What makes you think they have the budget to pay him? Were they not fully staffed before all of this went down? And if so, who should they be terminating on the spot just for a chance to land Gregory?
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Steve Gregory and more fired from KFI
- Thread starter DoctorWu
- Start date
What makes you think they have the budget to pay him? Were they not fully staffed before all of this went down? And if so, who should they be terminating on the spot just for a chance to land Gregory?
I listened to it, it was a good segment.
Flip, Audacy just emerged from bankruptcy as a privately-held company with 80% less debt than it had going in. The debt-to-equity ratio went from 20% to 2.7%. It's a good time to cautiously expand and invest in their core product---news.
Nobody needs to be terminated (much less on the spot). In many cases (and I've been there), it's a matter of overhead already in the budget or shuffling some line items around to free up a salary and benefits.
You used the words "crappy programming." Not me. Who was programming the station for the last 20 years?
You're still ignoring the changes in technology that have really been the reason for the audience shift.
Street Novelist
Banned
A vicious cycle
I hope the three letters are sold as a set. Just kidding!This is really sad !! What do you all think will happen to KFI? Do you think that I-Heart wants to sell it, so they are trying to keep the operating costs low in order to attract buyers?
I understand that they are losing revenue, but it seems quite drastic to let go of this talent. I think that L.A. stations need local news staff.
What do you all think? I think it's sad.
Not in relation to KFI. in relation to the overall downward quality spiral corporate radio has trapped itself in as an industry. But you knew that already.
I don’t know you, but I know guys like you: can’t stand people questioning their POV so they resort to staged attacks and ad hominems. Welcome to my ‘ignore” list!
I think what Big A is saying is largely true, even if he's being unsympathetic in his wording. It's sad to see KFI go from being a "News-Talk" station to a "Talk" station. I agree with others who say KFI is the best talk station in the U.S. What other talk station is local with great hosts nearly all hours and has a newscaster give updates every 15 minutes? These days, most talk stations run network news on the hour and maybe a few minutes of local news at :05 and :30... or maybe not at all outside morning drive time.
But alas, KFI is an AM-only station. Perhaps if one of iHeart's FM stations in LA were floundering, KFI could get an FM simulcast, like KIRO Seattle, KFBK Sacramento, KTAR Phoenix and KSL Salt Lake City. But there is no candidate on the Los Angeles FM dial to be wiped out for a KFI-FM to debut. And that's the problem.
It's great to have the news department as a part of every KFI talk show, giving updates with crisp writing and knowledgeable street reporters. And the hour of all-news at 5 a.m. is a gem, even if it's so early many folks don't hear it. But at the end of the day, KFI is an AM talk station. It's the talk hosts who keep KFI as one of the most listened-to AM stations in the country... not the newscasters.
iHeart's stock closed today at $2.49. It's not Tesla or Invidia or Apple. IHRT is a stock likely none of us would put money into. Bob Pittman may be evil, with layoffs and cutbacks across the country at iHeart's hundreds of stations, trying to squeeze a few more bucks as profit. Or he may be a master juggler, keeping that $2.49 stock viable as a business and keeping the other 1,000 iHeart workers on the payroll. I think the latter is true.
But alas, KFI is an AM-only station. Perhaps if one of iHeart's FM stations in LA were floundering, KFI could get an FM simulcast, like KIRO Seattle, KFBK Sacramento, KTAR Phoenix and KSL Salt Lake City. But there is no candidate on the Los Angeles FM dial to be wiped out for a KFI-FM to debut. And that's the problem.
It's great to have the news department as a part of every KFI talk show, giving updates with crisp writing and knowledgeable street reporters. And the hour of all-news at 5 a.m. is a gem, even if it's so early many folks don't hear it. But at the end of the day, KFI is an AM talk station. It's the talk hosts who keep KFI as one of the most listened-to AM stations in the country... not the newscasters.
iHeart's stock closed today at $2.49. It's not Tesla or Invidia or Apple. IHRT is a stock likely none of us would put money into. Bob Pittman may be evil, with layoffs and cutbacks across the country at iHeart's hundreds of stations, trying to squeeze a few more bucks as profit. Or he may be a master juggler, keeping that $2.49 stock viable as a business and keeping the other 1,000 iHeart workers on the payroll. I think the latter is true.
And I step in here with trepidation, since Los Angeles is not territory well-known to me.
Apparently neither did iHeart. Or they didn't think it was important.
But, as you know, dollar stores have been ripping the heart out of retail. Same phenomenon here. Cheap wins out and the race to the bottom proceeds apace.
I'll stipulate my usual tiresome tubthumping about how radio news has been dying for 40 years. It's amazing KFI held on as long as they had, no doubt a testament to the quality of work they did. But quality doesn't matter. There seems to be no market for it.
Almost everyone in this particular chess game is a pawn. It's ugly, and I feel terrible for the people involved. But it's cheaper to put on another networked right-wing loudmouth than to do something original. That is said to be "entertaining".
Ignore away! There was no "attack" on you, and certainly no "ad hominem." I haven't said a single word about you. KFI is a corporate owned radio station. If you're going to make sweeping generalizations, you can't pick and choose who to include.
All I'm saying is you're ignoring the huge technological shift that happened 25 years ago. You haven't addressed that at all.
Last I checked, he owns about 9% of it, and I believe stock price is one of the targets he has to hit in his contract. He's just doing what he's told.
KFI is on KOST-FM HD2
Quality is largely a function of robust competition. In law it's the "Consumer Welfare" anti-trust standard (Robert Bork- which we now have) vs "Protection of competition standard" that we once had.😦 On another note audiences are roaming the audio/visual field via internet in such large numbers that it is hard to imagine radio ever getting huge numbers of them back (to terrestrial), ergo the advertisers. I just realized that if anything happened (long term) to our wonderful one-to-many platform, "one-to-many" communications would be left to the local sheriffs, the feds and a few disinformation tycoons. I am not yet ready to quote the great philosopher, Margaret Hamilton, "Oh what a world, what a world ..." I actually am an optimist.
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Just because these people are leaving doesn't mean those who will follow are lower quality. They're just different people. I like to think that people take pride in what they do, and seek to do quality work, regardless of the circumstances. I got paid crap money when I started, and that didn't affect the quality of my work. I would hope others feel the same way.
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In regards to this point of FM simulcast, it actually isn't the case in Seattle & Phoenix where both KIRO & KTAR on the AM dial are sports stations. Wonder if today's news means KFI does away with its ocassional pre-recorded news updates that air on KIIS FM during commercial breaks.
Where is this site at? I just want to go and read the comments. ;-)
I'm not "in the know" anymore but at least one station [a 'mom & pop" kind of group] I was at, the sales commission was 80/20 with the salesman making the bigger chunk. Then sometime, long after I was gone and it had been sold, the new owners reversed that with it being 20/80. So no incentive anymore for salesman to go out and bust their ass to make a pittance for themselves. I had heard that shortly after the new plan was installed the majority of salespeople left, with cartoon dust trails behind them as they couldn't get out the door fast enough. One guy hung around apparently because he was hoping to rise up in the ranks of the corporation. Didn't work out for him as they ended up slashing lots more people to make up for the tanking of the crappy format they installed.
Hmmm. I've never heard of anyone in radio getting an 80% commission. Including at the agency level.
I've been avidly listening to KFI for a decade. And they introduced me to the whole "talk host talks to the reporter" schtick, and it's been one of my favorites to listen to.
I try to listen to KNX now that it's on FM and easier to punch the preset, but it has felt quite hollow. And I gotta say that if Chris Little (to tune up delivery) and Steve Gregory (to add a 2nd solid reporter, next to Demetriou) appear at KNX, it's going to be hard not to stick around on 97.1. Yeah, as much as I'd love for them to hire *all 22 people* from KFI, even just a "cautious expansion" as you say, would be smart.
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