tony ventrella, 2005-2005 R.I.P.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered...
forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives...
be kind anyway. --In the Final Analysis by Mother Theresa

Tony Ventrella won't be back tomorrow.

The Big KIRO Purge that began last week with 9 to nooner Allen Prell, continued tonight with Ventrella's well-shorn head falling in the basket. No warning, no party, just the sad sound of a desk being cleaned out and the smell of flop sweat around the tense cubicle ranch ravaged by rumors, paranoia and intenuendo.

Who's next?

Mike Webb, directly following Ventrella and his brave-hearted swan song, stirred out of his usual ennui and acted actually interested and energetic on-air as the landscape literally shifted around him--nothing like the smell of death to perk a guy up...

After a normal show packed with inside baseball about football, Tony Ventrella, like the motivational speaker he is, read In the Final Analysis, a corny but uplifting bit of poesy by Mother Theresa. He then said goodbye to his few good listeners and that he'd be around for his Seahawk's Huddle Thursdays (7-9p) and would otherwise be doing TV, and finishing his second book.

We missed his first one, Smile in the Mirror, a primer for his positive energy work which might give you a toothache if you don't brush right after reading.

Ventrella, the collegial Mr. Nice who has graced the KIRO airwaves since January, never really clicked-in with the snarly talk radio audience who loves to see blood in the water at least once a day. Ventrella, a barber and a son of a barber, treated listeners like they were haircutting customers asking after their mothers or if they'd like a little more off the top. It didn't work. Listeners said, "Hell, if I want nice-nice, I'll just talk to my barber."

Who's next?

The rumblings and cataclysms heard around the once-mighty KIRO are not the pitiful seismics of the lame Eastlake management. An insider wrote us today and said, "What you need to know is that the decision to fire Prell came from way over Clendening and Pridemore's head. They did not want to make this move right now."

Who's next?

Apparently the slow-moving suits at Entercom headquarters in Bala Cynwyd, PA. finally began the inevitable for the foundering station. Our guy wrote, "Radical changes are needed in the line up and management structure, and most of us hope this comes soon."

There's real turmoil at Entercom, they don't need this right now. Today, they also fired Peter Blute, a former GOP Congressman and morning co-host at Boston's WRKO where there was a major recent management upheaval. 

We're hoping that the Entercom makes management replacements as well as offing the talent so mishired and mismanaged. That means Clendening must go or... something. It'll happen--as an insider wrote: "Bottom line is, when your programming decisions start coming from corporate, you are in deep shit."

We've been writing about and predicting this since March. When we got into this talk radio blog, we never dreamed that KIRO, our favorite station, and the only remotely liberal one in the market at the time, would ever be the object of our intense scrutiny and criticism. But we've watched the programming slide, the ratings tank and good staffers become disillusioned, dejected, fired and flown.

A not untypical remark we hear is like the one we heard today from a longtime Eastlake employee: "Most of us are dumbfounded, depressed, and disgusted that the station has been taken into the toilet like this."

Who's next?

Comments

[Lazy Murrow]

If KIRO really wants to clean up and move forward, the biggest skidmark in their drawers is Dori Monson. Scrub that stain out and they might see some improvement.

[Talk Show Junkie]

I'm very happy Allen Prell is gone. The constant moaning about his inabilities was VERY annoying. I was indifferent about Tony Ventrella. Keep Dori Monson tho! He provides a libertarian view point that is needed in a worsening two party broadcast. How about bring Erin Hart into the 6-9pm slot!

[K]

Where's Rick Miller when you need him? C'mon!

[Sparky Anderson]

I like Tony a lot...too bad being nice is a fault in radio-land ..

I certainly hope that Dori Monson is on the chopping block...I will be honest and admit that I dont listen to KIRO anymore, and probably wont unless they were to bring in Thom Hartmann, so it really doesn't matter to me--but Dori is like a huge infection..it was apparently under his insistence that all these changes were made, so let's hold him accountable too.

[sparky]

Dori is not a true libertarian.
Erin belongs right where she is.

[umo]

Don Oneill of "ron & don" fame is doing political talk on KIRO? That is rich. Don has spent his entire radio career doing dick jokes.

[sparky]

Dick jokes?

Dick Cheney?

Dick Nixon?

Dick Clark?

[Andrew]

Dori Monson probably gets good ratings because he baits for confrontation. Yesterday he said that because FEMA debit cards were used for strippers that the government shouldn't help people who didn't insure themselves. He purposefully threw the baby out with the bathwater just to make some people mad and other people realy happy but he didn't aknowledge any compromises, like perhaps food stamps, because that doesn't get reactions out of people. I would prefer that they hire talk hosts who are fun to listen to because of who they are and not because they manipulate the audience.

[SpamButcher]

Thank god he's out of there.

Nice guy or not - classic case of "someone who had nothing to say, but said it anyway" - made for bad talk radio from day 1.

Made the mostly benign Dave Ross seem like a wild man.

[Food Critic]

<>

I've seen this before, on this blog, and I find it hard to believe. Dori has more say over the station than Dave Ross??

[Food Critic]

"Dori is like a huge infection..it was apparently under his insistence that all these changes were made"

OOPS! Thats what I meant.

[BL]

I enjoyed listening to Alan Prell and will miss him. How about Carl Jeffers as a replacement? I enjoyed his analysis on many of the issues. He's more of a reasonable Dave Ross type.

[J_P_K]

I like Carl Jeffers. I really thought he would get the AM slot when they moved Dave to afternoons. I'm not sure that he could fill 3 hours 5 days a week tho. Thom Hartmann from 9 to noon would be great! Oh wait, we already have that! :)

[ChetBob]

Tony just didn't have much to bring to the table. I like that comment that he made Ross seems like a wild man.

I guess they want to be all Dori all the time.

I stopped listening to Dori when he became a full-time right wing ideolog. Dori is not a libertarian. He loves government control just the way the Bush Republican party loves it. Serious closet racist too. His righty schtick is way beyond just "creating conflict for ratings" now. He is really into it. I suppose he kept himself in check before Bush proved you can say or do any outrageous thing and get away with it. I doubt its all that good for KIRO overall though.

[ChetBob]

Hey, where can one go to see radio ratings numbers anyway?
thanks

[Eric Johnson]

What? Dori bad Libs good? Oink oink!

[Chad Stanley]

Just curious - when Fred Ebert mysteriously disappeared, how was he doing in the ratings book? I actually enjoyed his rather offbeat professorial style. Wouldn't mind hearing him again (or Charles Jaco for that matter).

[Eric Johnson]

For all of you ratings driven liberals, and for whoever drives this blog, who do you think is the number one rated radio station in the Seattle market? Well of course you know the answer, and they don't need a blogger to validate their existence. It is KMPS, a station that plays patriotic and moral superior music to the rest of your liberal garbage. Country is where the decent hippies went after the slime and Marxist extremists were exposed. KMPS #1! God Bless America. Eric - an atheist

[Eric Johnson]

Fred Ebert was a sick pathetic individual who hopefully has been institutionalized for his own good. Perhaps he will pose for the queer man looking at the naked boy statue Seattle proposes. Islam awaits you fools!

[Eric Johnson]

So doesn't that kill you people, that country music speaks for America and not your provincial Seattle queer agenda? This is only the beginning of the backlash. Michael Savage will be the next one to upset your applecart. We stand against you and many more do than the alphabet networks want you to know. Don't be fooled! We outnumber you and are strong. Eric

[Eric Johnson]

Did you guys know that Country is #1 in Anchorage, Ak Minneapolis, Mn, and many more true patriotic venues? How does it feel to be behind the curve when it comes to recent trends?

[Eric Johnson]

Country listeners lead the nation by huge margin. Wake up liberals!

[joanie]

You need to get a life, Eric.

[Brian Beachboy]

Country music stations do well in markets like Seattle because of all the beer-swilling, pot-bellied, in-bred, dysfunctional alcoholics in places like Monroe and Smokey Point.

They hop in their oversized pick-ups with Bush bumper stickers and, of course, support sending others to Iraq. They listen to fat asses like Charley Daniels, and, like Daniels, are too goddamn cowardly to go sign up and fight the war themselves.

They think W really does have a ranch. They think he really was a fighter pilot. And they think he really knows what he's doing.

They think the artists they listen to on KMPS are truly patriotic conservatives. But 90% of them are hollywood pretty-boys/girls who have been taught to talk and sing with a twang so the hillbilly retards will buy their cds.

[Eric Johnson]

Great arguement Joanie. What specific point didn't you agreed with? As for beachbaby, first of all, I believe Bush is a moronic idiot who couldn't run a hot dog stand much less prosecute a war properly. We are far too kind to our enemies. We waited too long to go in, stopped too soon and tried to use boys instead of bombs to destroy them. We shouldn't care what the UN thinks when they are infested with corrupt dictatorships. We have the power and are the kindest most giving country ever in the history of the planet. We should not be afraid to use the power to rid the world of those who wish to destroy us. The innocent that die in the process die because of the enemy not us! The country music reference was to point out how insignificant liberal talk is. What is Air Americas ratings in Seattle or anywhere? The NPR crowd are the arrogant but naive fools of today. 40 years ago the naive were the conservatives. Now the worm has turned. Oh and when did you serve in the military beachbaby? If you did, I would have been sure to distance myself from you on the battlefield.

[sparky]

Im sure Eric will be signing up to fight the righteous war first thing Monday morning!

And kids, lets check Billboard's Country Charts for this week's Morally Superior Hits!

"Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" by
Neil McCoy

"Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" by Joe Nichols

"Stay With Me in My Brass Bed" by
Josh Gracin

"Hits I Missed, and One I Didn't" by George Jones

" I Love This Bar" by Toby Keith

" All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan" by Kenny Chesney

"Keg in the Closet" also by Kenny

"Alcohol" by Brad Paisley

"Domestic, Light and Cold" by
Dierk Bentley,

"I Love Her, She Hates Me" by Darryl Worely

"Here For The Party" by Gretchen Wilson.

I could list more, but, all this morality is making me a little tipsy...(hic)

[joanie]

Love it, Sparky! Thanks. I quit reading Eric as he stopped making sense after a while.

(My comment from an earlier post but in response to discussion above)
Occasionally I like Monson because he can surprise you with some practicality. But, generally his mean spiritedness and lack of a global understanding of issues finally triggers me to turn him off. He thinks he's smarter than he is and that is deadly.

Frank Shiers? Pompous, condescending to callers, self-absorbed, inaccurate, thinks he's an expert on everything! (he reads one book and thinks he knows it all!), and insufferable.

Enough said?

POLITICAL PULPIT: Charles Jaco - one excellent host! Wish he were back!

[Eric Johnson]

Pardon my absence! I don't look at this site often. Well Sparky and Joanie, first of all, when one is unable to see the humor in the message those country artists craft, then it shows your lack of tolerance for diversity and perhaps your need for open mindedness or diversify training! Why these artists are only singing their "feelings" about where they come from much the same as those who call themselves "hip hop" artists and promote hatred and the destuction of the police or their ho's or whatever! I'm surprised that you two extremely enlightened people fail to see this! Well I suppose that tolerance is meant only for the liberals and not the logical sensable ones. Eric

[sparky]

Eric...we have moved on. You should too.

[chris]

I'm surprised that herpes and gonadaria is not covered by those country and western artiste with all the wife-swapping they sing about.