Broadcast Maverick, Michael Zwerling, Has Sights set on Bay Area Radio Frequency; Talk Radio Format on his Radar

In the 17.5 months since quality live and local TalkRadio all but died in the Bay Area NOTHING has been done to revive it.  On the contrary, it has gotten even worse: example: dropping of Len Tillem (John Rothmann?) and other local voices by Clear Channel's KKSF AM 910.

Killing quality local programming seems to be the trend at Clear Channel -- recently veteran broadcaster Mark Carbonaro's very popular 6A to 9A morning drive program was dropped by KION AM 1460 Salinas-Monterey-Santa Cruz and replaced by Armstrong & Getty from Clear Channel's Sacramento outlet, also carried on KKSF AM 910.

Over the weekend the San Jose Mercury News published an interesting story about Family Radio, Inc. the Oakland-based, donation-supported religious broadcaster that owns radio stations, translators, and shortwave outlets throughout the country, including locally, KEAR AM 610, the old KFRC (Dr. Don Rose, etc.)

It seems that donations to that radio ministry are down significantly as a result of a sluggish economy AND fallout from repeated predictions of impending Rapture (end of the world) dates which failed to materialize.

As I read this Mercury News story (see it at http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23224368/end-world-oaklands-family-radio ) I could not stop thinking about how GREAT it would be if somehow, some way, some TIME soon, this channel could be tapped to reinstate ( perhaps more appropriately, "resurrect" in this case :-) quality LIVE AND LOCAL talk radio in the Bay Area.

Then I thought about Michael Zwerling, "MZ", the major sponsor of this blog, and the owner of KSCO AM 1080 and KOMY AM 1340, the Monterey Bay stations that originate the Lieberman Live daily three hour talk show.

Last month I wrote a story about MZ ( http://richliebermanreport.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-i-got-current-kscokomy-radio-gig.html ) planning to bring independent (non-corporate) talk radio back to the Bay Area.  But that story wasn't up for fifteen minutes before the Boston Bombing mega-story hit, so a story that is particularly meaningful to me and many other talk radio enthusiasts -- pretty much got buried...

I have encouraged MZ to follow his dream of establishing his brand of talk radio in 415 -- as well as in 510, 925, 707, 650, and 408!

He says any frequency will do, AM or FM, so long as it has a strong signal into San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Marin, and the peninsula.  Concord, Walnut Creek, and Martinez would be a plus.  

He will buy from, lease from, or partner with an operator who wants their channel to perform better.

MZ is a pretty clever and creative guy.  Herewith I re-offer the audio red meat I put forth in the April 15 post:  Attention Bay Area radio broadcast operators who are tired of swimming upstream in a business that is going south fast:  Make a deal with MZ: he GETS IT -- and knows how to turn negatives into positives--AND put smiles on many faces.  



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