Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Damon Bruce Post-Mortem; Dwight Walker Gone from Entercom; KGO Radio Dead Air; Wednesday Media Notes

 Damon Bruce returned to the KNBR airwaves Tuesday.


He offered an apology over his now viral, nine-minute rant against women and sports last week and began to do his show. He was contrite and sincere.

That may be the easy part.

I know for a fact that his Cumulus bosses--he too, are betting the odds that DamonGate will eventually be forgotten with time. Maybe, maybe not. This much is clear.

The Chronicle has called for his head. That's not good.

Nor is this.

And this too, hello Lee Hammer.

And what about the fallout? What guest will do on his show? Better yet, what writer/broadcaster will not do his show? And what about women guests? The latter question is the more ominous one for Bruce and KNBR. And we haven't even mentioned the advertisers.

*A radio insider tells me Entercom VP/GM, Dwight Walker, (95.7 FM 'The Game') has been advised to retire. Translation: he gone.

*KGO Radio Saturday Night: over 40 minutes of dead air. Nobody's minding the store or maybe there's a new format in place. Bad news? Dead Air. Good News? No Ryan Scott.

*As stupid and misguided as Damon Bruce's anti-women tirade was I don't believe he should be fired over his 8-minute brainfart. There's been far more worse things aired on radio but that's just my opinion and believe me, I've had my moments with Bruce.

*Wonder what Ralph Barbieri is thinking about all this?

*No, it's NOT all about civic corruption nor political conning in Investigative reporting; it's about a whole variety of things that affect all of us. Crooked cops. Fake Doctors. Nailing lawyers. Not all of it is sexy, made-for-TV formula but it works.

*Again, other than a few re-tweets, the female sports diva/writer has not written a column on Damon Bruce which I still find rather odd since a hellacious amount of her gal pals have done so. Maybe she didn't get the memo.

*Yes, I'm dependent on donations to 415 Media. If KQED, a $300M operation has DAILY pledge breaks, then I can ask and requests donations to keep me and this site you read going. It's called getting paid for one's time--if that's illegal or unethical I guess I'm guilty. Imagine, a buck or two donation to keep the Bay Area's only media blog going. Just dang astounding.

*Follow me on Twitter



66 comments:

  1. Ike's Place in San Francisco should rename their overpriced Damon Bruce sandwich.
    I suppose we've already given Bruce way too much thought - he's as relevant as Bobby Riggs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They should!!!! I think Ike is a personal friend of Doosh Bruce.

      Delete
  2. I bet $5 the Dead Air gives KGO a Ratings Bump.

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  3. I think what Damon learned is that even an outsider from Indiana can come here and seriously insult most of the bay area, and the good old boy system will protect him.
    Yahoo Sports cant be taken not just seriously,it cant even be trusted on what it reports.
    Even I didn't know its taboo to take on Bruce for what he said.
    Nice move Lee Hammer..take out the middle aged white guy for 2 days for saying what middle aged white guys think..and replace him with another middle aged white guy !

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    Replies
    1. No one has protected Bruce from anything and injecting race into this conversation makes no sense.

      Obviously this commenter doesn't understand anything about the very real problems of racism and trivializes the cause by making idiotic claims like this.

      Delete
    2. Stan has been banned from other blogs. He started his own months ago but no one reads it or leaves comments. 415 Media allows his rants, which are always the same regardless of the content of blog item.

      Delete
    3. And -who banned me? The best dump in town. You want the short list of local blogs I post on? Lowell, John Hickey,Rich,MT2, Grant Cohn,Carl Steward when he does Raider blog and more. And you say no comments?..that's a lie,and In about 4 months I have near 25,000 views. Thanks for asking.
      And 12 12 look in the mirror "for always the same message"..! Squared!

      Delete
    4. Bot generated views and NO COMMENTS.

      No humans either read your sad little blog or waste a single moment to comment on your gibberish.

      If anyone did read Stan's blog he wouldn't be posting here to get attention, albeit negative.

      Delete
    5. Its Obvious you don't read it,since there are 282 comments,20K + views- none of mine are counted btw, and yet you post the same lunacy over and over with no facts to back you up. That's why I'm a better person then you.

      Delete
    6. WOW! 349 Stan's comments, 282 replys out of 20,000 views?

      Now, there's nothing to brag about. In fact, I wouldn't bring it up at all if I were you. But I'm not you, obviously.
      Oops, 20,001 views. Like a train wreck, I had to look (shame)

      Delete
    7. According to you 423,Even when I'm right,I'm wrong. So much for your opinions.
      So no views would be bad? And many views is bad too? I'm sure you will come back with ..yes,no,and maybe, as you're answer.
      I see how very few comments the Trib/Merc have relative to views every day on their stories. Write them too.

      Delete
    8. 20,000 views and 282 comments over many months is pathetic.

      Undoubtedly that paltry number of views is from automated bots and spiders and NOT from living human readers.

      Also, the number of comments IS WRONG. All your comments come from the same three people, INCLUDING YOURSELF.

      NO one reads your blog which is why you come to 415 Media to get attention.


      Delete
    9. I read Stan's blog for a few weeks. Same message - "I, Stan said this and I Stan said this. And see how I control the Bay Area media". Oh wait, here is a new thought from Stan - Uhh, nope. Just Stan patting himself on the back or ranting on how the media is too white. Has Stan ever called into a show? Judging by his grammar, he has little chance of communicating effectively. Of the 282 comments, more than half are his.

      Delete
    10. And 1201- you skip a key point. I was right. Like all your posts you avoid that. So now you say 150 comments is 0? And 23,000 that aren't mine don't count?
      Stay anonypuss.

      Delete
    11. Maybe a more direct description to all of 1201 posts. " Stan is right,and I can't STANd it!. How true.

      Delete
  4. Now we know KGO is on life support. We had dead air (once) during a talk shift for :15 at 10:45 PM and I got a call from Mickey L....who proceeded to rip me a new one. True story.

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  5. More interesting than this is what is the backstory behind Gary Radnich's apparent disdain for Ted Robinson?

    He took another shot at him today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's Radnich, what more needs to be said?

      Delete
    2. What did he say?

      Delete
    3. It was Radnich dissing Lieberman years ago that first alerted me to his existence.

      Gary can't help himself. He either loves and adores workmates (like Pam Moore) or he gets quick little shots in about them both on the air and in-person. He pretends it's all in good fun when in fact, it's not.

      One memorable example: Back in the early '90s when Malou Nubla was the young, fresh new face doing traffic updates at KRON, she garnered a lot of instant crushes (including yours truly). During his noon call-in show, he would read faxes. One came from someone calling himself "Number 1 Malou Fan." Gary chuckled, "Heh! Might be Malou."

      Delete
  6. Dead air on KGO is no doubt better than what they try to peddle now - stopped listening after the bloodbath and giving the 'exciting new product' a few chances.

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  7. I am not at all surprised that Dwight Walker is being told to retire by Entercom. They're no better than Clear Channel, Infinity, Comcast, or Cumulus. These mega-media monsters have been allowed by the Communications Act of 1996 to downsize their staffs, go cheap with 'younger people' and despoil what used to be a reputable industry where one could actually have a career and make a living prior to the 21st century. Forget about that today in an America where 'the Brand' is more important, and the shareholders and CEOs have more power and sway than the people who actually make the product. In this 'global economy' that we're living in, there is zero loyalty to anyone but 'the brand.' One simple question: What people actually make 'the brand?' what it is? Is it only the shareholders and the CEOs and other big-wigs in the front office, or could it possibly be the people who actually make and represent the 'product?' Interesting thought to ponder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How old is Dwight Walker to "Retire"Surprised the game has not made any changes again with those low ratings.

      Delete
    2. doesn't really matter how old Dwight is or what the reason is behind his retirement; he's a class act; smart guy, wonderful leader, and will be missed. Another good one is gone; that's the bottom line.

      Delete
    3. Going by his LinkedIn profile, Dwight is 58. Pretty obvious this wasn't his choice. He's been in charge of Entercom-SF for almost 7 years with no success stories to show for it, except for KOIT which was a highly rated station when Bonneville sold it.

      Delete
    4. Maybe not his choice, but the guy has been very successful. Ran KFOG prior to Cumulus screwing it up; maitained KOIT's top position for 6 years; while not his choice, brought KBLX into the Entercom family, and at least had the guts and energy to try something on the "Bermuda Triangle" of radio signals, 95.7.

      Delete
  8. That's Gary being Gary. He takes shots at everyone. Very, very insecure man who has no reason to be. That's really very sad. The guy may be liked and respected by his friends, family, listeners, and even many in the media for his long tenure in the bay area, but his backhanded, petty, smarmy and passive-aggressive comments and attitude on the air have made him a pariah among most of his media cohorts. Of course he could care less, because he doesn't really mix much with them anyway. He just loves to hear himself talk about nonsense that has nothing to do with sports. Hey Gary, to paraphrase you: NOBODY CARES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good post at 11;32am
      Many others share your views regarding Cheap Shot Radnich.

      Delete
  9. Damon Bruce likes to pontificates about things he thinks he knows everything about, but in actuality, knows a lot less about than he should. He is also a border-lined misogynist, but then, so are many of his ilk in sportstalk radio. His embarrassing rant was probably istigated to 'make noise,' and 'get attention,' as KNBR is the cross eyed, imply faced step of it's more powerful relative. But I guess Damon accomplished something because today's SF Chronicle lambasted him on their editorial page. Now he can go back to the KNBR Gulag and rant and make more noise, and perhaps you will have 100 more listeners listening.

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  10. Injecting race into the Damon Bruce story is somewhat simplistic. If you want to frame it as an issue of "minorities", and that includes women (yes, Christine, for the sake of this argument, it does, since they're a clear minority in talk radio), it would make a lot more sense. The argument that a lot of "white guys" feel this certain way about women may be true, but has nothing to do with Damon, KNBR, or this story.

    All told, he shouldn't lose his job over this. He's a moron, and there are probably other reasons for him not to get as much work as he does, but he shouldn't lose his job.

    Now what's this thing about KGO's dead air? What happened? During the Ryan Scott show? Who is Ryan Scott?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well said Danonymous.

      Damon Bruce is a talk show host. These guys are supposed to be big-mouthed, opinionated slugs. That's what Damon is. He said something stupid things that offended lots of people and he's been punished.

      Enough!

      Delete
  11. Tim Kawakami - "Sportswriter of the Year", has said nothing,written nothing about the national sports story of Damon Bruce. The local sports media are clowns, they might as well go on Yahoo entering in little cars and honking horns.
    Except for Lowell Cohn and I understand Gwen Knapp also. How long before they get ostracized (by head in sands, local Ostriches) even further?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To be accurate, Kawakami has commented on Twitter several times about Damon Bruce including:

      "It became a national issue, and that's all fair game. If Damon had gotten fired, that would've been fair. He didn't. That's fair, too."

      "My take? It's sports talk-radio, not exactly a bastion of sublime genius. Damon went beyond the normal stupidity. He should get thrashed..."

      Did he write a column about it ? No, but that is not necessarily his mission as a sportswriter. Similarly, Ann Killion has taken the same tact, criticizing via Twitter but not writing an article. Her view (right or wrong) is that by piling on, Bruce only gets more publicity thereby driving up his ratings.



      Delete
    2. RJ- You said it - he's a SPORTSWRITER. Not a sportstwitterer. And Ann? She ripped Lee Hammer...but what did she "tweet" about Bruce? What did she write with any thought and insight about woman and the Damon Bruce bashing of them? She wrote nothing.
      Everything I wrote about local media was put in the spotlight. Olberman even did a Stan.2.0 on Lee Hammer.
      Twitter? For those who call themselves "sportswriter of the year"?

      Delete
    3. Who is Stan? What is all this Stan nonsense about? His comments are incomprehendible.

      Delete
    4. Where you been the last four years 825? In a cave? I guess this is the very first time you read 415, huh?...

      Delete
  12. 40 minutes of dead air... If you ask me, KGO is 24/7 dead air.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Stan hates Asians! I bet Gary doesn't hate Asians. Gary's #1!

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    Replies
    1. Until I came along Radnich told Asian jokes, and picked on local Asian media types just because they were Asian. You think its just a coincidence that Radnich brings up his grudge with Wendy Tokuda and Emerald Yee and a certain Asian KGO sports anchor after all these years? As I listen I can tell Radnich has no understanding of Asian culture. And he doesn't want to.
      btw- Your types cant complain I "obsess" over him and then tell me I'm no expert! Although that is the Radnich way to take both sides when it suits him....

      Delete
  14. Rich,
    Do you think Damon made an apology without apologizing? His on-air apology Monday was more of an apology for controversy--to his station of all things. He said one line about not really representing his true "feelings" for women, but didn't retract anything, didn't specify anything, didn't say anything was wrong. "Feelings" could mean anything, and could easily exclude all the content of his rant.

    I am feeling that it was a non-apology and that it shows that Damon truly believes what he said, which is pretty wild. He's kind of saying: I'm willing to pay price--losing 9ers gig--for saying what I believe, and I'm not backing down.

    Wondering if the Chronicle ran the "Fire Him" editorial after hearing his on-air apology Monday and basically seeing it the same way I'm seeing it, as an non-apology.

    Wondering your take on apologies is--whether they matter or how they make a difference.

    Also wondering what KNBR gains by putting Damon back on air so soon. By putting him back on air right away, with the pseudo-apology, seems like they are taking risk that this thing keeps growing.

    So, even if they felt like Damon didn't deserve anything more than one day of suspension, what do they gain by having him back on airwaves so soon?

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  15. These attempts to expand the Bruce story by calling out people who HAVEN'T commented on it is idiotic and offensive.

    Who are these commenters who believe they can mandate how other people should feel and what they MUST write about this? And then condemning others because they chose to remain silent.... RIDICULOUS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean why call out local sports columnists who haven't said a word about a local hot topic that's made national news? and you don't wonder why 1250?
      Then again,I Stan was the only local to post about the Jeremy Lin slur in Feb of '12 It took the rest of this great country another week to wake up.
      And that's on BASG archives. You know- the guy who banned me for being an adult.

      Delete
    2. Stan claims he is some kind local media person? I've never heard of him. Who is he?

      Delete
    3. BASG banned Stan for being an insane, obsessive, pest and no one was sorry to see him go.

      Delete
    4. Basg was! His blog dropped like a rock until he got all his closest friends to post and make it look like he had "new" readers.
      1129 ,your the type I always say makes the local sports media a bunch of lunkhead conservatives.
      And - Didn't you 1129 stop posting on my blog because you're a quitter? Yeah,that was you under the name "x234h555,000ynnnn." lol.

      Delete
  16. "No, it's NOT all about civic corruption nor political conning in Investigative reporting..."

    I know a not for profit group that gives the illusion of helping deprived women with substance abuse problems. They're using tax payer's grant money as an atm for their own benefit while providing little to none to the public. This activity is rampant and makes the tea party folks look like pikers. Where's the coverage, the scrutiny? Where's the EDD...all female, all black.

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  17. Fire Damon! Put Ratto on in his place!

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    Replies
    1. Ratto is terrible. He's an anchor that Tolbert has to live with. If Lee Hammer actually listened to KNBR maybe he'd know this.

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    2. @6:14 I feel the opposite. Tolbert has no charisma to keep me listening and I enjoy Ratto's sense of humor. I've listened to Gary for years, always have KNBR on during baseball season but I never listen to Tolbert. I did enjoy Ralph tho.

      Delete
    3. Ratto is hilarious and knowledgeable on all sports and issues (although I never go by his predictions since he is too pessimistic). Keep him with Tom and keep Damon on 1050 (there's nothing else on 1050). And please, don't even think about bringing Ralph back to the airwaves. He was past his prime and was a whiner.

      Delete
    4. Ratto is one of the least entertaining people I've ever heard on the radio. Guy can put people to sleep. I like his columns and don't mind him on television, but he is such a drag on the radio. "Tolbert has no charisma?" What planet are you on? He has no guidance. Charisma is probably his #1 quality.

      As for Damon, he's just not a smart fellow. If you've ever met him you'd know this. He may have the sports thing down somewhat, but he lacks intellect. Whether he believes what he said or not isn't even relevant because he's such a mental lightweight that I'm sure his opinion could change with the wind. Apologize, don't apologize, it doesn't matter to me. If he's on the air is all that matters. Being that he is I have a reason not to listen to 1050.

      "Call up and tell me something cool about Vegas!!! No, not that, I know that!!! I want the hidden gems...the places no one knows!!!!" Yes, you do, because learning about them would then make you a much cooler cat.

      Delete
  18. What happened to Charlie Pellet (or whatever his name was) doing the morning business reports on KNBR? I see Scott McGrew from NBC Bay Area is back on doing them. Pellet finally get sick of Gary bashing him?

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    Replies
    1. I was thinking about that the other day. Over the years they have had so many. I can still hear them saying Scottttt BUDMAN. I believe he was before McGrew. I enjoyed Charlie. They had another girl last week as well. I feel this warrants a post by Rich....all the business reporters KNBR has had.

      Delete
  19. "*No, it's NOT all about civic corruption nor political conning in Investigative reporting; it's about a whole variety of things that affect all of us. Crooked cops. Fake Doctors. Nailing lawyers. Not all of it is sexy, made-for-TV formula but it works."

    AMEN to that!!

    It's also about dot.coms who have subtracted from our way of life while pretending they're adding to it. They pay almost no taxes and make billions, promising jobs while shipping most of the positions overseas. Meanwhile the infrastructure of the cities that lure these big babies is crumbling. Police are leaving or being laid off. Parks are being closed. Bridges are crumbling. And these tech crybabies say "If you don't give us tax breaks we'll go elsewhere!" Were I the mayor of any one of these crumbling cities, I'd say "Go elsewhere! See if I care." But they're too afraid their opponents will use the departure of Twitter or Yahoo as political fodder during election time. The mayors would rather brag they brought all this business to their city, even if it didn't do anything for the quality of life there. And the news is afraid to investigate this, because they don't want to piss of tech either.

    Tech owns the Bay Area and the country in a way that's truly Orwellian. And now they want us to entrust them with all our private data in their :"cloud." And people are more than happy to do it. All they seem to need as a pacifier is the next touchscreen gadget and they're happy sheep. What idiots. Back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, people at least were a little more cynical.

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  20. Bruce is back but he's pretty skiddish. He had JT The Brick on Monday and he must've alluded to him as a friend @ least 10 times. Every guest has been male & a "friend" so far. He'll be on tippy toes for awhile if the backlash which is still holding pretty firm today doesn't ultimately get him. If it doesn't, when he gets cozy again, his ego will do him in down the line.

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  21. Hey 1:24pm anon...People are just as cynical, if not more so today. But what's even worse, we have a younger group of eligible voters, many of whom don't even vote or could care less what's going on in this country, or in the city in which they live. They're more interested in making money and staring into their tiny screens, obvious to the world while they walk across streets against traffic lights, almost completely unaware of the 'real' world around them. Yes, 1:24pm, you're absolutely correct. They are "happy sheep." And as one of my favorite movie villains once put it just before he was about to rob some people: "If God did not want them to be shorn, he would not have made them into sheep!'

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  22. Another shameful local media phenomenon is the Bay Area Sports Guy blog, which had numerous features supporting & promoting Damon Bruce, even before the current fiasco.
    Bloggers can certainly be legitimate sources of news & well-informed, thought-provoking opinion....but BASG is not in that category.

    Such hard-hitting & probing features such as "What does the future hold for Damon Bruce" back in August, or "Marty Lurie Bingo" prove that point. BASG being a thinly veiled advertisement/supplement for KNBR does a disservice for intelligent & independent sports/media blogs around the nation.
    But keep selling those Amici's pizzas.....

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  23. Most Americans unfortunately, have been conditioned to spend more time reading (if they read at all) or watching or listening to nonsense, noise and crap. They don't know any better, probably because most of them have never been really paying attention to who owns and runs the media. What's really sad and pathetic though is Fox TV news and their claim of being 'Fair and Balanced.' They have created so many brainless, spineless sheep in this country that it's almost astonishing. It's actually so absurd that it's almost funny...but it isn't.

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  24. Maybe Damon should learn something about life.

    You read these things and realize what a loser Damon is.

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  25. The Chronicle has called for his head...Well, the remaining 8 Chronicle subscribers should hold an interest in that remark.

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    Replies
    1. No, the Chronicle published an anonymous editorial.

      Delete
    2. So one can assume it comes from the Editorial Board, which means it's not really anonymous.

      Delete
    3. Was it the San Francisco Chronicle or the Gotham City Chronicle?

      Delete
  26. And lets not forget. This wasn't Bruce's first anti woman rant. Didn't 415 say something about his "Woman have no impact in news" rant about a month ago?. It was a warning shot. So,local woman can't say " Its uncharacteristic" of Bruce.
    To me,the whole reaction by bay area sportswriters and sports hosts was whole hog good old boy. In "liberal" San Francisco. Yahoo sports should be called "Cahoots" sports. Just a pathetic display.

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  27. Dwight Walker: good at managing the status quo when his station group has winners, bad at creating an achievement atmosphere at a start-up operation.

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