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Bernie Ward's future at KGO, if not gulity!

N

newsperson

As we all know by now we will not hear the commentary of Bernie Ward during this election time.

I thought I would make this post not about his innocence or guilt and instead talk about the future in this "layoff mode" and what he could expect.

So instead of talking about the charges let's speculate that the trial is over in June and he is found not guilty on all charges!

Now he is (would be) free to pursue an air shift without this black cloud over his head.

Then the question is who would be hiring? With all the Citadel layoffs what is the future of the 10p to 1a shift at KGO?

As we hear on the air no one has been hired as a permant host for that shift. David Lazaris has been doing most of the fill-in.

My speculation is that KGO will not go with syndication in that time shift, except they will have local talent that is not paid the salary that Bernie Ward had. In other words still have someone local and pay them less. Where have we heard that before?

So where does this leave Bernie Ward even if he is free and not gulity of all charges?

Would there be a place at Clear Channel or KTRB for him?

Or would Farid Suleman return the budget back to KGO to re-hire him.

It seems that the former king of late night radio in S.F. will have a difficult time returning to his throne even if his outocme in court is favorable.

What are your thoughts?

Newsperson
 
In terms of a regular shift, You have heard the last of Bernie Ward on KGO. No way to come back from this.
 
That is the reason Citadel is not making any huge changes to KGO. Ward's firing was enough money saved from the station's budget that no further cuts are needed.
 
Newsperson responds:

Yes that is a good point why hire anyone new if layoffs are around the corner. Is saving Bernie Ward's former salary enough to prevent other layoffs?

According to Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com something is brewing. This is a quote from Tom's newsletter:

More shoes to drop at Citadel…
Haven’t heard anything out of KGO/KSFO in San Francisco, but I’m expecting to…

In fact San Francisco is the only former ABC radio market where we haven't heard anything yet.

Time will tell.

Newsperson
 
Ward's firing was enough money saved from the station's budget that no further cuts are needed.
Click to expand...

The fill-ins still cost something. I heard they get $500 per show. How much was Bernie making? I'm going to take a wild guess and say $120,000. That is a figure conjured purely from thin air. That's $10,000 per month or roughly $2,500 per week or roughly ... $500 per show!
 
There is the employee benefits too. Ward was shop steward, I know their glad to see him go. Look at the way KGO TV dumped Van Amberg. Citidel is cheaper than they were. The question is not Ward, but Burns, et al. Why should they pay him what he gets? I think they'll keep Owens because he is a Limpbaugh killer. But Burns has no competition in his slot-he's toast. Ward doesn't have the money to beat the wrap, and if he doesn't cut a deal, he'll get hard time like, that Ohio Congressman, Tortallini or whatever. 80% or Federal case get convictions...just ask John Gotti.
 
"Ward was shop steward, I know their glad to see him go. Look at the way KGO TV dumped Van Amberg. Citidel is cheaper than they were."

Strange analogy. Yes - Capital Cities bought ABC back in the 80s, and they were definitely tight with a buck. They dropped Van Amburg because he was paid 3 times more than any other Bay Area anchorman. But his inflated salary was based on the fact that Van and Channel 7 News had been blowing away the competition in the local news ratings. By the time they fired Amburg, the ratings were much closer, and KPIX in particular - with McElhatton - was gaining on them. Also from what I heard at the time, Van had become egotistical, self-important and difficult to work with. Remember the public whining he did when they brought in Suzanne Saunders to be his co-anchor. Besides, Pete Wilson was a better anchorman - hiring him at a less than half Amburg's salary was a very good decision.

Ward was busted on criminal charges, and that's why he was fired. Guilty or not, he's done now - but not for financial reasons.
 
Look at those border patrol agents that didn't take the plea deal...(frequent topic on right talk stations) they got hard time, they also got beat-up or at least one did.

Kgo kept Jim Dudbar's salary down for years when he was doing the morning news. But Ward in done. M[EDIT]

Also kgo had an FM station for a while..that's where owens came from after he left Atlanta I think.

[EDIT-offensive content]
 
Lkeller said:
Strange analogy. Yes - Capital Cities bought ABC back in the 80s, and they were definitely tight with a buck.
Click to expand...

Mickey Luckoff seems to think that CapCities was the best of the parade of KGO owners. He has said that they understood radio. He has said that Disney didn't know what they were doing.
 
mred said:
Also kgo had an FM station for a while..that's where owens came from after he left Atlanta I think.
Click to expand...

KGO had an FM for over 35 years. That's not "a while". At that time he arrived in SF, KGO's FM was a music station, KSFX, and was run from 1177 Polk Street, completely independent from the AM.
 
As Bernie himself would say, "It's easier to ask forgiveness then permission."
 
mred and chris319,

A few corrections:

Fill in pay...Not even close. It varies from person to person, but is usually union scale for part time employees per the stations AFTRA Contract.
Bernie Shop Steward...Not for years. (That's the least of Bernies Problems now)
Employee benefits for the union employees who are on the air (AFTRA) are provided through the union through the pension contributions negociated by the union and the company in the staff contract.

Shop stewarts, who BTW have nothing to do with the contracts except to make sure they are followed
by union, managment and the covered employee's, do not set benefit rates or salary. Those things are agreed to by Union and Company Attorneys, that's why its called a Collective Bargining Agreement. The final contract is then agreed to by the Company and Union and voted on by the Stations represented members.

In addition to the staff contract, which covers all KGO AFTRA members, most of the full time hosts have personal service agreements where they negociate things like ratings bonuses, more vacation, and salary above the union scale. Those very from host to host, who also have attorneys who negociate for them with the company. It also sets severance ammounts if they are terminated...and that varies too.

These are not the pages you rip out of a book from Nolo Press.
 
DavidKaye said:
Mickey Luckoff seems to think that CapCities was the best of the parade of KGO owners. He has said that they understood radio. He has said that Disney didn't know what they were doing.
Click to expand...

And if what I've seen is any indication, they still don't. The RD network is now a department of The Disney Channel, and they have a thick book of kinds of products they can't advertise. "Synergy" means that if they think of the radio side at all, it has to help TV & Movies, never the other way around (true of Univision as well).
 
I am not David Lazarus... My hair is much longer..resting comfortably on my ample bosom...I have lived and still live in Northern California and have for most of my life. David is a terrific business columnist wherever he is...currently in Los Angeles ..writing for the LA. Times. I've been doing the 10-1 shift on KGO all this week and would be delighted to do it permanently..now that I don't have the decades long responsibility of caring for a dying parent. good night and good luck!
 
weav said:
And if what I've seen is any indication, they still don't. The RD network is now a department of The Disney Channel, and they have a thick book of kinds of products they can't advertise. "Synergy" means that if they think of the radio side at all, it has to help TV & Movies, never the other way around (true of Univision as well).
Click to expand...

Given the vast differences in revenue among radio, TV and movies, I think it makes more sense to use radio to feed TV and movies rather than the other way around. Radio's poor contribution to the bottom line is why NBC got out of it 22 years ago, why there no longer is a Mutual (except for the bee-deeps), and why operations such as CNN, Fox, and others farm out their radio operations to Westwood One to handle.

Now, this doesn't set well with radio geeks, but, well, that's the bottom line, so to speak.
 
newsperson said:
As we all know by now we will not hear the commentary of Bernie Ward during this election time.

I thought I would make this post not about his innocence or guilt and instead talk about the future in this "layoff mode" and what he could expect.

So instead of talking about the charges let's speculate that the trial is over in June and he is found not guilty on all charges!

Now he is (would be) free to pursue an air shift without this black cloud over his head.

Then the question is who would be hiring? With all the Citadel layoffs what is the future of the 10p to 1a shift at KGO?

As we hear on the air no one has been hired as a permant host for that shift. David Lazaris has been doing most of the fill-in.

My speculation is that KGO will not go with syndication in that time shift, except they will have local talent that is not paid the salary that Bernie Ward had. In other words still have someone local and pay them less. Where have we heard that before?

So where does this leave Bernie Ward even if he is free and not gulity of all charges?

Would there be a place at Clear Channel or KTRB for him?

Or would Farid Suleman return the budget back to KGO to re-hire him.

It seems that the former king of late night radio in S.F. will have a difficult time returning to his throne even if his outocme in court is favorable.

What are your thoughts?

Newsperson
Click to expand...

Either way nobody will hire him.
 
Tey also had a KGOE, that would run the same progamming up in Eureka CA--didn't work out. Lazerus is such a doctrinaire liberal, it is like he has the LA times or SF Chronicle style guide in his lap when he does the show. His voice and mannor sounds like a fuss budget high school teacher. I think the Spitzer hooker would be a good replacement for Ward.
 
XM RADIO said:
I think Mike Savage took all 5 of Bernies listeners
Click to expand...

Not to put too fine a point on it here, but Ward was usually number one in his timeslot and fielded calls every night from up and down the Pacific Coast. You don't have to like Ward's politics to recognize that he was a capable host and very popular in his timeslot. Inventing a false snipe like this simply makes your viewpoint look very bad here. Are you a regular Michael Savage listener?

fan
 
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