FRANK SHIERS SHUCKS

[WKomm]

So I'm listening today for the first 15 minutes of his fill-in for Ron & Don. I try my best to keep from assaulting my bathroom radio as he fake guffaws for 2 minutes over an intern's "ghetto phone" comment. Another multiple take on his wonderful Christmas and how awed he is about the snow.

Yaaaaawn.

Then he regains his crown as the most passive-aggressive guy ever on the air. He starts yapping about the Santa killer story - already old and done with unless you waite for the Lifetime Movie - and announces that the 911 calls from the scene are now public. Yes - that happened days ago, but ...

You KNOW he wants to play them. You KNOW that this self-righteous clown would love nothing better than to play to the crime-porn crowd and audio voyeurs and play the pathetic audio of screaming desperate people who are in a burning house full of dead and injured. So what does he do? He decides this is show material and will leave it up to the listeners.

Frank Shiers, you need to get in touch with JZ Knight and Ramtha because you are definitely channeling Pontius Pilate.

So here's the deal. Like I said, I heard only the first 15 (thank you, Lord!) and I will predict right now, as I go out the door, that the listeners will magically DEMAND to hear that audio and our boy will be forced to play audio. He won't want to and he will avert his eyes as he hits "play" but he will play that audio. There is no way he will not.

This is his idea of great radio. Tease, cajole, plead innocense and then happily roll in the mud with lowest of all common denominators.

I hold off on the negativity as long as I can. But Shiers? You really do suck.

 

[Bongwater]

WKomm.....can you say anything NICE about ANYBODY at KIRO? At all?

I mean, you listen avidly to KIRO. But you don't like Dori Monson, you don't like Ron & Don and you don't like Frank Shiers. So what is it exactly about KIRO that APPEALS to you?

 

[GenXRadio]

I have been saying this FOREVER!
Shiers is unlistenable! The minute I hear him on I have to flip the station.
He wasn't even good when he was voice tracking the overnights at KBSG.
I'm not a big fan of Ron & Don myself but I would rather listen to them heck I would rather listen to cats screeching and mewling than to listen to Shiers.

 

[Grindlfan]

So I'm listening today for the first 15 minutes of his fill-in for Ron & Don. I try my best to keep from assaulting my bathroom radio as he fake guffaws for 2 minutes over an intern's "ghetto phone" comment. Another multiple take on his wonderful Christmas and how awed he is about the snow.

Yaaaaawn.

Then he regains his crown as the most passive-aggressive guy ever on the air. He starts yapping about the Santa killer story - already old and done with unless you waite for the Lifetime Movie - and announces that the 911 calls from the scene are now public. Yes - that happened days ago, but ...

You KNOW he wants to play them. You KNOW that this self-righteous clown would love nothing better than to play to the crime-porn crowd and audio voyeurs and play the pathetic audio of screaming desperate people who are in a burning house full of dead and injured. So what does he do? He decides this is show material and will leave it up to the listeners.

Frank Shiers, you need to get in touch with JZ Knight and Ramtha because you are definitely channeling Pontius Pilate.

So here's the deal. Like I said, I heard only the first 15 (thank you, Lord!) and I will predict right now, as I go out the door, that the listeners will magically DEMAND to hear that audio and our boy will be forced to play audio. He won't want to and he will avert his eyes as he hits "play" but he will play that audio. There is no way he will not.

This is his idea of great radio. Tease, cajole, plead innocense and then happily roll in the mud with lowest of all common denominators.

I hold off on the negativity as long as I can. But Shiers? You really do suck.

I actually can tolerate Shiers. He is basically Dori light but he doesn't grate on my nerves like Monson does and I'd rather hear him filling in for Monson than to have Monson on the air. Dori can take a long sabatical as far as I am concerned. I did prefer Shiers as a DJ spinning the oldies on KBSG more than as a talk show host on KIRO though.

 

[WKomm]

See SEE? I knew it. In the car I hit KIRO about 10 to the hour and heard this self-righteous pr*^$ tell us he WAS going to play the audio but he would WARN us before hand. This kind of crap is an embarrassment for a market this size.

But I knew he'd do it. Why? Because he is a obviously a fan of pandering. He's like Pete Townsend - Good ol' Pete gets busted for kiddie porn online and tells us it was "research" for a book he's writing. BTW, Pete - that was, what? Five years ago? Where's the book, man? So Frank will tell you "it's up to the audience" or "it's good radio" or some other silliness but anyone with any sense knows it's hokum.

Bongwater - I LOVE radio. I'm a huge fan of talk. But I detest phonies and shuckters like Shiers. With his close-cropped hair and button down collar, he looks every bit the part of the GOP guy in a perfect house with a perfect family and a loathing for the stuff that keeps him there - like government, his audience, etc.

I used to really like KIRO. A lot. I've always liked Greg & Jane - nicely paced show with just the right mix of personality. Dave Ross suffers from Little Man Syndrome and is full of himself but at least he is himself and (usually) focuses on stuff that has meaning. Dori - forget about it. Ron & Don - better at a place like the old Buzz; they are not a good fit for KIRO. I was a big Mike Webb fan and was bummed when he self-destructed. I thought he had one of the better talk shows in the entire country. That NY Putz that did all-nights was a complete waste.

But overall, I'm a talk fan. And it angers me to hear a guy like Shiers, a guy so full of compost that it's a wonder asparagus doesn't grow from his ears, on a heritage, classy outlet like 710.

Maybe this answers your post, Bongwater. We radio guys all have things we love and things we loathe. And we are verbal. I can't say this stuff on the air so consider this a safety valve. But God help me if I ever suffer the fate of meeting Shiers - I will need lots of self control to NOT say what I want or DO what I want. He's not worth jail time.

I just absolutely detest the kind of radio he did today in the first hour. Contemptable.

 

[neumann sennheiser]

You KNOW that this self-righteous clown would love nothing better than to play to the crime-porn crowd and audio voyeurs and play the pathetic audio of screaming desperate people who are in a burning house full of dead and injured.

I share your outrage towards this despicable brand of sensationalistic pandering. It's a bit dated now, but I still grind my jaw even still when I recall a similar case in Canada. Two years ago a disruptive and drunken, jet-lagged, disoriented, and likely unbalanced Polish man was tasered by police and, as a result, died at the Vancouver airport. Someone at the scene got it all on cell-phone video and, of course, once the local media got hold of it, had "no choice" but to air it as "news". I had a choice to heed the "disclaimers" and chose to not look; and believe me, that was difficult to avoid, as it was always on, either in whole or segments. The local paper even front paged it in a series of a dozen or more still shots.
Fulfilling a journalistic mandate of responsibility to deliver the news?
Bullcrap!
Nothing better than a snuff video.

 

[notalent]

WKomm... Thanks for clarifying...

I was assuming you came to Seattle from another market and noticed the obvious naked emperors of Seattle radio.

There are people with great gigs in this town that just plain dont have the talent one would expect in a market this size.

I share the frustration as a former air talent myself every time I turn on the radio and here one of these types... I wonder how does a person like this get on the air in a market this size.

WKomm mentions a few... there are others... Kirby Wibber for example... over 10 years on the air and he still can't speak clearly? did any PD EVER sit the guy down for an aircheck session?

Oddly KIRO has more than its share of these types... with Dori, Ron & Don, Burbank, Shiers, etc.

To my seasoned radio ears it is truly sad.

 

[Cumeanary]

VK, I'm not going to as why you don't turn off the radio as others ask here, rather why such disdain for individuals when that should clearly be focused on radio management? They are responsible for content and hosts. Put anyone in front of a microphone and they will use it. You come off mental, especially when making not so veiled threats "if you ever meet" one of these individuals on the street. REally, you are getting ridiculous.