Monday, May 27, 2013

The old KGO Radio comes back for three hours; Pat Thurston pulls off impromptu wake for Gene Burns; Ironies galore


As word trickled out Saturday that Gene Burns had passed away, Pat Thurston was in the process of prepping for her show, which is about the only thing worth listening to on KGO.

Thurston was a close confidante to Burns; often times it was her who had the lowdown on Burns health status which had rapidly deteriorated since his dismissal from the station in December of 2011. Burns had suffered a myriad of issues including several minor strokes. The latest one, which had occurred only days before ultimately cost him his life. Burns died Saturday morning.

Thurston was in high gear on Saturday. Before her show, she popped into Michael Finney's show. Finney got a call from Ronn Owens, who announced Burns death. Immediately, word started getting out and Thurston began planning.

Soon, Owens and John Rothmann arrived at the Cumulus KGO broadcast studios. Ever so careful, Rothmann actually asked Thurston if it were OK for him to talk on the air. It's Cumulus, mind you. Thurston obliged.

Suddenly, a stream of former producers and engineers from the old KGO began arriving and phoned in to offer condolences. Mickey Luckoff called. So did Ray Taliaferro and Christine Craft.

What started out as an impromptu hour or so of reminiscing eventually evolved into a mighty, sometimes cathartic three-hour broadcast wake. It was, ironically, sadly, maybe enlightening, the very best three hours of vintage KGO Radio--you know that old KGO where people actually sounded like something and the fact that it had to take Burns death to create it, spoke volumes.

Periodically, audio outtakes of Burns verbal jousts and work were played. The studio ensemble laughed out loud. Hundreds of e-mails poured in as did callers. At one point, Thurston made the dynamic point of saying that Burns demise might have been accelerated by his dismissal from KGO. "I hope this doesn't get me fired", she said half-kidding. A later arrival to the show, Karel, (who can't help making himself the subject no matter what, ) went one step further, (I'm paraphrasing), "His firing probably cost him his life." I immediately tweeted out that I finally agreed with something Karel said, and to his credit, at least he had the guts to say it. As per usual, later on in his own show he resorted back into typical Karel mode injecting his own professional demise. God forbid he stay the course but oh well.

Give Thurston and producer, Lynn Sloan, credit for assembling the masses. It was remarkable auto-pilot radio that reeked of sincerity and sadness. Again, that it took the death of a former legendary host and colleague to pull it off is both compelling and revealing.

I want to make a few points here.

I'm quite happy and give props to Thurston for pulling off the genuinely decent Saturday night broadcast. At first I was bothered by the fact that Cumulus would benefit, (unknowingly), of a host's dismissal. Sure, I know Cumulus had nothing to do with this ad-libbed broadcast but I was still perplexed. Here you have three hours of some of the best radio, (for a change), and yet only hours later, it would all sink back into the abyss.

On Sunday night, KGO broadcast a three-hour tribute to Burns. The program consisted mostly of  highlights of Burns various show themes and his back-and-forth with various callers. It was a nice program. Burn's "Dining Around" show was also lauded with a few of his celebrated pitch outtakes and they were both funny and poignant.

There is no word of a memorial service for Mr. Burns. Should one take place I will mention it in a future blog post.



*Gene Burns

*Obituary

*KGO Radio

*Cumulus

*Pat Thurston

*John Rothmann



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23 comments:

  1. Yeah it was nice to hear some old KGO voices, but it won't change anything. No one in corporate is going to hear word one about any of this, nor would they care if they did. It got to this place because they don't care! If I had to guess what would come of this I'd say someone would get fired for allowing it to happen! Only because it was a vacation weekend was this able to transpire. This happens on a normal Tuesday and none of it happens come the weekend. That's my guess.

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  2. Glad to see there was some Class still alive at KGO. We will be loosing Greats in Years to come. Off the Point WHO 1040 also lost a host this week Jim Zabel

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  3. Hi .....
    This is Gretchen Wells ...
    I was at KGO before Gene Burns ... in the great old days I suppose. When KGO was Number One.
    I was honored to do the morning news with Jim Dunbar and Ted Wygant and Melanie Morgan .... Ken Beck. Bruce Kamen was our News Director ... Jim Easton was there for a bit .... Lee Rogers .... Ray .... I used to do the 49ers halftime news with Starkey ..... worked with Dr Dean .... went up in the traffic Copter a couple of times when Lou and Lyn couldn't. Ed and Rosie were in the afternoon.
    I am very sentimental about KGO. They were the BEST years in American Broadcastig. If anyone wants to say hello and compare war stories .... please do.

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    1. Gretchen,

      I remember you and want to say thank you, you were great!

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  4. While Ronnnnnnn and Copey decided to self-censor after the summary firings, Pat Thurston was the only REMAINING host to dedicate considerable time to the issue (Karel and Craft don't count). Therefore, it is not surprising that again Pat Thurston would be the one with COJONES to do the right thing. Bravo Pat for a wonderful and touching show for Mr. Burns. I found it hilarious that the phonies Brian Copeland and Ronnnnnnnn Owens decided to talk about Gene Burns after his death but did not stand up four him the day he was fired. Those two bums have no class at all.

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    1. As it so happened, despite your revisionist history, I was the first person who did a talk show after the departure of Gene and company. With the blessings of Cumulus management, I did three solid hours on that particular subject, with many, many callers opining on what had happened. I've no idea if it "counted" or not, but it mattered to me and to those who wanted to speak about it. Good day.

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    2. I knew you'd pipe in. I made sure to state that of the REMAINING hosts Pat was the only one to speak up about it. As a fill in you had nothing to lose. Your show was good, I still remember it. You and Pat have more balls than the other aforementioned clowns.

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    3. Not that it matters all that much..but Karel is not a fill-in host. He has a regular weekend show, just like Pat, and remains post-programming changes.

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    4. I understand, Karel is not a fill-in host; however he does not count because he has the disturbing knack of inserting himself into every subject matter and turning the discussion about himself and his dead husband. I'm sick of it!

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    5. Christine,

      I'm having trouble appreciating you anymore. I'm reminded of the line by K. Hepburn to H. Fonda in On Golden Pond......."Your just an old poop". Nuff said.

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    6. Who cares what you appreciate? I'm reminded of meeting Ms. Hepburn in a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright house in Darien, Connecticut when I was a little girl.My mother and Ms. Hepburn were both good friends of the owners. So, Ms. Hepburn in her prime, pre-palsy is the one I know. I never saw "On Golden Pond", in its entirety, but I spoke numerous times with Jane Fonda about acting in a movie with her father.It was extraordinary for both of them, because of their complex relationship. I refer you to Ms. Fonda's autobiography to further illuminate all of that. And that's the real poop.

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  5. I'm so sorry I missed it. Hopefully someone made a tape/CD/recording of the show and can sell me a copy. If you post, I'll answer with my full name.

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    1. Go to kgoradio.com. In features click on seven day archive.

      Saturday 6 pm

      Your welcome

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    2. I'm sorry that I missed it too, just now finding out about Mr. Burns. But like many, I do not listen to KGO anymore.

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  6. Don't need to buy nothing, just steer your browser to http://www.kgoradio.com/common/page.php?pt=Pat+Thurston+Podcast&id=4372&is_corp=0 and listend to all of Pat's show from Saturday night. Probably the best radio out of KGO in years. I got the heads up from the FaceBook and tuned right in.

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  7. as the supremes have stated that corporations are people, can cumulus be charged with manslaughter?

    i will be happy to make s citizens arrest...with tazer in hand

    and to anon 1109....i believe the station still archives on their website...although i could be wrong

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  8. I've been festering on Mr. Burns death since hearing the sad news Sunday evening. Not only did Cumulus kill KGO, they killed Gene Burns. Mr. Burns death is "work related", no different than a coal miner or construction worker killed on the job because of an employers complete disregard for the health and safety of their workers. Cumulus' treatment of Mr. Burns deserves the attention of California's Labor Board and Worker's Compensation Department, as well as the National Labor Relations Board. Additionally, I hope someone in his family files a huge civil suit against Cumulus over their complete disregard of how to treat employees they choose to lay off. Maybe a big old lawsuit would teach the Dickey's a lesson in employee relations....

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    1. I will jump in to defend Q in this comment. Mr. Burns death was not due to what the Q did to the staff. Q had only had the company a short time It was also not like Gene was Out on the streets the day after. As for the Q killing KGO they own it Let them sink it. With Sweet jack a Cumulus company Propping it up KGO should be doing Bad Radio for sometime to come.

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    2. Oh my God, shut up.

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  9. Hearing some of the former KGO hosts back on the air Saturday helped me remember how good talk radio used to be in San Francisco. Even on their worst day (if, in fact, there was one), hosts like John Rothmann, Gene Burns, and Ray Taliafaro were 100 times better than Monty on his "best" day.

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  10. As I listened to the archive it seemed to me that it was a wake for KGO not just Gene. I am grateful that Pat was able to put it together.

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  11. OK, this whole things is begging for a movie to be made. It is just too big. Who wants to make a movie? I think it would get good traction stir the country up a bit about what is happening.

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    1. Interesting. Would definitely make a good documentary.

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