"I'm just tired. It was time to go, " he said from Hawaii on his vacation. Baxter was at KGO 35 years.
Baxter maintained that while he was leaving, he wanted to "pursue other projects." He probably picked the right time. He's in good company lately.
KGO is in the midst of inner turmoil with much of its senior personnel; news anchors, producers, and the like contemplating life with Cumulus, which is in the process of buying Citadel, which owns KGO and mostly all other former ABC Radio stations.
Citadel, with its nickel and dime operation, propped many of its stations into financial turmoil, although KGO was, (and still is) one of its more successful outlets. By contrast, Cumulus, (which locally owns KNBR and its other FM sisters, like KFOG) and other national stations, is a far more thriftier operation, (and I'm being kind)
Its CEO, Lew Dickey, (tricky Dickey) has a rep for "slasher" and there is widespread acknowledgement that once Tricky Dickey gets his hands on KGO, (and the other stations, all 523 of them) an abundance of layoffs will occur.
Another thing: Baxter no doubt saw the handwriting on the wall. He knew that the "old KGO" was seeing its last days. The over-reliance on so-called "new media" like Facebook and Twitter. The relentless TMZ references. The complete transformation of the morning news to a virtual gossip fest with an overly-giggly co-anchor.
Baxter is a good man and has had a stellar career. Deep inside, I'm betting he was resigned to the new order, but I'm not surprised he decided it was time to leave. Privately, I'm told, he was dismayed, (like others) at the direction of the once-mighty news-talk outlet.
Gone: former PD, Mickey Luckoff. Gone: Rosie Allen, longtime newswoman/anchor who took a buyout and left two years ago. Gone: Greg Jarrett, who was 86ed and is now thriving in Chicago.
And now Baxter. Officially, he's retiring, and after 35 years, it makes sense. But under the circumstances, you know he has mixed emotions.
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After Ron Owens and Gene Burns depart..The once mighty 810 will be utterly unlistenable..
ReplyDeleteI have listened to KGO since the era of Ira Blue era..
Alas my demographic isn't listened too much anymore.
Sigh, another reason turn the dial and look for another morning listen...
ReplyDeleteBaxter is a pompous dinosaur. I always welcomed his numerous vacations because Jon Bristow usually took over. In KGO's news format, unlike KCBS (who just reads the news), anchors are given a little leeway to opinionate and have brief small talk chatter with the co-anchor. This was Baxter's weakness.
ReplyDeleteEd was great. I'm relieved. It's not hard to sense there is a back story here. No more reason to turn on KGO in the AM. NPR here I come. Sorry Lloyd, love your forecasts but we know you won't be far behind. Neither will Burns, Wattenburg or Taliafero as the once mighty KGO fades into San Francisco radio history. The rest of the programming has been a massive waste of time anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a huge KGO listener. He would have been very sad...
ReplyDeleteThis is sad, if and when Ronn and others leave Ill change my car radio to KCBS or back to KFRC.
ReplyDelete"It was time to go...." years ago! like another poster stated, his constant uh, uh, uh, drove me nuts. Could not ab lib, but he sure tried and was never funny when he thought he was... In short Baxter was a putz..
ReplyDeleteI was dismayed to hear that Ed Baxter was leaving...I listen to him every week day. He is special because he THNKS about the news being reported and his comments are INTELLIGENT, amusing, entertaining and insightful; he causes me THINK about the content verses being a passive listener. I totally agree with the previous post that there will be no reason to tune to KGO when Burns, Owens and Taliafero leave.
ReplyDeleteI won't miss him feeling that he had to comment(in usually a creepy way) on every sex, relationship and celebrity story while his co-host had to pretend to be amused.
ReplyDeleteYeah, his ad-lib skills were non existent.
I'm thinking Copie will work his way up the ladder, after all he does work cheap.
ReplyDeleteKGO is almost intolerable now. When we moved to the Bay Area four years ago, the station's news and talk were adult and measured in a virtual sea of inanity. Today, it's as bad as all the rest.
ReplyDeleteNow KGO only has one pompous ass left ... Wattenburg. When will he "retire"? By the way, if you want to be entertained in the morning, listen to Stephanie Miller on 960.
ReplyDeleteAfter 30 years, have turned the dial for the morning drive time. Jones is a complete air head and Bristow an insufferable clown.
ReplyDelete2:33pm- you probably squat when you piss. Miller is as entertaining as a nasty case of the runs. She is awful, & has virtually no audience. The local high school station has more listeners than that pile of crap 960. KGO's listeners are old, but they exist.
ReplyDeleteArmstrong & Getty can wake me up now.
ReplyDeleteAM910
I like Dr. Bill. And Bob Brinker.
ReplyDeleteI left KGO mornings because there was no chemistry, post Jim and Ted. Now I visit Murph and Mack on KNBR even though I don't like sports much. Sp--spp--suppes-- special Ed is finally gone, shouldn't be too hard to replace.
ReplyDeleteRonn Owens can't hold the station up. He wasn't worth the money they gave him. When he came back I knew that there was only a few short years left. Good for some of the weaker stations. KGO has a great run. But every radio station knows new owners have to piss in the corners. And now the station is a toilet. Sad Karel has to live with that ever crap they hire now. Going to take a long time to build this station up again. If I do happen to listen. I will avoid all advertisers!
ReplyDelete