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Shannon Farren Suspensions?

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

Apparently, KFI's Shannon Farren of the "Gary and Shannon Show" has irked the management at the station enough that she has earned multiple on-air suspensions of late.

Her on air partner, the normally unflappable Gary Hoffman, seemed really seemed really off kilter and "distant" on Friday's show with her once again absence which are becoming somewhat regular lately. In fact, they didn't use the regular "Gary and Shannon" intro mentioning both hosts name and used a generic music bed which Hoffman abruptly dumped into.

Seems that Bill Handel has really toned down his pension for controversies and Farren has tallest his place.

Even Conway also seems a bit toned down on his show lately and is going out-of-his-way to avoid any on air mishaps that could quickly go south.

Anyone maybe know what is going on behind-the-scenes?
 
sdwulfdawg said:
Apparently, KFI's Shannon Farren of the "Gary and Shannon Show" has irked the management at the station enough that she has earned multiple on-air suspensions of late.

Her on air partner, the normally unflappable Gary Hoffman, seemed really seemed really off kilter and "distant" on Friday's show with her once again absence which are becoming somewhat regular lately. In fact, they didn't use the regular "Gary and Shannon" intro mentioning both hosts name and used a generic music bed which Hoffman abruptly dumped into.

Seems that Bill Handel has really toned down his pension for controversies and Farren has tallest his place.

Even Conway also seems a bit toned down on his show lately and is going out-of-his-way to avoid any on air mishaps that could quickly go south.

Anyone maybe know what is going on behind-the-scenes?
Click to expand...

Know? No.

Best guess?

They had a PD who had their back for 22 years---Robin Bertolucci. Now, eight months after she's gone, they don't. At least not with the clout that Robin carried with corporate, which was significant.

When I visited KFI for half a day six years ago, one of the things that really impressed me was the sense that both Robin and then-News Director Chris Little had enormous reciprocal trust and respect with the rest of the staff.

Without someone like Robin (and I was fortunate to have someone like that in Bill White at KFBK), you're less insulated from the iHeart culture, where cost-cutting and layoffs (known as "managing the decline") are a way of life.

And speaking of "managing the decline", KFI is less able to cover the news in a city that right now needs local news coverage. Latest numbers (yeah, they're 6+, but they're what we've got) show KNX in fifth place with a 4.5 and KFI 11th with a 3.8.

More worrying is that KNX's weekly cume is 1,078,100 and KFI has less than half that number---480,500.

For perspective (and advertisers do not use this metric):

If you measure strictly by the number of people tuning in during a week (weekly cume), KFI is the #25 station in Los Angeles. 80,700 more people tune into KPCC (LAist 89.3).

Only 11,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KLYY (Jose 97.5 y 107.1). Only 21,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KKLQ (K-Love 100.3).

radioinsight.com

Los Angeles

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Los Angeles (Market #2) Population: 11,160,800 Black: 783,800 - Hispanic: 4,977,600 Average Quarter Hour Share
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
michael hagerty said:
More worrying is that KNX's weekly cume is 1,078,100 and KFI has less than half that number---480,500.
Click to expand...

These are two very different stations. One is all-news, the other is primarily talk.

You see the exact same thing when you compare all news WINS with WABC. Or KNX with KPCC.

WINS has a cume of 1,912,000 while WABC has a cume of 420,000. The public NPR station WNYC has a cume of 620,000. In LA, KPCC cume is 561,000. What that says to me is that people listen to all-news for short periods, and talk for long periods. In fact, this is why a number of heritage all news stations such as KRLD in Dallas are adding more talk programming to their stations. It helps them in TSL. KFI doesn't have a problem with TSL.
 
TheBigA said:
These are two very different stations. One is all-news, the other is primarily talk.

You see the exact same thing when you compare all news WINS with WABC. Or KNX with KPCC.

WINS has a cume of 1,912,000 while WABC has a cume of 420,000. The public NPR station WNYC has a cume of 620,000. In LA, KPCC cume is 561,000. What that says to me is that people listen to all-news for short periods, and talk for long periods. In fact, this is why a number of heritage all news stations such as KRLD in Dallas are adding more talk programming to their stations. It helps them in TSL. KFI doesn't have a problem with TSL.
Click to expand...

@Huff, can you get me cume comparisons for KNX and KFI from ten years, five years and one year ago, please?
 
Let's go to Sacramento, a market you're familiar with. KFBK and KXJZ are both talk stations. KFBK is #1 with a 9 share. KXHZ is #7 with a 4 share.

Cume for KFBK is 170,900 and KXJZ is 144,900. Very similar. While the music stations are all double that. Why? People listen to talk for long periods of time.
 
TheBigA said:
Let's go to Sacramento, a market you're familiar with. KFBK and KXJZ are both talk stations. KFBK is #1 with a 9 share. KXHZ is #7 with a 4 share.

Cume for KFBK is 170,900 and KXJZ is 144,900. Very similar. While the music stations are all double that. Why? People listen to talk for long periods of time.
Click to expand...

The point is the decline in cume for KFI over time. I'll wait for @Huff to bring the recent historical perspective. I am not doing another round like yesterday's copyright thing.
 
michael hagerty said:
Know? No.

Best guess?

They had a PD who had their back for 22 years---Robin Bertolucci. Now, eight months after she's gone, they don't. At least not with the clout that Robin carried with corporate, which was significant.

When I visited KFI for half a day six years ago, one of the things that really impressed me was the sense

And speaking of "managing the decline", KFI is less able to cover the news in a city that right now needs local news coverage. Latest numbers (yeah, they're 6+, but they're what we've got) show KNX in fifth place with a 4.5 and KFI 11th with a 3.8.

More worrying is that KNX's weekly cume is 1,078,100 and KFI has less than half that number---480,500.

For perspective (and advertisers do not use this metric):

If you measure strictly by the number of people tuning in during a week (weekly cume), KFI is the #25 station in Los Angeles. 80,700 more people tune into KPCC (LAist 89.3).

Only 11,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KLYY (Jose 97.5 y 107.1). Only 21,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KKLQ (K-Love 100.3).

radioinsight.com

Los Angeles

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings Los Angeles (Market #2) Population: 11,160,800 Black: 783,800 - Hispanic: 4,977,600 Average Quarter Hour Share
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
Click to expand...
There is a way for KFI to regain relevance, but it will never happen with their current "more milquetoast radio" format. And bringing back reporters isn't the answer either. This 80's approach to radio is killing the station.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
There is a way for KFI to regain relevance, but it will never happen with their current "more milquetoast radio" format. And bringing back reporters isn't the answer either. This 80's approach to radio is killing the station.
Click to expand...

My theory on that is that advertisers prefer the current approach. I still see reports where advertisers check the "do not air" box for controversial programming.
 
TheBigA said:
My theory on that is that advertisers prefer the current approach. I still see reports where advertisers check the "do not air" box for controversial programming.
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure those same advertisers "checked the box" for the most successful AM talk personality ever. How did that work out?
 
ChannelFlipper said:
I am pretty sure those same advertisers "checked the box" for the most successful AM talk personality ever. How did that work out?
Click to expand...

You're talking about the host who was the core of KEIB? That's your answer. KFI decided they didn't want to alienate the advertiser base. They gave him his own private radio station. He could say and do whatever he wanted, and it didn't hurt the revenue base at KFI.

He had the power to attract his own advertisers. There's some of that going on now. There's a cell provider called Patriot Mobile. It's big at talk stations. The station has to decide if they want to go that way or work with the advertisers they have. A strong PD can keep the sales people out of the kitchen. But given the weakening of advertising now, the sales people will win that argument.

For many years, the word I used to hear all the time from PDs was "passion." They said they want to create passion and attract a passionate audience. We know where that leads right here at RadioDiscussions. People get very passionate about their personal politics. It leads to angry exchanges and ultimately people getting banned. That same kind of thing happens with radio stations. Some advertisers have decided that politics is bad for business. Ask Elon Musk.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
Her on air partner, the normally unflappable Gary Hoffman, seemed really seemed really off kilter and "distant" on Friday's show with her once again absence which are becoming somewhat regular lately. In fact, they didn't use the regular "Gary and Shannon" intro mentioning both hosts name and used a generic music bed which Hoffman abruptly dumped into.
Click to expand...

It's very possible that she won't be coming back. Not necessarily because of anything she said or did. But because it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify two hosts in the midday block. The audience simply isn't big enough.

I could be wrong. Her name is still at the website. It could be temporary. But at some point, if there is to be a change, this is the block where it will happen.
 
OK, so declining cume over a 20 year period. Is that strictly a KFI problem or a format problem?

Follow-up question: How long on average do the hosts stick with a topic? Under normal circumstances, not when there's breaking news.

Because when you look at KPCC, they usually cycle through topics every ten minutes. That's better for building cume than sticking with one topic.
 
TheBigA said:
OK, so declining cume over a 20 year period. Is that strictly a KFI problem or a format problem?
Click to expand...

Don't know.


TheBigA said:
Follow-up question: How long on average do the hosts stick with a topic? Under normal circumstances, not when there's breaking news.

Because when you look at KPCC, they usually cycle through topics every ten minutes. That's better for building cume than sticking with one topic.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter, at least to me.

The point, which I thought I made clear, wasn't necessarily any specific comparison...it was that in a week, more people tune to 24 other Los Angeles radio stations than tune to KFI, which is supposed to be the last of the stand-alone AM giants.

And now, thanks to @Huff , we know KFI has lost almost half its cume in 20 years, 300,000 weekly listeners in the last 10 years and 89,000 in the last six months.

That's not good. That's that whole "managing the decline" thing I mentioned, which was my only point.
 
TheBigA said:
OK, so declining cume over a 20 year period. Is that strictly a KFI problem or a format problem?
Click to expand...
That is a radio problem. It's pretty format agnostic, though some have fared better than others - and there are exceptions to the rule like KNX, but it's probably safe to credit most of its bucking the trend to the move from AM to FM.
 
TheBigA said:
That's not what I said. Politics is bad for certain advertisers. My view is they're calling the shots here.

Air America went out of business 15 years ago. Very different atmosphere.
Click to expand...
And to be fair, I actually agree with your posts. Advertisers are probably making the calls here. My point is that those same advertisers will ultimately kill the station.
 


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