Back in 2008, Ron & Don (KIROFM m-f, 3-7p) got their four-hour way by pushing out Tony Miner's Big Story, an Murrow award-winning long-form news hour.
The idiot twins (as Robert Reich has called them) went around boasting "you wanted more, now you got four."
(photo: Ron & friend-"he's the bright one").
But as many readers have complained: you don't get 4 hours of new, live content, and neither do you often get 3 hours of The Dori Monson Show (KIROFM m-f, 12-3p).
Both shows play tape the last hour of the day. Our KIRO guy says, "The whole office laughs behind their backs because they say they do a 4-hour show, but really it's only 3."
How can they get away with this? They justify it by saying that the audience changes over so much that it doesn't matter, but pretty much everyone we talk to at Eastlake says: "Laziness is the culprit."
That's also why they added Rachel Belle ... and their newest, lamest segment, "hit me with your talk shots" where they simply rerack cuts from the other KIRO talk shows.
It's simply less time they have to actually work.
Dunno what Dori does in his free last hour, (we've heard he disappears into the john for prolonged periods, only to emerge with his hair fluffier in the front); Don can usually be seen watching teevee on the KIRO web stream; Ron goes home for the night.
(photo: Dori- "full of, but NOT no. 2)
This what you can do TO your listeners getting so puffed-up being the "No. 1 local talk show in Seattle." You're forgetting who put you there. You can say "fuck 'em," but eventually, that sentiment will be turned back on you. Listeners are your bosses, member? (Dunno where Dori gets off screwing listeners out of their last hour- he's not even No. 2 - though he's unswervingly full of No. 2, as we keep telling you).
Egads....now I have a Dori visual I could've lived w/o. Pass the brain bleach please. I actually haven't bothered to listen to Dori for years now, except when he's doing the sports thing and I forget to turn the channel. I imagine Dori's still a puke. Did he by chance go birther? Figure the Dorster to be in that group of jackasses that regard our Prez to be Kenyan / Socialist / Fascist / Communist.
As for Ron and Don...when they're not on their missing kid tangent, I can listen to them for a bit while I'm out driving about. Can't say I've ever given them 4 hours though.
As for the rest of the radio day...for me it's a wasteland after 12 noon. I will listen to the occasional Medved...well at least when he's on his meds. Somedays he actually sounds cogent. But for the most part, after 12 I'm listening to music and singing along to the Eagles. (yes, I'm THAT old).
Posted by: kate | November 20, 2011 at 03:19 PM
Wow, it must be a very relaxing trip for Mr. Hood to come up with some number 2 himself. But this one really stinks. If it was true, what does it say about Mr. Hood himself. His logo up top says "Listening to radio so you dont have to." If he was listening, do you think it would have taken 3 years before finally realizing this so called laziness. Not. Mr. Hood is having a good time watching little boobies on the beach and caught himself doing what Dori does. What a shame.
Posted by: Progblogjunky | November 20, 2011 at 04:52 PM
You have an unusual, nee disturbing interest in Mr. Hood's shit.
Posted by: Chef Boyardi' | November 20, 2011 at 06:30 PM
Dunno about Ron/Don/Dori (except I don't have the stomach to listen to them), but to be fair, Dave and Luke have been re-racking a bunch of segments in their last hour. I don't like it one bit. Stop it, all of you guys!
Posted by: daily libtard listener | November 20, 2011 at 08:09 PM
Anyone consider changing the dial if R & D and Dori, Dave and Luke are such a pain ? If 97.3 really all you care about listening to ?
Something is definitely wrong with that picture and it must be a slow radio news day.
Posted by: KS | November 20, 2011 at 08:15 PM
oh horseshit, KS. KVI tslk guys of old, syndicated talkers like Rush and
Sean, always gave us the full time. Even John and Ken over on KOMO don't go home on their last on-air hour. This is a KIRO rip-off. As Michael says, they're giving less to listeners, and taking advantage of their no. 1 in Seattle talk radio status.
Posted by: Bob Moles | November 20, 2011 at 11:01 PM
Hey everybody, are we really sure Mr. Hood is really on vacation? He's spending a lot of time posting stuff...
Posted by: gemini | November 20, 2011 at 11:03 PM
Dori has hair up front? Who knew?
Posted by: Pete | November 21, 2011 at 07:08 AM
Hood is probably at one of those rentable time shares at Ocean Shores holed up with a babe and subscription to Krispee Kreme. He may not make it back.
Posted by: mantooth | November 21, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Dori did an insightful interview with the 82-year old activist, Dorli Rainey: "Rainey hung up on KIRO Radio's Dori Monson, who asked her to elaborate on her wish for "regime change" and questioned why it was OK to keep one of his listeners from getting to a daughter's piano recital as protesters blocked the street."
What a genius!
Posted by: Fremont | November 21, 2011 at 10:57 AM
They are replaying segments on KIRO-AM, too.
Posted by: Sports Talk | November 21, 2011 at 01:22 PM
by the end of the interview with Rainey, Dori was basically wearing a dress and Rainey was sporting a pair. haha Dori haha Dori
Posted by: Tommy008 | November 21, 2011 at 01:39 PM
UH, Dave and Luke do it too. It has nothing to do with laziness, but was started at the same time as other major format changes took hold, such as no callers, and adding more personalities to a time slot (think of adding Luke, bringing in Jake and Jessica to the mix, Tom in the AM, Rachel to R&D). The first topics are among the most timely, and therefore popular. Unlike Blather folks, most people don't listen to all three or four hours, but listen to smaller segments, like drive time, or getting ready for work, or lunch break and so forth. Therefore, by playing the "best" topics again, they may get a chance to reach a second audience with their best stuff, thus hooking a second audience, producing higher ratings. It's called strategy, not laziness, and this is supposed to be a blog about radio? The ratings are up as these format changes were made. laziness? Please. More like, KA CHING. Of course, this blog has endorsed such radio power houses as Goldy....nuff said.
Posted by: WILD BILL | November 21, 2011 at 04:05 PM
tommy 008/ Fremont
don't know what interview you listened to, but that sweet old lady didn't answer anything; she couldn't articulate what she stood for. Instead, she just grabbed her marbles and ran home. I don't like the inequality or being fucked by the banks, or the rise of the Corporate Oligarchy, either. But how does yelling and screaming at SPD and blocking pothole strewn streets do anything about it? Dori was just asking her, OK, so you stood up for your rights, what about the right of the other "equal" citizens?
Posted by: WILD BILL | November 21, 2011 at 04:19 PM
Fremont, Dorli is 84, not 82.
Anyone who saw her interview with Keith Olbermann knows that she can be moving and articulate when the host simply lets her talk - which Monson had no interest in doing. The only kind of guest he can get these days that isn't a sycophant is someone naive like Rainey who doesn't know that his producer is going to misrepresent the interview and Monson himself will be rude and aggressive.
As for blocking streets: first of all, in the Olbermann interview Rainey claimed that the group had publicly announced its intention to disperse when SPD attacked anyway. Secondly, Seattle traffic is so gridlocked anyway, especially downtown - and thanks in part to the anti-tax zealotry of people like Monson - that the inconvenience afforded by any particular demonstration is minimal. Monson was just trying to be an ass, which he's made into a high art form.
Lastly, nobody would care were it not for the overreaction of SPD and its use of indiscriminate force. As a result, not only does the Occupy Movement have a poster "child" made in PR heaven, vastly expanding the impact of its message (for reasons illogical yet potent), but Seattle is once again sporting a national black eye from the actions of SPD. And, of course, there will inevitably be a lawsuit, which Seattle will either settle or lose at taxpayer expense. Fuck a piano recital - Where's Monson's fake outrage at THAT?
Posted by: Pete | November 21, 2011 at 05:59 PM
One more thought: According to Rainey's account on Olbermann (which Monson and/or his producer surely saw) she was riding the bus, heard the helicopters, and from the location surmised it was an Occupy demonstration and got off the bus to check it out. This means two, possibly three things: 1) She had more common sense to know there's a demonstration afoot than Monson's piano recital listener had; 2) She was not part of the original decision to block an intersection, which Monson knew or should have known, and it was therefore grossly unfair for him to try to hold her responsible for the decisions of others (especially in a group that makes a fetish of leaderlessness); and 3) she also wasn't participating in actively blocking the intersection, but was simply sprayed indiscriminately (as was Rev. Rich Lang, who was there in full pastoral regalia as a peacekeeper, and any number of other people who weren't active participants in the blockage.)
I don't care for a good deal of Occupy Seattle's tactics (especially the black bloc fringe), but SPD was pretty clearly out of line here - and so, big surprise, was Monson, a man who's made a small fortune out of being an audio bully for the entertainment of people who don't have the guts to be bullies in real life. There are a lot of conservative talkers I like, but Monson makes me want to puke.
Posted by: Pete | November 21, 2011 at 07:14 PM
"Fremont, Dorli is 84, not 82."
84 is the new 82...sorry, Pete!
Now we have additional poster children in the UC Davis pepper spraying incident. Shameful...!
Posted by: Fremont | November 22, 2011 at 10:06 AM
I don't mind repeating some segments that are actually informative or entertaining. It can allow some who may have missed it or a part of it. Not everybody is able to be tuned in 24/7. And as much effort that goes into getting the interviews they can sometimes be worthwhile, timely and relevant. Sometimes it can seem fabricated and grandstanding by the hosts, but that's the nature of the beast. And besides, better than letting them drone and blather on for the sake of filling time.
Now Rachel Belle I can only take her 12 year old act in small doses. She's kind of that drunk uncle who thinks he's funnier than he really is but she can also muscle her way through with sheer enthusiasm. And she does do good interviews.
Here's my take on the personalities so far:
Ross & Burbank: George & Gracie Allen
Dori, Jessica, Jake: Edgar Bergen ventriloquist with Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd
Ron, Don, Rachel: Larry, Moe, & Curly
John Curley: well he's John Curley when he shows up ...
Posted by: tomW | November 22, 2011 at 03:29 PM
something must be working
Ranking Outlet Format AUG 11 SEP 11 OCT 11
1 KIRO-FM News Talk Information 5.4 5.5 5.9
2t KISW-FM Active Rock 6.0 5.5 5.1
2t KRWM-FM Soft Adult Contemporary 5.1 5.1 5.1
4 KOMO-AM All News 4.5 4.8 4.6
5 KKWF-FM Country 3.9 3.9 4.2
6 KJR-FM Classic Hits 4.8 4.2 4.1
7t KMPS-FM Country 3.7 4.0 4.0
7t KUBE-FM Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio 4.1 3.9 4.0
7t KUOW-FM News Talk Information 3.5 3.9 4.0
7t KZOK-FM Classic Rock 4.2 4.3 4.0
11 KBKS-FM Pop Contemporary Hit Radio
Posted by: wild bill | November 22, 2011 at 06:12 PM
Wild Bill, why are you so loyal to KIRO? They went to great pains to ban you from their website, and don't take your calls. They think you're nuts, yet you defend them like you are sleeping with them. You are nuts, btw.
Posted by: blathering michael | November 23, 2011 at 06:21 AM
I gave up on KIRO when they started broadcasting the train wreck on the morning drive time. My fingers won't let me type the hosts name. Who in hell hires this crap?
Posted by: daman | November 23, 2011 at 08:57 AM
WB, wow, that was a difficult tangent to follow.
I can't claim to know if BM has speculated on the demise of KIRO or not. But I will say, that at least to me, KIRO did 'die' when they flipped to the FM dial.
The FM change on top of all the personnel changes pretty much ended any desire on my part to tune to KIRO while I was driving around. I used to be a die hard KIRO listener from 6 am to 3 pm. Now...I never listen before 3.
Dave used to be worth listening to...now, not so much. Dori has been a puke for freaking years (well I assume from comments here he's still a puke) and Ron and Don are tolerable on occasion, but I would NEVER go out of my way to listen to them if there was ANY other option at all.
Kinda sad really.
Posted by: kate | November 23, 2011 at 02:11 PM
if Curley doesn't repeat his third hour, on the 5 days a month he shows p for work, i guess we've all finally discovered one postive aspect of his show. Oh yeah, and he takes a few calls. Other than that, does anyone else feel the follwong way? When i heard Curley admit that he had his high school buddy sit right beside him in the audirorium, and help him cheat on all the answers to his second SAT test attempt, that totally destroyed him as a credible, honorable person fOR me, personally. I now see him as a completely disreputable, bogus assclown which is not that far a leap down from my previous view of him, but its the bottom, and you can't really get mch lower than the bottom. Curley is a total loser.
Posted by: Tommy008 | November 23, 2011 at 02:41 PM
cURLEY WAS CAUGHT WHEN HIS sAT scores on his second attempt were so much higher then the dunbass'es first score, thus attracting the attention of test honchos at the testing company. He was summoned before school authorites and a damning letter was sent to all his college entrace choices, causing all of them to refsue to accept him.
Posted by: Tommy008 | November 23, 2011 at 02:52 PM
John Curley is a brassplated piece of crap.
Posted by: Tommy008 | November 23, 2011 at 03:01 PM
WB...how do you know that crap? Seriously, why do you know or care what John Curley does?
I've never had any desire to listen to John. He has zero appeal to me and from reading BlatherWatch...it would seem to me I haven't missed a gosh dang thing re: John's radio show.
But WB if you're into KIRO, bless your heart. Keep up the outstanding job you're doing of supporting a once fine radio station. Me, I'll be having a cold one.
Posted by: kate | November 23, 2011 at 03:47 PM