The Trump-Eagles WH DisInvite Bruhaha is Red Meat Topic for Sports/News Talk Radio Everywhere Except in Bay Area

AS RADIO TALK-SHOW FODDER GOES, it's red meat for the ages, I'm talking of course about what everyone else is talking about ...on the Internet of course, here, here, here, ...oh and here too.

The Trump disinvite to the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles and its consequences; politics; patriotism; race relations; all of it represents the issues that might describe our deepening division in this country. It's certainly being talked about at the proverbial office cooler and not even in hushed tones yet here in our Bay Area, you can barely get a sniff of the story on our supposed talk stations, news or sports. Other markets and hosts have jumped in on it including this one.

KGO Radio doesn't believe in investing in hosts who talk about the news (and this is news even on their vanity level); KGO's suits regard actual news-talk as something of a phenomena not meant for people that have even modest intelligence so I can understand its byzantine approach.

KNBR, which occasionally delves into social issues about as much as a snowstorm in Palm Springs, should be talking about this but it too has apparently figured better to concentrate on the relatively sublime booster club clientele business. Yes, I know it's a sports station but issues like this supersedes sports. Did you see what Steph and Lebron had to say? You would think this alone would generate phone calls but the Bleeder caters to the beer and boobs crowd which, by the way, is also talking about this and all associated with it. Common sense is a commodity, I guess, at the Bleeder.

This is not about whether you believe the president is pimping the flag to cater to his 30 percent base; his industrial rust belt brethren or if you believe the Eagles (and most NFL players) don't understand the constitution and its limits. It's a topic that's worth debating and both sides have strong opinions and arguments of course they do.

It's about what's driving the topic of the day and week and it's really frankly pathetic that it has been virtually ignored by the talk radio deficient Bay Area whose terrestrial listeners have once again been victimized by the abysmally inadequate Cumulus wrecking machine.

KTVU Weather Guy Martin Takes Part in White House Climate Change PR Event; 'Kars-For-Kids' Overload; KGO ND Snooping For Leakers; The Question Our Local Sports Media Sheep Didn't Ask at Warriors/Mark Jackson Presser; Concern over Barbara Simpson MIA; KSFO Morning Show Makes Fun of Providence Kid; Wednesday Notes

 A chance to interview the President. Fine and dandy. Looks good, especially during a sweeps period and so Bill Martin, the chief weather guy from KTVU was among a throng of weather anchors chosen to mingle with Mr. Obama on Tuesday.


It was no coincidence that on the same day some weather peeps met with the president, the White House released a big report on Climate Change. Irrespective of your views on this important subject, it was nonetheless worthless for Martin, a fine weatherman to take part in the PR charade. And that's what it amounted to. No serious meteorological questions were asked. Nothing of substance took place. Matter of fact, I heard two local DC weather people turned down the White House invitation. Hard to grasp why Martin and Channel 2 took part in the affair--well, wait a minute, KTVU milked the entire meeting with endless promos all day and night Monday and Tuesday.


Speaking of climate change there's a very different news climate at Channel 2 where the leader, Wonder Boy Rosenthal, the ND who is fond of writing press releases and participating in American Idol tweets.


*More than anything else the overloud of commercials on AM radio is driving more people to tune out and switch to satellite. KNBR is the most serious violator, (some might say commercials are better than the bulk of their programs); KNBR runs nearly 30 minutes of spots on their afternoon and morning drive shows and when you add traffic updates and "sports minutes" you have very little content. And they wonder why people turn the dial.


*The latest barrage of new "Kars-for Kids" jingles is kind of hideous if you ask me. Now we have a country version of the spot which replaced the rock and roll version. What seems like a good cause has been muted by the endless assault of our ears by this obnoxious campaign.


*That "toilet money" John Madden gets to schmooze on KCBS pays him about $5 grand a week Do the math --$240K a year some chit-chat but good for the coach, he needs the money I'm sure.


*It's slightly disturbing that no one had heard from the "babe in the bunker" since KSFO blew out their 4-7 PM weekend tonsil. Barbara Simpson left a terse message on her Facebook page last Saturday and hasn't been seen or heard from since.


*Speaking of KSFO, their morning show host sank to a new low this past week when the host made fun of a 5-year-old kid who gave a much-played actuality on that serious circus accident in Providence. Even the traffic chick showed some on-air angst when the SussMAN began chortling over this poor little kid's voice tone. Disgusting. And the proliferation of fart noises, sirens, a sound barrage isn't resonating very well to the few listeners who have tuned out the morning carnival in droves. There's hope after all.


*The ND at 900 Front is supposedly snooping over the computer banks trying to find out who's talking to me--she'd be more apt to talk to the staff who are bordering on mutiny status if she doesn't get her act together soon. The Mickey Mouse suits are now on the radar which might mean some looming trouble down the road.


Another item: It should be telling when KGO-TV issued a press release denying my report about Cheryl Jennings and Spencer Christian contracts not being re-upped in December the comments merely said "is false" and ripped me. "Is false?" Yeah, now it is. By the way, neither Jennings nor Christian have denied the report. Probably because it's true and almost everyone at Channel 7 knows it.


*Not one of our local sports sheep media brethren dared ask the Warriors suits whether the firing of Mark Jackson could be, justified or not, met with anger and disgust from the team's African-American fans. It's a legitimate question particularly coming after the Donald Sterling affair. By the way, I'm in no way suggesting the Warriors organization is racist --they are not. But it's a question that needed to be asked and you don't even have to be an Insider to figure that out. Like I said, sheep.


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KGO-TV's Ashley gets White House 'Exclu' with Obama, (Sort of)

Dan Ashley, lead anchor at KGO-TV, (ABC7), was in Washington last week and got an exclu with the President.

Sort of.

The White House made Mr. Obama available for five minutes with an assortment of local TV stations across the nation. One of those that made the cut was KGO-TV, presumably because the White House wanted to give some love to a big station on the West Coast, (among others).

With barely five or so minutes, you can't ask a lot of questions. Even tough questions.

My friend, Mike James, editor of Newsblues, (paywall), gave a little ribbing to Ashley's interview:

"Ashley asked Obama about playing golf with Tiger Woods last weekend. "He plays a different game than I do. He's on another planet," said the president.
 
Proof positive that local news anchors CAN ask the tough questions."

To be fair, these local stations that make the WH cut, are in a mostly controlled environment. In that respect, it's difficult to imagine that Ashley had any chance to offer something more substantive. He did ask Obama about Prop 8, (the same-sex marriage act that the Supreme Court will rule on in June) and the possibility of a sequester budget.

And keep in mind that had Ashley tried to go Mike Wallace on the POTUS, I'm sure he and KGO probably would have been on the future WH cut list.

It's a local TV-news catch-22 deluxe: you get a coveted interview with the President and sure, you'd like to be able to ask a few pointed questions that don't appear to be too cushy; in that respect, I think Ashley did about as well as could be expected.

In any event, KGO got the gig.

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