seattle ratings: kiro frowns, kptk smiles, kvi grins, mike webb wears a bra

KIRO management and their mouthpieces like Gregg Hersholt keep writing us.

The snappish management writes nastily and anonymously in our Comments columns and make rude insinuations about our family tree and our sense of humor. Gregg, the funny morning news guy writes well-written signed letters to our email account that he BCC's to whomever he's trying to impress.

They should be impressed: Gregg writes a good and loyal letter for the company--so good in fact, we thought he was management...(memo to Mr.Clendening: promote Gregg).

They don't like the way blatherWatch has shone the light on KIRO's race to the bottom and think all we're about is an "eagerness to look for negative things to write about KIRO."

One thing they always say is: "KIRO is still the no.1 newstalk station in Seattle. PERIOD." (but what they don't say is that KIRO has also steadily descended from its longtime lock on no.3 down to no.6; and their dayparts looked like the Fallujah Hilton after the "liberation."

Well, they can't say that any more.

Sadly, in the latest Arbitrons Spring Phase 2 ratings, KIRO has sunk to no. 9  over all, its lowest ever. KOMOAM, its newstalk rival came up to no. 5. Only last fall, KIRO's share was at 5.0, they've now fallen to 3.7 from a 4.3 last month.

It's true that the Mariners playing baseball on KOMO has something to do with it--though no one could say with a straight face that the hapless M's are the reason for all of KIRO's problems.

There's more going on here.

The bigger picture is, as we've said over and over, some terrible programming decisions making it much easier for KOMO, much easier for Air America's KPTK, much easier for the Voice of Vashon, a radio station with a heart but no license. (As opposed to most stations who have a license but no heart).

What are the programming screw-ups? I guess we could reiterate them, again. PD Tom Clendening and his boss Tom Pridemore hired the annoying Allen Prell who is a total bust in the important 9a-12p slot, and put their ace-in-the-hole Dave Ross (m-f, 3-6p) in the afternoon drive where he must compete with "All Thing's Considered" and the Mariners.

They hired Tony Ventrella, (m-f, 6-9p) a good guy whose heart's not in it and his ratings sadly show it. (We hear he's seriously thinking about running for 8th District Congressman Dave Reichert and about to leave anyway).

Dori Monson (m-f, 12-3p) is jumping out of planes and giving away gift certificates for lap dances to get listeners. It's not working. 

Drag queens don't have the gravitas they used to, so Mike Webb's decision to cross-dress at his emcee gigs (god Mike, drag queens are so '90's!) has proven to be another bad career move that hasn't helped him get callers on his weeknightly disco nostalgia and political monologue show.

We were heartened to see liberal talker KPTK gain back a tenth point after losing two last month. Don't know where they're at in their promised quest for some local talent, but they'd better do it sooner than later.

We say that because the reason for another local success story in this book is directly accountable to local talkers with local issues.

KVI, (who lost Rush Limbaugh a couple of years ago to Entercom's startup KTTH) jumped four tenths and passed KTTH. They said it couldn't be done, but the local drivetimers, Kirby Wilbur (m-f, 5-9a) and John Carlson (m-f, 3-6p) drove the gubernatorial unvote and now the anti-road repair initiative into the winner's circle.

KTTH is programmed by the same geniuses (Clendening & Pridemore) who made KIRO what it is today--this failure is apparently a sin of omission. They thought they could ignore their little station once they got Big Pants on board. They were wrong. 

You know how blatherWatch feels about what KVI's Carlson and Wilbur are doing politically over there. We're flaming liberals, they're working for the Republican party, we hate it. But it's great for ratings--they've galvanized a community of loyal listeners that any talk-jock in town would trade a vital body part for.

When will the hammer come down at Entercom? How far can this descent go without someone being held accountable? When will Air American dare to stick its neck out and hire a local talker? We hope it's soon. The news coming out of these stations never changes.

Come on, boys, fire somebody, we're bored...

Comments

[Andrew]

How about Dave Ross take the 12pm - 3pm slot, that would be a winning move.

The problem with Allen Prel is that he doesn't act like a normal person, he acts like a caricature of a sick old man who gives his producer the creeps. I can't expect anything great from a person like that so when I listen to him I know I'm gauranteed to be a little disapointed every time and it's just a matter of time until the charade ends and he's gone. In that way he reminds me of "Scoot", who was a short lived 9-12 host on KOMO in the late 90's.

[Lump]

"We were heartened to see liberal talker KPTK gain back a tenth point after losing two last month."

Boy, it's really kicking ass in the Peoples Republik of Puget Sound. I feel your pain, but if it can't make it here, it can't make it anywhere. As soon as George Soros quits righting checks, what then will they do?

[Michael B]

Another insightful report, this is why I check what the BlatherWatch is up to several times a week.

[Duane]

Taking the easy and cheap way out to program a LOCAL radio station. There are far too many bean counters "programming" radio stations today, whether they are a talk station or a music station. The majority of these bean counters have NO clue about the broadcasting business. Certainly, there is a place for syndicated programs on a local station, but without any local voice a lister cannot find the "local" connection needed to be able to relate. Perhaps, the bean counters at Fisher (KVI) aactually being LOCAL owners got a clue about investing locally....Entercom (KTTH, KIRO), obviously doesn't get it and neither does Infinity (KTPK). When you go on the cheap expect to reap the fruit of what you have sown. NO audience. Seattle radio and TV were significally better when there were more local, pioneering broadcasters running the show. The out of town owners need to at least untie the hands local managements and purse strings to target "us" locals.

[sparky]

Life is too short to listen to crappy conservative radio! Thanks for doing it so I dont have to, Blathering Mike.

And I dont even want to think about Mike Webb in a bra....pass the brain floss, please..

[Duane]

I'm NO fan of Mike Webb, mostly because I am a conservative. But folks, he was a HORRID disk jockey at KIXI a few years ago.
Wonder if he got his bra caught in a cd player? Anyway, his act went "tits up" there.

[Alma Gradhandt]

I would like to have Erin Hart become a fulltime Kiro talkhost.

[sparky]

Erin, have you no shame....