KGO Radio tries to go 'young'--haven't you heard?

For the past thirty-plus years, KGO radio has been the most highly-rated radio station in the Bay Area. Although the dominant SF talkie has had a few hiccups along the way, thanks to KCBS' aggressive push toward 24/7 news, KGO still boasts #1 status in the overall ratings.

Underline the word "overall." Its a term KGO ad execs hate to acknowledge because in the radio biz, overalls don't mean anything other than lofty in-house boasting and occasional industry awards.

Radio advertisers, like their TV counterparts, look for one thing when buying time: the all-encompassing, all-important key demographic called the "A25-54 demo. Translated roughly, ad buyers covet young people or the "younger demo." In that dept., KGO is perceived as "old", as in "older demos" and we'll, the type of folks that don't go to movies much, don't drink beer, and wouldn't know an I-pod from a pea pod.

KNBR was seventh in the last overall ratings period, but held serve in the all-important adult male25-54 demo, KNBR's breadbasket. Ditto all-news KCBS, which has a decidedly younger listener base than KGO.

This is nothing new. In fact, KGO has long been regarded as "the 'CBS of the Bay Area", in reference to CBS' reputation as the network which traditionally caters to older viewers with programs like 60 Minutes.

KGO has tried for years to "young up", from promotional events that were overt from subtle styles within their very own broadcast ledger. Its own morning man king, Ronn Owens, has a knack for being very short with elderly callers. Seriously, give a listen to Owens when he takes a call from an older person. The cut-button is quick. And distinguish that with a younger woman, from, say Walnut Creek who sounds like she's in her 30's. No knock on Owens, but having listened to him for many years, and having talked about this minor phenomena with many broadcast scribes, it's pretty apparent what he's doing and its not so subtle.

The station itself seems to be hellbent on going after generation y, x too. Just the other day, KGO held a rather cheesy "Girls night out" at a southbay hotel with some of its female on-air staffers. The event was heavily promoted for several weeks and was no doubt aimed at younger female listeners. In fact, several of the attendees posted the event on their Facebook page, no doubt to KGO's delight.

The newstalk outlet even added a lengthy feature on its afternoon news called the "afternoon funnies", in which a comic appearing at a local comedy club, did a five-seven minute routine with anchors Rosie Allen and Bret Burkhart. The idea: you guessed it: younger listeners.

So far, nothing significant has transpired and KGO's recent hires doesn't exactly cater to the American Idol crowd, (which may not be that bad.) Talk host John Rothmann was formally given the 10PM to 1AM weeknight slot, (as I recommended.) That move drew a terse, if slightly politically-incorrect line from local Examiner media writer, Brad Kava: "KGO now has 'three middle-aged 'Jewish men in their prime talk lineup, (Owens, Rothmann and Gil Gross.)

**Sports note: In my praise of the San Jose Sharks broadcast teams of Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda on TV and Dan Rusanowsky on radio, I inadvertently left out radio analyst Jamie Baker. Shame on moi. Baker, an ex-NHL player, has a very keen eye on plays, breaks down numerous hockey contests with wit, knowledge and a terrific sense of humor. My bad for omitting him.

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