The next thud you hear will be the other Adida finally hitting the floor at KIRO radio. Giant Entercom made the first move Thursday to start fixing this very sick radio station.
VP/Market Manager for all of the local stations, Kevin McCarthy was fired and quickly replaced by his counterpart from Denver, Jerry McKenna. McCarthy only lasted a year after being brought to Seattle from Clear Channel in San Diego.
Our guy at Eastlake says, "This turns the whole building upside down. Big changes [are] sure to quickly follow."
BlatherWatch has been reporting KIRO decline since March. For months now, we've been greeted with frank denials and sneers from Entercom management and employees with axes to grind.
But we were also overwhelmed with information from staffers worried about their jobs and sick about programming so clearly blunderful.
The blame went to PD Tom Clendening and General Manager Dave Pridemore. Besides the terrible programming decisions, there was some wicked Fisher Broadcasting stategery as well.
Then came the Winter Book and new ratings lows.
So today the pogrom starts...our sources say Clendening is toast, and Dave Pridemore will probably go back to sales pretty fast.
He says to watch how fast the bad KIRO programming changes are undone.
Can all the king's horses, men, etc. put this radio station back together again? Can they repair the morning news show--the vital ratings mainstay--that is down by about half in recent years? Will Dave Ross go back to mornings? Will Allan Prell get into daycare? Can Dori Monson, who helped engineer this bum line-up, trade places with the overnight guy, Lou Pate--the highest-rated KIRO talkjock? Will Erin Hart go to KPTK? Will Tony Ventrella run for Congress or have to be pushed? Could Frank Shiers please shut up? Will Mike Webb go back to DJ-ing Bar Mitzvahs? Can we have Val Stouffer back?
Our source says reviving the weakened, ignored sister station KTTH may actually be the easier than saving KIRO and asks: why doesn't it have a manager of its own?
We don't envy the next crop of managers at KIRO. We'll be watching and listening and you, dear readers, will be the first to know.
~~
What do you know about what's going on inside KIRO, KTTH, or KVI? Drop us a line at [email protected] Discretion assured.
" Could Frank Shier please shut up?"
Really? He's the best weekend host on local radio. Oh yeah, he's not a loony so he doesn't count.
Posted by: Lump | July 21, 2005 at 07:39 PM
KIRO-AM is still by far the highest rated news/talk radio station in the city of Seattle.
Posted by: umo | July 21, 2005 at 07:53 PM
They "fixed " something that wasnt really broken....So why not put all the players back where they were, send Dori to host Fear Factor to feed his need for shocking feats, and things should be ok again...although they lost a lot of people to KPTK and Im not sure they would go back to KIRO...If any local person should go to 1090 I would like to see Dave Ross be the 6-9 host and be the Seattle equivalent to Thom Hartmann in Portland.
Posted by: sparky | July 21, 2005 at 09:02 PM
I think having Dori Monson follow Dave Ross worked because Dave Ross is obviously smart and nuancefull, so you assume Dori must be that way by association and his self-worship must be an ironic contrast to his hidden sophistication underneath, but when he follows Allen Prell, who is self deprecating featuring dumb humor, I don't have that sophisticated after-taste and it makes his grand proclamations sound ridiculous. "This is brutal combat". Compared to what I heard five minutes ago? "The Seattle times won't touch it so I will right here", In a circus? Prell followed by Monson makes the overall IQ of the station drop and I feel stupid when I listen to it during the day so when Dave Ross finaly comes on my brain is all mushy and not prepared for the serious contemplation his show demands. They just need to hire some smarter hosts like KUOW has. Good products sell.
Posted by: Andrew | July 21, 2005 at 10:32 PM
"If any local person should go to 1090 I would like to see Dave Ross be the 6-9 host"
Now that would be the kiss of death to a career. Ross has gone from a high in the 9-12 hours to a drop in the 3-6 hours and could kiss his career goodbye and go to a station nobody listens to except the far left. I wonder why Ross is so revered? While obviously a smart man and appears to be decent, he has no humor or personality on the air. Perhaps he is different in person.
Posted by: Lump | July 22, 2005 at 08:18 AM
Blathering Mike: I am surprised you didn't comment on Ken Schram covering for John Carlson on KVI last night. Sparks were flying as Ken seemed to take perverse pleasure in provoking the KVI audience. He opened the show by informing listeners that John Carlson was absent because "John Carlson & Kirby Wilbur are currently en-route to Canada on a Pink Harley to tie the knot... with each other". He railed on I-912, sparred with listeners over gay marriage and repeatedly chastised Kirby & John for crossing the line on the 912 campaign. It was a wild and rocking show.
Posted by: Michael B. | July 22, 2005 at 08:28 AM
Michael: I heard it and enjoyed it too...the big KIRO story got in the way, but I'll be blogging Schram later...
Posted by: blathering michael | July 22, 2005 at 08:41 AM
Is a Schram something you report to the Better Business Bureau?
Posted by: Duane | July 22, 2005 at 09:49 AM
is there any audio of the schram bit? I'd love to hear that!
Posted by: windie | July 22, 2005 at 10:10 AM
It just occured to me having Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on AirAmerica substituting for Frankenstein and Schultzie (Love That Bob) would be equally entertaining. I wonder how many "attaboys" Ken got from the Fisher management for his efforts?
One Fisher "talent" ripping on other talent from the same company sounds like very foolish management to me. Dissing competitors on other stations can be fun, but not a good thing within the same company.
Some of the nastiest emails I have ever gotten have been from Ken Schram, himself. I wonder if Schram is yiddish slang for Schmuck? I can only think of him as a has been blowhard. But, alas, I know I am speaking to the wrong choir here!
Posted by: Duane | July 22, 2005 at 11:02 AM
You know Duane: I think Rush and Sean should sub on Air America once in a while. I consider myself conservative and thus I think it healthy to have one's worldview challenged occasionally. Echo chambers aren't healthy places.
BTW: I bet John asked Ken to sub for him.
Posted by: Michael B. | July 22, 2005 at 11:14 AM
duane seems pretty angry.
Posted by: windie | July 22, 2005 at 11:14 AM
Being able to recognize and understand humor is a sign of intelligence...if one finds Dave's too subtle, well....but Duane, anti semitism is never funny.
(Shram=Schmuck)
Oh wait, I forgot. Its ok when the Right does that...my bad...
Posted by: sparky | July 22, 2005 at 12:41 PM
Ditto, Sparky....Gevalt! Schmuck IS Yiddish slang, Duane...if you must make anti-semitic comments, use the proper slurs.
Posted by: Fremont | July 25, 2005 at 11:22 AM
Think Johnny sold the "salmon" Harley awhile back.
Posted by: sclub | January 18, 2006 at 12:40 PM