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Steve Gregory and more fired from KFI
- Thread starter DoctorWu
- Start date
And the award for the greatest margin by which the point can be missed goes to…
Look, BigA, not everyone can know every market (which is why I generally confine myself to California), but you clearly don’t grasp the impact of Robin Bertolucci and Steve Gregory.
We know what they’ll fill the hole with. You don’t seem to know the size of the hole.
Where did I say anything about that? You're putting words in my mouth.
You posted the article with the Bob Pittman interview. He explained who he's cutting and why. Aim your anger at him, not me.
Steve Gregory was KFI's best reporter, and the go to for the hosts to get the scoop and coverage of local crime and politics no one else had. His news specials were top notch and award winning. You have to be a regular listener to fully understand how HUGE this loss is. KFI's news coverage will never be the same.
How sad to see the gutting that is happening to the best news and talk radio station in the US. Why are they getting rid of the best and most talented???
How sad to see the gutting that is happening to the best news and talk radio station in the US. Why are they getting rid of the best and most talented???
Was there anything factually wrong with what I said? Once again, my name is not Bob Pittman. Try to understand.
He said he's cutting duplication. There are news people at TTN. They can cover local news for KFI.
I'm not saying Steve Gregory is unimportant to the station, just as I didn't say Robin Bertolucci was unimportant. They would have been cut years ago if they weren't important. This isn't about firing bad people or firing hard workers. It's about cutting costs. That's it.
You want people to attack Bob Pittman? There's a whole site dedicated to that.
Because they're also the most expensive.
Yup.
BTW Wasn't Harold Greene the last of L.A.'s "Million Dollar T.V. Anchors" to be let go (back in '08)?
Was Robin Bertolucci anything even remotely like the late Aggie Underwood, City Editor of the L.A. Herald/Express/Examiner? The paper was never the same after she left.
Oh, O.K., thanks.
My sources tell me it's pretty much the entire news operation including the great Chris Little.
If it's all about the bottom-line and the "business", then why don't these bean-counters pick a business where the quality of the product doesn't matter. (not sure what that business might be, but it's not broadcasting)
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The problem isn't the bean counters. The problem is the audience for broadcast radio is dropping. It's been dropping for a while. It dropped while Steve Gregory was there. I'm not talking about share. I'm talking about the actual audience for broadcast radio. We know fewer people listen. So when fewer people listen, you need to scale down the budget to the size of the audience. That's what's happening here. It's not just KFI or iHeart. It happened at KLOS. It happened at KPCC. It happened at the LA Times. Fewer people use traditional media, so traditional media can no longer staff as though it's the 1980s. I have no reason to believe that the people who left are coming back.
Just confirmed here as well - Corbin Carson, Chris Little, Kris Adler, and Erin Ben-Moche are all gone.
Why would anyone WANT to come back?
Once again: They left while Steve and Robin were there. Having them on staff didn't stop the audience from leaving. You can't budget on people coming back. You budget based on actual listening numbers. That's how these decisions are being made.
How many people here listened to Steve's Sunday afternoon with college students? That's the question people should be asking.
Well, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it?
- Management cuts people to boost profits.
- Quality suffers and listeners leave.
- Less listeners justify more management cuts.
- Quality decreases again and more listeners leave.
- Upper management must deliver more profits to Wall Street, so more cuts are required.
- Quality decreases and more listeners leave.
- Rinse and repeat until all value is drained out.
And debt service due to overexpansion is a bitch, too.
The question should be - how can we sell this station or just flip the "off" switch and get into the widget business, since they clearly don't want to be broadcasters. Give someone who wants to be a broadcaster a shot.
All of that ignores that there was a massive technological change where people stopped buying radios are instead bought phones.
Once again: It's not the 1980s. There's no amount of staff you can hire that will cause people to throw away their phones and computers, and instead listen to broadcast radio. That train left a long time ago. The debt was caused 20 years ago. They never really dealt with it. They're dealing with it now.
Nobody is buying radio stations. Please wake up. How much do you get paid at that LPFM? Do you think Steve Gregory would be happy working for free? That's the problem. There are people now who are willing to work for free. People get their news from people who work for free. That's the real problem. The real broadcasters you talk about would have to work for free.
Nailed it on all counts.
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