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| Jack Swanson |
The meetings took place late last week and included people both on KGO's current air and several that either are new possibilities or were part of KGO's old iteration before the initial Cumulus purge in December of 2011.
Nothing concrete was put forth by either Swanson or those he met with; in fact, I'm hearing it will be months before a "new KGO" hits the air and that makes sense. I'm guessing the latest news-talk venture, as construed by Swanson will have a January, 2019 rollout. That's only a little more than two months away.
Why so long? We're nearing the holidays and hardly anyone listens to radio during Thanksgiving and Christmas, that's been a historical constant.
TV has November Sweeps but radio drags down; Come the beginning of the new year, we should be hearing the latest KGO schedule under Swanson. He has a lot on his plate.
A little of what I'm hearing: Ronn Owens is on a short list of potential hires; so too Brian Copeland. John Rothmann and Pat Thurston are probably on some list too be it individual shows or a pairing, it remains to be seen.
Len Tillem, aka: "Da Loyah", as I reported earlier today, would love to get back an hour legal show and is close to Swanson and is headed back to KGO but scheduling and financial issues remain a potential sticking point, not only for Tillem but for Owens too. I don't see the latter two becoming issues because both would love to get back on the air, especially Owens.
Nearly any move back towards the old KGO style is fine with me. But Bearman has to go. Let him ply his style in LA where he does his program for KGO. Keep it live and local. And Rothman MUST get a time slot.
ReplyDeleteEthan Bearman is a lot better than he use to be. He seems to be growing, learning to engage the callers, don't elongate his words as much as he use to, do at times change his voice and it sounds a bit hysterical. I keep reading he lives in LA, but I was under the distinct impression he lived in the Santa Cruz area, anyway doesn't matter, he would be okay for 1 or 2 hours. Perhaps Ronn from 10 to noon, Tillum from noon to 1, Ethan from 1 to 3 p.m. Brian Copeland from 3 to 5 p.m. then perhaps new from 5 to 7 p.m. Give Pat the 7 to 10 p.m. slot, and John Rothman gets his old time slot 10 to 1 p.m. back. Get rid of Coast to Coast and have John Batchelor come on at 1 a.m. he is not broadcasting in real time anyway. There are of course other possibilities, move A&G to KSFO, I wouldn't miss Sussmann and Katie. Of course all this is just speculation, since I don't know what new talent is being considering can't have an opinion on that. Bill Press would be a good syndicated show, he knows D.C. inside out, and has ties to the Bay Area.
DeletePat a 3 hour nightly shift? Thanks, I needed a good laugh this morning.
DeleteYou don't have to listen, you can listen to Hannity, Larry Elder, Mark Levin, there are plenty of conservative right wing talk show host available from either San Francisco or Sacramento stations, pretty much all hours of the day. Pat is not my favorite, John Rothmann is. I work retail so I usually work to around 9 p.m. and have a long commute, so from a selfish point of view John at 10 p.m. would be perfect. If I change profession and work normal daytime hours I would vote for John Rothmann 7 to 10 p.m.
DeleteKGO: Bring back Da Loath!
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note - at PIX: VDLC is back, as of Wednesday. Love to have donors keep RL going, so we can get more updates regarding PIX's future, as well as KGO-TV's.(Resign Ashley, remove Trixie, please!)
As the most despised ND in Bay Area history, Trixie can do no wrong with Burbank. She must have Disney Board members on video lounging with Sheep.
DeleteAnd to be fair to the future air staff/producers, on/off-air rehearsals might be needed to gell the new KGO into Jack's vision and sound. Hence the time frame that might be needed. It's exciting to hear about the next KGO chapter in 2019!
ReplyDeleteCumulus is the company who didn't bother to plan for actual training of the employees on the new equipment in the new building when they moved 7 radio stations from 55 Hawthorne to Broadway and Battery. Thats right, they developed the real estate, equipped furnished and tested the equipment... and then turned us loose on it literally without so much as an orientation... and now you expect them to do "off air rehearsals" for a talk show? Sort of like expecting Jack-In-The-Box to send kitchen staff to culinary school: ain't gonna happen.
DeleteHe will hire all the people he knows because he doesn't know anyone else. He will hope the ratings go up slightly, try to bring some advertisers, and then if that works he will try and find some newer hosts. In the end it will be like putting a band aid on a fractured skull. Radio is dead in the Bay and most of the hosts he will hire will be too within 20 years.
ReplyDeleteIt will never be like the old days but they certainly can do much better then what they have now. Ronnnnn UGH!!!! But i guess for one hour he will be palatable.
ReplyDeleteHe should get Darya Folsom. She doesn't get to talk enough on her morning KRON gig.
ReplyDeletechip franklin show has modestly improved ever since they finally had him dump one of the yentas and the other one, mikki is not on all the time, doing news and weather which is what they always should have done..they also dropped the stupid "game" show about guessing fake news stories with stupid listeners and another segment heather hits the street or something which was always just a time killer..chip still talks too much, but at least its not bogged down with the other women chiming in all the time..
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Swanson will look at the current ratings each candidate has in his decision on whom to keep. The only one I would like to see go is Chip Franklin.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, can't wait to hear the changes. Even with a smaller budget than last time around, KGO will still be a better station than any of the emaciated competitors. (Just one thing: PLEASE lose the sandpaper voiced, seemingly self obsessed "Heather person." PLEASE!?
ReplyDeletethank god someone must have been listening, becuase they kicked her out of the studio just to do traffic, i used to think she was the co host of the show for a since she would make snakrey, lame comments all the time, a female rick tittle
DeleteI miss Jon Bristow, Jennifer Jones Lee and the morning crew. The change in format so angered me I haven't listened to KGO since.
ReplyDeleteIf he messes with A & G, I'm gonna buy a van and cover it with stickers!
ReplyDeleteRonn, Brian, Pat, John R and De Loya would all be great additions to the mainstream lineup. As would Will Brown and Will Durst. Some younger talent would be a welcome addition too, someone from the Bay Area's excellent stand up comedy troupe; still, it seems like the older a person gets the more interesting they are on talk radio for some reason. I'm crossing my fingers that the following so-called "talent" are sent elsewhere: the morning duo, Ethan Bearman, Chip Franklin, and John Batchelor. Just ridding KGO's air of that nonsense and playing elevator music would be a 100% improvement imo.
ReplyDeleteExcept, Will Durst isn't funny.
DeleteGil Gross would be a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteNot, did you listen to Gil when he was on 910? A total bore, he was better when he was on KGO and took calls, but I'm not eager to have him back, although he might be an improvement over Chip or Maureen Langdon, so perhaps a week end show.
DeleteNorman Goldman would be an excellent choice for the 3-6 pm slot.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you audition, Rich? Not kidding. You'd bring some audience with you already.
ReplyDeleteIn order for anybody to succeed in turning KGO around Cumulus would have to sell the station. Cumulus destroyed KGO (and other stations) and with Cumulus in bankruptcy there just can not be any reasonable expectation that anybody -- no matter how talented -- could revive KGO.
ReplyDeleteCumulus is officially out of bankruptcy for several months now, and is attempting to rejuvenate its' stations. The (re)hiring of Jack Swanson is the most hopeful thing to happen yet under their leadership. I and others have posted in this forum previously about some of the pitiful leadership that has preceded Jack at the helm of KSFO and KGO. So at least things can be expected to start improving, instead of continuing to degenerate; at least one can have some hope.
DeleteFor whatever reason, both Cumulus and iHeart have been loathe to sell ANY stations as a solution to their respective cash crunches; I have wondered why: this aggregation thing hasn't worked well for either company.