Conservative talk radio was invented in Seattle, now it’s as endangered as the wild Puget Sound salmon. and let’s face it, save Dave Ross, there ain’t no local liberal talk.
With the KVI’s elimination of Kirby Wilbur, another block of local airtime went to out-of-town, out-of-touch, syndicated blabbermeisters- sending a butt-load of ad $ somewhere else.
Billy Bob (whose name is neither Billy nor Bob) worked long in
the Seattle radio market wearing a suit. He says the experience
heightened his sense of irony, augmented his influences, and diminished his circle of friends.
By Billy Bob
Soon, we may run out of radio people to talk about, but
until then, step aside Dear Abby. For I have some more of our readers’
bone-headed questions and my incredibly insightful retorts.
Dear Billy: I see all this crap
on your stupid Blatherwatch and the message boards
attacking Bonneville for firing morning news gal Jane Shannon from KIRO's Gregg Hersholt
show. But don't you think Bonneville knows what they're doing? The
ratings are at an all-time low. Revenue is off. I'm sure they do research
and I'm sure they had good reasons for getting rid of Jane. Signed, Eastlake Insider
Dear EI: Yes, Jane Shannon is primarily
responsible for KIRO's decline.
Liberals had a good night in Washington.
(photo: Dow Constantine)
Once again, it’s plain that despite the bluster, the blather, and hours of blatant advocacy, conservative talk radio KIROFM, KTTH, and KVI are origami tigers when it comes to delivering votes for conservative candidates, and conservative candidates.
Continue reading "Election night, 2009: liberals- 3; talk radio- 0" »
~~ Live & yokel. Fascinating man, Frank Shiers (KIROFM m-f,7-11p). That's why he gets the press he gets... in Bremerton. In a great piece with great pictures, his hometown paper, The Kitsap Sun, gives us the lowdown on the Frank, who may be Too Ugly To Die (TUTD). We especially liked it because Steven Gardner thoughtfully included a couple of nasty comments of ours about Frank. If you read the whole thing you'll find out that Frank was disappointment to his father too.
It was too beautiful to live. Turns out that the little show that could, couldn't, at least on terrestrial radio.
Too Beautiful to Live (KIROFM m-f, 7-10p) it's the little show that might've. After risking its life 5 days a week for one year and nine months, KIROFM has cancelled the quirky, smart radio world created by Luke Burbank, Jen Andrews, and Sean DiTore.
KVI, the KIROs and KTTH begging for money like NPR?
Radio-info's Sean Ross posed an interesting question to radio pros: "What commercial radio station would you pay to keep on the air?"
So we're asking you the talk radio listeners- who would you actually pay for?
(photo: Kirby Wilbur how much would you pledge?)
Continue reading "How much would YOU pay... to keep kirby wilbur on the air?" »
KIROFM's return to live and local on the late night it isn't exactly the way we'd do it,
When we said, "it's the programming, stupid," we weren't advocating stupid programming.
Rod Arquette announced today that Frank ("Shiver") Shiers will start Monday on the late night slot now inhabited by Phil Hendrie from 10p to 1a.
He left the shift in January 2008, and has been doing fill-in work, board operation, voice-overs and sprucing up the restrooms ever since.
Continue reading "Frank shiers to KIROFM's live & local evenings; KTTH keeps rush, beck" »
When Big Weather arrives, flipping on the radio is still what people do first.
(We're having a "snow event," as they say in newsrooms these days, a term we find as annoying as "window treatments," or "water features").
Bad weather is non-controversial, and irrefutable. It's a negative outrage perpetrated by God and not a politician, or your neighbor. Everyone experiences it simultaneously and has an opinion about it which usually boils down to: it sucks!
People love to talk about the weather. It's a perfect storm, if you will, for talk radio -- KOMO and KIRO's lines have been jammed all weekend with people who never call radio shows, but just want to bitch a little, share a harrowing experience or nugget of information from their neck of the woods.
We love hearing live radio on the weekend, and only wish this weren't so rare, and limited only to snowmeggeddon or other catastrophes.
Gotta admit, listening to KIRO bsack-up host Frank Shiers sans his deluded politics is an improvement; he's certainly better skilled at chat radio than his evening counterpart Jennifer Harriman over at KOMO. She did a yeoman's job, but comes from music radio, and hasn't had the hours and
Photo: KIRO's Frank "Shiver" Shiers)
hours and hours of talk radio that Frank had the opportunity of perpetrating on all of us over the years. (that's the closest you're going to get to a compliment out of us, Frank. We're just glad KIRO management didn't call on the insufferable Peter Weissbach who they recently stole from Fisher). While his kind of non-adversarial talk warms our hearts, it bores the shit out of us... That said, we'll be the first to say: when this kind of homey, local radio of shared community went away -- a wide swath of audience left too.
(phot: Komo's Jennifer Harriman)
We're always predicting the demise of radio, and bitching about how nobody but old people listens to it any more. But dump 12 inches of snow on a population and see how lame new media can be at connecting communities and disseminating information.
We've had the 2nd string in all weekend on KIRO and KOMO, but you can bet the first stringers on Monday will continue the weather talk, and the lines will keep filling up no matter what else is happening in the world.
Frank "Shiver" Shiers, former KIRO talk host, and KBSG oldies jock (who calls everyone "dude," even girls) is back at it on KIRO tonight with the blow-by-blow minutia about the weather.
Jennifer "Stormy" Harriman is giving "driver-to-driver coverage" and is taking callers on KOMO1000 midst breaking storm news.
Both stations say they'll be on all night reporting road conditions, emergency announcements, storm horrors, road closures; and neverendending blabber about horizontal snow, compact snow & ice, carbon monoxide; full-blown blizzards; four wheel drive, chains, traction tires; big dumps, big rigs; wind chill factor, flashlight picnics; having sex without talking your clothes off; heating coffee with car batteries; thawing frozen toddlers, etc.
Talk radio and the Republican Party are intertwined, and both are sinking, and their problems are mirror images of each other.
We've told you many times: neither has had much success enticing and hanging onto young, black, or Latino people nor any other than the fast-fading demographic than whites of a certain age, mostly male.
Talk radio hasn't even tried to win them, and the Republicans don't know how...
For one thing, with few exceptions talk radio's product hasn't changed even for those of us whom they've been targeting -- it's still the old "stir-'em-up & get-'em-to-call" routine based by definition on negativity, anger, cynicism -- or if the host is really good -- all three.
Continue reading "Talk radio and the GOP: adrift on the same iceberg..." »
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