This is an edict that not only will take place at KCBS but other Audacy stations; I'm guessing it starts at the new year but it's in the works, for sure.
*Pat Thurston was not one of my favorites at KGO early on but she's vastly improved and is a total solid pro. She can interview, she definitely talk and she has a grasp for the news gravitas. Those of you that don't care for her, fine, you made your point. She's not perfect, neither are you. I'm a little tired of the eternal bashing on Pat. You made your point. Guess what, this just in? I'm not always a day at the beach either but like everyone else, I too can be a good cup of coffee every now and then.
*Thurston will be a great addition at KCBS --as a parttime anchor, yes it'be a change and different Pat but it's pretty much temporarry before Thurston gets into the new talk phase.
*I don't know John Rothmann's status nor future but I'm guessing he could possibly be in KCBS' plans, I don't know for now.
I’m one of the people critical of the move. To be clear, I have *nothing* against Pat Thurston. I’ve maybe listened to her once or twice. I have no opinion whatsoever about her as a broadcaster. And I’m sure she’s a lovely person. But I have an infinite number of options to listen people who are domain experts in given fields talk about their fields anytime I want. A general purpose host fielding calls from listeners for a few hours doesn’t clear that bar.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that KCBS is a *news* station, not news/talk. They could reincarnate Edward R. Murrow to fill the 8-12 shift and I wouldn’t be happy about it, and the idea that this somehow saves or even improves KCBS is lunacy. This is all about cutting costs, and that’s Audacy choking the golden goose.
KCBS is the #1 radio station in the #4 market in the country. Why would you change the format? You can’t do any better - best case you don’t make things any worse.
Sorry, anon., but I don't want domain experts in given fields "talking" (pontificating) about those fields. I want to listen to an intelligent person talking about the events of the day, be they happy or sad. The really great radio in my lifetime consisted of people talking about Hollywood gossip one day and events in Washington the next. Generalize!
Delete11:03 find us an intelligent person and we'll listen. Chimp Franklin, Nikki Medoro. The choices were bleak. Rothamann was ok. Pat....not so much.
DeleteAnon @ 1103 - Larry King died last year and that style of show died even before he did...
DeleteIt's great that KCBS is #1 but I don't get the appeal of all news format.
DeleteEssentially repeating the same traffic,weather,sports,finance every 20 minutes.
Sure, they will throw in a 3 minute interview once in a while, but it is basically repeating the same stuff every 15 minutes.
Who the hell can bear to listen to that for an hour??
Sorry, but Thurston has a horrible annoying screechy high-pitch voice. Voice totally wrong for a news anchor.
Delete@1:54 Nobody listens to it for a long period of time. That’s not the point. The station is designed for the millions of people who drop in and out. People who want to listen to spoken word content listen to podcasts or books.
DeleteI've been frustrated by the lack of any local talk shows that cover the Bay area. Looking forward to hearing it again, even in limited hours. Good for Par, good for us and nice move Audacy!
ReplyDeleteIt being "...a blend of public service and more informational and straight-forward, less opinionated and more objective", makes me think they were inspired by their "Ask an Expert" series. It must be somewhat successful for them, it just keeps going.
ReplyDeleteThe "ask an expert" segments are great, and if that were actually what they're considering, I'd totally be in favor (as long as there were still traffic and weather breaks on the 8's).
DeleteDoing 3-4 hours a night of that, though, requires a number of producers that Audacy is unlikely to pay for.
"as long as there were still traffic and weather breaks on the 8's" What is wrong with you. Why do you need weather reports repeated to you every 8 minutes?? Same with traffic. I get instant real-time traffic for the entire Bay Area on the internet with Sig-alert.
Delete@ 2:00 AM - Hard to get traffic updates from the internet on your phone without risking a few hundred dollar fine, and potentially points on your license.
DeleteI would welcome a talk format at KCBS in the evening. I would like to see some balance instead of the usual echo chamber though. Pair Thurston or Rothman with somebody that is Libertarian or leans to the right. I would like to see two educated hosts who see the world differently discuss news of the day without all the vitriol.
ReplyDelete718 days until 2024 Presidential election and I don't want to hear 718 days of Rothman and Thurston spending 2 hours a night bashing Trump.
In the words of Tony Bruno, "Exactly right".
DeletePat and John never spend every show bashing Trump, they did a good deal of time on him, however he is very controversial and he was president, so of course a talk show host will talk about him. I assume that when Obama was president you also got tired of Hannity, Rush, Mark Levin and other bashing Obama and the democrats and Hilary, they were the ones who spend most of their shows bashing the above mentioned.
DeleteJust tune in KSFO then. Problem solved.
Delete5:35. Pat and John spent more time talking about Trump and he hasn't been in office in 2 years. Any Trump rumor was talked about like it was a fact, but bring up Hunter Biden's laptop and you get laughed at like a fool. I also don't like Levin for same reason I don't like Trump. He insults people. The point being, why does everything have to be either left or right. My team against your team. I would like a show when Democrats get something right, we salute them, and Republicans get something right, we also salute them.
DeleteI will agree with that. However, both John and Pat were at times critical of the Demcrats, especially Pat. And there were a few policies that John liked and said so, mostly to do with Israel. However, you can't expect a host to fake liking someone just because they want to beeing seen as middle of the road.
DeleteIs Ronnnnnn Owens jockeying for a shot at KCBS??
ReplyDeleteHis wife, Jan Black did a perfect, non-partisan talk show at KCBS years ago...a rare example of something being ineresting without an opinion based host.
DeleteKCBS's new format, great idea, and seems pretty similar to LA station KFI, so should be quite successful. Until KCBS gets up to speed, Bay Area listeners can tune into KFI (640 AM) for an idea what's to come, reception is quite clear after dark.
ReplyDeletebut KFI isn't afraid of opinion.
DeleteYou're right, and that format gives them #4 at a 4.7 last month, as opposed to #1 and a 7.0. Again, why change what's working, other than to cut costs with a national program, which (I think) everyone here agrees would suck on all levels.
DeleteI've been listening to KFI since the demise of KGO, and they have lots of room for improvement. I can see why they are #4 and not #1 in the market. Their hosts fall far short as compared to the former hosts on KGO in the golden years. Their news dept. also is just mediocre. Give people a quality product worth listening to, and they will tune in. Simple as that.
DeletePat Thurston as a news anchor? I think not. Pat Thurston as a talk-show host where she doesn't cut-off and shriek at opposing points of view. Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awful idea. KCBS is news, weather and traffic. They have the whole marketplace to themselves now. Talk radio is dead here and if KCBS decides to go liberal talk it will be a complete disaster.
ReplyDeleteTalk radio is dead hear due to a thousand and one cuts. You can't spend pennies in hopes of making profits. I call KGO a planned failure.
DeleteI tend to agree. Awful idea. OTOH, KGO has left a void.
DeleteCBS must figure that they can fill some of that void and pick up some of the former KGO listeners.
860 The Answer & KSFO are waiting for you to tune in.
ReplyDeleteTalk radio is not dead, but it is heavily populated with right wing host, a few middle of the road, and very few liberals, especially since KGO disappeared. Those who think it is an awful idea, do you listen to the constant repeat of KCBS news all day long. If you don't like talk radio and it seems you are really against liberal talk radio, there's a simple solution for that, you don't have to listen, but there are plenty that miss KGO, Mark Thompson is on UTube as is Nikki Medoro, I like the former, and listen most days, he is doing okay. Don't care for Nikki and from what I can see she has fewer subscribers than Mark.
DeleteWell, Since Selig has no Ideas this makes sense..."Yes sir Mr. Audacy SIR." Odd that they would do this at night except that 7-12 mid are NOT VERY important in the ratings...so there is little to lose. It also gets rid of a lot of NEWS personnel from 7-12 mid which is a big money saver. $$$$
ReplyDeleteGood Lord, I hope it's better than the garbage they have on weekend mornings.
ReplyDeleteZ in Emeryville
ReplyDeleteIf Thurston does interviews it might be like an expanded version of Keith Manconi's "In Depth" on weekends, 30 minutes on knowledgeable interviews with experts which is quite good with well-prepared questions.
Yes l like Keith Mancini's segment especially if it's a subject that interest me.
DeleteThis doesn't make sense. Why would KCBS, the No.1 or 2 station, pick up part of the schedule of one of the lowest rated stations?
ReplyDeleteAnd Pat is ... how do I say this nicely? ... not that bright. She once insisted the Russia was part of NATO. Another time she wasn't aware that Facebook's parent company was Meta. She'll need a great producer to help her out.
Pat's show got good rating. Because she misspoke a few times, seeing she was on the air 4 hours a day 5 days a week does not mean she is not bright.
Deleteratings? seriously?
DeleteDo you actually know Pat's rating, just because you didn't care for her does not mean others do not. Her shows on PG&E was very informative, and had nothing to do with being right or left.
DeletePat & Mark were consistently at the top of the KGO ratings in the past couple years. It makes sense if you look at the rest of the lineup.
DeleteJohn Rothmann was always my favorite, because his knowledge of presidential history and politics. I did like Mark's show, and also Pat's, Mark had different segmants, some more interesting than others, but better than the right wing alternative. 650 a.m. Sacramento has a show on with Chas Benson I think is his name, he does not take calls, his monologue is more than boring. At least Mark's show had some ebbs and flows to it. He has a podcast on Utube which I watch when I can.
DeleteCould there also be a possibility they (Audacy) could switch formats on either 105.3 or 106.9?
ReplyDeleteI really cannot remember the last time I listened to any radio at night.
ReplyDeleteI guess you don't have insomnia.
DeleteRunning an all-news operation is too expensive for Audacy's taste--or, for most radio ownerships these days. It takes a lot of people to run such an operation. Talk radio, on the other hand, is pretty cheap to run: A host and a producer. THat's it.
ReplyDeleteMost radio "producers" produce nothing. You do need a call screener.
DeleteYou do if you're going to produce 3 hours of "ask an expert" style actual "news" programming, instead of just doing a call-in show. I'm assuming that if they move forward with this idiotic idea, it's going to look a lot like the latter, and not the former.
DeleteHence my prediction that this will mark the beginning of the end of KCBS. The audience for that kind of radio programming is literally dying at an accelerating pace.
There's plenty of people that like talk radio, although more and more it's conservative or extremely right wing, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, but with KGO being gone there's a void, and those who miss KGO will turn in. I doubt KCBS will be gone, it's the only local news station. I know there's Bloomberg radio, but l can only get that station in my car not where l live in Concord.
DeleteAnon @ 1:42 - Sure, there are plenty, but that number shrinking rapidly. I'm speaking literally when I say that the audience is dying off:
Delete"AM/FM Radio owned the category outright seven years ago. But looking at the past year, less than half of spoken word audio listening is on the radio dial. Even with a pandemic and a heated election cycle in 2020, the talk radio format, which decidedly slants to conservative politics, largely failed to grow audience in the crucial demo of adults 25-54.
According to news talk consultant Gabe Hobbs, 8 out of 10 stations saw a 25-54 decline in 2020. Even cume among older listeners (adults 35-64) didn’t increase. Any gains were primarily from current listeners spending more time tuning in.
At 56, talk radio has the oldest median listener age of any major format in the U.S. and arguably skews sharply older in many individual markets. The biggest names in talk radio track closely to the format demo, Sean Hannity at 60 and Glenn Beck right behind at 58. Many other legacy hosts are certainly on AARP’s mailing list. It certainly doesn’t help that many talk radio stations are on the withering AM radio band, which compounds the problem of attracting younger listeners."
https://www.amplifimedia.com/blogstein/xdf1183gp3wpdpja56rlh9pp20h838.