I'M BACK. Actually, I was never gone. Just a victim of the AT&T connection people who place personal service on the backburner and whose idea of customer assistance is some putz in India saying the best we can do is to send someone on Tuesday. This was last week, Wednesday to be exact.. I don't want to get into a lengthy story of why AT&T is hell because you're already bored and I'm searching for answers after being kidnaped by the abyss. It doesn't end well. It never does end well. I'm starving too to make matters worse.WHILE I WAS GONE...
NBC Sports Bay Area cancelled, thank god, possibly the worst program in Bay Area sports cable history; the god-awful, "Happy Hour" --a program that essentially bore out the wild boor known as Greg Papa, mister arrogant jerk who talked over Kelli Johnson (which is not that bad necessarily) but who continues to make life miserable at NBC Sports BA. More on that later.
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| Kelli Johnson, Ray Ratto and Greg Papa |
*Papa is a bully. He makes the little people at NBC Bay Area squirm. He shouts a lot. He is belligerent with interns. A bully sucks; believe me, I was bullied by a bully in school where bullies are especially toxic. I don't know what exactly is afflicting Papa but maybe, oh, a big-time divorce with a former Raiderette in full cycle; a bitter personal and professional breakup with the Raiders and primary owner, Mark Davis; an impending contract renewal that may spell doom at the cable station.
Papa was never warm and fuzzy but nowadays he's an utter jerk to be around. Ask Dave Feldman. At a recent Warriors pre-game show outside Oracle Arena, jerk Papa told a fan to buzz off. Well, actually he used another term and the fan was so taken aback, he notified security. The incident was placed on Papa's file at NBC. Happy Holidays to you too.
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| Doug Sovern |
*Had I had TV (NO TV, No Internet, thanks AT&T, you fucking assholes) I would have known that KGO-TV lost half its entire newscast the other night but my contacts informed me of such occurrence --especially charming that KGO neglected to state to its viewers why the freeze out took place, nice of Mickey Mouse local to alert the public.
*Stan Bunger takes more vacation days then the late Johnny Carson. That's a lot.
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| Rosemary Orozco |
*The KRON4 Christmas party: Costco gift certificates for the working stiffs. Hey, a vat full of mayonnaise for the gang now that'll strike up morale!
*Someone at KPIX who looks mighty fine has a stalker issue.
*Memo to Papa: if you act like an asshole all the time you'll get asshole karma. Ask Larry Baer.
*If the local media (what's left of it) dug a little deep, just a little deep on Mr. Baer, they might just find a story or two --or three. Hello, Matier& Ross? Are you guys out there? Wait a minute, it's the Chronicle, never mind.
*How to really torture ISIS: make them listen to "KNBR Tonight"
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| Ronnnnnnnnnnnn Owens and Nancy Pelosi partying hardy |
*Ronn has a busy week ahead: manicure/pedicure; lunch with Copie at La Cucina; walk the dog around Marina Green and tell people, "Hey, I'm Ronnnnnn Owens!"; interview the Handlery asshole on radio to get freebie nights at The Daily Grill; kiss Nancy Pelosi ass to make it seem he's still relevant.
*Dear local pr guy and former KTVU/KFOG publicist, Kenny Wardell.
Your loyalty is unyielding and marvelous but seriously, quit licking the boots of Lowenstein. He's a creep and it's hard to be a creep in San Francisco.
*God, how the mighty has fallen: does anyone still listen to KFOG? Wait a minute, will anyone even admit to listening to KFOG? I thought so.
| Candy Crowley |
NOW, DID YOU MISS ME? Then, dammit, send in some holiday cash to 415 Media. Please, ladies and gents.
I can understand your secret crush. Heck, that hippo would crush anyone she fell on...
ReplyDelete11:45...So, a reporter who broke major stories on the political scene, again and again, because of her brain and her sources, you find to be a "hippo" who you fear might "crush" you? You likely have a "mommy" issue. I'm betting you were a big disappointment in her life.
DeleteYears ago AT&T was my cable company. When I had a cable problem, I called customer support, and some guy with an extremely heavy Indian accent told me his name was "Bob Smith." He was useless, and just kept reading lines off a script in response to anything I said. I dumped them and haven't used them since.
ReplyDeleteAT&T internet sucks, it required constant calls to support to fix their lousy routing. I got rid of it years ago and things have been fine ever since.
ReplyDeleteAT&T's offers the worst customer service experience out there. I think they have call centers in the Philippines because you will not encounter anyone, no matter how much you escalate within that environment, who does not have a Philippine accent and they all use the same terms over and over. They disregard your issue and instead go through a series of update questions that you've already provided. It's an exercise in futility unless you get firm with them.
ReplyDeleteI refused to keep providing the information requested and advised that nothing had changed since an hour ago or a day ago, whatever the case may have been. If you come across as no-nonsense, they'll change their tune and start to actually assist you. After filing a complaint with the PUC, I was in contact with AT&T for about a month over a U-verse issue that they couldn't resolve (they actually offered a lame solution that I wouldn't accept). Then after they considered the case closed, the problem cleared up. I would like to believe that word eventually made it to the right place, but there was still no follow-up and I never got a survey.
How the might have fallen. When AT&T was a monopoly, the customer service was second to none. Now those Texas cowboys from SBC who are masquerading as AT&T couldn't care less about anybody but their shareholders.
Candy Crowley was a superb, hard-working, no-nonsense political reporter and CNN is diminished by her absence.
ReplyDeleteAs for your outage, you can get AT&T U-verse with better support by going through Santa Rosa's sonic.net. Ting.com might give you a better deal using your existing unlocked AT&T cell if you're bundled. Disclaimer: Happy customer of both, unhappy former AT&T user, no other connection.
Papa's a smarmy shit who should have been fired long ago.
ReplyDeleteI had AT&T internet many years ago. After hours on the phone with idiots around the world, the tech arrived on the wrong day and left a sticky note on the modem:"BAD MODEM" No replacement was made or even ordered. After I cancelled their service, they kept sending me refunds -- multiple refunds. I kept them in payment for my hours spent on the phone arguing with them.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused... What happened the other night at ABC-7? Did they go off the air?
ReplyDelete> ... Berkeley Walgreens on Tuesday with
ReplyDelete> full press pass
> regalia only Sovern wasn't covering a story.
Does this wanker know a college student can get press passes and badges to hang around their necks? I had them when I was in college and worked for the campus radio station and newspaper.
Time for some real inside juice, man...Give us some scoop on the REAL London Breed's thug life...KGO's(Disney)forced positive spin on this undeniable horrible deed had my party of out-of-towners laughing, calling SF media a joke. Facebook data scam was their lead, totally burying Breed's corruption (They were already soured by the tons of homeless everywhere laying in their shit)
ReplyDeleteAnd ATT has facked up DirecTV too. I was sad the say they took over the sat service, but I fired them a few months back.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion, get Comcast. ATT lied about their high speed internet providing slower slower speed. Same thing with Sonic, they use ATT fiber lines and cannot go beyond 50mbps speed.
ReplyDeleteABC World News wasn't on air either Sat or Sun.
About the KPIX news reporter having a stalker issue, does this reporter have their own social media page showing their personal hobbies? My guess is it is an under-rated field reporter who deserve a main anchor job.
still hoping there is a Papa ad soon with joe cordell talking about how much great advice he got on his divorce..
ReplyDeleteKNBR 2 Nite with Covay the uber driver? s-s-s-sucks the guy is a clown
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the downfall of KNBR at night was getting rid of Ray Woodson and replacing him with an overcaffeinated millenial (Covay) and an overbearing jock (Franny). Thankfully, I can turn on the Warriors at night.
Deletethere is another overcaffeinated millenial on the fm station named the butcher or joe the butcher as well
DeleteThe beginning of the downfall of KNBR at night was them taking Damon Bruce off of Sportsphone years ago back in 2010. KNBR at night honestly hasn't been the same since. It's really bad now though.
DeleteThey should've given Bonta that spot back when he was on KNBR, even though he has a much better thing on 95.7 being on Greg Papa's show on weekday afternoons.
Richie what that's excuse, my dog ate my homework? Tell the truth you were getting down with Mandy! Go Richie go.
ReplyDeleteThe only good move by Mark Davis since taking over was firing Papa.
ReplyDeletePapa ought to take lessons in play by play,(and humility), from Ted Robinson. Hopefully, NBC will follow suit.
I am in Fremont. Currently using Comcast. Are there any other internet options besides Comcast and ATT?
ReplyDeleteWrong! Sonic can go beyond 50 Mbps over AT&T lines and is doing so in many areas and is expanding their Gig service to rapidly. They provide Gig service to my place in San Jose. The great thing is if there is an issue, you get in touch with a person the phone immediately.
DeleteAlso, people do realize, it's not fiber all the way, right?
Not a techie here, but I use U-verse which is affiliated with AT&T. Except for the occasional reboot of their modem, the service is fine (but a little expensive).
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ReplyDeleteThanks Rich for the heads up on the Happy Hour. No wonder why Greg Papa and Ray Ratto aren't really on the show anymore.
ReplyDeleteI remember last year when you did articles about how Papa, Kelli Johnson, and Ratto didn't really like each other, and they even joked about it on the show at times, when you can kind of somewhat tell that maybe there probably was something there between the three of them at the time. Papa and Johnson not being on the show for periods of time, and Ratto missing time here and there. They never had that consistent mix to where that show could've went somewhere. They all had other stuff they had to do that was more important than doing that show.
It seems like the past few months or so, they've kind of rebranded the show and it seems like they are giving some of their other staff a chance to host the show like Laura Britt, Ahmed Fareed, Dave Feldman, the Warriors outsider Grant Liffman. Kelli Johnson usually hosts when one of them is hosting the show. It seems like the past couple of weeks or so it's been Kelli Johnson, Ahmed Fareed, and Dave Feldman. Greg Papa is rarely on the show now, even though part of that might be because he's doing 49ers and Warriors pre and post, and was calling some college football games. He still does his radio show on 95.7, and you can tell he puts more energy into that than he does Happy Hour whenever he's on Happy Hour. On Happy Hour, he usually makes the same points he made a few hours earlier on 95.7. LOL. It's like hey wait a minute, I heard him make this same point earlier today. LOL.
It looks like they moved Ratto to covering the games now, and and reporting from there during Happy Hour, as opposed to doing the show full-time. In a way that might be best as his style doesn't really fit a show like this. Too negative, and as a lot of people have mentioned in the past, his schtick can get old. At times it's awkward and funny, but it can get tired.
But yes, are they dumping the show permanently, or will they just keep the show as is for now with rotating hosts? It really will be interesting to see how this show gets marketed during Giants and A's telecasts next year in between innings.
I agree about Ray--predictably contrarian and negative. For a future show I'm okay with Laura Britt (very enthusiastic), Ahmed (likable), and the Outsiders (hilarious). Kozimor was good as a moderator. It would help to have outside guests like Kawakami, Thompson II, and Spears.
DeleteOh nvm, they're permanently dumping the show. Their last show will be tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI have to give Rich credit. He knew this show was going to flop, even early on when this show first started last year.
I hear AT&T sells their customer information to various places. I too had AT&T and my computer guy told me they have the slowest Internet in the Bay Area. Never had a problem with their tech support, then again I never needed them. Good thing I didn't.
ReplyDeletecovay not uber anymore , but it seems like the fact he had an uber job makes it seem like he's saying ''see I got all these jobs, im productive, so you should work hard like me''.
ReplyDeleteOk LYFT either way he sucks
DeleteI guess I am the only one to admit it. I listen to KFOG and I enjoy the station. I used to listen to them when they first changed formats back in 1982. Dave Morey, M Dung, 10 at 10, Psychedelic Psupper, Smoke two Joints, it was all great and not so top 10ish hair bands as other stations.
ReplyDeleteI quit listening to them for many years but recently I turned them on and I found there play list interesting. I don't listen as much as I did back in the day but, when I do I find myself liking the music.
As an addition to this post I wanted to add that after writting it I googled M Dung (Mike Slavko) to see what happened to him. Found out he passed away in June of '17. RIP O-Day A-Way!!! EYE..
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