Updating a busy week with KGO and KNX

Part of local interest about KGO is due to premonitions (fears?) that the fate of their Bay Area sister station portends what will happen to the Cumulus station here in LA. There are also a good number of KGO veterans who traveled southward – we’ll share some of their comments below. But we're also guessing many remember KGO was once “the” station, news / talk or otherwise, sitting atop the ratings of the nation’s number four market between 1978–2009. You didn’t have to live in San Francisco to be aware of the station’s dominance.

A bit of a confession about my own obsession with KGO. I arrived in Northern California in 1977, when I started my college years at UC Davis. I was expecting to spend most of my time listening to KCBS, which I could hear every night while living on LA’s westside. I could hear KCBS in the Sacramento Valley, but a 500 Hz whistle (geeky enough for you?) made it somewhat difficult to hear. By comparison, KGO was loud and clear. I first became a fan of Ronn Owens who was, back then, doing the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift. I then listened regularly to their news blocks, featuring Jim Dunbar, Ted Wygant, and Harv Morgan with a complete team of radio journalists. It was KGO that helped me try to understand, not that it was rational, the tragedy of the People’s Temple in Guyana and the Rev. Jim Jones. That was soon followed by the shocking assassination of San Francisco George Moscone. I became a somewhat regular caller when Owens hosted “Now is That True?,” where callers tried to bluff the host with tales too good to be true (or not). When I returned to Los Angeles in the 80s, I still tuned into KGO at night, their 50,000 watt signal quite listenable (this was before streaming, of course). And on October 7, 1989, I was able to hear news anchor Ed Baxter and the KGO news team describe the mayhem associated with the Loma Pietra earthquake.

Last Monday, October 11, it was the debut of “810 The Spread.” A syndicated network called BetQL offered a show all about sports wagering, which dominated the daytime programming with the noted exception of Jim Rome midmornings. Cumulus Media, the station’s owners, maintained their enthusiasm for the new programming. It may compliment KNBR, their other sports outlet, but most still argue this is a way to drastically cut costs and possibly prepare AM 810 to be sold. Perry Michael Simon of AllAccess.com offers a comprehensive perspective of what happened to KGO.

But back to what happened on October 8. We previously described what happened after 10 a.m. on KGO on that Friday morning. Mark Thompson, the last voice heard before the end of KGO, provided some additional details as to what happened.

“I was told earlier that morning that KGO was done. I asked management ‘don’t you think we should say something?’ They replied, ‘no, this is what’s going to happen,’” recalled Thompson. “I asked again, don’t you think we risk bad blood with the audience? I could even spin (the upcoming changes) positively and invite listeners to stay tuned. Besides, we owed the audience a farewell. (Management) listened to me, even seeming to be in agreement, but reiterated they were going to sign off without comment.”

A couple of days have given Thompson an opportunity to reflect on his time at KGO. “I felt so proud to be on this legendary station. I was able to be a small part of that legend. It’s super sad.” He understood KGO personified what was happening to once-dominant AM stations around the country. “There were so many challenges in this environment. Yet the business has changed so quickly and so frequently.”

Mark Thompson, Tim Conway Jr.

“For those who don’t know, KGO was the KFI of the Bay Area, politics aside. It was a giant in the way KABC used to be a giant,” said Thompson. He said what happened a couple of Fridays ago was as “if KFI in LA had all of a sudden decided to change format. It’d be a shock to many.”

Speaking of KFI, Thompson said that he still had listeners in Los Angeles. “I had my former KFI audience from Laguna Beach, the westside and elsewhere, tuning in via the iHeart radio app, I’m so honored by that” adding “I still love KFI…I’ve received so much support from my KFI listeners” who heard of the demise of his KGO program.

“I hope to continue to accommodate my audience on another platform, maybe YouTube,” said Thompson. “I had a podcast called ‘The Edge with Mark Thompson,’ but it was dry docked whe I started at KGO. It may be revived.”

“We really tried to put together what I thought was an entertaining and fun show. Whatever I say sounds so maudlin, but whatever I did, you put a part of yourself into the show,” said Thompson.

One of KGO’s longest tenured hosts and arguably most well known is the aforementioned Ronn Owens. He once did a simulcast of his show on both KABC and KGO between 1997–1998 before returning exclusively to KGO, where his voice was heard throughout Northern California for over 45 years. “For me, it was wonderful to be there when we were a legendary station. I worked with total pros.” Hired originally by ABC, he said Cumulus “has always been nice to me, they always fulfilled their promises. I always had the freedom to say what I wanted to say.”

Owens provided his own synopsis of what’s happening to KGO and other one-time heritage stations. “I think Cumulus lost $20 million over the last nine years. They had to make some extreme decisions. Look what they did in New York, selling their major properties, WABC to a local entity and WPLJ-FM to a Christian format.” He said Cumulus didn’t do much to promote KGO, which also hurt listenership. Owens said the station got a taste of bartered and syndicated programs during weekends. “They made money on 15 minute shows that were willing to pay $15,000,” which made local shows far less profitable. “They’ll make money with their new format, but it’s a shame. What they’re doing (with KGO) is beneath them.”

Bob Saget, Ronn Owens, Jan Black (drewaltizer.com)

Though Jan Black never worked in LA, she has a nationwide reputation as an outstanding reporter and anchor. She worked at KGO – where she met her future husband Owens – throughout the 70s and mid-80s. “I think it’s so sad because KGO was such a centerpiece of the Bay Area for decades. People would tune in to try to make sense of all of the strange things in the world.” She noted “without KGO, there’s no place to vent and share other views in a cordial manner.” Both Owens and Black agreed “we had the best and most intelligent listeners in the world.” She cited if there was a breaking news story, such as an airplane crash, “Ronn would get five to ten pilots calling in to offer their expertise and experience to try to explain what may have happened.”

logopedia.com

“There are other ways people communicate on social media, but there’s something about hearing a human voice. Radio provides that intimacy and immediacy,” said Black. “(KGO gm) Mickey (Michael) Luckoff did a lot to reach out and into the local community through both the news and talk programs.” She said that may be why the station lasted as long as it did. “KGO was so well respected, other people in the business said if you have KGO on your resume, you’ve made it in radio.” She emphasized the reach of the 50,000 watt signal. “When Ronn was doing nights, he’d get calls from Canada, LA, San Francisco – he had a national audience.”

Julie Chin was hired away from KGO to become the news director at KNX. “KGO Radio will always have a special place in my heart. It was truly an honor to have worked there.” She said the best part was “the people. So Smart. So fearless. So dedicated. So connected and committed to the listeners and the community.”

John Phillips, Frank Mottek, Pete Arbogast

To reiterate from earlier postings, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of movement towards having KABC make the same format shift as KGO. John Phillips and Frank Mottek are noted local hosts, but the rest of the programming – including morning and afternoon drive – are syndicated fare, which made KABC considerably less expensive to run compared to KGO. That being said, KABC is the flagship station for Pete Arbogast and USC football, so feel free to offer your own forecast. As the late Jim Healy would state, “stay tuned.”

A new morning: We’d be remiss if we didn’t offer a bit more about what’s happened and what’s going to happen with KNX in the morning. Last Friday, Dick Helton signed off after a seemingly endless list of notables offered their tributes, including Audacy Chair David Field, Audacy Regional President Jeff Federman, California Governor Gavin Newsome, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer. Also checking in were former KNX anchors Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson.

What begins starting at 5 a.m. Monday morning is a revamped AM drive. Titled “LA’s Morning News,” former PM drive anchor Mike Simpson joins Vicky Moore and Jennifer York for what appears to be a more personality-driven, “fast-paced” effort. In particular, York, a veteran of the “KTLA Morning News,” will assume a more prominent role. So far, the new morning program is the most significant change offered by Alex Silverman, who recently succeeded Ken Charles as the station’s VP and Brand Manager. Up to this point, the changes have been relatively minor, such as changing the slogan of the station to “the people you know, the voices you trust.” Simpson will continue to co-host the station’s “In-Depth” midday interview program along with Charles Feldman.

It’s been busy: We’re not going to be able to ever emulate what Don Barrett offered at LARadio.com (which still exists posting past columns), but we did promise we’d try to stay on top of breaking news, we hope you’ve enjoyed our multiple offerings. Thanks to the many of you who’ve checked in and offered your thoughts and insights about what’s been happening recently, including tributes to the late Art Laboe, who many of us thought would go on forever. But as KGO and KCBS veteran Jan Black noted, “the cliché that nothing lasts forever is true.”

And if you’d like to know when we update the blog, send your email to ayodaradio@gmail.com. We don’t sell or reveal your information. Now it’s back to the day job.