Instead of acknowledging the obvious, (psst, the Bay Bridge is down, we told you that about 10,000 times--maybe 15, 000, I lost count); and moving on to REPORT!, we get the usual breathless glee-club members who act as if this was the second coming. Jesus Christ!
Hey, people, I got a story for you: You men and women got it over the so-called radio and TV professionals. You are allowed to giggle. They don't have a clue--at least most of 'em. While you managed to make it to work and navigate through the relatively minor disruption, the media masses tried in vain to create, to reveal, to extract any form of havoc. Problem is, there was no havoc. There was and is no crisis--the un-crisis crisis.
If not for a few radio traffic reporters, (KCBS' Kim Wonderly, for example, and on TV, the reliably calm and collected, Sal Castaneda of KTVU), you'd have thunk we were about to witness the end of the world. As Phil Matier told Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on KCBS, "we've been through a number of these rodeos." Translation: Pipe down the volume. Nothing extraordinarily happened for the most part. Sure, the traffic was a little more pronounced; BART and the ferries were packed. The commute was a little sluggish--ho hum, get back to me if and when there's real news.
**At KGO-TV, the conversation in the lunch room is who's next. I've heard about two senior reporters but if management goes that route, they'll be a fight and the union will weigh in and that's never pretty.
**Meanwhile, over at KTVU the paranoia patrol continues to carry on despite the fact IT, yeah, that thing, still ghosts the Jack London Square building. The prevailing strategy is to let IT disappear, go away only, ironically, the MO by GM, Tom Raponi is merely creating the opposite. It's one thing to carry on and exact a "business as usual" at the OK-Corral, but it's another to have a series of staff meetings further warning employees not to talk about it. Raponi, and more specifically, ND, Lee Rosenthal, are not out of the woods yet. And sorry to disappoint the KTVU PR Dept, but this story has NOT ended yet.
**News to muse: Suppose Fox bought KRON and NBC/Comcast purchased KTVU from Cox? Don't laugh just yet, bubby.
**Someone at the local CBS O and O went ballistic over a $500 expense-account lavish lunch at Kokkari. Why? The guy took a woman from KRON to lunch and loaded up on the Cabernet. I hope it worked, dude.
**That morning mattress seller on radio that wanted a sandwich to go at North Beach Restaurant didn't bother to even throw a buck at the wait staff who brought his highness his sandwich in the limo. Worse yet, he and his bud were back from a wake.
**Oxymoron personified: "The R and B Joke Hour."
**Witness Protection Program: KTVU Sales Dept.
**A joke submitted for the R and B joke hour: So this guy who didn't tip the wait staff at a restaurant instead threw down a Benjamin at a Union St. nail salon! Ha Ha ha!
**Jim Eason wasn't on my radio show Wednesday: He and his wife had a family emergency. We wish them the best. Eason will reschedule at a future date.
**Larry Beil, if it were up to him, would be the big fish at a Honolulu TV station. Translation: Lead anchor and only that. From someone who knows.
**The bar over at Grumpy's come Friday night should be packed after office hours. The purge happy hour.
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