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WHY IS AM600 KOGO SO AMATEURISH, SMALL TOWNISH?

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

San Diego levitates between being the seventh and eighth biggest city in the United States, the second biggest city in California. Having listened to and actually spent time in cities like Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, Seattle, I'm always astounded how "big time" their news/talk outlets are.

Even in conservative Salt Lake City, KSL 1160/102.7 has a great lineup of local hosts who are interesting and colorful, and have "a good sound." On the other hand, San Diego's AM600 KOGO...what is supposed to be the crown jewel of news/talk (taking the place abdicated by 760 KFMB), has a sloppy amateurish sound.

Sully does not deserve to have a regular show as his topics are always so lame, and he doesn't have a good presence. LaDona Harvey was good when she had her own show, but now that she is paired off with Chip Franklin, she is unlistenable. One morning hearing them both bleeting and chirping about Medifast made me want to puke. The rest of their lineup is farm league as well. And then they give up the farm completely with all of their sponsored shows and syndicated colon blow and enlarged prostate medication.

How is it that ClearChannel's KOGO is so horrible, when their sister news/talk station in LA, comes off as really interesting and has a good overall sound? Why has 760 KFMB abdicated itself with bottom of the barrel talent as well: Mike Slater, the whackjob who couldn't interview himself out of a paper bag -- Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity.

KOGO sounds like a 156th market station. How is this happening? Even their ratings are not that hot. Now KPBS-FM is kicking their butt BIG TIME....
 
Places like Kansas City, Seattle and Minneapolis are small big cities. San Diego is a big small town, in some ways a big distant suburb of the Los Angeles metro area (sort of like Riverside with a beach).
 
Listen to KFI for talk or KNX for news. You can't go wrong there
 
exactly..getting so tired of prostate and et meds commercials. and of course u can hear the pissed off word at least once a day
 
yep chip should go back to baltimore and not talk like he is a native san diegan..keep la donna. miss her in pm. oh well
 
What is fascinating is the free fall in arbitrons for KOGO. Franklin is a veteran talk show host and Cliff Albert approached him and said he has to take LaDona as his partner. What really happened was
they were going to release him if he didn't agree to the addition. Nobody listened to LaDona's midday show..especially when talking about gardening, frogs, relationships, and shoes. KOGO just cannot
afford any quality talent right now. Notice how they still import the news from KFI

KFI is kicking San Diego AM Radio butt right now

And everybody at KCBQ should be arrested for impersonating a radio station
 
sdwulfdawg said:
San Diego levitates between being the seventh and eighth biggest city in the United States, the second biggest city in California.
Click to expand...

Stations, as a rule, don't program to "cities" but to markets... markets are created by people living in a population center. "Cities" are created by politicians.

San Diego is a Top 15 Market. It is vastly exceeded in population by San Francisco, market #4 and Los Angeles, market #2.
 
Mr_Radio_Diary said:
What is fascinating is the free fall in arbitrons for KOGO. Franklin is a veteran talk show host and Cliff Albert approached him and said he has to take LaDona as his partner. What really happened was
they were going to release him if he didn't agree to the addition. Nobody listened to LaDona's midday show..especially when talking about gardening, frogs, relationships, and shoes. KOGO just cannot
afford any quality talent right now. Notice how they still import the news from KFI

KFI is kicking San Diego AM Radio butt right now

And everybody at KCBQ should be arrested for impersonating a radio station
Click to expand...

As for Ladona's show, that is entirely a producer thing. That she was switching topics every quarter hour was tantamount to radio talkshow whiplash. You would think that ClearChannel would invest some bucks into KOGO as they are investing (and reaping the rewards) at KFI.

KFI's "imaging" and overall "sound" is what one would expect from a station with a dominant influence in the market. KOGO is slowly fading away into small town station oblivion (as is 760 KFMB) which is not doing much better. Meanwhile, KPBS-FM has steamrolled themselves into fourth place in the 25-54 category....and their news coverage is awesome....as much as I hate to say it. They are showing what can be done and what is capable, and makes KOGO and KFMB look bad. To paraphrase one of my favorite sayings, KOGO and KFMB invented the "school" when it comes to news and talk. KPBS is now turning out to be the valedictorian...
 
And 760 is adding Armstrong and Getty to their morning lineup. This show does not sound small town at all... further illustrating KOGO's amateurish delivery.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
As for Ladona's show, that is entirely a producer thing.
Click to expand...

I listened to Ladona quite a bit when she was afternoons on the FM experiment. I came to realize that her talent is in talking loud and fast in a manner that makes it appear she's saying something important,when she's not: there was no substance behind the bluster and I don't think that's a producer thing, as much as a failing by management and talent. Her style works when she's reading a scripted newscast, but when winging it as a talk show host it's not enough.
 
I listened in on KOGO's afternoon show: it sounds like a bad morning show where the "comedy" consists of reading something from the news and then loudly exclaiming, "Dude...whats that all about?"

His blog page on the KOGO website further confirms his state of arrested adolescence with such headlines as "CINCO DE MERRILL PHOTOS," "MERRILL'S BABES PAGE," "Crazy Hot Teacher Forced To Resign For Racy Pics! View Them Here!," etc.

Nothing like having a low budget version of Bubba The Love Sponge to spice up alleged news/talk radio.
 
Mr_Radio_Diary said:
What is fascinating is the free fall in arbitrons for KOGO. Franklin is a veteran talk show host and Cliff Albert approached him and said he has to take LaDona as his partner.
Click to expand...

Does Cliff actually have a say-so or does he just pass along whatever the higher-ups decide should be done? If he does have a say-so, then can we conclude the KFMB radio news department back in the day happened by luck or was someone smarter than him calling the shots there?

I really think the model though for a great San Diego radio news/talk operation was KSDO in ther 80's and 90's up until Jacor/CC ruined them and finally moved the format over to AM 600 - but, did they ever have any decent ratings?
 
News and Talk (it seems like) since PPM hit in San Diego has really had some issues especially KOGO. KPBS has some really good news people and they are spending loads of money on employees. Of course they are subsidized by our tax dollars, and they can beg for money all day and night.

It's hard for commercial stations to justify hiring high priced talent in a diminishing market.

At least that heritage station licensed in 1925 is still on the air and is still viable!
 
azjason said:
And 760 is adding Armstrong and Getty to their morning lineup. This show does not sound small town at all... further illustrating KOGO's amateurish delivery.
Click to expand...

Again, KFI is kicking San Diego AM drive time radio back end all over the place. KOGO tells a veteran talk show host he needs a co-host (totally unheard of) Slater's show is moved up against Rush Limbaugh (I smell a contract expiring) to make room for an amateur comedic drive time show ala DSC, and of course, Larson and KCBQ is irrelevant, you will see PDs looking for new jobs in different cities pretty soon
 
Of course they are subsidized by our tax dollars, and they can beg for money all day and night.

It's hard for commercial stations to justify hiring high priced talent in a diminishing market.
[/quote]

The KPBS Facebook page says "11 percent of KPBS' budget comes from the federal government" and of course they are getting something from San Diego State University, but, I'll bet KOGO spends more on "talent" when you figure in the various talk show hosts who must be making more than a KPBS reporter.

KOGO's problem, though, is not that they don't have a subsidy, the problem is that they don't have a clue.
 
If KPBS-FM's budget is 10 million a year and 11% of that comes from the government then that would equal the entire KOGO talent budget for the year! KPBS does remotes with Neumann microphones and has an absurdly lavish news room most of which came from begging for it.

If KOGO was getting the state and federal money that KPBS-FM is they would have an amazing news department and top notch programming!! KPBS if they lost those funds would immediately cut back to the point (or worse) than KOGO or KFMB is right now!
 
600kogo said:
If KPBS-FM's budget is 10 million a year and 11% of that comes from the government then that would equal the entire KOGO talent budget for the year! KPBS does remotes with Neumann microphones and has an absurdly lavish news room most of which came from begging for it.

If KOGO was getting the state and federal money that KPBS-FM is they would have an amazing news department and top notch programming!! KPBS if they lost those funds would immediately cut back to the point (or worse) than KOGO or KFMB is right now!
Click to expand...

KOGO used to have an amazing news department back when they shared facilities with Channel 10 at Hwy 94 & 47th. They also shared people who went back and forth in the hallway.

In the pre-Proposition 13 days, the state government used to be glad to give state-owned stations constant equipment upgrades and first class offices and newsrooms. They didn't have to ask all that much.

The way City College's KSDS was upgraded from a basement in the back of San Diego High School next to Balboa Stadium (I did airshifts there, so I remember) to the palace that they got in 1971 was like moving from Imperial Beach (yik!) to the Taj Mahal.

Back in the bad old days, KSDS had an old Western Electric board that shocked you if you pushed certain buttons. The turntables did funny things. Suddenly, everything was 180 degrees different. The only thing station managers James Dark and Hope Shaw needed were turbans. They already had the dirty looks on their faces. : )

I'd hate to see them try to make an upgrade like that now.
 
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