Monday, December 1, 2014

It Was Three Years Ago Today Cumulus Killed KGO Radio

 Three years and it seems like only yesterday.

*Ronnnn: "This is going to be a great format!"

*"This is going to be exciting!"

*"You know, we've been slipping in the ratings."



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28 comments:

  1. Today John Rothmann was a guest on Ronn's show, talking with his usual authority and energy about executive privilege. Although I didn't realize that today was the anniversary of KGOs infamous self-incineration, John's intelligent commentary was such a poignant reminder of what we have lost. For 3 years we have been without any decent talk radio in the Bay Area. How sad for us and how pathetic for KGO.

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    1. So true, and some hosts who was okay on KGO has gone to other stations, and for what ever reason, has gone down hill fast. I'm mostly thinking of Gil Gross, I use to like him when he use to fill in for Ronn, so I was okay with him taking over Pete Wilson's time slot, after Pete's untimely dead, however on a daily basis I was often bored with him and his subject, but nothing compared to what he has become on 910, I can only listen for about 5 to 15 minutes at the most, depending on who he has on. Mostly what I object to is his show is so predictable, he use to do fun subjects once in awhile, like what old music do you have in your collection, etc. Now it is all so predictable and boring. I miss John Rothmann on a daily basis, and Gene Burns too, difference is John is around to do a show, Gene is not, and no one is intelligent enough to hire John. What a shame.

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    2. The Internet has a wide variety of talk shows. I usually go there.

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  2. On that fateful day, let's not forget Blowensteinnnnn deferred to Jared Hart who suggested they talk about cell phones instead of the decimation of the KGO. Karel, Christine Craft and Pat Thurston talked about it on their show. Mattress man showed himself to be the spineless, chicken sh*t we all suspected he was...as coach Green famously said about the Bears and it applies to Lowenstein: "he was who we thought he was!!". We ain't letting him off the hook. Blowensteinnnnn will never live that day down.

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  3. And in case you haven't noticed, it ain't comin' back to life. In fact (while I am FAR from an "insider"), I do have a few "social media" conversations occasionally with several talk hosts, and hey, Cumulus, think about this: The "unrest" at KGO is causing tremendous amounts of stress and uncertainty. Why don't you GET YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES IN GEAR, and make some decisions, so that employees can get on with their lives, one way or the other????? You suits have absolutely NO compassion for human beings as they may exist outside the "work environment". Figure it out, scumbags.

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  4. Yeah so what?
    Lieberman, you've been so traumatized that you've devoted your life to never forgetting the greatness that was once KGO? Grow up.

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    1. I wouldn't say he has "devoted his life" to the old KGO. It was a BIG DEAL for the Bay Area. I joined the small but fruitless protest a few days later--that's when I began reading Rich's blog. And quit listening to KGO!

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  5. It has been 35 years since video killed the radio star. The Buggles and Cumulus have changed the world, for better or worse.

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  6. KGO showed how great radio could be. It really made the Bay Area feel like one community. Still such a loss.

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    1. Please feel free to start your own station so as to recreate thru magic of KGO

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  7. And it was 47 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play.
    The band demanded more money and didn't get it so they broke up and have been not seen since.

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  8. Cumulus is a scumbag company run by a couple of scumbags. Micromanaging every thing to the last staple but having no idea how to create entertaining radio in the Bay Area. They have no idea what makes this area unique even if it is changing.

    Their only concern is enriching themselves through their LLC. When they cease owning stations, and this whole thing becomes undone, they will have made themselves rich and others poorer for it.

    Don't think for a second these idiots have an understanding of this market, nor any other market. They are without question making whole-cloth decisions, and whatever they go with likely becomes the idea of the day across every market. Do you think they spend time analyzing each market, hiring the right people, and focusing locally on how to improve their product for the long term? Or do you think they're trying to pay off their debts, quarter to quarter, pinching every penny, and forcing unqualified people to get the job done at the risk of being fired?

    Now I said they're scumbags. They're not idiots though. They have achieved what they wanted: personal wealth. Nothing else matters to them now.

    Day to day these guys are probably pretending they have some futuristic view of media, and believe their assets need to transition in order to accrue value. In other words, they don't have a clue how to run their part of the monopoly they were basically given. They'll just act like they do. All the while drinking expensive wine, buying nice cars, wearing nice suits as they fade off into the sunset, but not before helping to destroy an industry.

    And Ronnnnnn will be all too happy to be part of it in the twilight of his career. Unwilling to speak to truth, to man up to the reality, to even act like he's just like everyone else. He'll just hope the checks keep coming in, and whatever he has to say or do to keep that train moving he'll do it. His class continues to run in the opposite direction to the amount of time he's been on the radio.

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    1. This about sums it up!

      I'm all about podcasts now anyway. Better than anything in this area or probably elsewhere.

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    2. Yeah, and you think big business organizations used to be any different? Stop deluding yourself.

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    3. And because you say this that makes it ok? The difference being business doesn't serve a specific political interest like radio does.

      There's a reason KQED is on top. There's a reason cumulus stations in the biggest markets are doing awful. This is no surprise to people in the industry who when discussing this company say "that's the Cumulus way!"

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    4. I've met the three top execs. They are not throwing money at haberdashers. Empty suits in cheap suits...figures.

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  9. I really miss KGO. I think I've heard Nine Million Seven Hundred Sixty Three traffic and weather reports now that I listen to KCBS since KGO changed. I have noticed one thing since KGO changed...I get lots of sleep now listening to KCBS because I hear the same stories over and over again. The bay area radio waves have changed forever and will never be the same.

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    1. 6:43: Only Nine Million Seven Hundred Sixty Three traffic and weather reports on KCBS? Odd......I've counted far more than that. The only good part about it is that they are given by qualified traffic and weather staff - unlike KGO (which I think of kind of like I think of one of my beloved, deceased pets: I got such joy from it - and now it's gone, but not forgotten)

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  10. The day when the tough got going and the weak went running.

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  11. Isn't there some FCC crap about a radio station having to serve the "community interest"?

    How does the rumored plan of replacing much of the live local programming with infomercials and syndication do that?!

    Gimme a break. KGO has been raped. Why is Cumulus even in the radio business?

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  12. KGO was a good station to listen to for entertainment and had a certain type of sound to it.

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  13. I remember years back walking into one of those "take and bake" pizza places. Just one kid manning the fort. He was about 19. No one else in the place. He had KGO playing on a little radio that was propped up on a shelf with the condiments. I asked him: "why do you listen to KGO?" He said: "it's good company". And it was, as I remember it.

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  14. Yes, it was good company. I use to look forward to listening to the radio...now I most often don't even turn it on. Granted, I'm older and remember the times of Don Sherwood, Jim Lange, Frank Dill, Jim Dunbar and others...personalities that were part of my life....I miss that.

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  15. AM radio is like the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001 Space Odyssey.

    A transistor radio rises up out of the ground in a desolate wilderness area in the high Serria capturing scattered AM frequencies that have been bouncing off the ionosphere for millenniums. A group of Bigfoots lounging in their beds of leafs and twigs begin to hear the crackling voice of a man selling mattresses. A dream has been born.

    Next scene takes place on the red planet of Mars. The monolith / 9v transistor radio rises again out of the Martian soil transmitting the sounds of a ding toot that echoes endlessly through the cavernous caves of the dead planet with no one ever hearing.

    Then the grand finale takes place. The monolith reveals itself one last time after a long arduous savage debate about who has more control, the machine or the spirit of man. The listener begins to transcend Am Radio and breaks through to an all new paradigm of unregulated, uncensored, commercial free informational broadcasting. Thus leaving the free thinker of its time unbounded to forever surf on the technological tide of the Internet.

    In other words, AM radio is like a ham sandwich without the ham, the mayo, the tomato, the lettuce, the cheese, the mustard or the bread. Oh wait that leaves nothing. Exactly my point. It leaves nothing for the imagination. Nothing.

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    1. Imagine thinking that the internet will provide you free surfing rights in perpetuity.



















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  16. Radio's downfall started in 1981 after Ronnie Reagan started deregulating radio stations. Mandatory newscasts, gone. Automation, in. Eventually, people/companies could own more than one station in the same market. Cumulus and Clear Channel know how to take advantage of the situation. Now they have multiple stations under one building. So much for variety and individualism. No competition. Radio sucks. On to satellite!

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    1. Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which opened the floodgates to seemingly unlimited ownership.

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  17. I miss Lem Tillem's show so much! Yes, I also liked Gene Burns, and John Rotthman. It sucks that Ronn is still there. I wish he would retire or move to a different timeslot.

    I listened to KGO the other day, and all I heard was the Cars for Kids annoying jingle being played over and over. Ugh!

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