KGO TO PUT FINISHING TOUCHES ON IT'S OWN SELF-INFLICTED DEMISE

[airpab]

Witness radio suicide!

Already at an all-time low, KGO/Cumulus will put the final nail in it's own coffin upon a rumored release of Owens.

How does Cumulus decide to go up against KCBS & KQED with nothing special/different to offer and...no FM signal?

I for one, can't listen to KGO for more then 2 minutes......Am I alone?

 

[jussomeguy]

I know zero about the Ronn rumor. But as to listenability -- no, you are absolutely not alone.

 

[RadioStarOne]

I can't listen to the station at all it Stinks to High Heaven, and has since last year before that I was a thirty year + fan.

 

[davideduardo]

Witness radio suicide!

The station was already aging as the Lukoff era ended... most listeners were 55+.

When the PPM launched in San Francisco, KGO was 20th (on average) in 25-54 and was officially a "dead station walking."

Cumulus had to do something. The news effort is not doing any better, but if they had stayed with what they had it probably would have been worse...

What would you do with an AM that had an "old" image?

 

[airpab]

The old KGO was stodgy & stale.

I'd copy KFI/L.A. in approach/delivery & go after the money demo!

Would try to poach personalities from other stations/markets.

Try & steal Armstrong & Getty from Sac, or the likes of John & Ken from KFI, perhaps?

Flank the line-up of local personalities with a few heavy-hitter, big-audience syndiated talkers...Of which there are many!

High energy, fast paced, interesting, dynamic, different.

Cumulus is very obviously trying to do KGO on the cheap...And that just won't play in the Number 4 market, with so many signals and competition!

Gotta spend some money to make it!

 

[uncamark]

The old KGO was stodgy & stale.

I'd copy KFI/L.A. in approach/delivery & go after the money demo!

Would try to poach personalities from other stations/markets.

Try & steal Armstrong & Getty from Sac, or the likes of John & Ken from KFI, perhaps?

Didn't John and Ken already bomb on the old KNEW? San Francisco is just not a red meat right-wing talk town.

 

[stewie]

Try & steal Armstrong & Getty from Sac, or the likes of John & Ken from KFI, perhaps?

I can't see what A&G would gain from this? They're already on the air in SF and Sacramento and they live in Sacramento.

 

[airpab]

Is L.A. a "red-meat, right-wing talk town"?

DE...Maybe you can chime in on this one?

I know L.A. is demographically different, but is it "that different" from the Bay Area? Especially in the more blue-collar, heavily populated areas immediately surrounding S.F.?

Is it safe to assume that KFI's core PPM listeners aren't in places like Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Newport Beach?

 

[LKellerIII]

Is L.A. a "red-meat, right-wing talk town"?

DE...Maybe you can chime in on this one?

I know L.A. is demographically different, but is it "that different" from the Bay Area? Especially in the more blue-collar, heavily populated areas immediately surrounding S.F.?

Is it safe to assume that KFI's core PPM listeners aren't in places like Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Newport Beach?

I think the assumption is that San Francisco is a more politically liberal area than Los Angeles - though LA and Orange County are hardly the conservative bastions that they were a few decades ago. For example, northern Orange County (Anaheim, etc.) kicked right wing Congressman "B1" Bob Dornan out of office about 10 years ago, and replaced him with a female Latina Democrat.

But remember that Michael Savage started his career here (his home town), and had a big following when he was on KSFO. And KSFO in general with it's right-wing "Hot Talk" format was in the Top 10 for a long time, until recently. Rush Limbaugh has always done well in the Bay Area, though I recall that his show used to be rated lower than Ronn Owen's local show on KGO. Not sure about now.

 

[recto101]

Is L.A. a "red-meat, right-wing talk town"?

DE...Maybe you can chime in on this one?

I know L.A. is demographically different, but is it "that different" from the Bay Area? Especially in the more blue-collar, heavily populated areas immediately surrounding S.F.?

Is it safe to assume that KFI's core PPM listeners aren't in places like Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Newport Beach?

I think the assumption is that San Francisco is a more politically liberal area than Los Angeles - though LA and Orange County are hardly the conservative bastions that they were a few decades ago. For example, northern Orange County (Anaheim, etc.) kicked right wing Congressman "B1" Bob Dornan out of office about 10 years ago, and replaced him with a female Latina Democrat.

But remember that Michael Savage started his career here (his home town), and had a big following when he was on KSFO. And KSFO in general with it's right-wing "Hot Talk" format was in the Top 10 for a long time, until recently. Rush Limbaugh has always done well in the Bay Area, though I recall that his show used to be rated lower than Ronn Owen's local show on KGO. Not sure about now.

What is the Definition of Politically Liberal? Is it voting for the Green Party? Is it voting for the DNC? Because I understand Richmond and Berkeley did have Mayors that were from the Green Party. But as far as I know Its an area where people listen to NPR More than the rest of the nation but the people of the Bay Area do call themselves Moderate when you see the surveys.

 

[recto101]

Jerry Doyle now has Savage's old TRN spot for now and KKSF's Bill Wattenburg will do Fill-ins for Doyle according to the NYC Boards and the News/Talk Boards.

 

[DavidKaye]

Witness radio suicide!

Already at an all-time low, KGO/Cumulus will put the final nail in it's own coffin upon a rumored release of Owens.

You're sounding like Wrong-Way Lieberman. What "rumored release of Owens"? He himself says that he doesn't know what Cumulus plans to do at the end of his contract.

In my opinion, with the exception of Gil Gross, KGO got rid of a bunch of dead wood and kept a better line-up of hosts with their second string: Pat Thurston, Christine Craft, John Hamilton, and the others who pop in from time to time. Also, the newcomer Maureen Langan is very good.

But the SHINING STAR of KGO these days is Candice DeLong, whose "Crime Time" talkshow runs midnight to 2am Saturdays and Sundays. She's a former FBI agent and investigator on high-profile crimes. http://www.kgoradio.com/sectional.asp?id=41970

I agree with David Eduardo -- what else was KGO going to do? While it's not the best way to go about solving the drop-off of audience, they have indeed tried something, and to many of us it makes for a better listen.

Generally, though, I hear and read so many lame opinions from people who don't know anything that when I listen to the radio I prefer to hear EXPERTS and few/no random phone callers.

 

[davideduardo]

Is L.A. a "red-meat, right-wing talk town"?

DE...Maybe you can chime in on this one?

I know L.A. is demographically different, but is it "that different" from the Bay Area? Especially in the more blue-collar, heavily populated areas immediately surrounding S.F.?

Is it safe to assume that KFI's core PPM listeners aren't in places like Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Newport Beach?

KFI cumes just a tad more than 1,000,000 adult persons on average. That's just under 11% of the total adult population of the market. We're talking about one out of ten persons, not a majority... not even a big minority.

If you like the contentious style of talk delivered by the local hosts on KFI, you don't have to be a liberal or a conservative to enjoy it. In fact, the hosts frequently have less than conservative views... to the point that I think they sometimes take positions just to jab at the listeners.

As to location... there are KFI listeners everywhere. Beverly Hills and the other two communities you mention have, together, about 2% of the metro population so they really can't sway ratings anyway.