Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Angry KCBS' Stan Bunger and Chirpy Susan Leigh Taylor; Ronnnn and SussMAAAAAn Anti-Raise The Minimum Wagers; Dana King Considers Politics in Oakland; Kaiser 'Happy Endings'; Wednesday Coffee Media

 Why is Stan Bunger so angry? Maybe its the slew of angry e-mail that has stacked up at KCBS over their repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat story count that has reached crisis proportions; on the other side of the spectrum, the overly chirpy Susan Leigh Taylor who's faux shock and awe and overly sensitive "interviews" are becoming the joke of the local radio industry.


Combine Bunger's I-Think-I'm-God complex with anger; Leigh Taylor's giddy-geisha and sports tonsil, Steve Bitker crappola, "Good Morning Stan, Good Morning Susan, Good Morning Holly, Good Morning Kim" glop of goo to the setting and you have enough brown stuff to occupy the toilets in Sochi hotels.


*KTVU's Ken Wayne, new look and all, is probably destined for a big cable move sometime early next year unless the station sweetens the pot.


*All the PR gurus are headed to the W Hotel later in the week to nosh on freebie food and make a point of telling each other how great they are. I'll be there for the leftovers and that's not the food if you know what I mean.


*Dana King is contemplating a run for the vacant Oakland City Council. The ex-KPIX tells a compelling story about her newfound career in artistry. It's beautiful. Too bad she doesn't elaborate on her pushed-out-the-door a little early at PIX where she was making about $500K when she decided to retire. Retiring at 53 is plausible ---making 500K and at the peak of your career, saying goodbye-- is not believable, sorry Dana.


*The relentless Kaiser ads on radio featuring the illustrious Alison Janney talking about "Happy endings" is ripe for jokes and I'm quite surprised the doofuses at Kaiser didn't think about, perhaps, a slightly better slogan than happy ending.


*Sorry, tried real hard--KFOG is painful to listen to.


*Two rich white boys that are against the minimum wage because they're great Americans: Ronnnnnn Owens and Brian SussMAAAAAAAAN. KGO and KSFO: birds of a feather...


*Ronnnnnnnnnnnnnn had a tough week: lunch with Carmen Policy at the North Beach Restaurant and a pedicure on Union Street. There's a rumor he's going to check out his buddy's new one-man show at the Marsh. I didn't know Ronn liked Byron Allen so much.


*Over lunch at Original Joe's, I told Angela Alioto that her father was the best mayor SF ever had. "He just did what he had to do--he didn't consider it work--he felt it was sort of an obligation to serve the people of San Francisco."


*There figures to be a whirlwind of changes on the Warriors broadcasting team(s) next year--both radio and TV. Stay tuned.


*Newsroom tude in the toilet in order: 1. KTVU 2. KGO-TV 3. KPIX 4. KRON 5. KNTV...actually KNTV, (NBC Bay Area), is feeling rather farklempt with the Olympics coming and a facility where everyone's feeling rather snappy and where interaction with the ND is not considered a relic.




*Just this morning alone: KCBS' Doug Sovern's report on flu shots was replayed over 7 times! The SAME story. Embarrassing.


*Follow me on Twitter

34 comments:

  1. This makes me wish I was still in the Bay Area.

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  2. The only thing more irritating than hearing the same story over and over on CBS is reading the same points over and over on Rich's blog. :)

    Seriously, though, I'm praying for a big storm so KCBS can dust off the Stormwatch desk and stop repeating lame news briefs.

    --Brian

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    1. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Nobody recycles more than Rich. Except maybe Tyler Perry.

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  3. Well, the newspapers are a lot thinner these days and there are fewer people out finding and reporting news. That means there is less for radio and television to steal, hence the need for more repeats. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal today has a great homeland security story focused on the bay area that should be worth taking -- and expanding on.

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  4. The news is a little dull these days. The real fun is coming. It's gonna be Bay Area's Brian Boitano vs. Vald Putin... What time is Karel on?

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  5. Why do you have to write about Ronn's pedicure, it does not have anything to do with his show, or him being a talk show host, comes of as petty, because you don't like the guy. I strongly disagree with Ronn on the minimum wage, but he is no Brian Sussman, just because the have the same view on this particular issue.

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  6. Ken must have gone to the same scalpel artist who did Kenny Rogers. I think he hates guys with Ken in their names.

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    1. Is that what you and the other girls talk about in the beauty parlor? Do you find the length of Paul Deano's sideburns unseemly?

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  7. Bravo Dana King. Anchoring endless newscasts is ultimately pretty boring and unchallenging, no matter how much you are paid. Her new adventure is a rebirth. Anchoring the news is not the most important job in the world, not by a long shot.
    As for the Warriors' broadcast team...Tim Roye is tops!

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  8. just curious.... I like the list of Olympics reporters and their past performances.....how many Olympics has Janelle Wang(KNTV) covered?

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  9. Only natural that Lieberman would have lunch with Angela Alioto. Hope she picked up the tab, he's been working hard as her unpaid PR guyt for the past two years!

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  10. Why should KCBS be embarrassed about rerunning the same story repeatedly??? Lieberman does it constantly and is apparently incapable of embarrassment.

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  11. As with Asiana/KTVU, I don't know what you want Dana King to say about her "retirement." She was making too much for their comfort in this age when bloggers who do their shit for free (albeit at abysmal quality...they can't spell, can't punctuate and their sentences sometimes literally make no sense; they're terrible at reasoning and drawing conclusions...but maybe that's hitting too close to home) are pushing out TV vets. So they made her, as Don Corleone says, an offer she couldn't refuse. What else is there to say?

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    1. Well said, . Dana King left with her pride and dignity intact.
      Surely that's preferable to a Lieberman-style hissy fit.

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  12. KCBS is an all news station.
    They repeat the same stories over and over for listeners who have just jumped in their cars, listen for a while, and then move on to something else.

    No one is expected to tune in and listen continuously.

    Criticizing KCBS for repeating itself is idiotic. That's the whole point, keep repeating the same stuff so new listeners can catch up.

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  13. Rich, do you stalk Ronn? This is getting a bit creepy. Not sure I care about what this old man is doing day to day. In fact, I'm guessing his ratings are making it clear that no one else cares either.

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  14. What about the new Pacific Coast Termite commercial I heard on 560 I believe Monday where they talk about not getting "your panties in a bunch". I at first laughed then I thought "did I really hear that on the air?". I wonder how long that one lasts.

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  15. The KCBS formula works, why change it?
    I listen as I get ready for work, and occasionally at times during the day in my car---I don't pick up on any Stan Bunger attitude. Has he said that he is angry or is that something you are projecting?
    I know Dana from her houseboat days in Marin, smart woman.

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    1. Radio doesn't have an obligation to report on every "story" or to create news where it doesn't exist. Just like Top 40 / CHR or "Today's Country" reapeats top hits ever hour to 70 minutes, to keep a constantly turning cume, you repeat the most important news stories to be relevant.

      Most people in AM and PM drive do not listen to KCBS for hours at a stretch. The basic "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world" clock really works, whether it's the "traditional" CBS Radio news presentation or the hipper, faster 10-10 WINS New York format.

      Plus, with a soft ad "season" - stations turn over elements faster and budgets are such as to whose boots are actually on the ground at any such time.

      I detect no "anger" and out of dozens of emails, it comes no where near a 775,000 to million person cume. KCBS knows what it's doing and has the numbers to prove it.

      KGO repeats a lot weaker news count over and over as well with less important "stories."

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  16. In the last 6 years KFOG has completely fallen off and succumbed to the disease of Cumulitus. As I believe the great Dave Morey said - radio is merely just real estate anymore.

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  17. If you want to talk about stinking modern times..How about the local media just GIVING a ton of free on air add space to FACEBOOK?. A website started by a kid who simply stole MySpace ideas and like some Orwellian novel before he knows it he's hosting the President of the United States while still wearing his hoodies.
    So now,10 years later a media site that hasn't done anything for improving society other then be the modern "dear diary" to the world is getting huge almost reverential treatment by those who should be more cynical and aware by now after years of watching silicon valley.
    Facebook is just another form of NSC tracking us for data. Just another dollar bill maker for yet another billionaire.
    FB can go to hell.

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    1. Hey Stan, thanks for adding to the Facebook conversation. Ironic, eh?

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  18. Maybe KFOG will become the "new" KGO-FM. Happened elsewhere for news and talkers -- KCBS / KFRC-FM and in Philly, WIP & WYSP-FM (now WIP-FM.) Why not here? Cumulus is dying for an FM outlet to prop up its' on-the-gurney KGO.

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  19. Warriors - Is that why there have been a few guests announcers recently...... my money is on a local college guy!

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  20. I detect no anger in Stan Bunger's delivery. I am happy enough with Susan Leigh-Taylor;s delivery as well. And at 5:45 a,m., it does;t hurt to hear a little courtesy. His mother brought him up well. If I had one beef with KCBS, it is that they have cut two minutes off of most of the TOH newscasts.

    Alison Janney's voice is perfect for the Kaiser ads. Well modulated, low in timbre, and easy to listen to.

    C'mon, now - let's' find some good things to say for a change.....thanks.

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    1. Sorry, but I cannot stand the Kaiser commercials. To me, Alison Janney's delivery is the Voice of the Nanny State. Every time I hear it I immediately look for a cigarette to light up.

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  21. Dana King lived in high and mighty Marin County when she was a anchor.
    Now that she is trying to get on the Oakland city council, she is renting a loft in Oakland.
    I heard it on KCBS radio.
    Suddenly, she cares about Oakland.
    But before she was running for a political job, probably never visited Oakland, never lived there or cared about Oakland.
    Why would the people of Oakland vote for a outsider who is now pretending she is a Oaklander who cares about Oakland?
    I care more about Oakland than she does and I don't even live in Oakland or running for office.
    Can you answer that question Rich?

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    1. She is following the Jerry Brown model.

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  22. A hot rumor circulating among the sports media is that the Warriors will deep-six Fattie-Fitzie and Papa will return to his old stand with Tolbert as his side kick on TV. Roye however, will continue as the radio voice of the Warriors.. Other rumblings: the Stanford Athletic Department was not fond of the job Scott Reiss did on Stanford football radio.

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    1. Listening to Scott Reiss broadcast football was painful. He cannot do basic play-by-play. Next.

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    2. I can't see Papa leaving his cushy CSN gig to travel in the dead of Winter for weeks on end. Fitz ain't bad and gets along pretty good with Tommy when they toss on occasion in the afternoon..

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  23. KGO ? ... in FM Stereo ? ..... Just what I always wanted !
    Hey .. Ronnn... "That's Kars with a K" ....... in Stereo. YAY...

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  24. The rumblings from Warrior Hdqtrs are that the new owners and their management don't like Fitz's insincere and fawning behavior, as they can stiff out a brown noser when they see one. Fitz was able to fool Chris Cohan's little hatchet man and weasel Robbie Rowell by constantly trying to ingratiate himself with him, but he's not fooling the current ownership. That's why Fitz is almost certainly gone next year. Good riddance! The only reason to keep the sound on for a Warriors TV broadcast is to listen to Jim Barnett. I feel sorry for him, having to be paired all these years with a smarmy little putz like Fitz, who made constant excuses for the team when they were awful to keep in good stead with his bosses.
    I've never seen such as suck up and shill in my life. It's amazing that he's had this long a run in the bay area!

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  25. Your "assessment" of KCBS is just so far off the mark, it's hard to fathom that you are actually listening with any kind of objectivity. I hear a team of pros that (for the most part) bring their "A" game day in and day out. Stories being repeated are a given with this format and I'm not hearing either "anger" or "giddy-geisha" (what the hell is that anyway?) out of the main anchors.Their morning traffic team runs circles around the competition and saved me again this morning by being on the scene of a gigantic crash on I-80. I decided to take BART based on their info and probably saved an hour of more of sitting on the freeway. We all have our niggling complaints but I would hate like hell if they ever went away.

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