Sunday, November 11, 2012

Radnich cheap shots Damon Bruce; In BFT Chron Interview, lashes out at fellow KNBR Talk Host; ''He just wanted to get ahead so bad"

In Sunday's pinkie, Ben Fong- Torres wrote a loving press release softy on Gary Radnich, who just celebrated his 20-year anniversary at Knibber. All well and good, until the RadMan took aim at fellow talk host, Damon Bruce. Bruce had a brief gig with Radnich that didn't pan out. (And it didn't, no debate here.)

From Fong-Torres:

When management decided to pair him with a partner, he agreed to try out the young and feisty Damon Bruce for a month. Within two weeks, it was obvious that it wouldn't work. "It was just awful," Radnich said. "He just wanted to get ahead so bad that ... he didn't get it." Bruce returned to KNBR's sister station at 1050 AM, where he's on from noon to 3 p.m.

Classy man, that Radnich.

I've had my issues with Bruce. He's a passionate performer, maybe too passionate at times, but he knows his stuff and his pluses far out-weigh his minuses. I mostly like him. And yes, god forbid, he's ambitious, Katie bar the door!

Like baseball and sex, there's some unwritten rules in broadcasting. One is to never make your talent look bad. And never, never rip one of your own colleagues, neither on the air, and most especially in print, or even electronically. It's called professional courtesy. Heard of that?

The old man Raddy crossed the line.

We don't discount two decades worth of work on a local radio station. 20 years is 20 years, although the Raddy act has taken a noticeable detour the past few years. We're not going to dwell on that because that's not the issue here.

What is the issue here, (and which BFT, a Tony Salvadore disciple, and ex-Knibber GM who was a Raddy ally, failed to write), is the other Gary. The other Gary that if he perceives you as a threat, will try to make mincemeat of you. The other Gary that literally made a former KRON sports anchor cry on his way out the door. We never saw this in the BFT piece. I'm just shocked.

I look forward to listening to Bruce on Monday.

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60 comments:

  1. Radnich is a stick and ball man. If that's all you think sports is, then okay. Some of us, however, like going to Sears Point for various events, and Gary could care less. Whatever. Also, he looks pretty puffy. Time to back away from the buffett, Gary.

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  2. I don't think it was a cheap shot. Gary was telling the truth as the show with Damon was indeed awful. Having them apart is much better, I like both shows a lot more.

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  3. Richie slamming 'old man Raddy'?? Shocking! Pot, meet Kettle.

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    1. Really? and your point is?..its not he's wrong is it? As a matter of fact-your admitting YOU THINK he's right.

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  4. Once again the Chronicle does its best to showcase certain celebrities in the bay area. Ben Fong Torres, Scott Osler (the Ralph Barbieri contract story) or whoever. This paper has its friends in the media and knows how to cater to them.

    Say Ben, why don't you write another story on the Fillmore West
    or the old KSAN?

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    1. DUH! The Chronicle is a bay area paper, they write about bay area people. Scott Ostler is one of their lead columnists. They should exclude him from their paper?

      You're going to criticize Ben Fong-Torres for writing frequently about the same subject? If he repeats himself, what is it that Rich Lieberman does?

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  5. That wasn't a cheap shot, it was a straight forward statement from Radnich about how he viewed his pairing with Damon, and certainly less nasty than many things Rich frequently says about others.

    And like Jeff Scott says, it was the truth. Damon is better alone and Gary is better with Larry.

    Rich's obsession with Radnich undermines his credibility.

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  6. I first learned of Gary's insecurities and cheap shots when Rick Barry hosted the noon to three segment. Gary would praise the "hall of famer" while ribbing him about hair replacements and commercial endorsements ("When is the last time Rick paid for a meal? Ha,ha.") Then at noon he would warmly greet Rick and ask who was coming up on his show.

    Only later did I learn that Rick was broadcasting from his Colorado home and had no knowledge of Gary's jabs. Other insults about former co-workers and fellow members in the industry soon followed.

    He claims his success is due to showing up to work at the last minute and leaving promptly when finished to avoid office politics. The obvious question is why would someone who hates to socialize choose such a public occupation? And why speak so negatively about others? Mr Rad(u)nich has always claimed that if life is going well, who has the time to be bothered about what someone else does?

    Gary has the time.

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    1. "Why would someone who hates to socialize choose such a public occupation?" A truly idiotic question!!!!

      Let's see... Johnny Carson hated to socialize and yet he was the biggest star in late night television for decades. You think Carson chose the wrong occupation too. You're upset that Radnich joked about Rick Barry's hair? Are you kidding? That's tame stuff for radio talk show hosts.

      Radnich has been the most enduring bay area media personality for the past 20 years and remains popular with his radio and TV audience regardless of what a disgruntled blogger may think about him.

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    2. Good point at 6:40pm.
      The cheap shots Gary Radnich has taken his fellow colleagues in the business is the most reprehensible behavior that Radnich displays. It is unbecoming.
      For a guy who prides himself on his success, he is easily one of the more insecure individuals in bay area media. Stunning.

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    3. Imagine that, an allegedly insecure show business personality. And you call that stunning? You must be easily stunned.

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  7. The anniversry was terriable. The usually suck up etc and the schitck he did at the end was truely terriable radio.

    Wish kmbr would get rid of him

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  8. Rich is criticizing Ben Fong-Torres' column as "a loving press release"?

    Excuse me, you mean it's not as edgy as Rich's hard-hitting interview with J.T. The Brick?

    The only difference is that people actually read the Pink Pages.

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  9. I can agree with some of the things re: Gary vs. the Hall Of Famer but if you think those were cheap shots, then you don't enjoy Gary's shtick. As great a ballplayer as Rick was, that's how insufferable he was on the air; the guy had the sense of humor of Donald Trump...I can think of several examples, although the best one came last year when he was long gone from KNBR. Remember the Chris Mullin night? There's the crowd booing Lacob and Rick admonishes the crowd by saying "I know this man..." Jeez, Rick if YOU know him, I mean...so bleepin' what!?

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  10. I'd rather watch Stu Nahan (late L.A. sportscaster) dead than watch Radnich. The article was a self-serving piece of pablum. Benny Fong isn't a journalist, he's a softball tossing mouthpiece who knows how to kiss the ass real good. Radnich became irrelevant years ago but most of the local sporting fans are too dumb to know better. Folks, you've been brainwashed.

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    1. Ben Fong-Torres actually is a real journalist. He was a writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone from almost the magazine's inception. He's written several successful books and has had a column in the Pink Pages for years.

      Rich seems to dislike BFT as much as he dislikes Radnich. Comes across as jealousy.

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    2. Poster at 8:57am.
      Do you know that the 60s & 70s ended more than 30 yrs ago?
      Ben Fong Torres never left those decades.
      He writes the same story (the wonder of KSAN) every week.
      Rolling Stone magazine became irrelevant in 1974.
      Ben Fong Torres is desperately holding on to a past that will never come back.
      Hey Ben, it's 2012. Please update your calendar.

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    3. Hey, Ben Fong-Torres is a legitimate journalist who devoted part of his column yesterday to Radnich. Why all the animosity?

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  11. I'm not a big Bruce fan; he strikes me as a guy who's never been in a fight but talks like he's tough. When the violence surrounding the Raiders vs. 49ers erupted, he actually advocated profiling to ensure safety...sounding like a resident of some lily-white upper middle class suburb who demands police investigate the first crime in his town in a decade. Re: Gary's opinion of why the Bruce - Radnich show didn't work: he said this on the air last week so, no real news there. Rich, you forgot more than I'll know about the inner workings of any given stations/shows here but it seems like the objective of that experiment was just to get Gary to get to traffic and updates quicker. He made Damon look like a punk lackey.

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  12. Rich:
    I'm sorry I missed this the first time, but, Radnich made an anchor cry on....HIS? ...way out the door?
    What station hired a five year old for an anchor?

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  13. Ratsnitch said: "He just wanted to get ahead so bad....”. This coming from the guy who stabbed Pete Liebengood in the back and still boasts about it. Damned jerk.

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  14. Talk about BEATING A DEAD HORSE. Rich complains about Radnich like Fox News rants about Obama.

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  15. Dibley has taken shots at Raddy-and still does,Bruce at Raddy,Townsend...And Kate Scott?..well,I have a feeling. And an 80 year old piano teacher isn't a Raddy fan...

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  16. I don't interpret the Radnich quote as a cheap shot. In fact it's pretty mild. Does Rich keep posting these baseless Radnich claims to drive traffic?

    At the end of the day, Radnich has been an enduring success at KBNR, KRON, and Comcast. Who is Rich Lieberman?

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  17. wow,Raddy gets more love here then he did on his 20th KNBR show. Only Kuiper and Lacob called in. Lacob sent Raddy fruit. You be Freud with that..

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    1. Not true. In the short time I was listening I heard Brent Jones, Mark Ibanez, and another former colleague who's name I missed. Get your facts straight.

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    2. FRUIT!!! HE SENT FRUIT! hahahahahahaha...

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  18. BFT? If FOX news would take him-he would go. Like Raddy,he's into it for the paycheck. Just too old to care anymore about quality.

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  19. I dont really follow this post. First of all, Gary told the truth and I don't read anywhere that you do not agree with him. Your problem seems to be more with Gary criticizing a fellow member of the media. Isn't that what you are building your career on?

    As for Damon, I listened to about five minutes of KNBR's 49ers pregame show yesterday morning, and at the end of an interview with the Ram's sideline reporter, Damon said that the guy knew more about the 49ers than half the reporters who regularly cover the team. Damon talks more trash about his colleagues than anyone, and I think it should have been mentioned in your post.

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  20. A revelation in a BFT article is what kind of bubble gum Radnich switched too. Yeah,you come away really knowing the man after BFT writes about him!

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    1. You were expecting a revelation? It was Radnich's 20th anniversary so BFT wrote about it. What revelations were you expecting?

      Did you read Rich's interview with J.T. The Brick. Did you find that revelatory?

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    2. Poster at 7:26pm, are you Ben Fong in disguise?
      Why are you defending him so much?

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    3. No, I'm not Ben Fong-Torres but I find the criticism of his column ridiculous. No big revelations? Give me a break. It was Radnich's 20th anniversary, you were expecting earth-shaking news?

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    4. Poster at 2;48am
      You are missing the point of the criticism.
      Ben Fong will never write a critical story about anyone. Period.
      All he wants to do is be chummy with the media.

      Delete
    5. Oh, and Ben Fong-Torres should write an expose about Gary Radnich on the occasion of his twenty-year anniversary at KNBR?

      BFT is frendly with the cohort he writes about, SHOCKING!

      Delete
  21. We're supposed to dislike Radnich because of what he said about Damon Bruce? HUH? And some lame story about him making another sports guy cry? Who cares, even if it's true. In our business, that's nothing.

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  22. Despite my having a less than discerning palate when it comes to sports talk personalities, I have a real problem digesting Damon Bruce. Sports talk need not be delivered with a bullhorn; bluster is no substitute for content; and there is no glory in being outrageous and insulting from the safety of the broadcast booth.

    Case in point: last week, while discussing how steroids have stained our perception of achievement on the baseball diamond, Bruce said that since some players are still taking steroids, we must, based on their proven effect, assume that all top performers are using steroids. Then, as an example, he offered up likely MVP winner Buster Posey, and slandered that fine young man by saying, without a shred of evidence (chemical or circumstantial), that we have to assume he's on steroids.

    My, what a cutting edge thing to say! Sports journalism sure is daring when delivered by a punk, one apparently juiced-up by an overdose of raw ambition.

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    1. So your problem with Bruce is that he's right? Don't get it.

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    2. Zito and Volgy are miracles. God gave them never seen before comebacks-and on the same team,at near the same time!. And Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny too helped too!

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    3. I'm not 3:03 but my problem with Bruce is that he's a big mouth no-it-all like so many talk radio sports guys.

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    4. @3:54 PM

      If Bruce is right, as you say, then I say, where is the evidence? Steroids can make an athlete faster, bigger, stronger, and more durable. Is Buster faster this year? Since he is still catcher slow on the base paths, I think the answer is no. Is he bigger. No. No bulging biceps or forearms, no expanding cranium (as we saw with Barry Bonds). Is he stronger. Not based on the home runs he hit, most of which cleared the fence by modest margins. Is more durable? Than what, any other top-tiered twenty-five year old athlete? There's no real evidence of that.

      At age 25, Yogi Berra appeared in about the same number of games, hit for about the same average, hit more homers, and drove in 25% more runs. So I guess you and that fool Damon Bruce, neither of whom comprehend what constitutes evidence, must be convinced that Yogi was on steroids back in 1950.

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    5. @ 7:37 (and 3:03)
      You are missing the point. Bruce was saying that until no one is using PEDs that everyone is suspect. What part of that do you not understand?

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    6. 9:26 AM

      Okay, I get it. So, until no one is molesting children everyone is suspect. Until no sports broadcaster falsifies a story every story is suspect. So I guess it's okay with you if Bruce calls you a child molester, because you can turn around and call him a liar.

      Sorry if you hit your head on your cognitive ceiling, but there is a huge difference between saying that steroids have brought suspicion to baseball and actually assigning that suspicion to someone without a shred of supporting evidence.

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    7. 9:26 (his name is Stan) has never been able to recognize the logical short-comings of his half-baked arguments.

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    8. You idiot-those weren't my posts. God,your so stupid. You have to Google on how to tie your shoes.
      S

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    9. "Your so stupid" Enough said!

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    10. And so true you cant even deny it.

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  23. Say what you will about 'the Gar' but he's endured because he's a unique talent. Sometimes his 'schtick' does get a bit repetitive, but he keeps you coming back for more. I think he'll squeeze out a few more years before it's all said and done. As far as the 'cheap shot' at Damon, Gary has always been a little threatened by young talented newcomers arriving on the scene, but that is sort of typical of people with big egos and Gary's is indeed...quite large.
    But he is a special talent who is unlike any we've seen around here before.

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  24. At least Radnich does not SHILL for any products or services like the other hosts etc of KNBR

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  25. I'm sorry but the anti-Gary bias in this post is very evident. I don't have a dog in this fight, but do some research man. It's fairly obvious you need to listen to Damon Bruce and more often because I do (only because what's on 680 is just ugh), and Damon Bruce violates your unwritten rule about ripping a colleague on air all the time! Damon Bruce frequently (admittedly less and less lately, maybe hes finally over it) talks about how Gary isn't pure sports and how he's just fluff.

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    1. "Damon Bruce frequently (admittedly less and less lately, maybe hes finally over it) talks about how Gary isn't pure sports and how he's just fluff"

      And we thank Damon for that.

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  26. Gary's preparation for the show is lazily flipping through the Chron's sports page and prompting Larry to lead the way...I can see why Rant-nich did not like being paired with someone who actually prepares for a show and is intellectually ready for the gig...made GR's laziness even more apparent.

    I liked him breathlessly reporting the Jim McMahon is having post-concussion problems story today...you know, the Sports Illustrated cover story from a few months back

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    1. If Bruce was prepared and Radnich wasn't, how come it was Bruce who got kicked to the curb? Answer: BECAUSE THE AUDIENCE PREFERS GARY!
      End of Story.

      The audience responds to what they hear on the air. They don't care if he allegedly made some sports guy cry X years ago or doesn't prepare sufficiently to satisfy "Rant Bot."

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    2. Poster at 12:54pm
      No. Because Gary is too friendly with management.

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    3. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. The money-hungry management at KNBR/Cumulus doesn't care about ratings, they just put their friends on the air and pay them large salaries.

      The greedy guys in charge would put Atilla the Hun on the air if he would increase ratings. If KNBR could make more money with Damon, they would. Whether it bothers you or not, Radnich is far more popular than Damon and that's why Gary is where he is and Damon is off KNBR 1050, KNBR's farm team.

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  27. Gary has said multiple times that Larry "saved my a--" by joining his show, meaning that his act was getting tired and a new voice provided a needed change in the morning.

    What Larry has done is to save Gary from mentioning all the sponsors who pay for segments and to avoid the Adam Meyer infomercials.

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  28. The bay area, despite being a place where new ideas are apt to take root and sometimes sweep the country, is very parochial about it's sportscasters. Famliarity creates a comfort zone, and we tend to like those guys (or gals) who have been around for awhile and have become familiar.

    That's why people such as Radnich, Joe Fonzi, Mark Ibanez, Vernon Glenn and Dennis O'Donnell are all reasonably or very popular. Comcast Sportsnet is trying to find a niche, but because so many of their faces are relatively new to the area, and because Comcast Sportsnet is a place for the serious bay area sports fan, it is not enjoying great popularity. Sports fans in this area tend to be more casual and less attentive to the fine deals. The hardcores are fewer in number here than they are in NYC, Philly, Boston, or Chicago. Plus we have a huge population base of non-native Bay Area folks who don't have much history with or knowledge of our local teams.

    But still, a lot of people, including casual sports fans, feel comfortable with folks such as Radnich and Ibanez, because they've gotten to know their personalities well over the years.



    The best sportscasters however, are the play by play guys. They know the games better than the studio guys and the talk show hosts, because they're out there every night,and they haveto study the nuances of the sport and know all the details of what each players has been doing. We were lucky to have had some great ones in Bill King and Lon Simmons, and we still have some top notch pros in Jon Miller, Ted Robinson, Greg Papa, Ken Korach, Randy Hahn, Duane Kuiper, and Dave Flemming.

    We also have some terrific analysts in Mike Krukow, Drew Remenda, and Jim Barnett. No knock on the rest of the guys who's names I didn't mention, but just they're not in that top catogory of the aforementioned play by play announcers. Perhaps they would be if they were Seattle, or Denver or St Louis.

    Most of the folks who do sportstalk shows, sports or updates on the radio or TV are all solid pros who are worthy of working in the nation's number six market here in this bay area, but again, they don't compare with the play by play folks because their work is more scripted, more rehearsed, and more predictable.

    Doing good play by play requires not only a quick eye and complete understanding of things as they are happening, but the ability to use the language to either paint a word picture (for radio) or augment what the viewer is seeing (on TV).


    Radnich is a unique talent who has gotten the most out of his career. He comes across like a friendly, likeable guy who loves to joke around and 'have fun' with sports, but I would rather listen or watch Greg Papa or Jon Miller who have just as much personality and a lot more in depth knowledge. If you want a casual approach to sports, then Radnich or Ibanez or Vernon Glenn or guys that you like to watch.

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  29. I like Damon, but he's certainly taken shots at "Uncle Gary" on his 1050 show, so that makes it a level playing field, no pun intended.

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