Aside from the various legal issues which may or may not provide formidable obstacles, I question the ethical and moral integrity of a station that, in some form or another, promotes what is essentially gambling with no interruption 24/7.
Thankfully, this is still a somewhat free society, and I can choose not to listen to it, but simply knowing that such stations exist nevertheless causes me some concern, because you can bet (no pun intended) that there will be innumerable gambling addicts that will tune in and be ruined.
One of my favorite hosts for years was Bernie Ward (anyone remember him?). He always had interesting programs, was often very reasonable and presented topics and answered callers thoughtfully. Sadly, he had is career ruined spectacularly by getting caught with child pornography (it was a huge scandal that all the SF news channels talked about for weeks). Politically I would say that he was pretty far to the left relative to Gene Burns (who I always thought was sensible, but unfortunately sometimes a bit arrogant and off putting with his opinions) and John Rothman (he's pretty center-right, but I think he actually moved somewhat leftward in recent years, particularly after 2016), but he was still relatively moderate, especially by the standards of present-day progressive Democrats, who are so far to the left they practically fall off the spectrum altogether (Progressives might as well be their own separate and distinct party at this point, because they often seem to differ pretty widely from almost every other Democrat).
KGO, even in it's latest incarnation, was probably the best moderate/centrist talk format around in this part of California. Anything else that's talk is pretty much either business (Bloomberg on KNEW 960, KDOW 1220), far right conservative (KSFO 560 and others) or religious/Christian (KEAR 610 and many others; this is by far the most common format on AM it seems). Everything not-talk, save for one or two exceptions, is basically noise in various languages (usually Spanish, but occasionally also English and Chinese). There are two out of market oldies stations – KYNO 940 out of Fresno and KVIN 920 from Stockton and Modesto – which are pretty good, but they're somewhat hard to receive.
c
Thankfully, this is still a somewhat free society, and I can choose not to listen to it, but simply knowing that such stations exist nevertheless causes me some concern, because you can bet (no pun intended) that there will be innumerable gambling addicts that will tune in and be ruined.
Me too. KGO, especially before the 2011 purge, was pretty much dead center, with little bits of left and right mixed in to keep things interesting.
One of my favorite hosts for years was Bernie Ward (anyone remember him?). He always had interesting programs, was often very reasonable and presented topics and answered callers thoughtfully. Sadly, he had is career ruined spectacularly by getting caught with child pornography (it was a huge scandal that all the SF news channels talked about for weeks). Politically I would say that he was pretty far to the left relative to Gene Burns (who I always thought was sensible, but unfortunately sometimes a bit arrogant and off putting with his opinions) and John Rothman (he's pretty center-right, but I think he actually moved somewhat leftward in recent years, particularly after 2016), but he was still relatively moderate, especially by the standards of present-day progressive Democrats, who are so far to the left they practically fall off the spectrum altogether (Progressives might as well be their own separate and distinct party at this point, because they often seem to differ pretty widely from almost every other Democrat).
KGO, even in it's latest incarnation, was probably the best moderate/centrist talk format around in this part of California. Anything else that's talk is pretty much either business (Bloomberg on KNEW 960, KDOW 1220), far right conservative (KSFO 560 and others) or religious/Christian (KEAR 610 and many others; this is by far the most common format on AM it seems). Everything not-talk, save for one or two exceptions, is basically noise in various languages (usually Spanish, but occasionally also English and Chinese). There are two out of market oldies stations – KYNO 940 out of Fresno and KVIN 920 from Stockton and Modesto – which are pretty good, but they're somewhat hard to receive.
c
