trixie and those that don't. I still don't get it that Trixie hasn't called a staff meeting to try to find harmony in a news operation that needs it --this isn't KTVU mind you, (we'll get to them shortly), and Channel 7 still puts out a fairly decent news product day in and day out.


I'm a big Nick Smith fan. And I think Dan Ashley is the very best anchor in the market. Dan Noyes is the finest investigate reporter in the city and although I have major issues with Wayne Freedman, the SF veteran tonsil is a damn good street-side reporter. Some other quickies:

Larry Beil: Your serious look combined with a sort of pompous demeanor belittles your quality presentation. Larry, every now and then, LAUGH! Enough with the curing cancer appearance --makes you look like a self-serving egotistical jerk.


Carolyn Tyler: Carolyn, you have way too much influence at 900 Front to allow them to treat you like crap. Sure, you've just re-upped and that's fine. But I'm sorry, you need a more prominent role--they take you for granted.


Cheryl Jennings: How did this woman become such a complete phony overnight? The fake looks of concern, the incessant giggle with the faux mock outrage and self-importance aura --Jennings is a Trixie favorite which might explain why there's so much angst at KGO-TV and so is Freedman who once called me to lecture how "great Tracey is." Really?


Then why is the newsroom and staff so rife full of anger and bewilderment? I wanted to find out. I called Trixie and left numerous messages not so long ago and Trixie didn't answer any of 'em--keep in mind we have spoken in the past and she seems to be a capable woman in charge but her people skills, according to a respected newsroom staffer, are non-existent and she doesn't do a good job of delegating --the departure by Johnson was not Watkowski's doing but it certainly didn't help that it was on her watch.


Trixie: Read the room. Get a box of sandwiches from Grumpy's and let loose at a meeting. YOU need it---THEY need it and if you can't produce, at least try to fake it.


*KTVU: a potpourri of inner-office incompetency highlighted by complete doofus-management that still has ZERO leadership virtues and a staff in utter disbelief about the news content and direction of the product From well-placed sources at the Jack London Square Channel 2 outpost...


-- The constant, revolving door policy of new reporters almost every other day. The lack of a cohesive message. The onslaught of murder/mayhem Oakland/Richmond stories that has overtaken the newscasts...The cheapening of the "10 O'clock News" into a vagabond resource of immense story-load insignificant non-stories...the obscene "BREAKING NEWS" silos that have become a source of great embarrassment among staffers who are disgusted by the barrage. Who's behind it? Wonderboy himself, Lee Rosenthal, the News Director that has ZERO allies and a plateful of resentment. It's now 100% certain that Rosenthal got the KTVU gig because he's an "expert" on Social Media and that's a crock. Yeah, how cool does Somerville look doing a stand-up in the middle of 10 O' clock telling views how the Tweets are stocking up --seriously, what a horrid look!


Not helping matters: GM, Tom Raponi and his incompetent leadership which exists of carrying on a state-of-denial tenure. Raponi simply can't handle the rigors of the job and despite numerous chances to get it right, sits back in idle silence and simply runs a no-hands-on work approach. Hey Tom, it ain't working. Get a grip.


SPORTS TV WARS: Not helping matters at KTVU is the in-house griping in the sports dept. where sloppy seconds, Joe Fonzi and Fred Inglis, continue to bark and bark loud behind the scenes in rampant jealousy and disgust that, unlike Mark Ibanez, they do all the work and don't get paid $300K a year! Inglis is not a major name--he should know better. Fonzi should understand his best days were about 20 years ago when Bill Clinton was president. In any event, the mass grumbling continues--this doesn't bode well for a happy ending.


*Sarah and Vinnie UPDATE: She just signed a pretty good re-up and while that's swell, her husband, the dorky second who sounds like a reject from a Fresno IHop, is OUTRAGED! His wife not only gets the big bucks but has been warding off horny groupies that have tried to romance her ways off the dorky side-kick. At ALICE Radio, several well-known male models from nearby Stars have been openly flirting toward her majesty complete with candy grams, racy self-portraits and get this!!, a love letter laced with enough romantic code words to fill AT&T Park. She's speechless --he's sort of limp. Stay tuned!


*Hot Girl! NBC Bay Area's hottie Eastbay reporter, Cheryl Hurd, was at the centerpiece of Montclair traffic Tuesday while doing a live shot getting actualities outside Crogans. Several star-struck fans made it a point to hug the sexy sister as she made her way up Mountain Blvd. It looked like a scene out of 'Inside Edition.'


*Gary Radnich at KNBR: "Hey can someone get us all some sodas?" Interns flock to soda machine to get six orange sodas. The big shot with the Bentley failed to buy. Tacky Tacky Tacky.


*Finally, Playboy is about to embark on the city looking for willing, able and sexy media TV reporters and anchors to decloathe --You'd be surprised who they have their sights on and I'll tell you, exclusively soon on 415 Media.


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415 MEDIA
Thursday Chatter
Talk of the Town

Sarah Tells Vinnie to Put Up or STFU; Melanie Morgan KSRO and Past KSFO BS With the Suss; Leland Yee is BIG; KTVU Walnut Creek Fetish; Friday Media Notes

 FRIDAY MEDIA NOTES BUFFET...


*Sarah and Vinnie continue to pout off the air over at Alice Radio: on a recent lunch break over at Hunan she basically told him to "put up or shut up, and STFU!" He's been bitching a lot about her larger check but what else is new? She's supposedly fed up to the point where an ultimatum has been thrown into the spectrum. We'll monitor because that's our deal here.


*Melanie Morgan has been itching to get back into the wonderful world of independent radio and the time has come. I reported, exclusively, she's going back to work Monday as the new primary anchor on Santa Rosa's KSRO and its News Director too.


Side story: Without getting too personal suffice to say, KSFO's Morning Show devoid of Morgan has been greatly diminished since Mel split because she couldn't stand Brian Sussman's ranting and raving. In addition, or more accurately, less addition, the continued embarrassment called Katie Green was the last straw. Green is beyond irritating with the grating, shrill, sandpaper voice and she sounds like a cosmetics chick at a San Leandro strip mall. Check please.


*The Leland Yee BIG story is BIG because of all the Hollywood angles and sheer characters that make up the centerpiece. Combine that with the main honcho and his other affiliates and you have a major media story without any real sexy pictures.  Fed Courthouse building will be more crowded than usual in the coming weeks and months.


NEWS, NOTES and COMMENTS: The alleged "all-sports" FM radio station that hired Damon Bruce, (he starts Monday), for its new PM drive show has been having a hard time selling commercial spots, gees I wonder why...To a certain TV News Director in town, be careful, the natives are getting restless and your constant berates have reached a boiling point--they're simply tired of your bullshit and your buddy can't bail you out anymore...The phony KSFO 9-Noon guy who mumbled his way to the gig and uses a fake Anglicized name  has already pissed of one major player in the building. He's usually good for 90 days and then it's bye bye baby...More KTVU desperation: sending two senior reporters to go out to demo-friendly Walnut Creek to "cover" manufactured stories that wouldn't rate page 3 in the CC Times: a chamber-of-commerce piece about extra cops for the kids at school and an over-hyped test-pattern involving PG&E's plan to cut down some trees. My god who was responsible for that?!!...Snippy multi-Emmy prima donna reporter guy at KGO-TV was extra surly the other day before going out in the field. He thinks he's God, really more a Grumpy's reject with an ego the size of Tahoe...Ronn: sad, dull, flat voice and gadgets...KTVU weather tease Update: 5 a night. Really insulting to your viewers and waste of time extraordinaire. Combine that with Walnut Creek BS and you have your current Lee Rosenthal/Tom Raponi massive mud pie...More KTVU: Tori Campbell's three-year extension signed before Asiana/Namegate will be bought out probably a year before 2016 so you kind of see the handwriting on the wall...Grant Lodes at KRON looks and sounds sort of non-diminutive at first but the more you watch the guy the more he looks and sounds just fine...It's one thing to milk an event that is the dominant program on your platform but KCBS/KPIX relentless pimping of the NCAA tournament went way over the top. Fine, plug your prime red meat but endless bracket chatter involving your own air talent sounds tacky and third-rate...Tom Tolbert/Ray Ratto is a decent, often funny KNBR PM drive show littered with pretty good content and interviews--on the other hand, if KNBR goes to red-bull lungs embarrassment Eric Byrnes, they will LOSE listeners galore. Byrnes is a shrill, misguided, over-excited bore who only made it past the back office because he was a jock and looked geeky. That doesn't translate well on radio; Tolbert is undermined by Byrnes hyper gibberish. Ratto is too irritated and his uber-uptightness shtick wears thin but he's 20x better than the buffoon Byrnes.


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Savage Destroys Hannity; KTVU and Vacar/Fowler Shop Talk; Highest-Paid TV Anchors; KSFO/KGO Blather; Darya Folsom/KRON Intrigue; Karel No Red Carpet in Ireland; Friday Nuggets

Michael Savage

 Love him, hate him, revile at his rants, he's the highest-paid radio host in the Bay Area; Michael Savage, syndicated talkie that has destroyed his ghost rival, Sean Hannity not only here, (KSFO), but NY, (King of the apple), Chicago, Detroit, Dallas. It's not even close in the important radio demos that count although some advertisers are still weary of Savage's discourse. They might have to reassess that position.


Savage makes north of a million dollars but between his books and diversified business interests fortune, he's reportedly worth close to $100 million. Who needs radio?


*We've told you the inside story about KTVU's desire to rid itself of the services of ace, veteran reporters, Tom Vacar and John Fowler. A reader inquires why we don't see much of those correspondents. Fair question. Think age perception by management although both reporters still turn out quality work. One caveat about Vacar and why he's still on the payroll: They're afraid of showing him the door: he's a lawyer.




Tom Vacar

SPEAKING of KTVU and Assorted Media Notes: Heather Holmes: I don't get it, looks and all. Body of work? Meh...Where's Maureen Naylor? Mystery...Bill Martin looks kind of cranky and we wonder why: wait, everybody's in a crappy mood over there...Thank God for Sal Castaneda...Top 3 SF TV anchors in terms of pay, in order: 1. Dan Ashley, KGO-TV, $500K range, 2. Frank Somerville, KTVU, a little north of $500K and KPIX5's Ken Bastida in the $400K neighborhood...Just a hunch: Tom Tolbert will not be the Warriors TV analyst replacement for Jim Barnett next year. Radio is another story. Whoever ends up in Barnett's chair will have a tough hill to climb...Salary chat: Greg Papa gets about $300G from the Raiders and Comcast Sports Net Bay Area but he's nowhere near the high six figures of 49ers/CBS/NBC multi-platform man, Ted Robinson...Latest estimate time play when KRON's gear is moved to 900 Front: late Summer...Stay off my lawn, girl version: Darya Folsom and Justine Waldman. Cat fight with a central, certain male proxy...The only thing worse than a Jan Wahl report on KCBS is a Jan Wahl report...Mystery man still devoid of making the big change: PIX boss, Bruno Cohen who seems, temporarily, at ease with the Battery Boys...When KSFO puppets are boasting that "we beat KGO!" you know things are scary. Yeah, wonderful work. One albatross with Father and Daughter AM tag team beating the 810 AM little sisters of the poor. Terrific, go collect your Sweet Jack coupons...Sarah and Vinnie: you should hear what your slightly-disgruntled guy from IT told me! Gosh, better than I thought. But seriously, you'll never guess who, what, where, but good luck..."Hi, Welcome to the SF Zoo, er, KGO Radio on a Sunday Night!"...Breaking Karel News: No red carpets in Ireland. And a bunch of drunk weirdo-types asking: "Who the fuck is that asshole?" --Yeah, here's your free food and Guinness now get the hell out of our country!...Damon Bruce consensus: one year, tops...See, here's the problem: sure, in the room, Roberta Gonzales may not have a whole lot of allies but outside the hall she has a swarm of supporters who love her dearly whether guided or misguided, it's just the facts maam...David Weintraub has 50 lawyers lined up if KGO dare screw with him but I don't think they be that stupid. Yet...


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Sarah and Vinnie on Alice; Alex Bennett; KGO-TV's Unintentional Weather Sensation; The Gary Radnich Rope-a-Dope; Wednesday Media PM Diner

 Contrary to what some of you might think, I don't have any issues with Alice Radio's "Sarah and Vinnie", it's just that if you're going to hit me, I'll hit you right back.

I don't listen to the show. I tried. It's basically a bad copy of Alex Bennett without husband and wife, although pain in ass he was and is, Bennett's show was significantly superior than these castaways.

The only reason why I mentioned them to begin with was word from a mole inside the building that Vinnie was internally pouting that he was pissed she was getting far more money. He should be so lucky. She drives the show and he's the guy in the back seat. The forced and contrived sexual innuendo bits sounds, well, forced and contrived.

*KGO-TV's back in business at its news studio at 900 Front but so far, the weather reports continue to emanate from atop the building at the Embarcadero which I like. Unintentional or not, it looks a helluva lot better with the Bay Bridge in the background and get this, actual weather you can see! If it's rainout outside, the weather guessers can actually say it's raining!

*The Gary Radnich Rope-a-Dope: When Gary does a straight interview on radio, (or even TV on KRON for that matter), nobody's better. Nobody. And sure, when it's boring and the sports minutiae is too much to take, he's better than OK doing the Don Rickles bit it's just that when there needs to be a semblance of seriousness and you get Rickles you begin to get frustrated. Like you, enough man, stick to sports and be real. I call it the Radnich rope-a-dope. It worked better for Ali.

*Every other female reporter at KTVU is new. What does that tell you? Although I like Rasmus, Moriarty, and Rendon especially.

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Deconstructing the Sarah and Vinnie Titanic on Alice Radio Because Someone Had To

 A reader tipped me off that the dynamic duo of faux shock and awe on Alice Radio's dreadful, "Sarah and Vinnie" referred to me, indirectly, (cowards), last week during their dreck toilet play that sounds like some hissy fit between a male and female yenta out of Bakersfield.


Here's the link: listen, beginning around 6: 30.


As I have mentioned here too many times, I have tried hard to listen to this his-and-her pedantic audio bludgeon but it was so bad it literally induced me to sleep to a point where a Janet Reno wet dream was more compelling. Typical shit SF FM radio minutiae personified.


Ironically, a tipster who roams the halls of the CBS TV/Radio studio outpost at 855 Battery said the gruesome twosome were feuding. The zaftig one, who looks as if she swallowed half of El Capitan steals quite a bit more cash than her doofus partner, some Neanderthal dimwit, "Vinnie", straight out of the tourist portion of a Vegas IHop. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about either of 'em and even if I did I'd begin puking out the pig vomit both of them and their wussy interns spew forth. Thank God for Satellite radio.


And another thing, yenta #1 and you're pimply-faced "staff", if you going to play rough footsy with me and rip, at least have the balls and vagina to come at me directly --as if "that blogger" gave you any satisfaction and that your boss had to call you into the office to see what was going on. Dummies.


I called you out and the story about your internal bitching is good. If you want to play hard ball then you might want to do a better background check on some of your past human anal warts who provided me the goods. Other than that, have a nice day and get your toilet fixed-- there's a lot of leaks in it. Not than it really matters.


Furthermore when you get a show that's a quarter listenable without the half-baked bleeps and fake and manufactured sexual dog shit, I'll try to stomach myself to give you guys a second chance. On second thought, go back to the hotel and gorge on a box of Cheetos. I have things to do. Have a nice day.


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