A presidential prodigal son, and a portly sports commentator were fired today to make way for new programming at KIRO.
There goes another liberal off the air, and sports talk is gone form a major outlet.
Today's announcements In short:
~ The weekdaily news starts at 5a,(infomercials eliminated from 5-6a)
~ Dave Ross is stays on the 9-ta-noon
~ Dori goes back to 12 to 3p
~ the Ron & Don Klown-hour still safe from 3 to 6p
~ Veteran news anchor Tony Miner will host The Big Story, an hour of long-form news
of the day with clips from the talk shows~ A new undisclosed, as yet unnamed local 7-10p evening show will start
up in September~ Frank "Shiver" Shiers has been hired to continue his irritating weeknightly
smarmfest from 10-1a~ the Re-Ross, apparently will continue on the overnight
~ No changes announced for weekends
(photos: top: tony miner: bottom: frank shiers)
Miner's new show starts tomorrow, Tuesday. Mike Brown will fill-in the old Vinnie spot doing sports until the new show begins.
They're cutting back CBS news from 9a to 7p in order to change the clock to increase talk time by 8 minutes an hour.
That's because, it ain't 'NewsRADIO 710KIRO' anymore: it's 'NewsTALK 710KIRO," and don't you forget it!
There are all manner of new promos, new and more energetic on-air imaging coming to the station.
The help seemed pretty pleased, we hear, particularly about the clock
changes, and promises by management of more promotion of the station's
products.
KIRO has been more or less stagnant for over a year, and this is the first big moves by new owner Bonneville, who won the station in a poker game earlier this year.
We're really curious about the new evening show. We're glad that it'll be produced locally- KIRO suits underscored in the meeting today that BLATHERWATCH WAS WRONG! (they love saying that) when we guessed KSL's The Nightside Project would be coming to KIRO. Our speculation was based on some very specific remarks in a trade publication and elsewhere by Bonneville suits.
Wonder what made them change their minds?
Having attended WSU with both Miner and Shiers, I am really pleased for Tony's continued opportunity. He is a good guy, a good reader and conveys the impression he knows what he is talking about and that he isn't seeing the words he is speaking for the first time as he says them. I don't know how much, if any, actual reporting he does, but I will give a listen to this new cast just because Tony is doing it. As for Frank, well all I can say that hasn't been said many ttmes here before is that he has always been quite an entraprenuer and he was not a conservative in college. He is one now because he figured out that is where the money is. That's it. And one final note I could tell stories about both Tony and Frank from their Pullman days that I know they haven't shared on air. Bwwwhahahahahaha!
Posted by: siwel | August 06, 2007 at 03:53 PM
I have hung in with KIRO because I see them (up until now) as THE radio news source. Now that is gone. I can't stand Monson because he listens to no one and does research only to support his agenda...regardless of facts. I tire of hearing his voice every commercial break. Shiers is an idiot...at least he palys one on the radio. His topics are boring. Vinnie was kind of pointless after KIRO lost the mariners. Reagan was great but the one hour format was far too short for any real discussion. I may still lsiten to Dave...unless there is some rap dude talking about "hang over monday"...didn't take long to turn that crap off this morning.
I'm setting the first am button to KOMO...although they make my stomach turn...at least I get news...and I'm going to buy a CD player. Guess the Mormons decided to bring Utah radio to Seattle.
Fare thee well KIRO
Posted by: jamesb | August 06, 2007 at 04:18 PM
Now wait just a DURN minute! No more All Along The Watchtower intro at 7 past noon anymore!?! That sucks! Besides, Ron is such a decent host.
And the two idiots are still there?
One right now talking about having just a ranch somewhere with Llamas living next door? A 35 mph tractor? If Osama hauled those two off to Blake Island to be used for barbeque sause I personally would forgive him.
Local talk between 7 & 10? Does anyone listen to the radio then? Who would want that spot? Give it to Joannie, Duffman & Sparky.
What will happen to Seahawk talk on thursdays? Hmmmm...... Is KIRO going to let go of sports? The suits at KOMO must be drooling.
Oh well, whatever will be, will be.
Me, I like rabbits.
Posted by: Ryder | August 06, 2007 at 04:20 PM
A monkey could do a better job of programing. What audiance are they shooting for? What thinking person would listen to R&D? I sort of had hope for the Utah thing, seemed kind of like the old talknet
Posted by: Rich | August 06, 2007 at 04:27 PM
I just had a flash! There going to bring back Styble.
Posted by: Rich | August 06, 2007 at 04:29 PM
Do I understand this? They're dropping top of the hour news between 9 am & 7 pm?
Plus the Mormans have turned KBSG into KJR-FM?
Any of you old enough to remember when listening to the radio was exciting?
Me, I still like wabbits
Posted by: Ryder | August 06, 2007 at 04:40 PM
Dropping CBS News on the hour seems like a mistake, just because it provides support for the local news effort. Maybe somebody else will pick it up (KTTH? KIXI?).
I have to wonder just how much business all those Monson spots produce. He has never learned how to deliver sales copy, and the same voice all the damn time for multiple sponsors makes all of them less effective. It's likely that most listeners mentally tune out whenever they hear him outside his own program time. My own theory is that he's taking his "talent" fees in trade, so the advertisers pay less for the production and time than they would for a real announcer.
And dropping Ron Reagan is a loss, but that one-hour slot never really worked, did it? It wouldn't surprise me to see KUOW/KXOT do something with him. It wouldn't take a lot of changes to turn that hour into a syndicated program for public radio.
Posted by: rev | August 06, 2007 at 05:22 PM
I'm sorry Ryder that w/have to be the Duffman, joanie & sparky show (hey...just being alphabeticaly, ya know...)...IF they could even afford me. [My first guest would have to be Mrs Clinton, ya know]
:o)
..and what a deal that w/be for KIRO...they would get 'coiler' as a bonus!
Posted by: Duffman | August 06, 2007 at 05:50 PM
What a train wreck.
Posted by: sparky | August 06, 2007 at 06:46 PM
Not a good year for leftwing talk radio. Air America implodes, two KIRO lefties shown the door. NY Vinnie is almost as far left as Rosie O'Donnell. Reagan had a good voice, was articulate - agreed with his views less than half the time. The rest of them must have brown-nosed the management enough to stay on.
Posted by: KS | August 06, 2007 at 07:36 PM
Almost like the new KIRO brass is guessing how to run it. Hire Shiers? WHY? Ross rerun? WHY?
Posted by: Flub | August 06, 2007 at 09:11 PM
My world will be complete when they hire The Sty full time.
Posted by: sparky | August 06, 2007 at 09:14 PM
We think Shiers is a schmuck. We don't like Ron and Don. Nothing more boring than hearing life long friends talk to each other on the radio. We don't think Sir Mix-A-Lot is da bomb. We think the people who run KIRO are crazy MFs.
Posted by: Gusto | August 06, 2007 at 11:00 PM
we agree.
Posted by: sparky | August 06, 2007 at 11:15 PM
One can hope that the 7-10pm slot will be Goldy's before he ossifys.
Posted by: mark | August 06, 2007 at 11:41 PM
Of course Goldy will get the slot. You guys LOVE him!! So what if he has a whiney-sounding voice (your words, not mine)? It's perfect for delivering the liberal point of view! yeaaa, Goldy!
Btw, if "Leftist talk" was really popular with the masses, why would it have such a bomb year? Isn't that really the market saying "This stuff is yucky?" Maybe they just don't like listening to people run down the US of A so chronically. It scares people.
Posted by: Meeemee | August 07, 2007 at 12:51 AM
Of course Goldy will get the slot. You guys LOVE him!! So what if he has a whiney-sounding voice (your words, not mine)? It's perfect for delivering the liberal point of view! yeaaa, Goldy!
Btw, if "Leftist talk" was really popular with the masses, why would it have such a bomb year? Isn't that really the market saying "This stuff is yucky?" Maybe they just don't like listening to people run down the US of A so chronically. It scares people.
Posted by: Meeemee | August 07, 2007 at 12:51 AM
I don't understand how these changes are supposed to improve ratings. I can see how nixing Reagan helps because although he's a big name and has a thousand positive qualities, he's not a good talk radio host, and segueing from Ross the Monson keeps people riled up without a pause for breath.
But it seems idiotic the take out the hourly updates and insert a one hour news feature in the early evening. Is it a news station or not? Hello?
And what made Frank Shiers so hirable after all these years of being a last choice fill in? He sucked then and he sucks now. There is no one less deserving of a microphone than that smarmy son of bitch. His show condensed: "I'm better than you, you disagree with me because you're a dumb person and my daughter is much, much more beautiful than you daughter."
I feel like there's nothing good to listen to anymore. Ron & Don are dumb, Monson is a scummy human being, Ross is a dispassionate observer, all the Air America hosts are left wing fruitcakes, and every other station is conservative nutjobbery around the clock. I'm lost and I have nowhere to turn. I think I might start talking to myself. I'll put on a decent friggin radio show in my own head.
Posted by: Andrew | August 07, 2007 at 02:38 AM
lOOK for Shiers to be in major neenerneenerneener mode this week , as he takes this hiring as a vindication of him as a bigtime talent. Of course he still is nothing og the sort, still an imperious, asinine anti-intellectual submediocrity who caught a huge break when dumb- as -toast Mormon apes took control of the station. Dopes tend To hire dopes. IT'S THE COMFORT ZONE THING. I really exposed this "phony with the airs of special legal knowledge because Dad was a lawyer" when I called him via email on his misunderstanding of the definition of perjury (the lies have to be material to the case, not just lying under oath). At first he pulled his usual, as Andrew put it, "I'm better than you/you're dumb/my daughter is superior" crap by arrogantly laughing me off as a crank. Then lawyers in the audience began enailing me to confirm my corrction of him, and after the break he had magically changed the argument from whether he was right about the meaning of perjury to whether Bill Clinton's lies were indeed material to the case or not. It was a concession without any onair apology and admisssion that he was wrong- the mark of a cowardly weasel. Go to Hell, FRANK.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 07, 2007 at 05:06 AM
sorry should have read "then lawyers in the audience began emailling him" not "emailing me".
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 07, 2007 at 05:08 AM
Monson should be required to name the radio network and the date of job offer the next time he drops the word about his supposed mysterious syndicated radio show offer. He likes to mention this every once in a while. Of course he couldn't take the job and the much bigger money because he couldn't move from his hometown. Not even considering Monson's smalltime radio voice/delivery/presence, This story smells bigtime because I know that radio netwroks just don't need to have the host relocate anymore. Network shows are being done from cities across the nation.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 07, 2007 at 05:47 AM
Love Dave Ross, don't mind Dori Monson and can stand Shires. So, with exception of R&D, I'm good to go and don't mind this line-up at all. Sorry to see R.R go; an evening slot w/have been nice for him but like someone said I doubt he'd want it.
It will now be interesting to see what KVI will do (if anything) - I may still be tempted to switch to the Lt. at afternoon drive time but other than that it's KIRO and (of course) XM for me.
Again, I would like to see Styb get something on KIRO for his passion and devotion to radio...I doubt they would even have to pay him? :o)
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 05:49 AM
Oh..and I thought KIRO could have considered mercifurious for the replacement hour that RR occupied.
Could have called it the 'STFU Hour' featuring merci & his minions in a big 'MeetTheStress' extravaganza! ;o)...HEY..I'd listen..as I drank my noon milk!
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 06:04 AM
P.S.
Merci was right...Im not really a liberal. Fooled you!
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 06:51 AM
Post of 06:51 is obviously an imposter.
Very C.S. of you!!!
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 06:54 AM
...but the post was actually correct since I'm not really a 'liberal' (whatever that means), I'm an INDEPENDENT who happens to vote (most of the time) for a Democrat.
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 06:58 AM
uh. The second picture is not Frank Shiers. It's former KLSY morning funny guy Tim Hunter. Who is still funny and not at all smarmy.
Posted by: beenthere | August 07, 2007 at 09:55 AM
Shiers and Monson both claim to be independents. In both cases, their brains are independent from reality.
Posted by: jamesb | August 07, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Ya they're independants who constantly complain about liberals and social crutches, but have no beef with conservatives or the private sector. Puleeez.
Posted by: Andrew | August 07, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Sir Andrew: I must ask you to follow your own rule - before posting think it out and determine if it is 'obvious' or not before you post. 'Puleeez.'
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Uh, yeah whatever.
Posted by: Andrew | August 07, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Just kidding Sir Andrew...always enjoy your posts!
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 12:38 PM
Dori said "...here on the Big Show" then whispers "I have to keep saying that or someone is going to take my ... service mark". Rank Shiers used to always say that. Maybe he still does, I wouldn't know. I love it! Please, reveal more infighting.
Posted by: Andrew | August 07, 2007 at 01:30 PM
Post of 01:33 another C.S. imposter.
I suppose I should be complimented that merci is so obsessed...ha
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 01:35 PM
Bla'm; is this cool?
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 01:48 PM
Guess there isn't a low to which you won't sink. Smacks of the lows you hit when tearing a particular someone apart herein with your posts! I feel sorry for you dude!
-the 'real' Duffman
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 02:15 PM
Who do you mean by "you"? That aint me doing that.
Posted by: Andrew | August 07, 2007 at 02:50 PM
The party to whom I refer is 'well aware' of who he/she is.
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Hey! cut it out. I wanted Duffy to take me to Paris along with his asshole, Gary. Now it won't happen.
Posted by: Duffman's minge | August 07, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Post of 2:15 yet another imposter. I'm flattered, really. But no, you are the truly sad individual here. Sad! :0(
-the 'one and only' Duffman
Posted by: Duffman | August 07, 2007 at 07:23 PM
Not quite sure how dropping CBS on the hour makes sense. A talk station that purports to seriously comment on the news has to, well, have the news as a foundation. Otherwise, it can rapidly descend into blithering factless opinion. There's certainly enough of that in the market already. KIRO, at least by long-time reputation (if not in fact), took a higher road.
I mean, even The Daily Show works because it sets up the stories as straight news before it delivers the punchline.
I suspect KIRO dropped the entire CBS hourly newscast, rather than just running a shorter version of it, because carrying any of the newscast probably carried with it a requirement to run a certain number of network commercials per hour. This may be as much about local ad inventory as it is about returning time to the talk shows. I could, however, be wrong.
KIRO has been foundering for years. Now, it basically is surrendering the remaining local radio news audience to KOMO, KPLU and KUOW.
However, it will be interesting to see how Tony's hour works out. I've worked with him in the past, and he's a decent news anchor.
Posted by: Seattlenerd | August 07, 2007 at 07:32 PM
With Vinnie gone and the Ron and Don Show not fitting in my drive time anymore, I will be finding a new radio station. Maybe asking the consumer what they wanted would have been a better direction.
Posted by: Ed | August 07, 2007 at 08:15 PM
Ed, you silly guy! KIRO management has never ever cared what its audience wanted.
Posted by: sparky | August 07, 2007 at 08:36 PM
No more CBS news on the hour fits right into the new, dumbed down KIRO that this gang of apes in suits have created. Hiring Frank Shiers officially is a nod and a sellout to the 60% of Americans that believe in Creationism. The gang of apes seem to be touting Monson as their main man, with lots of promotional clips of him supposedly talking to a caller, that seem to be actually scripted lines delivered by him in a production booth, rather than real outtakes from his show. Lionizing a twerp like Monson also fits into their dumbed down radio concept perfectly. This afternoon he was crowing about keeping an old man whose legal rights were trampled on in jail because after all "he confessed".
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 07, 2007 at 10:50 PM
I was going to write "gang of Mormon apes in suits" but that would have been mean.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 07, 2007 at 11:27 PM
Ha! Good timing.
Posted by: Andrew | August 08, 2007 at 01:04 AM
So, we're hearing a lot about the demise of KIRO; how 'bout we wait and see how their ratings do and actually give them a chance.
For as many as seemingly condem them - there are certainly a lot that seemingly know everything about them! Hmmmmmm
If you switch to another radio station - you miss out!!!
Posted by: Duffman | August 08, 2007 at 05:03 AM
I've come back to see what the heck has happened to KIRO (and was interested to see that Michael Hood suddenly became Mike Webb's biggest fan.... fascinating!)
I think dumping CBS hourcasts 'til evening is a good idea, especially considering they still have access to the nat'l. reporters (the CBS guy covering the Endeavor launch had some interesting comments about report of the local viewing at the Museum of Flight--that was good stuff), and it gives the news-team a shot in the arm and greater editorial control. "The Big Story" is a good idea, and actually seems to have some depth to it. They did well to schedule it when "All Things Considered" is repeating and about to dump into "MarketPlace," too.
Sorry to see Reagan go, but that means I can punch out Dori in frustration sooner in the day and listen to "Day to Day" on KUOW. That's a benefit to me!
Think the new bumpers are a bit stodgy, like something you'd hear on Gramma KOMO's station (I keep wondering why the Fisher's put extra emphasis on "RADIO!" like it was a new technology or something--keep expecting them to say "1,000 kilocycles!"). I liked the old KIRO bumpers better--had a fresher sound. And although "Newstalk" also has a stodgy ring to it, they have to acknowledge that "Newsradio" is a bit limiting in identifying them as a news-source. It implies the Podcasts and Internet site are the mix. Good strategy.
I actually enjoy Ron and Don, although I think the format needs to be freshened up a whole lot--it's pretty obvious one of them plays "Mr. Contrarian" and they switch off. Don makes me laugh with that sarcastic "...Yeah" after every...single...comment. If we can't have Prell to upset the KIRO sound, they'll do just fine. Hope their new producer can kick their asses.
I, too, have encountered the Insufferable Mr. Shiers and rue the day I ever met Mr. Puffer-fish. Low class hypocritical jerk.
Oh, well. Everything changes.
Posted by: Justin Atheropinion | August 09, 2007 at 03:39 PM
Mormons scare me-
Posted by: JDLTWO | August 10, 2007 at 09:45 PM