KOGO AM 600 -- WHAT AN EMBARRASMENT

[sdwulfdawg]

KFMB is running a simulcast of news and information all evening and all night, in the process keeping San Diegans abreast of the latest on the power blackout. They really utilized the resources of their sister station, News8, very well.

KOGO under the "great" Cliff Albert is running Coast-to-Coast and canned Fox Radio Newsbriefs and gold investment, enlarged prostate, and colon blow ads.

Cliff Albert, in my opinion, has really lost his grip letting a punky competitor be the information source for San Diegans. KOGO should have been ON TOP of the story. This could have been an opportunity for them to get Ladonna Harvey (who is quite good) to pull listeners to her regular show.

If it was Steve Yuhas, though, I would be eyeing a fork to gouge my ears out.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I actually heard Cliff Albert, Ms. Harvey and KOGO running wall-to-wall local coverage until at least through the 10 PM emergency center press conference (after 1 AM here in ET). I don't know when they booked for C2C.

Until about 20 after 10 PT, the coverage was being simulcast on the CC FMs and on 1360.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

KOGO bailed at around a few minutes past midnight, when C2C took over.

 

[Lopaka]

Actually I thought KOGO did a good job, and I am NO fan of KOGO. I bet I listened to it much more last night than in all of the last 12 years combined. When I first tuned in to see what was happening it was the only San Diego station on. It seemed like all the Mexican stations were on which was a little surprising, but they were not doing any coverage of the incident, at least that I ever heard. Power restored in OB @ 1:20 am, congratulations & appreciation to SDG & E for getting the power back on so fast. As in certain other industries, perhaps deregulation was not such a hot idea, when I was a kid SDG & E had a lot of their own generating stations but that was cut back as a result of deregulation.

 

[Q Tip]

I thought KOGO did a great job why so much negative talk???? come on relax I guess you must have something personal going on peace

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I thought KOGO did a great job why so much negative talk???? come on relax I guess you must have something personal going on peace

You are obviously not a professional broadcaster/journalist.

In the midst of a fluid emergency like the blackout you don't go to Coast-to-Coast and canned network newscasts. KFMB stayed with the story all the night and gave continuous information, etc., and they knocked the ball out of the park. When I tuned into KOGO they didn't seem to do any one-minute updates as dropins.

KOGO is such a joke (not that KFMB is much better with their right-wing syndicated talk shows) when they are not in emergency mode.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

sdwulf, your bias is showing, and now you're having to backtrack.

KOGO did EXACTLY what you said they should have done...they had just gone to regular programming by midnight. Had you tuned in before that, you would have no problem with their coverage. (Well, maybe you would have, it sounds to me like they couldn't impress you favorably unless Cliff Albert drove to your home and focused on your neighborhood.)

They can certainly be faulted for dumping out after midnight, I guess, but consider that A) by midnight, EVERYONE had been out of power since 3 PM or so, and already knew it and B) the power companies were beginning to light up clusters of neighborhoods.

And KFMB shouldn't get a lot of extra credit as a radio station for staying on late...they just fed the KFMB-TV audio through the board. (I know KFMB has at least one or two radio news people, and I have no idea where they were at all last night.) That"s a natural, built-in advantage to having a TV station as your main newsroom.

The KOGO coverage I heard on the stream until about 10:30 PM PT was excellent. Don't make it sound like they did nothing all evening...you praised KFMB for running the TV coverage "through the evening" when KOGO was mounting its own wall-to-wall coverage, but you didn't mention that.

 

[radio-darn]

I'm no fan of Cliff, but he and the KOGO crew did exactly what they were supposed almost from the moment the power went out. Cliff is the master of ad libbing through a fluid story such as this one. With cable and internet service (and cable phone service) for out most people (we even lost all cell service when our neighborhood tower's backup batteries eventually went dead) KOGO was the only source of info... providing of course you had a battery powered radio, which I'm sure most people don't.

As for KOGO ending continuous coverage: well unlike say, as fire, by 10PM things were static except for the neighborhood-by-neighborhood restoration of power and KOGO did a great job of making us aware of that and there was nothing most people could do except go to bed and wait for the lights to come on.

 

[SDRadio]

Cliff is the master of ad libbing through a fluid story such as this one. With cable and internet service (and cable phone service) for out most people (we even lost all cell service when our neighborhood tower's backup batteries eventually went dead) KOGO was the only source of info... providing of course you had a battery powered radio, which I'm sure most people don't.

nicely done, Bob. KOGO used KPBS' news reporters as well. Considering the news room is next to nothing, in this case, a good use of local resources from the public station.

I agree with Bob. At first the cell service had internet connection and when I was a planner at AT&T Wireless 11-years ago, each tower was to have 48-hours of back up power. At first, service was great but about dusk the 3G went out; then the EDGE and reverted to bars with no cell activation. Text messaging was the last resort and even that was iffy.

In all, it shows two things: how fragile our electrical grid is, especially in Super Sunny San Diego, and how ill-prepared most people are even when brow-beated about having water, food, batteries and a transistor radio ready. Also, Cal Walker even admitted being on fumes in his gas tank -- and the only known station with generator power was at Boulevard at the Indian truck stop. That's at milepost 61. A 120-mile round trip from the metro.

As for KFMB, I heard Rick Roberts throughout the night with JM on the AM. If they used KFMB-TV, more people listened than watched. Rick did his usual great job taking and fielding calls as well.

KFI-AM's Tim Conway Jr., was my choice: "What the Hell Did Jesse Jackson Say" along with power outage reports. That's comedy.

It cracked me up with KOGO relaying KGTVs video reports. There were more people at the station viewing than watching at home; and more listening on AM 600 than watching.

 

[davideduardo]

As in certain other industries, perhaps deregulation was not such a hot idea, when I was a kid SDG & E had a lot of their own generating stations but that was cut back as a result of deregulation.

I just bought shares in an electric utility that operates in Chile, Argentina and Colombia. In the analysts' evaluations I saw, over and over it was stated that "unlike the US, where environmental legislation and neighborhood objections have forced utilities to operate inefficient and old plants, this company is building new generation facilities constantly and is well positioned to serve the 6% annual growth anticipated for the areas they operate in." ENDESA's largest project is a grid connecting 6 countries in South America to improve reliability of service, particularly for continuous process manaufacturing.

It's nearly impossible in CA to build new plants, and the costs involved will raise electric rates. That's why many areas in Southern CA depend on power generated in rural areas in Arizona (Four Corners... and coal or the Palo Verde nuclear facilities) because those plants could be built and are operating.

Power companies have operated with a grid system for decades and decades as a way to avoid failures due to a single generator going down. I've lived on a large Island where there was no grid... if one plant was down for maintenance and another had a failure, the entire 4,000,000 population would lose power... something we saw at least a couple of times a month in the 70's. No grid, no source for emergency energy.

 

[jprg]

KOGO did something right err, I mean "correct" for a change. Well they tried anyway.

 

[davideduardo]

In the midst of a fluid emergency like the blackout you don't go to Coast-to-Coast and canned network newscasts. KFMB stayed with the story all the night and gave continuous information, etc., and they knocked the ball out of the park. When I tuned into KOGO they didn't seem to do any one-minute updates as dropins.

A blackout is hardly fluid about 9 hours afterwards. There were no fires, not indications of terrorism or sabotage, no riots. The power was returning and there was little more that could be said.

As it was, much of the content was improvised and based on phoners and comments about the drinking water in the break room.

That is not bad, it is just tiring after a while. It happens in many such emergencies when we run out of content we have not used 22 times before.

I listened to KOGO off and on all afternoon and evening up to about 9 PM, and thought the job was complete and credible.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

sdwulf, your bias is showing, and now you're having to backtrack.

KOGO did EXACTLY what you said they should have done...they had just gone to regular programming by midnight. Had you tuned in before that, you would have no problem with their coverage. (Well, maybe you would have, it sounds to me like they couldn't impress you favorably unless Cliff Albert drove to your home and focused on your neighborhood.)

They can certainly be faulted for dumping out after midnight, I guess, but consider that A) by midnight, EVERYONE had been out of power since 3 PM or so, and already knew it and B) the power companies were beginning to light up clusters of neighborhoods.

And KFMB shouldn't get a lot of extra credit as a radio station for staying on late...they just fed the KFMB-TV audio through the board. (I know KFMB has at least one or two radio news people, and I have no idea where they were at all last night.) That"s a natural, built-in advantage to having a TV station as your main newsroom.

The KOGO coverage I heard on the stream until about 10:30 PM PT was excellent. Don't make it sound like they did nothing all evening...you praised KFMB for running the TV coverage "through the evening" when KOGO was mounting its own wall-to-wall coverage, but you didn't mention that.

Whaaaaaaa-t?

The story was not conveniently done at 12 midnight....it was ongoing... There were sewage spills, orders to limit water use, orders to boil water, etc......

 

[sdwulfdawg]

In the midst of a fluid emergency like the blackout you don't go to Coast-to-Coast and canned network newscasts. KFMB stayed with the story all the night and gave continuous information, etc., and they knocked the ball out of the park. When I tuned into KOGO they didn't seem to do any one-minute updates as dropins.

A blackout is hardly fluid about 9 hours afterwards. There were no fires, not indications of terrorism or sabotage, no riots. The power was returning and there was little more that could be said.

As it was, much of the content was improvised and based on phoners and comments about the drinking water in the break room.

That is not bad, it is just tiring after a while. It happens in many such emergencies when we run out of content we have not used 22 times before.

I listened to KOGO off and on all afternoon and evening up to about 9 PM, and thought the job was complete and credible.

Do you live in San Diego? David, you are always such a shill for corporate radio. While I do congratulate you by having your fingers in the media megaconglomerates and making money from it, it does not provide for what radio is SUPPOSED to do for its listeners past providing 1-800 numbers and websites for colon blow, gold investments, etc.

 

[davideduardo]

Do you live in San Diego?

I live where the power went out at 3:38. KOGO had better service than any other I could find. Of course, TV is not effective in emergencies as digital and battery powered tvs are not friends.

David, you are always such a shill for corporate radio.

I'm a shill for reality. Without consolidation, radio would have been far worse off today.

While I do congratulate you by having your fingers in the media megaconglomerates and making money from it, it does not provide for what radio is SUPPOSED to do for its listeners past providing 1-800 numbers and websites for colon blow, gold investments, etc.

A. Most of my career was spent at small, even Ma and Pa, operations (including my own) and I only experienced larger groups in the last decade, less than 20% of my time in radio.

B. You hear those ads because the economy is such that the more traditional advertisers are cut back so much media is forced to live on PIs and refi's and such.

 

[paulcano]

I thought KOGO did an superb job all day with coverage and listened from 3:30PM and on wards, but was shocked when they went to C2C at midnight! Especially considering most places didn't get power back until 2 or 3 AM.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

I would think most people had gone to bed with the radio off by around 10 or 11.

 

[goriajk]

I thought KOGO did a great job why so much negative talk???? come on relax I guess you must have something personal going on peace

KOGO Did An Impressive Job. Switched Between them and JACK 100.7 Broadcasting CBS 8's Audio

 

[davideduardo]

KOGO Did An Impressive Job. Switched Between them and JACK 100.7 Broadcasting CBS 8's Audio
[/quote]

I was looking at all the TV sites. 8 did not have anything on the website until almost an hour after the outage... somewhere around 4:25 a banner appeared. The other network affiliates were at least fast enough to have some kind of non-story story within around 10 to 15 minutes.

It's funny, as I was talking to a conference room of people on an upper floor of a downtown SD building when the power went out... I was at the edge of the blackout and they were in the center, but we both kept phone contact until it was obvious that talking to me was a lower priority than the problem that had just occurred.

 

[jprg]

It was a ratings booster for them so why not go wall to wall coverage for the outage. A no brainer