Gene Burns Leaving KGO

[michael hagerty]

I worked with Gene in Orlando in the '70's he once told me that at one time KGO offered him a job if he would be a conservative on the air.
He couldn't do it, it would go against his grain. I guess in those days it was a very different KGO.


Jerry Gordon KNUU Las Vegas

There was still a Fairness Doctrine and the FCC actually read the public file before renewals. The appearance of balance mattered.

 

[raccoonradio]

Gene was beloved in Boston for his years on WRKO. For a time he had a syndicated show (in the 90s) based out of WOR in NY, and WRKO carried it. He had a dispute with the station (or
syndicator?) and walked out. For several weeks Jay Severin (who has been with WTKK Boston
since '99) filled in and eventually the show went to someone else.

"We have crossed the meridian and entered the afternoon incarnation of the broadcast day."

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Gene was beloved in Boston for his years on WRKO. For a time he had a syndicated show (in the 90s) based out of WOR in NY, and WRKO carried it. He had a dispute with the station (or
syndicator?) and walked out. For several weeks Jay Severin (who has been with WTKK Boston
since '99) filled in and eventually the show went to someone else.

"We have crossed the meridian and entered the afternoon incarnation of the broadcast day."

I called him on several occasions when he was at WRKO, and pointed out that the mid-point of the day very often didn't coincide with noontime the clock; on another, I averred that his show was NOT made possible by the First Amendment to the Constitution, but by the propagation characteristics of electronic waves of a certain length. I got him in trouble with an advertiser that was promoting summer homes at a lake in New Hampshire. One selling point was that you could see to the bottom of that lake from a boat. I told Gene that the lake could have had enough acid from acid rain to corrode lead, and a person would DEFINITELY SEE THE BOTTOM! Gene left Boston soon thereafter.