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Is John Davison Next On The Chopping Block at KABC?

M

moldj1

Guest
In one year the following have been let go by KABC:

Bernard Pendergrass APD - February 2008
Erik Braverman PD KABC - December 2008
Rita Wilde PD KLOS - January 2009

Is that a sign that next up to bat is the GM John Davison? Is it fare to say that he has to shoulder some or most of the responsibility for the failure of KABC or does he just get to pull the trigger on everybody else?
 
They need to clean house over there. There is no excuse for what happened to KABC. Once considered the gem of Los Angeles has been turned into a third rate station of loudmouths and nothing else. It was pure incomptence by management over there that caused this to happen. With each new management change the station only slid further down the drain demonstrating the sheer level of incompetence.

They need a clean sweep to purge the rot. They need new management, new programming and new ideas.
 
Westfield, I'm curious---who are the third rate loudmouths that contributed to the slide? Do you think this began in the 90's? Do you think the hosts they had then would work now? Anyhow, isn't KFI known (proudly) as the "loudmouth" station? They seem to be doing well.

All I know is I am getting tired of the informercials.
 
Snickers I do tend to largely agree with you and that I realize that times have changed and that a lot of the talent that they had years ago would probably not work now. However the one thing that is sorely missing from KABC is any sort of variety or balance. They are so heavy with the conservative political talk that it can become monotonous and boring. In the old days they had David Viscott (discussions on Psychology), Relgion on the Line (philosophical discussions), Ira Fistell (general talk), sportstalk and humor with Ken and Bob. Today they are missing all of that. They were a well rounded and balanced station and maybe that could work now and be a good counter balance to KFI.

The constant yelling and screeching from Mark Levin, Curtis Seelwa, Sean Hannity, Tammy Bruce (god help us) and Leo Terrill really do make Rush and John and Ken sound relatively calm in comparision.

Year after year they turned into this far right leaning political talk engine and similarly year after year they saw their ratings decline, but management did nothing to stop the slide and kept up the arrogant belief that they knew what was good for LA. The problem was that Rush Limbaugh was a hugh success but they had the extreme nieve belief that if we had a Rush Limbaugh cloned all throughout the day then we too would do great, but that didn't work and shows how wrong they were. I truly believe Radio PD's are the equivalent of used car salesmen. They really are not that smart. In good economic times the money basically flows to them with very little effort, but when the economy sours you realize how bad their decisions are. They hardly have any decent advertisers, instead they have all types of scams and snake oil salesmen fill their commercial time.

KABC is now the capital of informercials. They even took one hour away from Bob Brinker (who is the best thing left on that station) in favor of some hack promoting the hell out of his business. Too bad.
 
westfield60 said:
In the old days they had David Viscott (discussions on Psychology), Relgion on the Line (philosophical discussions), Ira Fistell (general talk), sportstalk and humor with Ken and Bob.
Click to expand...

And, don't forget Michael Jackson. I fondly remember the KABC of the 80's when they were regularly among the top 5 stations in LA. When did Disney buy ABC? I wonder if that was the beginning of the end for ABC owned and operated radio stations (other than KGO).
 
Thanks for the reply, Westfield. Wow, you brought back the big names: Viscott, Prager, Jackson, Fistell---Ken and Barkley?!!! I agree, I doubt they would work on that station now. I like Dennis on 870--they give him a forum and he sets the pace. He is not a host who can be rushed. For a while there 1260 was sounding like the KABC of old with Michael Jackson and Dr. Drew and Lou Dobbs... I don't think that lasted more than a few months.

True, the station is definitely leaning right, but so does KFI. And when some hosts at KFI started leaning left during the election, I think the ratings began to slide. KFI's hosts are more local, more street. KABC has an odd mix---Doug is very esoteric (not that that's bad, but it's odd for morning drive---unless you're NPR and have no ratings anyhow...) Hannity is more working class, Larry was another intellectual with a unique perspective, Al is kinda campy and sweet. It's like they have no bite. So they added Levin. Will it work with this mix? No idea. I do think he is very, very talented though. Unlike a lot of posters, I LIKE his delivery. He makes me laugh. And he is whip smart.

But I agree with you and other posters---KABC needs to find a local voice, a breakout talent. I think with David G. Hall at the helm we have as good a chance as any for this to happen. Hopefully they will let him do his job. When Disney brought John and Ken over to KABC they took all the John and Ken out of them!

I am also pissed that Bob Brinker, who is a gem, lost an hour to an informercial!
 
And, don't forget Michael Jackson. I fondly remember the KABC of the 80's when they were regularly among the top 5 stations in LA. When did Disney buy ABC? I wonder if that was the beginning of the end for ABC owned and operated radio stations (other than KGO).
Click to expand...

AMFM, I listened to them in the 90's and remember Michael Jackson there--he was the king. I think you may be right that Disney was the one who ruined that station. Remember they replaced Michael Jackson with Ron Owen? He was going to take LA by storm? Yeah, how long did that last, six months? And they chucked David Viscott, who then moved to KIEV, which was a pay for play station. And then Dennis left. Then they brought in John and Ken and told them to behave themselves. Huh? Oh, and then they moved Mr. KABC to morning drive (!) with Brian Whitman. All the while KFI was kicking their ass. And kicking it with "no name" hosts who were allowed to be themselves--Tammy, Wayne, Scott and Casey (major adoration for those two!) and the brilliant Phil Hendrie.

If David G. Hall could do it there, he can do it at KABC.
 
This all sounds great, until you come to the unfortunate realization that the PD probably has little to no say about the talent, and that the shots are being called from some other city, and all they see is Dollar signs, and dont give a rip about local radio. Which is whats happening all too often across the country. Hate to sound pesamistic, but until radio goes back to small companies, this will continue to happen.
 
Big E said:
This all sounds great, until you come to the unfortunate realization that the PD probably has little to no say about the talent, and that the shots are being called from some other city, and all they see is Dollar signs, and dont give a rip about local radio. Which is whats happening all too often across the country. Hate to sound pesamistic, but until radio goes back to small companies, this will continue to happen.
Click to expand...

This is especially true with Citadel, one of the worst run broadcasters in the country. Brian Maloney has done a good job writing about this disaster on an ongoing basis on his blog http:\\radioequalizer.blogspot.com
 
This all sounds great, until you come to the unfortunate realization that the PD probably has little to no say about the talent, and that the shots are being called from some other city, and all they see is Dollar signs, and dont give a rip about local radio. Which is whats happening all too often across the country. Hate to sound pesamistic, but until radio goes back to small companies, this will continue to happen.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Sad. I don't understand why they would even bother to bring in David G. Hall if they won't let him do his job. They seem like a cheap outfit---you can tell one of their stations immediately by the web site. The KABC site runs slow, and looks like it was just pasted together. Then you go to the WABC site, and it's the same! WABC was mighty but a few years back.

I wish listener response mattered, but I guess it doesn't.
 
I heard more cuts happened at KABC today, but couldnt get details. Anyone else hear anything?
 
Done.... Announced this AM

Alert: Citadel Cuts Senior Staff.

Headlining the list is New York based Mitch Dolan, who's been president of Citadel's major market radio station group that includes 22 stations across nine markets. Also exiting is Los Angeles market president John Davison.
 
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