By the way How long did KABC run the Ronn Owens show I remember in 1998 KABC 790AM did a TV promo on KABC7 stating that KGO's Ronn Owens show will be aired on 790 but it flopped on 790 but had huge ratings in San Francisco. Didn't Ronn Owens had a wife that worked at KCBS at some point?
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KGO fired Burns, Rothmann, Gross and Taliafero today!!!
- Thread starter baywest
- Start date
TheBigA said:
I still go by past practices. Cumulus runs KNBR as live'n'local and has had great success with it. I don't see why they wouldn't do the same with KGO. And after midnight could have been worse; they could be running infomercials as WABC does. I think they have the wisdom to see that different markets are different, and what people tolerate in NYC they might not tolerate here.
recto101 said:
I don't remember how long the KGO/KABC simulcast lasted, but probably only months. Part of the problem, IMO - KABC listeners were angry that Michael Jackson had been dumped - Jackson had been in that timeslot for decades - longer than Ronn had been doing mornings at KGO.
Ronn's wife is Jan Black. I believe they met at KGO when she co-anchored the Afternoon News with Ed Baxter. Black left KGO to become afternoon anchor at KCBS for a few years, then quit -I assume to raise their kids.
I recall that Jan received a lot of critical praise for her calm and competent anchoring during the 89 Loma Prieta earthquake. The quake and ensuing power outage had knocked most radio stations off the air, including KGO. But KCBS stayed on air (probably had back-up generators).
KGO was on my clock radio and both cars. I feel bad for Ronn Owens, and his fabulous show. I'm sure many long time listeners will change to another station and seldom listen to him again. The station may be #2 in the San Francisco Bay Area now, but I will be surprised if they don't drop much lower in the next few weeks. The person, or persons, who made the decision to change the format at KGO should be looking for a new job.
chuckdickey said:
The person who made this decision knows that fans of the established shows will not likely stay for the new format. That's the risk you take when you change a format. But things have to change at some point. The current hosts were all at retirement age, so they were going to go away at some point. And while the station may have been the #2 AM station, it was #20 overall in the target demo. Being #20 is not a good number to be, and is why all these people were let go.
TheBigA said:
What's more, KGO management likely does not even want the longtime listeners, so all the complaints like, "I've been listening to KGO since Ira Blue and I hate it now..." probably bring smiles to their faces.
Again, it's not specifically a function of getting old, but of the fact that older people are harder to sell because they know all the marketing tricks. Younger people fall for just about everything in the book, making it easier to sell them.
Heritage doesn't matter. Legacy does. Dump the older demo, dump the legacy and flip the format. Cumulus did.
End of story.
They rebuild in a cheaper way and see where it goes by stealing a sample of, they hope, 30% of the KCBS audience. KCBS drops a share, KGO goes up a share ... tie score. KCBS still has a legacy edge in all news and a full coverage FM to boot. KGO has a signal and doesn't need 25 year olds. It will be thrilled to up the 35-49s from KCBS. It's about sellable cells ... not 6+ which is worthless.
End of story.
They rebuild in a cheaper way and see where it goes by stealing a sample of, they hope, 30% of the KCBS audience. KCBS drops a share, KGO goes up a share ... tie score. KCBS still has a legacy edge in all news and a full coverage FM to boot. KGO has a signal and doesn't need 25 year olds. It will be thrilled to up the 35-49s from KCBS. It's about sellable cells ... not 6+ which is worthless.
chuckdickey said:
I am guessing, but I'd say you are over 55. Neither the station nor advertisers have any interest in over 55 year olds.
You mention clock radios, while a huge percentage of people in the sales demos use smart phones in docks to wake up now... much more reliable. The stand-alone radio is disappearing.
Oh, and KGO is not 2nd. It is lucky to be in the top 10 12+, and is around 20th in 25-54, where the money is.
DavidEduardo said:
A clock radio. How quaint. I haven't had one of those in decades. In fact the only stand-alone clock I have is my WWVB clock, which doesn't have an alarm. I set my phone to wake me.
As for stand-alone radios, I have a $5 East-West from Walgreen's, and my trusty 22 year old Radio Shack DX-440 (aka the Sangean 803a). If anything happens to it I'll likely not replace it. I guess the only other radio-radio I have is what's in my car now.
Here is a question about the nuts and bolts of radio news. Say I'm doing a newscast at 10 pm. What are the personnel requirements? For news I assume all you need are talent and a producer to stack and time the stories/sound bites, with talent running his/her own board? We know that back in the (pre-PPM) day of Bernie, there was Bernie, a producer/call screener, a news reader and an engineer (does "sunshine" Tony Wong still have a job?). By my calculations, this move eliminates the presumably high-priced talent and the engineer, leaving a news reader and a producer.
I think Doug McIntyre is a good move for KGO. When I would listen to Ray T. he was basically talking to himself, with very few callers. Contrast this with Rothmann in the same time slot on the weekends who had no shortage of callers. I doubt Ray was working for peanuts. I won't miss Dr. Bill. The last time I listened to him it seemed he was browbeating every other caller and was thus unlistenable.
I'm surprised Citadel stuck with the talk format through the purchase by Cumulus and didn't drop it as soon as they escorted Luckoff out the door.
Alas, Sheldon from Oakland and Rothmann's pronunciation of "Pocky-stawn" are now relics of radio history.
I think Doug McIntyre is a good move for KGO. When I would listen to Ray T. he was basically talking to himself, with very few callers. Contrast this with Rothmann in the same time slot on the weekends who had no shortage of callers. I doubt Ray was working for peanuts. I won't miss Dr. Bill. The last time I listened to him it seemed he was browbeating every other caller and was thus unlistenable.
I'm surprised Citadel stuck with the talk format through the purchase by Cumulus and didn't drop it as soon as they escorted Luckoff out the door.
Alas, Sheldon from Oakland and Rothmann's pronunciation of "Pocky-stawn" are now relics of radio history.
It's been a week and I am still in shock. It's just not right tuning in 810 at 2:30 on a Wednesday morning and not hearing Ray Taliaferro and Sheldon from Oakland chattering.
Ray's opening monologues were just awesome.
Hope Ray lands on his feet soon. I'd love to hear what he has to say about the conglomerate that's running his former station into the ground.
It's something I was hoping would never happen when Cumulus bought Citadel, but I guess some things just aren't as sacred as they used to be.
Having the former KGO airstaff buying KTRB (as suggested in another post on this thread) to me is a interesting idea and they would have an instant, ready-made audience. But they will never see the same salaries that came with KGO. Not for a long time. Secondly, the costs in building the station from the ground up may render the whole idea moot. Never mind the increasing transitioning to FM.
And if they want to get in on that, they had better do it NOW. While listener anger is still high (even a web-feed for now is better than nothing.)
Kind of ironic both Clear Channel and Cumulus would flip their most progressive Bay Area stations at the same time. But as far as I'm concerned, they're two peas in the same pod......
As for KGO, stick a fork in 'em. They're history......
Ray's opening monologues were just awesome.
Hope Ray lands on his feet soon. I'd love to hear what he has to say about the conglomerate that's running his former station into the ground.
It's something I was hoping would never happen when Cumulus bought Citadel, but I guess some things just aren't as sacred as they used to be.
Having the former KGO airstaff buying KTRB (as suggested in another post on this thread) to me is a interesting idea and they would have an instant, ready-made audience. But they will never see the same salaries that came with KGO. Not for a long time. Secondly, the costs in building the station from the ground up may render the whole idea moot. Never mind the increasing transitioning to FM.
And if they want to get in on that, they had better do it NOW. While listener anger is still high (even a web-feed for now is better than nothing.)
Kind of ironic both Clear Channel and Cumulus would flip their most progressive Bay Area stations at the same time. But as far as I'm concerned, they're two peas in the same pod......
As for KGO, stick a fork in 'em. They're history......
Not necessarily a bad move. KGO has been resting on its laurels for a long time...It's old and tired.
People don't like change, but it's sometimes very necessary!
If the brass puts on the right talent, they could very well enjoy another great run.
They've steadily fallen from a cash-cow, to a middle-of-the-pack station in the crucial 25-54!
Their future will hinge on the product(s) they put on the air! An FM signal wouldn't hurt either!
People don't like change, but it's sometimes very necessary!
If the brass puts on the right talent, they could very well enjoy another great run.
They've steadily fallen from a cash-cow, to a middle-of-the-pack station in the crucial 25-54!
Their future will hinge on the product(s) they put on the air! An FM signal wouldn't hurt either!
This may have already been posted. It's a blog from former KGO talent Bernie Ward. Definitely worth a read.
http://lionoftheleft.blogspot.com/2...howComment=1323288224425#c6930884217442768946
http://lionoftheleft.blogspot.com/2...howComment=1323288224425#c6930884217442768946
Bernie nailed it again just like he always did and always will!
oaktree said:
About the only thing he's right about is Clinton signed the 96 Act. He's also right that the 2008 depression caused the Citadel bankruptcy. Everything else, point for point, is wrong.
KGO was obviously falling in the ratings, and had been for three years, especially in the money demo. As a result revenues were down, and had been for some time. The station was old, the staff was old, and the audience was old. It needed to be freshened up.
The most obvious point is that the people fired at KGO have not been replaced with syndication or non local programming with the exception from the midnight to 6AM show. The rest is local. Even he admits that. So why the rant about Cumulus and syndication? It's total BS.
But it's local news, not local talk. His issue is that local talk has gone away. So what? There's no local talk in New York either. Why? Because local talk has moved to social networks. That's where people talk about what they want to talk about where people will agree. No one wants to listen to people they disagree with. That's what's killing talk on the radio, not corporations. A reviolution happened in media ten years ago. The public knows all about it. But people in radio don't. They need to wake up and see where the public went.
If you were really listening to what KGO is now doing you'd know that they start the morning news at 4 AM not 6 AM! Sorry to hear of Harry Morgan's passing at 96 years old. Col. Potter has left the tent!
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