YO, CUMULUS? Jack Swanson. Doug Harvill; listen to me and listen to me good.I had a conversation with some media guy the other day. "Why are you so hard on KGO?" I get that a lot. Lots and lots and my standard answer is "well, if I didn't care about the old KGO and its legacy I wouldn't write about it so much." Kind of makes sense does it not?
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| Jim Dunbar |
KGO had great talent like Jim Dunbar and Owen Spann and Jim Eason; characters like Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins and Ray Taliaferro. Terrific talk-show hosts like vintage Owens who could do a brilliant interview with George Will and cross-examine Alan Dershowitz if he had to like, for example, he did regarding why Alan defended OJ Simpson. It was damn near great radio and we had it daily, 24/7.
The mixture of news and talk was special and KGO made it more special. Dunbar and Ted Wygant in the morning was real and genuine with your coffee. Peter Cleaveland was out in the field on the streets of San Francisco and when you heard Peter, you stopped to really listen. Joe Starkey in the afternoon could write the very best three-minute sports report; tight and fit. I had my issues with Ed Baxter but he and Rosie Allen were entertaining afternoon drive news.
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| Ray Taliaferro |
Jack is a good man. I think he's interested and passionate about restoring some, if not all of vintage KGO, at least as much as he can. I don't think he takes the job at this stage of his professional life to do otherwise. Just a firm hunch on my part.
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| DA LOYAH: Len Tillem |
Jack, hire DA LOYAH back like immediately. Len Tillem is magical and hilarious and everything in between. I've never laughed so hard in my life when DA LOYAH was talking to some kid on the line about legalese and "quit stalking your girlfriend for the money, you dummy!" "Go get yourself a loyah if you think you gotta case, got it buddy?" You had to be there.
Jack, I already know you have budget constraints --I know about the weekend being basically a refuge for the financial guys and vitamin peddlers --it's 2018 and you need extra revenue streams but if you bring back some of the old KGO hosts (and hostesses like Pat Thurston) you are going to get an audience. It won't be the really old KGO and it doesn't have to be; that would be impossible and not indicative of the times. You can bring Ronn back for an hour to do news-talk and pop culture; the Oscars; Trump; politics; I'll even stomach Chris Matthews for ten minutes if that's the case. Bring on Bob Sarlatte for afternoon drive; Sarlatte is a city native and is great on radio so you get a little new and edgy. It's just a suggestion, Jack but you get my drift.
Bring John Rothmann back into the fold for a couple of hours at night; Rothmann is politics meat and potatoes. And he gets lots of calls too. Calls, Jack, from people who buy a lot of mattresses and vacations and furniture. Walnut Creek caller, Lenny, 47, Nordstrom accountant who listens to KGO on his mobile device after a steak at Ruth Chris, Jack. Demo galore. Or Betsy in the Sales office at Mercedes Benz of San Francisco who turns on KGO every time because she's got issues with Ivanka Trump. Jack, believe it or not I was driving around the other day in the city and some guy had on KGO and he was driving a Volvo! So you still have the call letters and the signal. It's clear as hell and it still rules at night.
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| Melanie Morgan |
No.No.No. New voices. Develop new talent. Len Tilley? Melanie Morgan? You drinking this early, Rich?
ReplyDeleteThree manic tweets today. Rich are you off your meds?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you hate others so much Rich? Be kind
ReplyDeleteI changed my mind...
ReplyDeleteYou MUST hire Bernie...and some hardcore antifa show producer and a call screener of questionable yet "fluid" gender.
Bernie is your star.
It's your only hope.
Do it for the children.
Agree about Tillem and booting A&G. But Rothmann and Thurston are boring. You can always predict what they’ll say. There is a reason why they were relegated to overnight shifts on the old KGO. Chip, Bearman and Copie are terrible too. What Jack needs to do is find NEW talent. Retreads won’t work. Try new talent. Give them a month or two. If the show doesn’t work, let them go. The current crew is awful. I can’t stand listening for more than a minute to somebody as stupid as Chip before I change the station.
ReplyDeleteMy bet is that Jack won’t be able to fix this station and it will eventually flip to an entirely satellite-fed format like 860.
Bernie Ward was wonderful on Sunday mornings with "God Talk". When he did the evenings, some days I could tolerate him, other I could not. Everyone needs to be given a second chance.
ReplyDeleteNo. Double no.
DeleteKGO needs a good night person for us who work nights, drive trucks or insomniacs. That time of the day is so important. Many nights Ray would put me to sleep.!
ReplyDeleteI think Ray is still alive.
ReplyDeleteBring back Ray! Myyyyy Goodness!
No.
DeleteEverybody, let's all jump on the Backward Bus, the Backward Bus
ReplyDeleteJack is our only hope at restoring relevance to the SF airwaves! at last we can finally have some hope!
ReplyDeleteJack Swanson is the PD for a reason.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Rich should had applied for that position.
Jack does need to 86 lots of KGO & KSFO programs; would lead to immediate improvement. As for Dersh-bag, of course he went from Juice to Hairpiece. OJ had karma bite him back; may there be a similar result on November 6th.
ReplyDelete"You can never go Home."
ReplyDeleteI would go back to KSFO if Melanie was there. If she is given a new position, I think she would work best with a second person there to react to. Somebody close to her way of thinking, but with their own style of expression. This would be a good place to bring in some new talent. Put an articulate, opinionated young man (35 or less) with Mel. If this won't upset Jack, that is. A requirement for him is to have a sense of humor and be able to tell a story.
ReplyDeleteBarbara Simpson may have had enough of this 'not-so-merry-go-round of terrestrial radio. I would love to hear her again though.
Bob Sarlette is a nice guy. I met him some years back, but he is a persona of yesterday, unless perhaps he has new things to discuss.
chip franklin is more listenable now without that other yenta barging in, they have her just doing the traffic..mikki medoro is still annoying most of the time, but most of the time its just her and the chipster talking now, not three other people
ReplyDeleteYes, absolutely have to rid kgo of A and G, Beer-man, and Franklin, those are the top 3 priorities.
ReplyDeleteNext, bring in Ray and Bernie.
Nikki Medoro has a great voice, love her. But, I'm fine with 910 now. KGO will just commercial us all to death anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo you have a thing for monotone voices?
DeleteGeez...why bring back a bunch of fossils? Other than loser Ditto-heads, who the hell listens to talk radio anymore??? There are probably a handful of 60+ year olds...but that's about it. It doesn't make sense to dump millions into a station...only to cater to a handfuld or nostalgic geriatrics.
ReplyDeleteIn the old days, yeah, when earthquakes or other breaking news happened, we'd all tune in to KGO 810 or KCBS 740. But today--with smartphones, iPads, and local TV stations websites, THESE are what people tune to. We are no longer content to listen to audio reports ("let your minds/imagination paint the picture!"). HELL NO--we want to SEE it--forget about painting a visual picture, show me damn video. Yo can talk about it, yeah...and take callers...but show me some damn video! ANd keep it coming/keep updating with live video feeds).
Radio was once pretty cool/pretty important. Not anymore.
all great until the earthquake and iPads, smartphones and websites go down. Then you will wish you got radio to listen to what going on.
Delete"Show me some damn video". Ever heard of imagination? Tell me, have you ever read a book?
DeleteI'm guessing, based on your disdain for the power of artful words, that you never quite understood why people read good books.
Delete9:15 If iPads, smartphones, and websites go down, then and ONLY then would I turn to radio. It's a last resort/plan "B."
Delete10:09 & 10:27 Not only have I've read books (I'm 58; Journalism and English Lit double major), I've read my share of GREAT books...and continue to do so today.
When I want news, I want to see the ACTUAL video. When LA Dodger Kirk Gibson hit that dramatic homer off of Eckersely in 1988, on TV the great Dodgers announcer Vin Scully let the crowd noise tell the story--he didn't talk over the video/didn't talk for a good solid minute. He just let the video play. It was brilliant.
I've heard the radio account of the play; the radio guys kept talking/chattering away.
Bring back Rosie Allen, Ray and Bernie.
ReplyDeleteRich,
ReplyDeleteI hope you sent this to Jack.
Maybe KGO & KSFO can have an all out block party when and if the changes happen. The party might be bigger than the Salesforce Tower. They could even have a parade on Market Street and Rich you could be the Grand Marshall.
Melanie Morgan??? No way. She was to Lee Rogers what Katie Green is to
ReplyDeletethe Suss-Man. Just a yappy second fiddle that parrots the host. She is also a huge reason we all ended up with Ahhnold as the governator.
And the person that wants Bernie back...that dirt bag should still be in prison.
Excellent column Rich! In case anybody at KGO management cares, what I liked most about the old KGO wasn't the hosts or the host's opinions so much as the chance to listen to the caller's opinions. KGO's host were good b/c they treated their callers with respect, and more importantly, valued and cultivated their caller's to call in and voice their opinions. Whether or not the caller & host agreed, that wasn't important to the best of the hosts. The key to successful talk radio in my opinion, beyond the local and live thing which is critical, is to hire and train hosts who will cultivate the callers. It's not wise to try to go back in time and bring back all the hosts of the past. A few of them, fine, but just a few. For the bevy of hosts -- "talent" the industry calls it -- a mix of ages and political leanings is best; however, the average political leaning should match the Bay Area market.
ReplyDeleteJack will have no impact of any real significance af KGO. This belief that all of these older hosts are going to change anything is a dream. When has that ever happened in the history of anything? You expect it’ll be different in the Bay Area? Cumulus chose a different direction because they at least saw the future. They mishandled the approach but like everyone else in Radio they knew things had to change. Going back to what was won’t make a difference. Jack will do next to nothing.
ReplyDelete