Ron Reagan on KIRO- what happened?

"Ron Reagan wasn't built for talk radio," says a friend, "he's not pissed-off enough."

Someone else tells us: "They just couldn't make the time-thing work, plus- he wasn't exactly burning down the station." 

He did get some pretty good ratings, we asked him last year if he had any plans for syndication. After all, he's a national figure, interested entirely in doing national issues on his show.

Reagan told us he's very competitive, therefore: "It's not my intention to stay small, I intend to take this as far as it can go."

That effort was stopped or got a severe set-back when Ron Reagan and KIRO parted company after only 14months..

(No wimp when it comes to competing, Reagan once danced in the first company of New York's Joffrey Ballet where the competition makes the NBA look like a tatting run-off).

His producer Tina Nole, who's leaving herself at the end of this month, agrees it was about scheduling opportunities or lack thereof. She says KIRO's biggest numbers historically are when Dave and Dori go back-to-back.

"They had to go back to that- it makes perfect sense. So  where then do you put Ron when he really should be on longer than an hour? He's not a drive time host- they need a lively locally-oriented person on during drivetime, we have that in Ron and Don."

(lending support to our theory they have but one brain between them.)

That leaves nights and she doubts that Reagan would want to do an evening show.

"Ron is a wonderful person with a gigantic heart and tremendous amount of integrity," she said. 

Ostensibly, Ron Reagan was a natural. He had national name recognition; and a unique personal narrative: he was the outspokenly liberal son of an iconically conservative President of the United States.

Educated and well-spoken, he was a TV veteran, having had several talk shows of his own including a bi-coastal news magazine that did admirably on MSNBC a few years ago.

He and his wife Doria have lived in Seattle since 1994.

With a great Rolodex, and the celebrity capital for big name gets of folks not usually heard on talk radio, Reagan's name was a resource most producers and talent could only dream of.

But he was on for just an hour. And it was at noon. Our readers say he was kind of an extension of Dave Ross- an hour's reprieve before KIRO degenerates into Dori Monson, and Ron & Don.

But others complained it was like he never took off the training wheels.

Reagan's contract with MSNBC as political analyst insists he be available every afternoon in case Hardball with Chris Matthews needs him to appear. At KIRO, this had always been a sticking point for any longer show; or one at a different time. 

He told us last year that the MSNBC contract was up in December, and that he might not sign on again. But he did. Maybe he knew back then he shouldn't burn his bridges for radio.

As passive as he seems, he's passionate about the things he's passionate about. Like stem cell research and the anti-science religiosity that has tried to quell that research. And atheism, which might be an antidote to that religiosity. Or capital punishment- he's against it.

It was rare to hear that passion on his KIRO show: although it was more frequent when he was debating on Chris Matthews.

Unlike his sister Patti, Ron was always on good terms with his parents; although he supposedly embarrassed them when he appeared in a1986 Saturday Night Live sketch, in which he stripped down to his tightie-whities for a part as a teenager having a wild party at the White House while his parents were away.

Back in the Bush honeymoon, when the conservatives were still calling George W. Bush the new Ronald Reagan (god, that seems so long ago...) Ron told a reporter, "My dad crapped bigger ones than George W. Bush."

Noles, of course, blames herself: "I worry that I wasn't there enough for Ron too - I was very distracted these past months."

We hate to lose Ron Reagan from commercial radio but as one of our commenters, rev wrote: "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."

Comments

[joanie]

I love it! Putsie, you are so observant about yourself. Yes, you and KluelesS are cut from the same cloth. Geniuses both of you.

And I didn't respond regarding Randi because, frankly dear, that's old news. But then, I guess that's why I'm a progressove. I know when it's time to move on. You may continue the ph(J)oanie/Randi bashing to your heart's delight. I would imagine that for most of us, it is getting old.

However, you are a one-joke impresario, so go at it, dear. Whatever lights your fire.

[PugetSound]

thanks for the permission there ph(J)oanie.

[joanie]

Oh, and putsie, he's always been Jones. If you really listened, you'd have known that.

[PugetSound]

poor ph(J)oanie, grasping at straws...i wrote that i heard him on air america. you gonna deny that he hasn't been on air america stations. oh well, swing away at the margins. ..oops, whiffed again.
time for your 'randi' message i'm sure. go ahead, get 'the word' so you know what to think.

[coiler]

Hitchen's was a liberal? I thought he was just a drunk who switch- hitted when he needed the dough.

[Bill]

Air America carries sydicated shows, some from Jones Network, some from NovaM. Although you "heard" him on an Air America station, it was a sydicated show.

I only point this out because you seem to like to pin Joanie down on minute symantics, and therefore I know you wont mind being held to the same standard.

[PugetSound]

bill
fair enough. i appreciate the education.

[Ms. Spelling]

Theirs nuthing wurse then peeple on theese boreds hu thank their sew smart, butt than ruin it bye theyre inabelaty to spell.

It's SEMANTICS. You f-ing moron.

[Bill]

Thank you for your thoughtful and dignified response, Ms. Spelling.

[PugetSound]

Bill
Don't mind the miss spellchecks too much. It's summer time and they probably should be in school instead.

[Duffman]

Hey PS...whaaaaaz up! Nice to see you back on the board...be easy on Ms joanie there...she's probably just in 'anticipation shock' about being back with those little one's....ha (Oh, yeah and also sparky/coiler/Ms Spelling...et al) :o)

[sparky]

You're projecting again, Duffman.

[Duffman]

Thanks, Sparky. I do that a lot, don't I? I'll work on it. ;o)

[jussme]

KIRO should have made every effort to keep Ron. Name recognition and his connections for lining up well-known guests with something to say are 2nd to none. One hour, obviously, was not enough for Ron. He was just getting started. One poster mentioned that he wasn't assertive enough. On one show just a couple of weeks ago, one would have wondered if it were RR they were listening to. He was very emotional, assertive, and acerbic--he was 'getting it on.' So, he can do it if he wants to. He is a genuinely gracious host and very kind to his callers. You could hear it in the caller's voices---most were thrilled just to talk to the son of a former and extremely popular President of the United States--political beliefs notwithstanding. I will miss him, but feel he will turn up somewhere--maybe opposite Ross or Monson and kick their butts in the ratings. I don't buy the notion of better ratings on KIRO when Ross and Monson are back to back. Makes no sense. It's not like TV, where a local 11p newscast gets good numbers because their 'cast precedes Letterman or Leno. That's the 'too lazy to change channels' syndrome.
We love ya Ron. Get back on the local airwaves soon!!

[joanie]

Absooooolutely agree! Well put points, jussme. I love Reagan. Well spoken, gracious and informed. He's right up there with Ross as far as I'm concerned.

[Andrew]

I don't believe they wanted to get rid of him, their promo spots even bragged about his national status being served exclusively to us local folk, and those ads were rather brazen on that point.

I saw the one hour thing, and even the time slot as being his idea. They needed him more than he needed KIRO without a doubt. He probably said "I'll give you an hour of my time sometime after 11am, because that's when I wake up, and before 1pm because that't when I owe my time to Chris Mathews."

He never wanted to cover local stories so it seemed obvious to me that he considered this a practice run conducted on his own terms.

[Jo]

No reason to even turn KIRO on now. Ron was the only thing keeping them programmed in my radio.

[Dori Listener]

Hey Joanie: I don't pretend to know you; don't assume you know me. I won't try and justify myself regarding the accusations you made, except to say that: yes, I like being entertained. I also like thoughtful, interesting topics that cause me to think about different perspectives. Sometimes that's from Dave Ross, sometimes from Dori. Moreover, how you feel about me is, completely, irrelevant. But, I wish both you and Ron Reagan well.

[Kate]

Personally for me Ron, w/ all the pompous, sadistic and immoral name calling that now props itself up as “Seattle’s GREATEST talk radio experience” @ KIRO, (and I don’t just mean since you left), the listeners of Seattle are so much the worse for losing a voice who was polite, gracious, and more than anything else, a fighter for absolute “truth in what I say” everytime he opened up the mic.

[Posted by: meemee | August 07, 2007 at 12:58 AM -- Ron did not need KIRO...KIRO really needed Ron and they blew it. One hour for Ron vs. 3 hours for Dori pretty much explains the station's priorities. Mouth over Brain.]

I cannot commend [MeeMee] enough ... If you really want to know who “talks” on and for KIRO, you’d best ask “the mouth of whatever my sponsors tell me to say” @ 1/PM. I’m absolutely sure Dori can tell you exactly how to get a hold of Bonneville Media (and give you a complete dissertation on how they pull his puppet strings). And then just maybe ask yourself what happened not just to Ron, but to Fred, and to the “fell on deaf ears” requests to put Turi on more often – are we seeing a pattern here ?
Ron, I told you @ the Everett “Battle” that I was voting my conscience in 2008, for you, and the daily serving “B/CACA&L” that KIRO represents as the truth makes me so incredibly confident, nearly a year later, that I made the right choice !
Oh and Dori ? ----- Congrats! You have won the battle as the only person in human history to make Rush look like Mother Theresa!

[Kate]

Just an addendum folks ! Um ... Actually, if you REALLY want to know what happened to Fred Ebert, you might contact the folks @ Ft. Meade, VA (for all of you Dori listeners, that's the "Oh, the sky is falling" offices of the NSA)... But gee, that's gonna mean you have to take off those rose-coloured blinders, isn't it ?

[joanie]

Hey, Kate, I think you meant to commend Sparky . . . and I agree.