Michael Jackson Leaving KNX

[fred flintstone]

All Access:

Jackson Exiting KNX/LALongtime LOS ANGELES radio personality MICHAEL JACKSON is exiting CBS News KNX-A/LOS ANGELES at the end of the week with the expiration of his contract, reports LARADIO.COM. JACKSON has been doing an interview segment for the station.

Jackson's interviews have been strangely missing from KNX since the first of the year. Jackson had over 40 years in LA talk radio - mostly at KABC, plus a brief period in syndication via ABC's Talk Net during the 80's. In his early years at KABC, he was part of a talk line-up that included early ideological and incendiary hosts like Joe Pyne, Wally George and Bob Grant. Jackson's style was and is the complete opposite.He is a true gentleman of the old school. He was an excellent interviewer and actually listened to guests and callers as he drew them out. What was unique was his ability to put together guest and callers (often with markedly contrasting views) and get them actually talking to each other. Jackson did have a progressive bent but the program was always about the topic and the guests and callers, not about him. He was the first, last and maybe only of his kind. If I could be like anybody in this business, it would be Michael Jackson.

 

[dampier]

He is a true gentleman of the old school. He was an excellent interviewer and actually listened to guests and callers as he drew them out. What was unique was his ability to put together guest and callers (often with markedly contrasting views) and get them actually talking to each other. Jackson did have a progressive bent but the program was always about the topic and the guests and callers, not about him. He was the first, last and maybe only of his kind. If I could be like anybody in this business, it would be Michael Jackson.

And nobody would listen to you either then. Being a nice guy in talk radio doesn't work. It usually means no listeners. Jackson was nationally syndicated for awhile during the 1980s I seem to recall (or very early 1990s) and drew bad ratings in a lot of markets.

 

[fred flintstone]

Phil, I don't understand your antipathy to Michael Jackson, given that your expressed political viewpoints are similar.Nobody did well in syndicated talk before Rush (no, not even Joe Pyne despite a brief splash).ABC's Talk-Net was the first attempt at syndicated live, call-in talk radio and it did not do well overall. That's why ABC dropped it. That's why ABC made Rush do a local show for WABC at first, because they did not believe syndicated talk could work - given their earlier experience - and they did not want to try a syndicated show (again) on the New York station. What Michael Jackson did do was stay on the air from the early 60's on - with solid ratings - in the most competitive talk radio market in the country. In the long run, syndication may do radio more harm than good. Rush is credited with saving AM radio. And 15 years ago, he did bring attention and listeners back to AM. Then broadcasters, a group noted for their ability to engage in the sincerest form of flattery, started turning stations over to syndicated talk programming. Local content and local presence is the only unique selling point terrestrial radio has to offer - and Rush and his ilk have mostly destroyed that. On this board, somebody does well with a local show and people here think the show should be syndicated. Even AAR seems to operate under the illusion that radio is a national medium. The strongest stations - WGN, KGO, WLW and a few others - are all or mostly local, non-ideological and full service. This is both the past and future of talk radio. Once legendary stations, like WJR, have increased syndicated talk because of corporate mandates and are floundering.