 In Yet Another blow against its "All-News" hybrid, KGO Radio has shut down its South Bay/Silicon Valley Bureau in San Jose. In addition, KGO laid off veteran reporters Jeannie Lynch (pictured) and Jennifer Hodges. Lynch has been at KGO for 13 This information was told to me by a KGO source. My other KGO sources told me earlier today that more layoffs are expected and that the newsroom was in "complete mental disarray" all day Friday. We'll be monitoring the situation the rest of the day and keep you all informed of any further news. *Rich Lieberman 415 Media Exclusive *Follow me on Twitter |
Friday, June 26, 2015
BREAKING: KGO Radio Shuts Down Its South Bay Bureau; Veteran Reporters Jeannie Lynch And Jennifer Hodges Shown The Door
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KGO,PIX and a few others share the same space in San Jose. Did KGO Radio break off from the shared office space? Did KGO radio just move out?
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless, other than to say what else do you expect from the chickens running the henhouse here. For as Bill Gates once said, "Driverless cars?!? Bullshit, not in my house!!"
ReplyDeleteBill Gates actually said, "I'm straight, so I have an Android smartphone".
DeleteRonn Owens, "It'll be better this way. You'll see..."
ReplyDeleteLynch sounded so phony and that voice was "put on" as was the "Yes, Mr. Burns." Total nitwit.
ReplyDeleteActually, I thought she sounded much more rational and intelligent than several current anchors and reporters.
DeleteActually I was the one who was there for 18 years. Listeners reading this....THANK YOU. It was a fun ride.
ReplyDeleteAs Gene Rusco once said...
Delete"Screw you guys....I'm going into real estate".
More Caucasian racism
ReplyDeleteNo more San Jose bureau, no Oakland bureau. No programmer and no news director. No Kevin the Rat, Rob, Jeaney and Jennifer. A busy month. What a travesty.
ReplyDeleteBuenos Diaz San Francisco!
ReplyDeleteI heard the staff is so small now they passed on some of the management duties to the doorman Umberto.
ReplyDeleteUmberto just got a show.
DeleteGood thing Channel 7's RIGO CHACON!!! got out at the right time.
ReplyDeleteI am switching to Art Bell.
ReplyDeleteI find it curious that when this hatchet job is in full mode that Ronn is out ill. Do you suppose there is a connection, could he be using up his sick days, could he be planning on being on disability so as not to be fired?
ReplyDeleteThis whole mess is just pathetic. I still miss the REAL KGO
...So sorry to see these great ladies go. With their talent they will land in a much better place where they will be respected.
Hell yes there is a connection as to when there are group firings at KGO, and when Ronn is absent.
DeleteIt's for his own protection.
Just like the undercover security person hired for the day. They call him the "KGO Mystery Man".
Why not just pull the plug on news and let people get on with their lives? Cumulus is positively cruel with the one by one dismantling of the once powerful KGO. No more live sports in the afternoon. Now no South Bay bureau (which was once upon a time thought to be of major importance due to the amount of people meters in Silicon Valley). No news director in sight. No promotions dept. They've meted out these dismissals leaving existing staff agitated, depressed and waiting for the next shoe to drop. Clearly, they have no commitment to their news product. Why continue to let the dying patient bleed out? Cruel bastards.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is we're the only ones around who still listen to that station, as for me only from time to time. Many people under the age of 40 that have no interest in talk radio don't even know what AM is. I know several people in that category, and one woman is 38 years old. There is NOTHING that is going to make a difference. Nothing. Mammoth changes would be like the tree falling in the forest with no one around. It's like the earthquake centered in the middle of the ocean. Who knew?
DeleteI know I'm not listening to them most of the time. The good news, though, is that there are now a number of other options that didn't exist just a few years ago.
Certainly, the age demo is older but I think it's incredibly short-sited to think that there is not a tremendous amount of buying power in that older demo. If they'd have held onto even half of the old audience (pre-Cume-u-less), they'd have still been plenty profitable. Instead, they continue to torpedo what's left and bemoan that they can't skew younger. As you point out, there are ZERO new AM listeners. KCBS was shored up considerably when it acquired 106.9. KGO could never compete being AM only.I once had thought a simulcast with one of their lame FM's was going to happen, if only to save costs but it never happened.
DeleteKGO is a sinking ship and those who are smart are jumping off an getting into another profession. Radio has been killed by deregulation. Companies such as Cumulus never would have been allowed to exist 30 years ago if they practiced this kind of 'Darwinism' because they never would have been allowed to have bought major market stations.
ReplyDeleteBut anyone who was watching the Cumulus playbook could have seen this one coming. From the 1990s on, they snapped up small and medium market radio stations around the country, and ruined community radio in those places by firing people, consolidating staffs, and putting syndicated crap such as Limbaugh or Hannity on their air.
Most Americans however, were not paying any attention, and they still aren't paying any attention because they're either too busy on their smart phones or they're watching 'reality TV' or other crap on the boob-tube.
We're a lazy, self-involved, selfish and stupid nation, and unfortunately, we deserve everything that we get, simply because we weren't paying attention and kept electing fools who passed laws that allowed businesses such as the media to deregulate.
It's been a tragedy for those who work in the profession and an absolute disaster for this country. We're truly in a new Gilded Age, but as Pogo once said: "we have found the enemy, and it is us!"
Lou Dickey and his brother are only a symptom of what has gone wrong in America since the 1980s when the era of greed took over this country.
ReplyDeleteAt a time we should have been conserving, at a time when we could have set a standard that the rest of the world might have followed, we jumped into the 1980s and elected Ronald Reagan, who trumped deregulation and railed against Unions having too much power.
Unfortunately, we have come way too far to slow the train down now...it's almost off the tracks. Thanks to giving guys such as the Dickhead Brothers and any other rich folks a clear path to do whatever they want to in this country, our great days as a nation are behind us.
The death of local radio is a mere sideshow. One has to feel for the folks at KGO however, as they had a special community and served the public professionally and with class. Thethis bestial company came along and in short order they've done everything in their power to strangle the life out of it in just a few short years.
Criminal!
Radio was once a protected and policed medium when it was feared that local William Randolph Hearsts could, through the limited avenues of local information, organize unfair monopolies on viewpoints. Now, that little acne-faced kid who tramples your rose bushes and ignites your dogs may have 6 online stations in his bedroom (and another 3 in his dad’s garage). He can broadcast around the world.
ReplyDeleteExtending that, there are satellite radios and an entire new spectrum (FM) that didn’t even exist in the days of that protectionist thinking. Then there is a dizzying array of online stations that anyone anywhere can get; well, you get the idea. The prevailing wisdom (?) in government as that these safeguards are no longer needed; hence, the loosened restrictions that have led to similar debacles to KGO’s.
Cumulus and the "new" KGO are finding out that the ratings are not politically correct. Maybe they should try something new. How about an all new format, never seen in the Bay area.....Traffic reports, 24/7, and of course all the commercials.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when I dated a news person ,at a "Cap Cities " station in the city.....anyhow she realized the end was near and took a national Corp's Press Mgr's then back to TV News back east, then PR jobs back to TV, when she hit a certain age she was thrown on the streets, became homeless......,she was48, when I met her, I was 28, first time I heard the term "boy toy" by her colleagues, some still in the market
ReplyDelete