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Graswich leaves KFBK

K

kinetic

Sacramento mayor hires R.E. Graswich

R.E. Graswich, former Bee reporter and a co-anchor on KFBK radio, has been named to the position of special assistant to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
The announcement today [Aug 12] in a press release quotes Johnson as saying that Graswich brings a wealth of knowledge about the city.

http://www.sacbee.com/breaking/story/2103819.html


I don't see much interest in AM content on this board. Anyone care? Anyone even have much to say about the city's only news-talk station?
 
As someone who's a former KFBK on-air/board op {and who had tipped a few beers with Bob at The Fox & Goose during my drinking days...or, more aptly, nights}, I am interested in this story, as well as the sad lack of anything else interesting on the AM scene.....

I was pleased Bob found a decent paying gig after leaving the sinking Bee, and I was also pleased that, after a pretty shaky start, he managed to pick up some radio technique, and at least inject some of his personality into The Afternoon News. He still had a ways to go before really feeling and sounding at home on air, but he was getting better.

But from the shaky Bee to the pared-back KFBK was one thing - but joining this mayor at this particular time seems risky at best, and very possibly short-term at worst. At the same time R.E. is getting on board, yet another political scandal is brewing for Mayor Johnson....you don't get resignations from longtime associates over a mayor's "behavior" without something strange, and possibly scandalous, being dug up. And President Obama can't order the firing of a Special Investigator THIS time.....

I do wish Bob well......
 
Speaking to the topic of a "pared-back" KFBK. Will Kitty O'Neil now go solo on the Afternoon news ? Don't be surprised.
 
It seems CC would be wise to give Dana Hess more of a role in afternoons. He does a great job and he and Kitty seem to complement each other well. Then again, that would involve CC making a wise decision so....
 
Michael Rivers Kramer said:
RadioStarOne said:
Hey! Clear Channel its time to bring back Dave Williams! Jump on it!
Click to expand...

I think he's happy at KABC.
Click to expand...

He's sort of happy at KABC. From what I hear he's being paid about a quarter of what he used to make, but I've heard he's happy to be working.
CC wouldn't pay him what they used to anyway. Question is, would he want to live in Sacramento again as the cost of living isn't really much better than LA.
 
kinetic said:
Sacramento mayor hires R.E. Graswich

R.E. Graswich, former Bee reporter and a co-anchor on KFBK radio, has been named to the position of special assistant to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
The announcement today [Aug 12] in a press release quotes Johnson as saying that Graswich brings a wealth of knowledge about the city.

http://www.sacbee.com/breaking/story/2103819.html


I don't see much interest in AM content on this board. Anyone care? Anyone even have much to say about the city's only news-talk station?
Click to expand...
I'm guessing his commentaries are gone too at KOVR-13?
 
Would like to see Paul Robins or Phil Cowan get the open afternoon slot... but if Kitty is going to fly solo, I am going to fall asleep on the drive home. ::)
 
Why wouldn't CC try Kitty solo? Or just throw in various reporters like they do come vacation time...if you stretch the stories a little longer {this mortal fear of going over :42 is insanity} so we might get some, you know, like news, that would break up the solo anchor monotony more...where it gets dicey is when you have one anchor handling all those paid-for interviews, even if Judy's feeding the questions......or they're coming off a crib sheet from a P.R. flack....
 
Don't worry about falling asleep Kent, Dana Hess will buy a new joke book of snappy one liners and fumble through traffic reports for your amusement.
 
Sacratormento resident Richard Smith wrote an interesting opinion in
today's Bee Letters To the Editor on his feelings of the Graswich hiring:

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2108221.html

I concur with BurnedOutOnTheBoards - Graswich was getting better and
more comfortable with the radio thang, though still had aways to go...

It'd still be great having Dave Williams back on FBK, though that's not likely...
--jay
 
djj -

Although I remain happy R.E. landed a good job, I completely agree with the Bee-letter-writer's main point: at a time when we are laying of emergency services personnel and closing/curtailing many public services, the Mayor doesn't need to be hiring fairly high-paid extra staff.

I posted here months ago I thought CC would try solo anchors in drive for financial reasons - by expanding the live and especially the produced news stories, and even considering slowing the tempo down to where some of the reports - particularly traffic reports - are actually intelligible,
they can actually improve the content and help break up any single-anchor monotony....

I remember explaining to some management there that you can add excitement and energy without increasing the tempo or even the volume, but the message didn’t take very well.....

While rummaging through my pile of pet peeves - is there anything more annoying that breaking news reports rendered unlistenable from cell phones with dying batteries or walkie-talkie-like setups that fail 90% of the time? When I anchored evening news updates - and I quit after only about 8 months - a solid three-quarters of local/regional live reports were flawed by such failures.

Oh, yeah - pet peeve #2, especially at KFBK, which has some pretty serious primary responsibilities here.....why do so many EAS Alerts screw up? I remember one in particular, when I - not as a board op on duty, but as a news anchor - got chewed for one that the CHP didn’t even send to KFBK! The “white EAS phone” rang, I picked it up, and somebody from CHP was literally screaming that were weren’t airing an Amber Alert. From where that phone was located, I could look directly into BK control and see nothing on EAS TFT box lit up, so I asked them to send it. They sent it - without audio, so there was no info to announce. It took 30 minutes to get
the info on-air.

You’d think by now somebody with some brains would figure out they could record the audio on a computer, make a mp3, attached and e-mail it, and it could be played on-air with far better audio quality, in just about as much time as it would take to send a fouled-up EAS.

To tie this all up on topic, I blame Graswich for all of this......he’d understand.....
 
CC does not make the calls about Ethan Way local talent, neither does the PD (who advocated Eric Hogue, Kirk Uhler or replay of Hannity for evenings - now covered by Armstrong and Getty re-runs). That power rests with a guy named Jeff Holden, who is a salesman and not broadcaster by trade. He is in charge because CC is held by a highly leveraged investment group focused on short-term financial results over long term investment and growth. That is not a negative (to an MBA) nor critical on my part, just the way things are. The last actual "radio" professional in management there who had any imput was a guy named Ken Kohl who left in 2005 or 2006. Around the time that Tom Sullivan, Mark Williams and Phil Cowen (first from his FM morning show, then his AM talk show) began their exits.
 
MT1 -

I was there when Holden took over, and quit a month before Kohl left {had I only known}......

I can see where Holden's imprint is all over the current KFBK situation, but corporate must be laying down the law - that's the playing field in today's radio. And solo drive anchors knock off some of the largest expenses the current payroll has....it just makes a ton of sense, especially since, other than NPR stations with drips and drops of local coverage, BK has no real local news radio competition.
 
MT1 said:
That power rests with a guy named Jeff Holden, who is a salesman and not broadcaster by trade.
Click to expand...
Didn't Jeff Holden used to work at 101.9 when it switched formats in 1998 from Smooth Jazz (KSSJ) to Spanish AC (KRRE)?
 
What would the group think of Jay Alan coming back? I think Kitty solo would be pretty boring unless she has a lot of guests - or added interaction with the other talent. I advertise on BK as THE WORKERS COMP GUY. I have an idea Jay Alan may have regretted leaving ... I got into it with Graswich on air a couple of times ... he was polarizing.
 
Madmansam said:
MT1 said:
That power rests with a guy named Jeff Holden, who is a salesman and not broadcaster by trade.
Click to expand...
Didn't Jeff Holden used to work at 101.9 when it switched formats in 1998 from Smooth Jazz (KSSJ) to Spanish AC (KRRE)?
Click to expand...

Jeff Holden was at Entravision when they took over 101.9. Entercom bought the intellectial property from ARS when the latter spun 101.9 to Entravision.
 
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