Sunday, September 25, 2016

What Would KGO Radio Do If There Was a Major Earthquake on The Weekend? Three of My Favorite Old KGO Hosts: Owen Spann, Jim Eason, and Ronn Owens; I'm Watching The Debate with Joel Murray; Quick Sunday 415 Media Hits

Image result for earthquake san francisco 1989 Woke up (that's a good start) Sunday Morning and heard a KCBS report that it's a darn-near certainty the Bay Area will experience a devastating earthquake, maybe not as destructive as the 1906 'quake but more than likely stronger than Loma Prieta in 1989.

We hear these stories a lot, almost on a daily basis and have become sort of static to them, almost like, "hey, OK, we live in the Bay Area, bring it on." Until it's really bad and catastrophic --or just very strong and crummy making life miserable for many of us but we all pretty much survive after a few days. (Remember we couldn't use the Bay Bridge for over a month back in 89 but we got through it)

Which made me think of our media links because what do most of us do after a quake? We turn on the radio (assuming there's power and a battery radio if not) and we used to turn on the old KGO Radio to hear callers provide descriptions of what they felt. Sometimes, it bordered on repetitive because how many times can Margie from Fremont say, "It was like a 'jolt'" or Steve in Millbrae opine "it was more of a rolling sensation and it lasted a long time." Sure, corny and all but it was community radio at its best, a local listening post where people felt comforted in a moment of crisis.

Of course that was something truly unique that the KGO slayers never acknowledged when they killed the old KGO and slaughtered one of its best attributes, a tiny nugget of civility to Bay Area listeners who depended on this --sure, there's KCBS, and thank god, a dependable 24/7 outlet that has staffed reporters and editors on call no matter what time and day.

A question. What would happen if some major quake hit the Bay Area on a weekend? It doesn't have to be a quake, necessarily, what if some major terrorist attack or mass shooting occurred? KGO has literally NO news people in the building on the weekend. They run canned, syndicated programming and only until later in the day do they have bodies in the studio and those are a few talk hosts and producers. So what happens if some major story breaks on a Saturday morning or in the middle of the night? (Like the Napa quake in 2014 and of course when it broke, KGO was useless running a taped, syndicated financial show--how embarrassing) Thank goodness for KCBS otherwise the Bay Area would have been devoid of radio accounts)

*I constantly get e-mail from some people chastising me for ripping KRON. "Rich, they (on-air people) just work there and are only doing their job under the best of circumstances." Get a lot of that. The truth is it's the people who have some major influence there that could do a lot to help those that don't have much juice. Instead they just blindly come in, do their gig and then leave. Yes, it's tough at KRON now (especially given the TV Spectrum situation) but believe me, there's a lot of people who had some authority who have MIAed en masse.


Image result for Owen Spann KGO
Jim Eason
*Three of my favorite old KGO hosts: the classy and elegant Owen Spann who worked the morning 9-Noon slot in the 70's and mid 80's; politics/pop culture icon, Ronn Owens, and good, old Jim Eason, master of 1-4 PM (whose politics I could not stand but still listened because I loved Eason's southern twang and interesting take on the day's events.) Eason was also a master interviewer and his guests were truly some of the best. Eason was especially best during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 --ripping and shredding Jimmy Carter and lampooning the Ayatollah Khomeini. It wasn't always educational but it was certainly entertaining. Eason also had a way with callers and his interaction was priceless. I also loved Eason's theme song: Dave Brubeck's masterful "Take Five." (Written by Brubeck's sax player, Paul Desmond)

Owen Spann was like listening to the human NY Times on radio. Spann was entertaining, civil, almost ombudsman-like in his style and demeanor. He took each interview and subject matter seriously and conducted almost classroom-like civics course. It was special. Spann was the most solid and dignified host KGO ever employed.

*The Old Ronn Owens on the old KGO was one of my favorites. Ronn did the BEST interview and was an astute and entertaining listen, absolute appointment radio and must-listen. He would never back down to some slack politician and was very adept with questions and comments. He was a master (and sometimes still today) at pulling off some of the greatest lines on radio. Referring to Jimmy Carter aide, the late Hamilton Jordan (whose last name was pronounced "Jur-dan") Ronn said, "Hamilton Jur-dan is a jork!" Applause.

Ronn invented great theme shows like "Status, Class, and Tacky"; invented a vintage "Rock Trivia" hour that made various Bay Area characters like "Mill Valley Don" and "One-hit Tony" stars.


Image result for Owen Spann KGO
Ronn Owens
One day soon I will write extensively about the Ronn Owens I knew and admired.

Quick Sunday hits:

*More obnoxious ads on radio with "1-800-Junk" and their ludicrous song solo at the end; can we eradicate this junk off the air?

*I'm watching the debate Monday night with big new Bay Area TV STAR, Joel Murray! Whoa!


*Because Pia Zadora was busy.

*Follow me on Twitter

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27 comments:

  1. We didn't bother with KGO in '89...why bother now.

    KSCO will be there again for us...I'm not worried.

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    1. That's great if you live 3 blocks from the swamp station. And yes, I'm in Santa Cruz county and their signal sucks.

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    2. Ah yes. I can just imagine the congenial genius of Watsonville stumbling out of Ella's at the airport to take the reins of the 10k watt cigarette butt signal to broadcast the latest earthquake news but first he will tell us about the Rodriguez Brothers' hardware stores where we can find nifty bolts and screws.

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    3. KGO-TV was on the spot for the '89 quake since it literally happened live on-air; ABC was televising the World Series that year...Al Michaels became the Voice of the Bay for several hours...

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  2. Pia Zadora has the wit and depth of an East San Jose 7-11.

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    1. Maybe so, but I'd still tap that...

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  3. Immediately after the 1989 earthquake, I turned on KGO radio and it was knocked off the air. I think it was due to the transmission tower toppling over on the east side of the Dumbarton Bridge.

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  4. I produced some of Eason's talk radio shows in the '60s and he was a progressive/libeal to match Today's Rachel Maddow. And SF was not more liberal then than it is today.

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    1. I remember & miss the times when Jim would take drunk callers. Hilarious!!

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  5. For the umpteeth year in a row- local radio refuses to sync up with TV football broadcasts.
    They argue- fans in the stadium wouldn't get served. So? They are outnumbered 10-1 or more by the TV audience. They have NO excuse for road games do they?
    Now,what does Lee Hammer have against making money? I wont listen to KNBR when Robinson is ahead or behind what I see on the telly.
    Same for Raiders. Speaking of Raiders...they were on 95.7 a few seconds behind...then at 12:30 they changed to KFOX!..THEY were a minute ahead!.
    C'mon you idiot radio people. Make some money.

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  6. at the end of evry radio commercial ,they are essentially all saying the same thing....''you'll love it at Levitz(!)...''. really, tack that phrase at the end of all commercials. it's all the same.

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  7. so, you miss the ''RoNNowenspaNN'' daze...

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  8. really though, that pitcher dying, that's it 4 me with baseball...hard to get into it after that craziness.thats just somber.

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  9. great comment on 49 ers, they had ''too many men on the field'', someone said ''it wouldn't matter if they had 18 men on the field'', they would still lose. that's for sure...''funny''...

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  10. Does anyone remember how long we were without power? Iremember eating cold cuts in the college cafeteria for a couple of days. I also remember using tons of candles. In our electronic device oriented society, we would probably be "uncomfortable" before even a day without power. I'm not even sure how i would "survive" without power for day!

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    1. Millennials would go insane without their devices today. I can just picture them taking selfies on a collapsed bay bridge God forbid

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    2. Isn't that a good thing? Thins out the gene pool?

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  11. Speaking of news KNBR or the Chronicle wont report? The Warriors part owner Peter Guber was listed as top water waster in the STATE last year.
    He used 12 MILLION gallons to water his Los Angeles estate.
    I tell ya that guy is a living Forest Gump..no real talent other then being friends with people who like to make him wealthy.

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    1. Yeah @9:29, having a law degree and an MBA make him pretty lucky? You should take a look at his accomplishments on Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Guber, before writing something that's bogus. I didn't know what he'd done either, but researched whether you were correct or not. Next time, you should do a little research before spouting off.

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  12. If there is a regional disaster, KGO and KSFO are instructed to take CNN's newsfeed unless and until directed otherwise. Of course, this directive assumes that the newsfeed is available; after an infrastructure shakeup the chances of that being viable are maybe 30%.

    By the same token, virtually ALL of the rank-and-file Police and Fire staff in the city and county of San Francisco live across a bay crossing; they commute from places like Orinda and Walnut Creek and Pinole. They can't afford to live in SF.

    So, when The Big One hits, the only emergency personnel that will be in town are the ones that happen to be on-duty at that moment. The others will get caught up in their own community's coping efforts, and transportation will be nil. SF will be fucked.

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  13. Perhaps Karel will keep us updated with smoke signals from his gum stained driveway!!

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  14. Radnich was going to dump on the memory of Arnold Palmer- like he did with John Wooden when he died- by telling some hearsay story of how Arnold expected free dinners, when Larry Kruger cut him off and told Radnich "You just sound jealous"..and then did a proper tribute to the man.

    One for Larry.

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    1. Radnich is a fucking idiot, period!

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    2. Radnich is an insult to all good, hard working fucking idiots.
      RP

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  15. Oh,you watch. Radnich will be so determined to get in his dig at Arny he will tell the story on KRON. Just watch.

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  16. Not sure where Some Guy gets his information. KCBS is the CPCS-1 for this region, and KGO is slave to that arrangement under its EAS obligation.

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  17. I was on the road a lot in the late 70s/early 80s and some of the best talk show radio I ever heard was Spann's going away party.
    Class act and a great set of pipes.

    Jim Eason is the Talk Show Host's Host, IMHO. (Tied with Lee Rodgers)
    "Hellooooo anybody"...."Has the ground war started"...."Behave yourself". "Damn squirrels"

    The good old days with Ronn at Night and "Now is that true?" with the late, great Trivia Chuck.

    Good times....and now..Bay Area radio....meh!
    RP

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