The Radnich-Cumulus-KNBR Bullshit Caper of The Year Still Percolates

I have to laugh again and again and again over the most BLATANT BULLSHIT that most of you bought, unfortunately, again, at the hands of Cumulus and KNBR this past summer.

Every other day (seriously) I get asked from a few readers, "what was the deal with Radnich? (Gary) "what really happened?"

He was told to get lost which is really what happened and not the outright LIE perpetrated by the Cloud Company and its best enablers, its robotic zombies like its sports-talk hosts in particular and its other peons in general.

Look, radio is a funky business. It is even funkier these days with terrestrial marginalization, AM smackdown, the overall business has eroded and its major characters gone into hiding and hidden solo and in most cases by the criminal owners.

Radnich, we were told, decided to retire early--he said in a made-up tweet he was planning on retiring on his 70th birthday next February, which is/was utter bullshit along with his equal bullshit sudden retirement last June. It was so out of the blue and so remarkably out of this world, even I immediately knew the powers that be had arranged it and that Radnich was told to retire, get his farewell check and told to do a last show and go away peacefully and forever, at least from Cumulus/KNBR grounds. The fact that the whole thing was a GIANT LIE and that its listeners were fed such unmitigated bullshit was par for the course. Forcing Radnich to do a "farewell show" was standard operating procedure. Had he refused to do so would mean him giving up a sizable amount of his severance pay. That alone should have sent out warning signals. But you all bought it.

As many of you know, I was not a big Gary fan, especially at the end of his gig. He routinely, as they say, (it's almost a cliche) mailed it in. The Don Rickles act was beginning to wear thin. Sports topics on his show (with sidekick, Larry Krueger) were almost an afterthought. Rap video and obscure celebrity minutiae dominated the program but even at its worst, and his worst, KNBR and Radnich were its best and most compelling program. It was not only entertaining (for the most part) it was the highest rated program on KNBR's air and it earned the most revenue of all the KNBR shows. That's a fact.

For KNBR and Cumulus therefore to perpetrate a total fabrication of Radnich's farewell and hoist it to its SF Bay Area market might be one of the all-time "fuck yous" --even by Cumulus standards, it was repulsive and outrageous.

I called Radnich and tried to reach out for some comment and expectedly he didn't return my calls; I'm sure he's not allowed to talk about anything because they could yank some money from him and he does have bills to pay, I understand that; I also understand that Cumulus is cutting major salary and thinning out the herd, so to speak, given its financial parameters and bankruptcy status. No big shock here and Radnich was #1 on Cumulus' SF hit list. Had they just leveled with him, and by extension, Bay Area radio audiences, then there's no outrage and confusion. They could have done that and negated all the ensuing gridlock

Instead, they chose to do what they do best and LIE and obfuscate --it's a well-known pattern in the Cumulus playbook and KNBR one of its giddiest enablers.