KGO, KSFO - HORRIBLE RATINGS - NO WAY OUT -

[recto101]

What kind of weirdo listens to non stop news clips. They play the same clips over and over. The Breaking News is beaten to DEATH. I remember the Mirkirini trial stuff being the breaking news for 3 hours. Are you serious? Who is crazy enough to enjoy getting boring news clips? There is no thoughtful discussion, NOTHING. There is nothing important enough that warrants a radio station to be 24 hour non stop news. All serious matters are broken anyways. Especially with smart phones, social media, breaking news on all radio stations and TV etc etc etc. It's like watching the evening news all day but worse.

They used to have interesting topics, actually DISCUSS and have an Opinion on popular issues that cover a veriety of issues. I can't wait for the day that Cumulus, Clear Channel and all these TERRIBLE excuses for companies Die a painful death.

Wait one second KGO does its news on the 1-hour format like KCBS but KGO-AM tends to include more local features. KCBS tends to provide more headlines for the Bay Area in an hour and leave the features to Dial Global (CBS Radio Network). Even WYAY-FM the Cumulus O&O in Atlanta is set up to function like KCBS, KNX, WBBM, WTOP, KRLD, KLIV and WCBS that means that they have a 1 hour news cycle format. I say if Cumulus got the audience it wants for KGO-AM News and Information then so be it. I know KOMO in Seattle, KROI in Houston, have all news that follows KGO-AM's approach to long news blocks. I know 1010 WINS and Old KFWB did their news in a 20 minute cycle. WNEW, KYW, and WBZ to their news in the 30 minute cycle. My point is that all-news radio is mean to be listened at certain intervals unless breaking news like a major disaster comes into play.

 

[recto101]

Once Upon A Time: Radio Was An Arm Of The Show Business Industry,

Really? When was that?

Radio was once an arm of the electronics industry. Radio stations were designed to sell radio sets. RCA, Westinghouse, GE, Crosley, and more owned radio stations for this reason.

In the golden age, the advertisers made deals with show business to create programming. The advertisers owned the shows and the contracts with the performers. Then as now, advertising was an arm of show business, and broadcasting used its reach to appeal to both.

Sure, RKO and Paramount owned a few radio stations at one time. In fact, Paramount Theaters was an early co-owner in ABC, and Leonard Goldenson came to ABC from Paramount. But I don't know how anyone could say that radio was an arm of show business, except perhaps for WSM and the Opry, but in that case, they were both arms of the National Life insurance company.

I heard that CBS was once a part of the Cigar industry and phonograph manufacturing when Paley ran the network in the 1930's to 1990. I know NBC was once owned by RCA then GE took over.

 

[TheBigA]

I heard that CBS was once a part of the Cigar industry and phonograph manufacturing when Paley ran the network in the 1930's to 1990. I know NBC was once owned by RCA then GE took over.

Bill Paley's father was in the cigar business. Bill didn't want to follow in the family business, so he borrowed some money from his father to buy into the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Paley became a 51% partner in 1928.

Getting back on topic, the idea that KGO should be returned to its previous incarnation would be a mistake. The problem with the old KGO was the huge cost combined with the aging demographics, leading to declining revenues. Cumulus is using its market leading KNBR as the centerpiece of its San Francisco cluster. KSFO has a terrible signal and is appropriate as a parking place for a bunch of syndicated talk shows. It's not going to be a big ratings-getter. That's KNBR's job. KGO is in rebuilding mode. It will take time for it to bear fruit. Cumulus seems to have a long terms strategy for its AMs, which is good because Citadel didn't.

 

[recto101]

I heard that CBS was once a part of the Cigar industry and phonograph manufacturing when Paley ran the network in the 1930's to 1990. I know NBC was once owned by RCA then GE took over.

Bill Paley's father was in the cigar business. Bill didn't want to follow in the family business, so he borrowed some money from his father to buy into the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Paley became a 51% partner in 1928.

Getting back on topic, the idea that KGO should be returned to its previous incarnation would be a mistake. The problem with the old KGO was the huge cost combined with the aging demographics, leading to declining revenues. Cumulus is using its market leading KNBR as the centerpiece of its San Francisco cluster. KSFO has a terrible signal and is appropriate as a parking place for a bunch of syndicated talk shows. It's not going to be a big ratings-getter. That's KNBR's job. KGO is in rebuilding mode. It will take time for it to bear fruit. Cumulus seems to have a long terms strategy for its AMs, which is good because Citadel didn't.

I remember in December I said that KGO will be like San Francisco's Merlin station but now I've been proven wrong. Now I know that KGO will be more focused on Features and some headlines during their newscasts and weekend talk. I know for sure that KGO is still trying to find a way to distinguish itself from KCBS.

 

[karldotcom]

Karel will save KGO....

 

[skyrocker]

It's getting to be useless to engage you in conversation because you keep saying the same inaccurate thing over and over.-- david kaye

But I'll bet that won't stop you, sir.

I'm beginning to suspect you no longer realize you have options in this conversation thing. You could also just read/listen, exercise your understanding and shut up; you don't ALWAYS HAVE to correct each of us apparently stupid Radio-Info acquaintances of yours through this site. You are not required to respond; is that too difficult to comprehend? If so, try and recognize your problem. It's well worth it.

Neither do you HAVE to engage everyone on this site in conversation, David, or, more like your pattern, push only facts and figures into equations that are also designed to include feelings and other human ingredients. You leave a LOT out.

Also, you're under no demand to be amicable either. You are free to remain the tired old thought-concept of yourself that blinds you from who you REALLY are, and deprives all of us from a much larger and interesting part of you. To my knowledge, you have never displayed a post that contained a morsel of "likeability." Fine. You don't have to. (But that choice limits yourself and your possibilities.)

Likewise, we don't have to sit still while you pontificate. I, for one, would love to hear your stuff as more of a friendly contribution (read LKeller or Michael Hagerty's posts for How To) than a self important, magisterial leap to make another wrong.

Let's say you are highly knowledgeable in your field(s) -- even possess facts that many of us are unaware of. I wonder how many more people you could reach - automatically - if you didn't come off as such an insufferable know-it-all with no tolerance for others.

 

[RadioStarOne]

Thank You, Skyrocker! What A Guy! Point Well Made!

 

[lostladle]

I agree with Skyrocker. Well done.

 

[beachguy3b]

The Arbitron shares are horrible for both stations, significantly lower then 5 years ago. KGO could more than double their ratings, and revenue, by re-instating the old format.

The reviews on yelp are an empiracle observation and are not hard data. Nevertheless, decisions made solely on numerical data in any business are shortsighted. PD's who refuse to read comments from listeners inevitably fail.

Perhaps it hasn't occurred to you that if the ratings and revenue were good in the first place, they would have left well enough alone. As well, the PD was not even remotely involved in the decision.

 

[DavidKaye]

Let's say you are highly knowledgeable in your field(s) -- even possess facts that many of us are unaware of. I wonder how many more people you could reach - automatically - if you didn't come off as such an insufferable know-it-all with no tolerance for others.

You'll note that I bow to certain people here when they pipe in with something -- Michael Amatori (I forget his handle), Weav, David Eduardo. I respect them as professionals who know what they're talking about, so I usually shut up and drop a topic after they post.

I critique the radio fanbois (and they're mostly male not female) who wax nostalgic about a kind of radio that is not going to come back, and who think that a station's management is stupid simply because they disagree with that management's decisions.

 

[weav]

Karel will save KGO....

Certainly has his work cut out for him, then. How will he do that, on a phone line from Long Beach?

 

[DavidKaye]

Certainly has his work cut out for him, then. How will he do that, on a phone line from Long Beach?

Karel works cheaper than anyone else out there. By that I mean that he offers his show as pure barter. More power to him if he can pull it off. People can say a lot of things about Karel, but he's a fighter, and for that alone I'd root for him.

 

[Faxon]

Good lord!!!! MUST you capitalize EVERY WORD???????????????

 

[chris319]

Cumulus took a gamble when they dumped the talk format on KGO, and not even a calculated one at that. The gamble was that even with lower ratings, and doing news on the cheep against well-established KCBS, they could turn a higher profit without those "expensive" talk hosts. Well, the lower ratings have come to pass but none of us has access to KGO's books, thus it is not possible to determine how much they're making with the new format vs. the old. I suspect they're doing better in the 1 am to 5 am time slot without Ray but that's about it. Am I correct in assuming that Bloomberg is bartered and as such costs them nothing?

Since when is terminating a radio talk host due to a format change a violation of that person's civil rights? What a ridiculous notion. He wasn't terminated due to his ethnicity, he was terminated because of the new format.

You'll note that I bow to certain people here when they pipe in with something -- Michael Amatori (I forget his handle), Weav, David Eduardo. I respect them as professionals who know what they're talking about, so I usually shut up and drop a topic after they post.

That's a startling admission. I thought you knew everything, at least you seem to think you do. Say, how's the sauerkraut?

 

[TheBigA]

Well, the lower ratings have come to pass but none of us has access to KGO's books, thus it is not possible to determine how much they're making with the new format vs. the old.

My theory about this is that Cumulus is better able to sell KGO now that it's part of a cluster with KNBR. KGO by itself isn't as sellable as KGO in a package.

 

[DavidKaye]

That's a startling admission. I thought you knew everything, at least you seem to think you do. Say, how's the sauerkraut?

Why is it startling? All anybody needs to do is read what I write, not what they THINK I write. People simply need to set their prejudices aside. (Oh, and there are other posters I defer to, such as Phil Kane, former FCC honcho, Rich Wood, former exec with WOR, Talknet, and a bunch of other syndicated services, etc.)

As for the sauerkraut, I spoiled it. The jar I made it in likely wasn't sterile enough and instead of turning sour it turned bitter. I later tried fermenting ginger to make ginger ale, and it also came out wrong (and finally the vessel exploded because I forget one day to let the CO2 out of the vessel. I have since bought the same kind of sterilizing solution they use in beer and winemaking, and will try again.

Incidentally, on today's "Fresh Air" aired on both KQED Radio and KALW is the second segment of the interview with Sandor Katz about fermentation. He's the guru of fermentation, having done it for 20 years. It's so odd that "Fresh Air" decided to chop the interview in half; the first half ran last week.

"Fresh Air" runs today on KALW 91.7 at 9:00am and again at 6:00pm; on KQED Radio it airs at 1:00pm and at 7:00pm.