KGO Radio Under-Performance in 2020; The Morning Needs Tweaking; 415 Media Playbook

NUMBERS DON'T LIE.

To wit, the KGO numbers Not a really good May, but more ominously, a gut-wrenching trend. And not a very good trend at that, which is puzzling because even though KGO has been battling not-so-spectacular numbers of late, they should be a helluva lot better then their current trajectory.

My theory is simple: among other things which I'll get to in a second, KGO should be performing far more superior, especially in an election year and especially now when the country is caught up in a life-altering pandemic that has been on the nation's people radar for the better part of six months now. It's a situation now that is red herring for talk-show radio and KGO is in the middle of the action, (so to speak)

So why is KGO struggling? They shouldn't be. They should be striving and while they are top-to-bottom a whole lot better than KGO of years past (but of course not the pre, 2011 version) KGO should be in relative paradise in terrestrial radio because the times dictate as such but it's simply not the case and that's puzzling.

I offer reasons.

KGO, for one, has a under-performing morning show. Try as she might, Nikki Medoro is not the answer from 6-10 AM. It's drive time that deserves a strong awakening and so far, Medoros has been asleep at the wheel. I would have loved for her to take off but she hasn't. Hasn't by any means. True, her new show launched just last March, but it has lacked any strong identity and it has lacked in a direction. Her ability to attract an audience hasn't met the threshold. It's not even a matter of opinion, it's the  facts. She can't deliver any key demo and that hurts not only her, but KGO too because she's not a strong lead-in.

Mark Thompson has been a total disaster. He's all over the map and he's been, so far, a total dud, not only substance wise, but ratings wise. His style of show? I can't stand it but for real strength of ID, Thompson has yet to deliver on numbers and that's the only thing that counts. If Thompson were to gauge his lack of presence then he'd make changes --try to reshuffle the deck but his ego won't allow. He can't tweak a spec if his life depended on it. So you have an ongoing Titanic.

Left to right: Mark Thompson, Pat Thurston and John Rothmann

I don't have access (most of the time) to the real, tangent hourly breakdowns that are the life and essence of radio; it's what the advertisers use to buy time and right now, advertising is down on all of broadcasting, including radio and most notably, local TV News. I do know trends though.

KGO is hampered by a lack of drive in the morning. Its shows are under-performing and they more or less, bring down the rest of the day. While a Pat Thurston and/or a John Rothmann have dlivered a fairy decent performance --Thurston, midday, Rothmann at night--talk-radio, all radio for that matter makes its money in the drive times and even though Chip Franklin is strong from 3-6 PM, he isn't able to help KGO's overall performance.

I HAVE CONFIDENCE in KGO--its managers and big suits to get where they have to be and make sure the ship iss off the rocks and headed through to the right direction. They need to look at the morning and they need to do so immediately.