| Christine Craft and Al Franken |
Christine Craft filled in for Ronn Owens on KGO Radio Friday. Several of you informed me. I know. For once I actually listened to the radio albatross.
Craft is a royal pain in the ass. I told her. She's also an excellent radio talk-show host. Sure, her animal-rights stance borders on infatuation and much too much we're fed her dog stories. Oh well.
For a self-described "liberal", her gun-rights stance seems contradictory but again, she's consistent.
I'm also not thrilled with her steadfast anti-Israel position no matter what but I can deal with that because one thing about Craft--you pick a fight with her, she's more than ready to go at it.
On radio she's really good. She runs a smooth sailing ship and knows how to keep a show moving, there's no denying that. In fact, it's an embarrassment that Craft isn't a full time host on KGO--you would think one of the dim bulbs running the show would hire her and elicit some element of credibility. Only those who run KGO now are trying to reinvent the wheel and actually think 4th-tier comedians from New Jersey appeal to a younger demo and that morons who walk the red carpet and think they're entertainers are more suitable. Never mind that no one is listening but that's another story.
Even in this PPM and TSL era, Craft commands the board. She's incredibly adept at pacing. When a bad caller is much too much, she can cut and move along to the next Edna from Fremont. Now and then she's a little rude and curt with listeners but in trying to zip along the show, that's manageable. She acknowledges as much which is OK from this corner.
*Yes, you heard right: Barely three weeks into his SF run, KGO ran a "best-of" Chip Franklin on Friday. Many of you were shocked. Why not put a fill-in on? Live and local? Because, see, that would have been too logical --furthermore, Cumulus would have had to pay a fill-in, bingo!
*You guys are right--the True Car ads are annoying as hell but maybe that's what the client wants.
*Randall Bloomquist and Renee Bakos: symmetry. (Withhold laughter).
*Sorry, KRON, you just look and sound weird. And please, do something with that lighting! It's awful even by your standards.
*Just because one media blogger in town isn't in love with certain media people doesn't mean he has to omit them from his Christmas card. Hell, someone has to take the high road.
*From one of my KGO Radio spies: "Bloomquist will be fired soon enough. Mahanay brought in Bakos and the Dicks sent him to SF to reign it all in. He's like an ugly Abe Vigoda." Ouch.
*Any day now on the weekend, the real-estate shows and pre-recorded syndicated crap will begin playing because that's the Cumulus playbook. That, and cashing $25 million-dollar bonus checks for the Dicks are SOP. Chew on that, 55 Hawthorne zombies, and Happy New Year.
*Katie Marzullo: It's OK to smile. Ask Claudine Wong. And another thing: loosen up a bit.
NOTE: You can now SUBSCRBE to 415 Media! For $8.99/ one-year --you'll get 415 Media in your e-mail box every morning and an exclusive extra dose of Bay Area Radio/TV --just click on the Pay Pal icon on the right of the blog and get your membership today--Help support independent media. All subscriptions are confidential as is the Pay Pal transaction. You also do not have to have a Pay Pal account to subscribe.
*Follow me on Twitter
