Talk is no. 2 at Fisher

No doubt about it: it's hard to be a radio talker at the Fisher "group." (KOMO, KVI). Even if you were spared in the recent beheadings and furniture re-arrangement at KOMO and KVI, you don't seem to get much institutional help.

Poor KVI. Bryan Suits (m-f, 5-9a) leads into Laura Ingraham on tape, followed by Sean Hannity, (never a ratings winner in Seattle) then Laura Ingraham is repeated at drivetime!!

This could be because Fisher doesn't have their shit together enough to grab another syndicated show (not inconceivable) OR, as many believe: they'll pull the plug on the whole station as soon as they get that shit together. (Sell? reformat? ...depends on which rumor mill you choose to abide by).

They still have the same shitty KVI website with really nothing going on except the non-interactive Bryan Suits show page and ... crickets. (Unbelievably, You can still click on and get to the long-gone John Carlson Show and the late Weissbach Show, which was defuncted after the eponymous host was caught in a scandal over hiring illegal workers in his cleaning business).

The "new" talkers on KOMO are even more neglected. They finally got names for their new daypart shows: NewsPlus with John Carlson and Schram On The Story. They went without that basic need for a week or so: Schram repeatedly bemoaned it on-air, calling his the Show With No Name until they finally came up with some names.

There are no logos or ad promotion for either show on the lame KOMO radio web page. Never mind show pages, blogs or podcasts. It's quite amazing. Reading the KOMO home page, or the news page, you wouldn't know Carlson and Schram exist.

KIRO, their ace-boom competition, has a dynamo of a site, which is being used to great advantage by their talkers and producers; so why does Fisher choose to lag so far behind in on-line presence? (Even their on-line presence is mostly warmed-over, with very little web-only content and interactivity with listeners. Frinstance: Schram's commentary is there, but it's really the one he did for both teevee and radio).

One thing everyone can agree with in the brave new media world, is that web platforms are key to broadcasting's future. Fisher knows this (they have enough consultants, for god's sake) so why do they choose to ignore it?

Is it benign neglect? Makes you wonder.

Comments

[Rat_Bastard]

Well, I'm really bummed that KOMO doesn't have the "news only " thing going on in the day now.
The Commentators was a good show, I'll miss it.
Carlson is good, but it was better on KVI, Schramm just isn't a stand alone host for me.
He's great when counter pointing with Carlson or Suits.
Bryan Suits is hands down, the best local radio personality.
My hope is that KOMO either goes all local radio show in the day, news through the night.
KVI would be an excellent national show station.
move suits to KOMO in the a.m.
Can't blame them for the web site since they're obviously getting ready for decisions that would make web site work a waste of money.

[blameitonme]

KOMO's website is almost exclusively TV driven. The web consultants are great when it comes to getting TV stories and shows and personalities promoted. They are nonexistent when it comes to radio because GM Jim Clayton and CEO Colleen Brown are TV-focused. Both admit knowing nothing about radio before they arrived at Fisher. It is an afterthought. A bottom-line booster (LAUGH!) when TV revenues are down. Radio in general is the ugly step sister at Fisher.

[LucasFoxx]

NORman GOLDman (whoever he is) forced my AM preset over to KOMO during drive time. It definately seems like the best on the AM block.

[Fred Grandy]

KOMO is to Seattle radio what the Mariners and Seahawks are to Seattle sports:
Organizations that have had several opportunities to win it all but blew it.

blameitonme nailed it. The GM knows nothing bout radio. KOMO's current PD is TV's managing editor and the station sounds like it's being run by someone from TV.

Best thing that could happen to Fisher Radio is a sale to Clear Channel.

[PeakLimiter]

Putting those talk hosts on KOMO has given KIRO a fighting chance. Their worst fear was that KOMO would simply build on and improve their winning all-day, all-news format. They have drawn KOMO into an arena (talk) where they (KIRO)is already superior. Now all they have to do is build on it and improve it. It looks now as if they are in that process. If KIRO could only take their AM signal back, they'd rule once again.
Seems like whenever Fisher radio gets a jaw full of victory, the TV suits who run the place manage to wrench it out and throw it in the shitter.

[The Anti-Dori]

Doesn't KOMO have better range than KVI? I would think Carlson would do better on KOMO? He'd reach the red areas better.

[saintrudy]

NORman GOLDman is absolutly great, even when you dont agree with him, he gets the thinking juices flowing!

[jackrebney]

Face it, KVI has been in a death spiral since 2005. Do I hear mariachi horns in the near future?

[Rich]

Brian Suits, doing a morning show for illegals. Who would have thought!

[Andrew]

I like that Schram is sticking to the news, talking about local happenings and giving some opinion, sort of like a mix of news and talk. That's how it should be, report a news item, say something about it, and then report another news item, say something about it, then go to a quick commercial, then maybe take some calls. I get sick on hearing one topic belabored for a full hour.

Schram was preferable to Monson today. Schram was quick and to the point. Monson's show was crawling along like frozen molasses about some outrageous topic... I forget what it was.

[gerry0416]

While I prefer Dave Ross to John Carlson I will listen to Carlson as long as KIRO insists on ruining Dave's show with Luke Burbank.

[jameschan]

The KIRO tandem thing is wearing thin. luke is blanding Dave's show. dori is just as annoying with Jessica there, the redeeming factor with her, is she is politically to the left of dori , and she is smart, which compounds dori's knuckle dragging dumb.

[Rat_Bastard]

Jessica is fine when she's just talking in her normal voice...
It's when she goes into the phoney masculine whisper thing that makes my toenails curl.
Makes her sound like "Bob" the butch transvestite.
It has been oddly refreshing to have the change up with "Young Jake" as a sounding board for Dori, and Phil Vandervort has really interjected new life into the Dave Boze show.
I was sad to see both producers gone from their shows, but it's been interesting.
I'll have to give the new Schram show a test.

[Formula1]

Dori Monson: the show no one listens to but the one everyone seems to know so much about. You guys are fucking ridiculous beyond measure.

[Rat_Bastard]

"Dori Monson: the show no one listens to but the one everyone seems to know so much about."
There's actually a few posters here who are long time fans of Dori. (myself included)
Most here do despise him, but they do seem to listen.
I don't think Dori or the KIRO sales dept. care much about how much people love or hate him.
They listen.

[Andrew]

Most of us listen to Dave Ross while we work or drive, every single day of the work week, so Dori is hard to miss day in and day out. We'd all have to drop what we're doing or take our attention off of the road to change the station right at 12 sharp. Dori likes to pretend his enemies secretly love him, but that's not the reality. Nobody accidently listens to Brian Suits, I assure you. I'd rather listen to Schram, but again, sometimes I'm just too focused on other things.

[David M]

Though I'm a devout fan of Dave Ross, I've been checking out the Carlson & Schram shows on KOMO for the past week. I'm a conservative-turned-progressive but I must say that Carlson is delivering the better listening experience. He's really well-balanced, reasoned and informative.

Schram *should* be appealing to me but his rants on "Mayor McPedals" are a real tune-out. I find it completely juvenile to make up names for people and the real argument gets lost on me. I'm not a big Ed Schultz fan but there's nowhere else to turn to. (Dori? Uh, not an option anymore.)

I wish that KOMO had reversed Carlson & Schram. My listening pattern would be Dave at 9, and Carlson at noon. As it is, I'll probably continue doing this Schram/Schultz bounce from noon-3.

[Andrew]

What made you see the light?

[Crack Smoker]

Norman Goldman is awful.

[The Anti-Dori]

Norman Goldman shrieks and screeches. If he could just tame the shrieking and screeching, he's got good info to convey. I'm surprised his voice doesn't give out.

[OSK]

If we can fix Norman's voice can we do something about Mark Levin? His rants hurt my ears even when all I am doing is tuning past KVI.

[Ray]

The attitude at Fisher is that radio is an evil step child. Their attitude shows with great condescension and pejorative sarcasm that is not hidden at all. Given the opportunity they would sell off KOMO 1000, KVI and KPLZ to get the scum off their books.

The management of Fisher Broadcasting, through their pejorative attitude toward their radio assets are also showing the same attitude toward their listeners. The attitude is transparent and quite childish.

My feeling is that they are changing formats at KOMO 1000 and abandoning KVI because they want to devalue the assets and get rid of them.

Follow the money: TV is a great deal more profitable.

[frank franklin]

I never listed to Dori until I read about him on this blog. I wondered why the owner is so obsessed with Dori. Now I do listen to him. Love him or hate him, it's compelling listening. Bet he's happy about the free publicity, thanks to this site.

"My feeling is that they are changing formats at KOMO 1000 and abandoning KVI because they want to devalue the assets and get rid of them."

'Scuse my ignorance, but for us non-business types: What is the advantage to the seller in having a lower-valued asset?

[Ray]

There isn't any advantage to selling a devalued asset, however, in the broadcast industry it happens all the time. Stations are sold because the owners can't/won't manage them effectively any longer. Fisher is saying they no longer want to be in the radio side of the business.

An engineer friend of mine told me that, regardless of the price paid for a station, the new owner only really gets the license and nothing more. They basically have to start over, creating a new station from scratch, regardless of the market.