KIRO's TBTL - Luke Burbank AWOL Already

[CorporateSuit]

Can't say I didn't warn everyone. I tuned in last night for a few minutes and no Luke Burbank on the air. Instead, it was Jen and Tom filling in.

The show is literally only 2 weeks old, and Burbank has to take the night off.

This is the same pattern he showed at KVI, KUOW, and NPR.

And they're going to run "The Best of TBTL" in all the open hours vacated by Goldstein, Styble, and Jeffers? What "Best of?" They don't have enough content to run "The Worst of!"

If you're going to do a show and make it succeed, especially in that time slot, you got to prep HARD and be there, on the air, consistently, to establish and grow an audience.

This is the first crack in the dike and soon the dam will follow.

Rod, how could you fall for this like Keating and others did?

 

[AAllen]

Well, Luke was on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me this weekend, out of Chicago. I was wondering if he would go back to that show.

 

[djdan]

Is it possible, he got permission to take time off? Just because someone leaves for a day or
two doesn't necessarily mean the end is near. Just an observation. For the record, I have listened to the
show and it has appeal to my generation, though rambles a bit. I generally listen to sports or am not tuned
in to radio at night, but KIRO is now a button on my dial. (It just replaced JACK)

 

[JustaLissner]

Can't say I didn't warn everyone. I tuned in last night for a few minutes and no Luke Burbank on the air. Instead, it was Jen and Tom filling in.

Jen said he was in Chicago recording "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" for NPR. And he was on with them via telephone for a while.

I have been tuning in periodically just to see how bad the show could be, based on the feedback on this board. Indeed, the show is rough. Very rough. Luke, who I liked in small doses on NPR, is way too flat in this extended format. Frankly, I'd rather hear reruns of Dr Laura. And I'm about as progressive as it gets. Luke & Jen are already "joking" about what a miracle it would be if the show were still on the air a year from now. Indeed. Indeed.

 

[spectacle]

I've always wondered about phenomenons like this since I worked in Seattle radio starting in the mid 90s!

How do former Metro traffic hacks like Burbank get people to drop shows in his lap sight AND SOUND UNSEEN?

How do they do it? Is it just some people are natural con artists?

And people like me who want to do a great job every time can barely get $6 an hour if we actually get an entire hour just doing the board op thing??!!!

 

[NewsStud]

How do former Metro traffic hacks like Burbank get people to drop shows in his lap sight AND SOUND UNSEEN?

Why do you consider someone who works at or once worked for Metro Traffic a "hack?" The company is full of hundreds of hard working folks on crazy schedules that do a phenominal job that most DJ's couldn't even hold a candle to.

And people like me who want to do a great job every time can barely get $6 an hour if we actually get an entire hour just doing the board op thing??!!!

Try getting a job at Metro. Pay is around double that for an anchor/producer even in the lower-paying markets.

 

[SeattleRadioPro]

Why do you consider someone who works at or once worked for Metro Traffic a "hack?" The company is full of hundreds of hard working folks on crazy schedules that do a phenominal job that most DJ's couldn't even hold a candle to.

Oh come on now. Do you actually listen to some of those people working those "crazy schedules"? Most of them have no business being behind a microphone. There's about three or four good Metro reporters in Seattle - the rest are forgettable.

Try getting a job at Metro. Pay is around double that for an anchor/producer even in the lower-paying markets.

Well maybe in Seattle it's tough (and you need to be in AFTRA) but in smaller markets, Metro does hire just about anyone and pays accordingly. And that's not "double that for an anchor/producer".

 

[GTL]

Some of the best radio and TV talents in Seattle work for Metro Networks. Just a FEW of them: Adam Gerhke. Shane Cobane. Anna D. John Nelson. Eric Kirchner. Greg Adams. Mary Whitish. Jeff French. Sprince Arbogast. Travis Bailey. Nate Connors. Bill Odgen. Jenni Hogan. Harmon Shay. Heather Stark. Woj. Janet Wilson. Scott Burns still fills for us at times. There are a dozen more, all talented and all a pleasure to work with.
Am I biased? Sure. I'm Director of Operations. Does Metro pay well? Compared to what? Nobody here makes what they deserve. But that's true for 95% of people working in radio. Minimum AFTRA rate for a Metro part-timer is $14.64.

We're open for business 24/7. Thank heaven people have trouble recovering from the radio bug (you know who you are), or staffing would be tough. Right now, though, we've got a full crew. But sometimes there's an opening, and sometimes I need just the right fit for a particular station. I only hire people who can go on the air, are willing to work odd hours at least part of the time, who can get along in a small, noisy room, and can write reasonably well.
Experience helps, but it all starts with the sound. Email me a short demo, if you care to. My work day sometimes runs from 5a to 5p, so be patient if I'm slow getting back to you.
Just be aware: I don't hire hacks. The old idea that "there's always Metro" is out of date.

Gina Tuttle [email protected]

 

[ella]

Too Beautiful to Live: It's funny and relaxing. I like the personalities. In any live show, 3 hours a night, there'll be some down time. But I find myself wanting to listen. There's an intimate quality. The inner workings are apparent, which seems deliberate. It makes me feel like I'm part of it.

 

[WKomm]

Dear ella - And how long have worked at KIRO?

 

[Bongwater]

I only listened to TBTL only once (last week in fact - and on 97.3 even) Usually, when a talk program affects me, I talk about it - A LOT. TBTL did not.

I can't even remember what they were talking about.

 

[KYYX_fan]

Now that KIRO added 97.3, I've been sampling it fairly regularly (AM in my car is terrible out on the Olympic Peninsula). I've listened to Luke Burbank a couple of times and found his show to be not too bad during stretches of boring highway or slow traffic. Now and then, he's kept me curious enough about whatever story to listen through the commercial breaks (or pop back after jumping to a music station for a few minutes).

The BAD, BAD, BAD show on 97.3 is "Ron & Don." I'd rather listen to kids from KNHC stumble through news copy.

 

[IndigoCoyote]

I find TBTL to be real breath of fresh air. Noon to 6 is the worst waste of (now)107,000 watts in the USA, however. TBTL is a gen X show, which is why the boomers around here either don't like it or (perhaps?) don't get it. The show drips with irony, and isn't cloying or pandering- see Dori for THAT. Actually, from a certain perspective, KIRO is a total mess:

Mornings- smart,unhip, nonpartisan
Ross- smart, somewhat hip, FDR liberal
Dori- dumb, arrogant, very unhip, Bush conservative
RonDon- very dumb, arrogant, hip, marginally right wing
TBTL- smart-aleck, terminally hip, leftist/ hippie

In my own dumb opinion, this mess has held together only by inertia-- 710 is so habitual that I bet you ask the man on the street he probably thinks Jim French or Bill Yeend is still on in the mornings. Once they abandon the 710 to sports, the FM will have to be revamped, as there will be no habit to listen. Expect something more "Buzz-like" to emerge on the FM KIRO. Ross will thrive if he chooses, RandD could survive, TBTL should thrive. Morning news block dies. Dori rotates to the AM sports side.

Which leaves an opening for Leykis.

 

[WKomm]

Burbank's show drips with something but it sure ain't irony. And why is it somehow that a listener out of the demo just can't "get it?" There's lots of stuff I see and hear that I understand is not directed at me but I "Get" - I see the humor or goofiness or (gasp!) the irony!

Luke Burbank is a man-child who has somehow bamboozled KIRO into keeping him on. No one on the show means anything to anyone (maybe their immediate family) and affect nothing for better or for worse. The annoying Valley-Girl prattle of his non-squeeze GF on the air is truly the most annoying crap on Seattle's air. Worse than Doris Monson's Fireman Bill style yack. Her voice is the audio equivalent of a migraine.

So let's just we'll disagree on these clowns.

 

[talkerdjdude]

As for Burbank, here's why he maintains his job and quirky show which has proven to be insignificant in the ratings. The latest trend supports that he's nothing. Everyone who has ever programmed KIRO and is currently behind the helm of the mothership is old and not in touch with anyone young. The same could be said of much of the air staff who are old and getting older. They simply don't know what "hip" is, so when someone comes along like Burbank promising he could do an edgy show. They listen. The programmers themselves don't understand or like his show, but they assume it's because they're old and don't get it. When in reality, nobody gets it.

 

[SeattleObserver]

Re: KIRO's TBTL - An NPR moment

Perhaps the best hour of this show I've actually stuck around for in a while was when on Thursday in the 9 pm hour, the hosts turned the air time over to :-o a listener. Just listening to this 18 year old girl from Granite Falls getting ready to go to college and going on one final summer trip with "her mama" was the most interesting story I've heard on that program in a while. Although the 'v neck' connection was probably the only reason she got on.

Reflecting back on it, I realized it was basically one of the 20 minute "stories" that This American Life tells every week. TBTL should do more listener interaction/story telling and less host blather, as that would keep me. (just my 2 cents)

http://www.mynorthwest.com/rss/tbtl.rss (9/18, 9 pm)

The other time I stayed? When Luke and girlfriend Vanessa had an elaborate story (again involving a listener meeting) where they pretended to be someone else to view a house they've apparently purchased in the region. (9/15, 7 pm)

Before I got sucked in during the 'experimental phase' in the dead of winter when the writer's strike had sucked all life out of network TV, but since have left as a regular listener.

 

[WKomm]

talkerdjdude - you back up what I've been thinking. Because I'm no longer a young man it's easy to dismiss me as being "unhip" and out of it but here's my thinking.

I've done radio about as long as Burbank has been alive. Just as a basebal man in his 50's may no longer be able to hit one out, he sure knows a good ball player when he sees one. And I like to think the same of me. There's a ton of stuff in today's world I don't like but I very much "get" - I understand why it is and what the audience is. I search out new stuff. I look for new literature, music and ideas but not to be cool - it's just me. On my death bed I'll probably be downloading new songs.

And I just don't tbtl.

To begin with, it's the sucky name. It is so cute just thinking of it puckers the lips. It has no premise, no meaning, no target. And unlike Seinfeld's show about nothing, Burbank's on-air efforts certainly lack the Seinfeld cast.

Observer compared one of Burbank's bits to This American Life - and that's wonderful, except someone is already doing that and they do it on NPR, not commercial radio. Stations like KIRO NEED mass appeal 24/7. You need that target adult demo but you need to hit other demos as well. If you're going to try something hip & different during a night show, it has to be more wide appeal, IMO. Kind of like SNL. The show has had its off moments (years, even) but continues enough wide appeal to continue through generations and no one is suggesting Lorne Michaels is out of it.

It's just a weird situation when you have a low key guy like Ross followed by a braying ass like Monson followed by Beavis & Butthead followed by Too Cool For the Room followed by a guy who makes phone calls to himself. On weekends there's a guy shouting "Oh La La" and a scold yapping about money for hours and a cooking show and a show with a producer turned host (which, btw - I kind of like the News Junkie thing) - it's just all a flippin' jumble with a scattered audience. In my opinion ...

At one time in the fairly recent past, KIRO was a great Seattle station. Today? Not so much.