They came into this market and destroyed some of the most heralded radio stations in the Bay Area. They've ripped apart a mass-market community of listeners who feel helpless and deprived of the radio outlets that were once the envy of the industry and whose air-talent bore some of the biggest names in the business.
Now, the call letters are still there, but the radio is devoid of soul. Sure, mattress man is trying desperately to act as if nothing has changed, but even he can't dissipate what has taken place. You can hear it in his voice. He's got a check to collect after all, and when his contract is up in nearly a year, he'll be gone too, and he knows it. His disregard and betrayal to his once loyal listeners; his complete silence on the matter; his duplicitous letters on Facebook have only made matters worse, in effect, a figurative tool for the corporate beasts that sign his check. This entire affair will follow him to his professional grave and bury whatever legacy he had.
The KSFO guy is another story. Brian Sussman elicits a lot of angry energy. When he was at PIX doing the weather, few people he worked with had any clue that the mad weatherman was an ultra-right wing hawk who didn't believe in one ounce of climate change. (This is not about whether there exists, "global warming"--not a political, Dem-Republican deal); this is about a guy who has apparently covered up his own friend's demise at the once-mighty KSFO. There's no loyalty at the SweetJack factories and RedEye Radio saloons.
The "new" "KGO 810" is in utter chaos. The few credible voices-- reporters, anchors, a few talk hosts with bills to pay are only there to pick up a check and split the premises as soon as their shift is over. Anyone of their remaining talkers with a home studio don't dare make the trudge to 900 Front unless they have to. Why visit the toxic Cumulus jungle. The internal atmosphere is supposedly abhorred with a thick residue of fear and resignation, as if "what the hell is going on here?"pollutes the mind. And damn, can you hear it, if your one of the fools like me--a glutton for punishment--that continues to listen just to hear how bad it sounds on the air.
How bad? How embarrassing? How comical? Well, where do you start. Daily, deathly amounts of dead air, awkward tosses to anchors who sound ill-prepared, (as if they just found a gig at a "big-market" outlet and are gung-ho even if they have no clue of the geography), an invasion of sound, wait, SOUND, musical crap jingles forced into "news" content that is so bad and out of place, it's unintentionally funny. I think the "Finch Files" should launch an investigation.
Moreover, everything is out of whack. The content is simply re-hashes of re-used crap that was re-hashed hours earlier that was dull and bad, only it was live. The cannibalization of voices, weather guessers, chefs, sports people, borrowed from KGO-TV, The Chronicle, Knibber is so pervasive and fraught with banality, you can't help but shake your head and wonder how it all got to THIS, so fast, so furious. And with such utter contempt for the public interest, the "PUBLIC INTEREST", remember that? "WE OWN THE AIRWAVES", thanks FCC and the Telecommunications act, signed in 1996 by Bill Clinton, and harvested early on by Ronald Reagan.
KGO is no more. They're now officially dead, no better than the current KNBR and KSFO, but KSFO and KNBR died many books ago. And KFOG too, (maybe Dave Morey knew what he was doing. Maybe this whole sad and sordid conflagration prompted Morey and others to split when it was safe).
Yes, I know this isn't a Bay Area deal alone. I know fully well that KABC and WABC have been cumulisized--but KGO, could they really destroy the house where Jim Dunbar and Ted Wygant and Owen Spann and Ira Blue held court? Could they hatchet up the hall where dedicated professional news people like Peter Cleveland and Russ Coughlin graced the airwaves? The bastards.
I'm sorry but something is wrong here. Something much bigger than Lew Dickey and Bill Bungeroth and Atlanta times ten. We're talking about the systematic ambush of a community asset that has triggered a nuclear reaction among listeners, the public, old, young, middle-aged, white, black, yellow, brown. Rich and poor, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist. No one, not one thing, not one group in particular, but indeed, an entire community. How can they get away with it?
Excuse me but I know the business has changed. Spare me with the crap that "KGO was losing market share and the ratings were going down, etc", (and they were); sorry, but that doesn't give the right of a company based in Atlanta to come into a community and ambush the sounding board that belongs to the masses. The public masses, if that means anything anymore, and I still think it does, call me naive.
What, if anything can be done? You can have all the rallies you want--they don't give a damn. You can deny them the advertisers and they may blink a bit, but that won't work long term because by then, they will have consolidated and marginalized enough to either sell or pass on the remaining crumbs to another corporate murderer just as heinous as Cumulus.
What needs to happen here, (and beyond too), is that Congress has to be involved, engaged really, but I don't know if there's a strong willingness by the public with enough time on their hands needed to pull off what needs to be pulled off. Remember the word, "oversight?"That's supposed to be enforced by our politicians. We need a Costo-sized amount of OVERSIGHT here, folks, that's your only hope. See, only then; when you have Congress investigating and inquiring about the ethics of out-of-town, corporate bullies grabbing up local, INDEPENDENT stations that serve the public interest--only then, will you have a chance.
Rallies, schmallies. Call, e-mail, fax your local, state and national pols. Tell them what's going on is wrong. Deregulation wasn't intended for this type of mass extortion and community kidnapping punctuated with a total disregard for the public and their community at large. And this community has 4-5 million people, the fourth-largest market in the country. They might pay attention. But ultimately, it all depends on YOU, your friends, your neighbors, your neighbor's friends, the pizza delivery guy, the cable guy, the mayor, the state senator, YOUR CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN.
This is not an overnight deal. This is a long, drawn-out affair with many chapters. If there were ever a process that evolved out of real "grass-roots", this is the mothers of grass-roots evolution. If you really are as angry, as affected, as passionate as you claim to be, then go fight the good fight. Even if you don't have the time and have to pay the bills like all of us, do something, do something TODAY even.
Only then, if at all, will they understand you're tired of their -hit and have about had it.
Only then.
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Well written. I agree except that I think rallies, at this early stage, are very helpful to keep disregarded and upset listeners connected. I, personally, find the FB sites such as "former listeners.." along with this blog help my morale and energize me to pitch in and do what I can to make a stink about this. I've been a listener for so long, that I have energy to spare on this issue. It would be helpful to have addresses and so forth in one place, perhaps the FB sites or here, so I can send a string of comments to the right places.
ReplyDeleteCongress is too corrupted by moneyed interests to do a thing.
ReplyDeleteThe system is beyond repair. Only a reboot will do, and that has more to do with the spiritual heart of America which, right now, is corrupt with greed and unbridled materialism.
The causes for the hate speech on KSFO, for corporate crony capitalists who really are fascists who wear suits and would have jack-booted thugs marching to their tune if they could get away with it, are not political; they are spiritual.
Yell all you want. It won't do any good. Welcome to what Karl Marx, a pox on his name, predicted.
Excellent post!
ReplyDeleteoh, very well-written.
ReplyDeleteIts part of the rich and what they are doing across the country in EVERY business. It used to be just a "tenny" was needed to see TV,Now Comcast wants a car payment. Its why when cops give a ticket -you see dollar signs in their eyes as they envision that huge bonus and retirement benefit package..Yes,even the legal system gouges,knowing you have nowhere to go to complain. PGE,Exxon,Hospitals,Banks..just pile on the costs,give execs bonuses..because its the 1% feeding on the 99%..and all the above are one percenters by far.
ReplyDeleteIf we ever have a revolution of change-I support it!
S
Sorry Rich, the public doesn't "own" the airwaves. Never has. That's a misconception. The Telecommunications Act of 1934 establishing the FCC declares that broadcasters operate in the interest, necessity and convenience of the public interest. As bad as Cumulus may be, they can always claim that the changes they are making represent the interest, necessity and convenience of the public that is now listening to KGO. There's no mandate that broadcasters operate in the interest of the majority opinion of bloggers, disaffected listeners and former employees of any radio station. IMHO, Cumulus is right to "blow up" KGO, they're just doing it the wrong way and with the wrong format. The ratings will ultimately bear that out. Finally, the broadcasters are trustees. But the public does not own the airwaves. That opinion comes from James Gabbert when he quoted from the TC Act of 1934. He went thru the entire argument chapter-and-verse on a recent "Saturday Special" on KSCO.
ReplyDeleteRich...as much as I sometimes think that you're 'over the top' with your analysis, you hit the nail right on the proverbial head in this latest post.
ReplyDeleteBut most of us Americans just don't 'get it' because we're too busy texting, tweeting, and frantically rushing around in our cars to get to some job that we hate so that we can pay for all of the crap that we don't need.
If people would just take a moment to slow down, reflect a bit and try to understand the mess that's been created here, we might be able to get a clearer picture.
The world has changed radically since the digital revolution...some good (the Arab Spring)
some bad (facebook and twitter...why people want tell their 'friends' that they're at the mall or eating at some swank restaurant with their significant other, is totally beyond me!)
The world that we live in (America) has also changed radically with the deregulation of our industries, which started under the Reagen administration of the 1980s, and really gathered full steam as the 20th century 'era of greed' hit the 1990s under good old Bill Clinton.
It was really a rather startlingly similar reprise of the 'Gilded Age' of the
late 19th century (think of those times when robber barons like JP Morgan, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller ruled this country.)
Deregulation was pushed by Reagan's advisers
as well as Republican and Democratic cronies in both the Congress and Senate as an alternative to
'too much guv-ment' (that's the way Ronald Reagan used to pronounce government.
People were also urged to bug things on credit and many Americans and short-sided businesses leveraged themselves up to their eyeballs. That allowed smart, but greedy and
un-American companies such as Cumulus and others of their ilk to step in unhindered, and buy as many radio stations per market as they wished. They 'dumbed down' and then 'downsizing the product,' (radio), and gave us the crap we currently hear whenever the dial is tuned to some of the once-venerable most local radio stations.
And it's not going to change, Why? because President Obama has much more important things to take care of in the years ahead.
Unfortunately, media deregulation is not entirely unlike global warming....we had our chance to remedy that problem way back in the 1970s, but we didn't want to give up any of our 'comfort and convenience' so we missed the boat. Now we, and our children, and their children will have to pay the price.
I think it's time to go take a hike!
Geez leave Ronn alone already. Would you walk away from a Million Dollars because a few friends got fired? Hell no and you are a liar if you say you would.
ReplyDeleteThere are clauses in that contract and Ronn is not going to do anything that even skirts those clauses. He will do something after he is out and when the last check clears the bank.
Plain and simple. In this day and age are you really going to walk from that kind of money?
As for the rest of it. Time changes they have and will continue to do so. Laws were changed and when they were where was the outrage then? Did no one have the foresight to figure it out sooner or later someone is going to come in and change it?
Big corporations have shareholders to answer too. Yes I am one of them. Get over it they are doing their job and doing it well. Radio is going by by and it will soon be Satellite radio to the rescue. Sooner or later all radio is going to be pay as you go. The free stuff will be in the form of blogs and taped radio. Maybe Karel is the trend setter here with is NYE show.
But think about it the world is changing. You are either in front of the bus, on the bus or you were under it when it rolled over you.
The only revolution that will work, 9:37 a.m. is for America to achieve the vision of greatness foreseen by its Founding Fathers, rather than descend into what they feared, which is exactly what we've become, especially in regard to the vice grip of control on our economic system, which is not really capitalism or free enterprise, but rather an oligarchy at heart made prettier by the circus and clowns proffered by the oligarchs for our entertainment and distraction, until we lose our jobs, then our homes, then our self-respect.
ReplyDeleteUnless you have a lot of personal discipline, these insults to your well-being, which are not caused by the ones victimized, could be turned into revolt, and in America, with all our guns, that could mean violence.
The unemployment rate the government provides is about 50 percent of the true unemployment rate. People off unemployment are no longer counted. There are millions.
How long do you think the anger will simmer before it boils over, especially in disenfranchised communities where unemployment is already at historic highs, where violence rules the day and school systems are in utter disrepair?
This goes beyond radio. KGO, hate-speech KSFO, Islamphobe and ignorant hatemonger Brian Sussman are symptoms of America's spiritual wasteland.
An America where greed is preferred over moderation; duplicity over character; and in Brian Sussman's case, Christ's "love thy neighbor," "turn the other cheek" turned into a very strange, toxic brew of Americanized and politicized Christianity that is every bit as toxic as the fundamentalist and politicized Islam that Sussman is so much against.
After all, America, the nation that Sussman incorrectly calls a "Christian nation" has been far more of a terrorist in Iraq than Islamic fundamentalists have been in America, if you look at it by the numbers of innocents killed.
It all depends upon your perspective and where you live. A close friend in Pakistan, a Muslim who calls himself "liberal," tells me of American drones that kill innocents as "collateral" damage. That is not very Christ-like, but Sussman loves it. It's called MURDER, crimes against humanity, Sussman, and I don't think Jesus approves, but so many of his fundamentalist and evangelical ilk sure do love the drones and the American imperialistic military.
Signed: a conservative who doesn't drink the kool-aid.
This reminds me of the theme of "The Grapes of Wrath" . But time is on their side as they will wear done the people who really care. There are too many sheep that will just lay down to be slaughtered. I really don't want that to be true. As Churchill said: "NEVER, NEVER,NEVER,NERVER NEVER,NEVER,NEVER....GIVE IN.
ReplyDeleteRich Lieberman, thank you for your coverage of all the recent upheaval. Its impossible to get this kind information anywhere else, and the lack of interest by the usual suspects in the local media (chronicle/sfgate, local tv/radio news) is troubling. Thank you for filling that void.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I have to echo 9:43's sentiment on this (very well put, by the way, 9:43). In America, radio stations don't "belong" to the public. The public doesn't pay salaries, licensing, fees, taxes, rent, etc. (not directly, at least) Cumulus
does that. Its their radio station, and as awful and ignorant as their decision making has been, they have the right to call the shots as they see fit. Just as you have the right to run your blog as you see fit, or your own business, if you have one. Please, lets not start ringing the alarm bells and calling for congress to get involved in this. Congress doesn't know sh*t about local radio. Congress knows as much about running a radio station as Cumulus does about running the country. I'm sure you don't want congress involved in your blog, in the same way that Cumulus doesn't want congress involved in running their stations. If this is some kind of anti-trust legal violation, then yes, by all means, involve congress. Is that what's happening here, though?
I'm sad to see the loss of a community resource. And, for me, its created a void for local talk radio. But, guess what? If the public wants it, clamors for it, then that void will eventually get filled by a new radio station, with new voices and new talent. Perhaps some old talent, as well. And if the Cumuli changes are as bad as I think they are, no one's going to listen anyway and their product will fall by the wayside. As it should.
As for the comments regarding Karl Marx, Global warming and the 1%.... people around here can be just a tiny bit melodramatic, can't they?
Excellent summary and perspective, Rich.
ReplyDelete@10:05 AM--crawl back into your troll hole. Ronnn could have handled it better, much better, and still kept his contract. Very few are calling for his quitting--we understand he needs a job--but he could have handled it better. No one cares about him any more, so who cares what he says a year from now--no one! As Rich said--he's finished. And I think he's dug his own grave.
"Cumuluscize" is a good word, Rich--it could also be "Cumulize," as in "We've been brutally cumulized!"
It is one very sad state....big sigh......
I didn't listen to KGO talk much before but I did listen to the news. Now, I don't listen to it at all. Copeland's Sunday show that used to be topical and interesting is now white bread boring.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bill Clinton, he balanced the budget and left a surplus which is a big deal. But as you stated, he signed off on the gawd awful telecommunications act that he was begged not to. He also advocated and signed off on NAFTA, which was really the beginning of the end of the middle class in the US. And people still have their lips poked out that Hillary wasn't elected president so she could finish off what her hubby started. People in this country have the rotten government they deserve.
Well written post, Rich!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have to take issue with the "rally schmally" comment. Such actions may not have immediate impact, but they are VERY important in the overall scheme of things.
I have been involved in community action for 40 years and have seen firsthand the difference that citizens can make when they gather and speak out!
Where would the civil rights movement have gone if everyone had given up and gone home?
Excellent commentary, Rich! Thanks for saying it like it is ... and "It IS what it IS."
ReplyDeleteAs people just become more or less resigned to accept that radio is dead and satellite radio will be the wave of the future and you can get your info online or from cable TV, it all troubles me. This is how the 1% continue their greed. We have to pay for EVERYTHING -- just to get the basics. Satellite radio is not free, cable TV is not free, internet is not free, even the new digital TV is much harder to get without at least basic cable if you don't live nearish a big city and either buy a new digital TV or a converter box. So this becomes access to what's going on in the world only if you have money. Gone are the days when you could just turn on the radio or TV with rabbit ears and find out what's going on in your community, state, country and world. It is our willingness to pay for the neverending parade of new gadgets that helps keep this trend toward ever bigger corporations alive. Ultimately if we stop handing over our hard earned money to them for newer and newer toys, maybe this will all slow down a bit. Bottom line is they get much of their money from us. Don't listen to the radio, don't buy the products advertised.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants Officer Vic's side of what happened his public Facebook name is OfficerVic Trola. He seems like a good guy and I miss the chemistry he had with Lee Rodgers. I have never really liked listening to Sussman, and thought his style is forced and contrived, as well as him being very self promoting. I now think he is an outright liar after reading his story about Officer Vic, making it seem as though it was his choice to leave and move to Montana. Out of morbid curiousity, I had on Sussman's show for a few minutes this morning, and he referred to how he inherited the Lee Rodger's show when Lee "retired". I could not believe he actually said that when everyone knows he was fired. KSFO and KGO no more for me. Check out what Officer Vic has to say about what happened.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I actually feel sorry for Ronn. After 35+ years of great radio on KGO, when he leaves the station next year Ronn will be remembered mostly for his cowardice of December 2nd and beyond.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad way to take a nosedive off the stage of what had been a meaningful career.
10:32, Uh, is the current depression we are in melodramatic? Only if you are one of the millions upon millions adversely affected. Then there is no melodrama. It's called reality, baby.
ReplyDeleteKarl Marx was correct about our greedy capitalistic system. What we have now is an oligarchy.
And the house of cards that Wall Street built is even more precarious than the buildup prior to the house of cards that collapsed in 2008.
That's not melodramatic. That is reality. You can live in your little shell all you want, but if you think this economy is going to rebound without further harm to the American middle class and small businesses, then you might not be melodramatic, but you are ignorant.
LOL. You have truly fallen off the deep end. Get Congress involved. BWAHAHA. You can barely order a pizza without blowing it. Just accept the fact that you have NOTHING to do with the media; that your drivel is WORTHLESS, that you have NO IMPACT on ANYTHING RELEVANT. You are the media equivalent of Taco Bell: No real content, just crap. Its amazing how delusional you are. Keep writing, We implore you. Its pretty amazing to see a chronicled record of a man falling into psychosis.
ReplyDelete@ 2:10 PM....??????
ReplyDelete"chronicled record of a man falling into psychosis....."
Hardly! I don't always agree with Rich's approach, but he provides a plethora of knowledge and information to those of us who are concerned with the current situation.
Hmmm, could 2:10 be a Jared? Naw! Say it ain't SO! lol
at 2:10--Hi Jared! Happy New Year hon!
ReplyDelete"But most of us Americans just don't 'get it' because we're too busy texting, tweeting, and frantically rushing around in our cars to get to some job that we hate so that we can pay for all of the crap that we don't need"
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be a generational upheaval. The Facebookers, Texters, tweeters DO get it. They were sold out by the Boomer generation from the top echelon investor class right down to the labor unions. All more concerned more about their own butt's than the future of this nation. The party is over and the kids have been left without a dance partner. Their future was mortgaged to pay for Boomer excesses. There are few good jobs, education is no longer attainable by the masses and even if you do get an education, their are few jobs that will afford the standard of living their parents had.
The people who don't get it are the current crop of politicians. Far too many of these young people are not vest in "the system". They won't put up with it forever.
dear 2:10...you employ the imperious 'WE"...are you too ball-less to just say "I"?... a petite clue...in broadcasting....you may think there is a "WE"..but there isn't.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame this on the Boomers! Many of us are barely getting by. Remember, we were the ones who demonstrated against the status quo of America back in the 1960s. We weren't the ones who ruined the country. Look around -- America as we knew it has turned into a Third World Country. Even life boats sink if there are too many people on 'em.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that as a 'Boomer' myself, my generation is as much to blame for this mess as any other. But the reality is that we're all complicit...each and every one of us Americans.
ReplyDeleteFew of us paid enough attention or did anything to try to remedy the impending situation because we were all so busy trying to hold on to what we had or we were simply trying to 'get further ahead.' with more personal comfort and convenience. ,
I'm just as guilty as anyone out there. I knew that we were facing trouble, and I did give some help in the form of contributions of several hundred dollars a year to environmental organizations I felt were doing a good job (Surfriders, Sierra Club, Friends of Nature, and so on), but in the big picture that was a mere 'drop in the bucket.'
For our Democracy to work, we each to, each one of us, become more engaged. That means voting, following local and national and international news,
helping out in our neighborhoods and communities, and taking an active role in
important decision making on key issues when they come to the fore.
And if we want to continue to live comfortably in this 'land of plenty,' with relatively cheap fuel, plenty to eat (compared to other countries) and the freedom to speak our minds (as I'm doing here) we need to be more accountable.
Our amazing Constitution and Bill of Rights still stand for a lot, and we need to guard them from being ravaged. Unfortunately, today more than ever, we have political extremists
(mostly on the right) who display smug self-righteousness to justify their proposed perversion of our democracy.
And it's absolutely astounding when one considers what the hate-mongers and bloviators like Limbaugh and Sussman are spewing, and who they are targeting. Usually it's either the Democrats (an easy and convenient target) or
some group of poor, less fortunate individuals.
What in heaven's name are they so angry about. These cretins have plenty of money, good jobsand security to boot. Perhaps it's because they're afraid of having their 'comfort and convenience' taken away.
I guess Limbaugh doesn't like the idea of local ownership of media, because it means he would have fewer stations to carry his drivel, and that would mean a cut into his 45 million dollar salary!
Anyway...I'm straying here, but back to my original point....let's get more involved.
I'm not a gue fan of the Occupy Movement, but I believe they are on to something and that this movement, like the anti-war movement and civil rights movement of the 1960s will evolve and help change our culture for the better! We need to shake things up and make these fat-cats
be more accountable. They need to pay their fair share...not rip off and plunder and walk away with Golden Parachutes while the rest of us
struggle to get by!
And I can tell you from first-hand experience...
I'm one of those people who has been 'downsized'
out of jobs by these bloodless corporations, not once...but twice! I guess I'm a glutton for punishment!
Many of the boomers' "excesses" were spent on giving their kids everything -- the very kids now who are the texters, tweeters, etc. and feel entitled because they got so much given to them without having to earn it. Most have never known scarcity. What do you think the boomers spent all that money on? And....it's not the boomers who the advertisers on the radio and elsewhere are trying to attract. It's the 25-54, and they want them because they think they'll spend lots of money and are gullible enough to fall for all the advertising.
ReplyDeleteEven as we heard this summer when that Cumulus would likely approach its new properties with a blowtorch, we could not have, I don't think, imagined so much change so fast. (As a part-time Southern Californian, I am surprised that KABC and classic-rock KLOS-FM have been spared flips or major makeovers like its SF sisters, considering that they are ratings laggers, especially KABC which earned a 0.9 in mid-2011).
ReplyDeleteClueless suits coming to town to "revitalize" stations is nothing new. But I'm wondering if the savaging of KGO is really for the purpose of making it a more viable station? Or simply running it on the cheap to show a better bottom line?
I'm actually agreeing with 2:10. A creepy kind of paranoia has settled in here. 2:29 confirms it for me. "Hi Jared. Happy New Year, hon!" WTF? What you people don't know about radio could fill a book.
ReplyDeleteReally 8:49? Tell us more!
ReplyDeleteI am 8:49. This whole thing sucks for everybody. Radio is ruthless, it's a battle of attrition every day. Deception is a rule. Sometimes the deception is clumsy and you can see it coming, sometimes it's surgical and you don't. This was surgical. Beyond that, I can only conclude that bean counters added up contracts vs expense and said "whoa, let's cut here." It's the new radio paradigm: don't improve the product, or better promote the product, just cut the bottom line. Everybody looks like a genius til they don't. Trust me, the remaining employees at KGO are doing the best they can and are under a lot of pressure. In my opinion, most of the ad hominem assaults on the "survivors" are misplaced and naive.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should contact Cumulus ....everyday!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cumulus.com/investors.aspx
Company Profile
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I had the same thought about Dave Morey. Great post!
ReplyDeleteBill Clinton balanced the budget, and left us with a surplus?
ReplyDeleteYou mean he was forced into it by Newt Gingrinch, a Republican House, and Ross Perot, who got 19% of the vote!
Please, show some balance.
I think you and I may well be among the only ones who remember Ira Blue. My Mother was his nurse in his last days. He used to talk about UFOs and the paranormal long before Art Bell. When I lived back East I was lucky enough to be able to listen to the great Long John Nebel.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with AM radio is also the problem with society these days. No one has any sense of history, nor do they care to preserve it or the memories and moments of those who helped build an industry.
And the anonymous suits who own the networks today only care about either profits or ratings.
They care nothing for quality radio or for the public who love to hear a certain host, dj or talk personality. To them its all about either making a buck or cutting costs.
That's why they gutted KSFO and KGO and fired Lee Rogers and why late night listeners have been subjected to a pathetic idiot like George Noory for 10 years.
I started listening to KSFO in 1964 and once suggested to its program manager that they do a special show on the 25th anniversary of the passing of Don Sherwood. As far as I know nothing was ever done. There aren't any Sherwood's on the air anymore, nor Jim Dunbar's either.
And to the suits, there's no room for them either.
So now we get a news station that can't compete with KCBS and KSFO that once was the World's Greatest Radio Station to the World's lamest.