San Francisco’s progressive-talk “Green 960” is squeezed off the AM dial

Another one bites the dust... guess liberals don't like the radio. If a progressive talker can't make it in Baghdad-by-the-Bay, it can't make it any where, we'd surmise. From Radio-info's Tom Taylor:

Randi Rhodes will still be part of a mixed-perspective lineup on the re-formatted 960, which harks back to an earlier time before talk stations were all-conservative or all-progressive. But starting January 2, Randi (noon to 3pm) will be flanked by Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey and John Gibson. Clear Channel’s keeping the current Green 960 lineup going online and via the HD2 channel of sister KKSF-FM (103.7), under the new banner of “FM Progressive Talk.” But 960 itself is taking the KNEW calls of its sister at 910, and will be marketed as Fox News Radio. Back at 910 - they're keeping KSTE-Sacramento-based Armstrong & Getty in mornings, to be followed by Clark Howard, Tom Sullivan and an unnamed local host in PM drive. The new call letters will be KKSF, echoing those of KKSF-FM. And we’ll see if Clear Channel makes any imaging changes at “Oldies 103.7”, with Don Bleu joining from sister hot AC KIOI for mornings.

Comments

[sparky]

Glad they aren't messing with the online stream...i listen to it at school on my lunch break because we cant get AM stations due to florescent lights interfering...

[KS]

There could be a message here - progressive talk doesn't sell well at this time even in SF - wow..., perhaps because of the ugly reality of progressivism (i.e. Occupiers and the economic status of Europe and economic rut in this country).

In fairness, political talk from all spectrums has become more depressing over the last year, as the world economy continues to tank.

[Truthseeker]

That maybe true but Randi Rhodes was just picked up in Montana. Figure that one out.

[Johnny Sombrerro]

It has to do with not branding a station with one format or the other. Karel talked about this yesterday on his show. KGO just dumped all their afternoon and evening hosts today in a major shake up after Citadel sold their cluster to Cumulus. If a new owner spent huge sums to buy out a cluster, then look for cost cutting. I think KGO going to a more news format when KCBS does the same thing is a big mistake.

[sparky]

Yep..you're putting too much thought into it KS. It's all about money, not about what the listeners want. KGO listeners are furious and the SFGate article about the loss of Gross, Burns, Rothman and Taliaferro has hundreds of angry posts from listeners..but the station doesn't care. KIRO doesn't care, KVI doesn't care, or Green 960. Its all about money. It's not about any of us or what we like listening to.

[KS]

California is such a broke state - the Greece of America that this kind of shakeup isn't really surprising. Holy crap ! The financial state of the state seems to have permeated to KGO. Underlying factors here - it also shatters my myth about KGO being the most stable local talk station around. So Ronn Owens survived after the others were axed ? Each of the four talk hosts you named had been there for over 15 years - Sparky.

That seems to confirm the last paragraph of my last post.

[sparky]

Cumulus runs a cheeeeep operation. But Ronn Owens was smart enough to negotiate an iron-clad contract that lasts for a couple more years. After that..he may get the boot too. Will have to wait and see.

[Johnny Sombrerro]

Ronn has a contract til 2013

[Tom in San Jose]

I really has to do with absentee ownership. The station is owned by Clear Channel, a multimedia conglomerate, and is one of the more than 850 owned stations in 150 markets (owning more than one station in many markets) and provides programming to more that 5,000 stations.

Conservative radio sells best to advertisers so they go where the money is.

[RQ]

Yes, it's all about the money...but the money is made from advertising....and the advertisers look at ratings...and the ratings come from listeners. Back to square one: why can't liberal talk make it?

[Puget Sound Blathers]

"Randi Rhodes will still be part of a mixed-perspective lineup on the re-formatted 960, which harks back to an earlier time before talk stations were all-conservative or all-progressive. But starting January 2, Randi (noon to 3pm) will be flanked by Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey and John Gibson."

LMAO, if only these folks were local. Could you imagine the 'cross talk' between Beck and Randi Rhodes?

Beck putting it out on one of his chalkboard inspired rants that begin lucid and go crazy trying to talk with Randi -I'll have another beer, damn it!' Rhodes alcohol fueled rants geared towards those 'low information' voters.

[Pete]

Thanks, PSB. The idea of Glenn Beck and Randi Rhodes doing cross-talk - preferably from different studios so they wouldn't hurt each other - just made my morning.

[AprilMayJune]

Say it isn't so KGO!

[KS]

Rhodes and Beck back to back on the same station is cathartic. Beck would upset those low information voters with his views that counter the nonsensical sensibilities of Randi Rhodes.

I remember seeing Rhodes debate Neal Boortz on CNN a few years ago and Boortz basically mocked her and challenged her on her menopausal rants and over the top claptrap and she was so plotzed that she seemed incoherent in her responding/bloviating - its on YouTube for those interested.

[Bob Nelson]

Miss Gene Burns from his libertarian Boston days on WRKO. I guess he turned Left Coast Dem at KGO. "We have transited the meridian and entered the afternoon incarnation of the broadcast day."

[Lalo Quijano]

Yes is all about money , and the ones with the money are the ultra right wing nuts and they are going to push their disgusting lies and propaganda to us in the S.F Bay Area. I hope the new KGO and Green 960 go down in flames , this an insult to all the listeners,in S.F we don't need to have the right wing voices in the radio , they are already everywhere.I think we need to OCCUPY the media !

[Diana Walsh]

Like we really need more nut-wing propaganda! Come January 2012, S.F. will be without a progressive voice except for Randi Rhodes. Without a progressive outlet to counterbalance the corporate media, there is no freedom of information. Without freedom of information, there is no freedom because we cannot make informed decisions.

How did we get to the point where a few corporations bought up and monopolize the US air waves & can suppress and distort the news.

Why is a nasty bullying drugged up mysogynistic gasbag--the one who made salacious and disgusting comments about one of Hermanator's victims--Bialick--why is he everywhere on the airwaves? He caters to the basest instincts of hate and sexism. But big money was spent to buy his slots.
The corporate agenda, it seems, is to deliberately misinform and dumb-down the American public by buying up all the media and eliminating any alternative voices.

[Puget Sound Blathers]

I remember seeing Rhodes debate Neal Boortz on CNN a few years ago and Boortz basically mocked her and challenged her on her menopausal rants and over the top claptrap and she was so plotzed that she seemed incoherent in her responding/bloviating - its on YouTube for those interested.

Posted by: KS | December 02, 2011 at 09:56 PM

i'd forgotten about that one. i actually felt sorry for her.

lucky for her that her low information fans lack the IQ points to figure her out. Randi just throws out crap and see's what'll stick. like the time she rants about fires in southern cali. listen here as you can hear her logic. Randi is 'spooked' as she ties it all together with a series of addled thoughts, a 'waive of the hand' and tops it off with a series of hard evidence via 'google searches.' jeez, you can see her appealing to that low information voter.

Randi Logic, I'll need a cold beer'

(i like the part at the end where the Unamazing Randi realizes she has to walk it back a bit, so after spending the rant blaming blackwater, she gives the ol 'no one is saying blackwater did it' disclaimer...LMAO). no wonder she has difficulty negotiating curbs (oh wait, her fill in host said that was the result of a Bush inspired 'hit' job, right? those damn Bush operatives, cunningly placing all that beer where it would be readily available to Randi...Damn you Cheney!)

randi, beck, rush, stephanie, et al love to play to the ego of the audience with the 'your the smartest group out there' and a periodic bashing of a 'real' caller who the host can rip on. all these hosts do is play into your bias to affirm what you already believe is true.
it's the key to a basic 'hot talk' formula:

low information voter plus host affirming biases=
Hot Talk.

[Puget Sound Blathers]

right wing or left wing, plenty of 'hot talk' types out there to affirm your biases. so plug in your ear buds, my low information friends.

if you can't get it local, just hit the podcasts. LMAO

[KS]

Why is a nasty bullying drugged up mysogynistic gasbag--the one who made salacious and disgusting comments about one of Hermanator's victims--Bialick--why is he everywhere on the airwaves? He caters to the basest instincts of hate and sexism. But big money was spent to buy his slots.
The corporate agenda, it seems, is to deliberately misinform and dumb-down the American public by buying up all the media and eliminating any alternative voices.

Posted by: Diana Walsh | December 05, 2011 at 12:17 AM

Actually, Bialick is being accurately portrayed for all of those PC, low information voters out there by a number of conservative talkers, not just the one who you are obsessed with. It is still on her to present any incontrovertible evidence, which she has not done up to now and where's Gloria Allred been ?
Play the victim card at the peril of exposing your own ignorance and being a low information voter - helplessly indoctrinated by the Obamamedia - barf !.

With that said, it is good that Mr. Cain has suspended his campaign as it created too many distractions and he was ill-prepared to effectively defend it from the outset and show his lack of knowledge in foreign policy in the debates - nice guy but not ready for prime time. The GOP should now take a closer look at Jon Huntsman - he has taken some good stands on most issues and appears to be consistent, to avoid a pending Gingrich debacle.

[Winston Smith]

According to the Truthout story on the subject ... Peter B. Collins doesn't see this as a conspiracy.

Does he also see pink elephants?

For a guy who covers conspiracy theories, Collins seems blind as a bat on this one, but in the age of big brother nothing is a seems.

Democracy Now got started w/ a 25,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, a CIA conduit who controls Common Dreams, the Nation magazine headed by the CFRs, (a pro-war think tank) Katrina Vanden Hovel, who regularly co-opts progressive causues.

www.oilempire.us/gatekeepers.html

www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/06/21/pacifica-radio-board-elections-count-me-out/

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/CIAcultCW.html

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html

[John Roy]

Their game plan continues. The right wing idiots continue to buy out all progressive stations. 960 and KGO gone and its Beck and limburger cheese wall to wall . Follow the money was never more obvious. God help this country because we sure as hell are not.

[no]

Fuck clear channel

[This is the final phase of a long trend]

We have been slowly cornered out of the air waves. I live near the delta where I can barely pick up Sacramento and SF stations.
Sacramento's former Air America station is gone along with the entire Air America network, NPR (which is the least psychotically right of state/corporate controlled-radio) is not available in many areas to fill the gap and now "Green 960" is history.

In fact anything that is good and happy on the air is going away and being replaced with meanness, vicious war rhetoric and pro-corporate garbage...anyone remember San Francisco's energy 92.7 FM ?

I don't buy the line that these stations aren't pulling their weight: This IS a conspiracy to control and manipulate and destroy the last hints of truthful investigative reporting in the interest of the "1%"...imagine they are killing off profitable radio stations followed by the masses with what amounts to pocket change to them

[Tommy008]

ithought KSCO in Santa Cruz had hired Dr. Bill straight up as a regular host. I see by looking at their website that he still only has two podcasts from December when he filled in for this Dr. Corey Gold guy. The station is owned by a wealthy rightwinger named Kay Zwerling who does her asinine political commentaries on i believe a daily basiss on the station. Pony up some money and hire Dr. Bill you cheap old gasbag. I heard the hour where Ray Taliaferro appeared on the station last month, with Zwerling's son and Kay sitting in the back of the studio. Taliaferro began shouting and screaming in rage at Kay right after she delivered the commentary praising Donald Trump. Taliaferro is clearly ready for retirment but Dr. Bill is not.

[Kareem]

This is not about ratings or sponsors this is about the ELECTIONS coming up.

"Dir./Operations DON PARKER said, "SAN FRANCISCO has a long heritage of great Talk programming and talent. We saw the opportunity to expand our footprint in this crucial arena as we head into an ELECTION YEAR..."

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/99558/clear-channel-san-francisco-shuffles-talk-station-

[Kareem]

Puget Sound Blathers please provide the link of what your talking about in reference to Randi?

[Kareem]

Thanks it was in the link.

[Kareem]

Pugent Sound Blathers Randi does go on rants but she also provides alot of information that you can actually look up and verify. She tells her listeners to not just take her word but go look it up. Something you don't hear Glenn or Rush saying because they can't do one show without stating a pants on fire lie.

[Bubba]

I Am sick! I live in the Sacramento area, and my ONLY radio lifeline to sanity when I come to the Bay Area for business almost every week was GREEN 960. When I plugged in at the outer limit of reception at Fairfield this morning ...NO THOM HARTMAN! I thought someone had messed with my presets. The last thing that was needed was another outlet for the crazies of the right to spread their hate.......Pathetic. I am sure glad baseball season is not far off........

[John]

Get an HD capable car radio to hear the progressive HD stream. At home, get a Grace 'net radio to hear progressives on the 'net or on radio streams from across the country (or world). Then, meanwhile, let's start an Occupy Our Airwaves movement to get control back from the Clear Channels, etc. (did you know Clear is owned by Bain Capital---can you say Mitt Romney?)

Citizens get zero dollars for corporations using OUR airwaves to propagandize us. Time to change that equation. Let CC pay a few billion a year for the privilege of using our air waves. ETC.

Good luck SF. Out here in the rest of America, our AM and FM stations are owned by corporations or by religious broadcasters. A station I helped build in the 60's as a LOCAL service station is now reduced to retransmitting religious programs off a satellite dish (which is what most NPR stations do too btw). Our US radio is a horrible mess.

[sparky]

Excellent ideas, all, John. I really like the Occupy Our Airwaves idea--how can we start?

[RQ]

(did you know Clear is owned by Bain Capital---can you say Mitt Romney?)

Considering the fact that Bain bought ClearChannel is 2008, and Romney left Bain in 1999, please explain the connection you're trying to make.

Occupy the Airwaves? Ridiculous at best.

[Mary]

What does an internet radio do that just streaming a station via computer doesn't do? Explain please?
Would it be a remote (away from the computer in any room of the house) type radio? And is it hooked up by cable or wire to the computer?

Romney still receives checks from Bain. Only connection I would imagine he has influence . . . probably none of us can say for sure. Can you, RQ?

Seems to me Randi was just voicing her opinions. What's that got to do with beer? Or was that intended to be sarcastic? Kareem is right. She connects most things to a homework page where much of what she says can be verified. Why the continuous attack on her? Can you say that about anybody on the right?

[Puget Sound Blathers]

Listen to the Link provided. Randi in her own voice. You think that is good research?

[Mary]

I did listen and then posted. She was being thoughtful. What research are you talking about? Doesn't she have a right to an opinion? You have them. I have them. She's not allowed? I heard pauses to show that she was trying to keep it in perspective - that's how uncertainty sounds.

[Mary]

I just listened a second time to be sure and I heard nothing about a cold beer. I heard her doing what she does best: stating an opinion based either on verifiable evidence or some pretty decent logic.

You don't have to agree with her. What you did was worse: you attributed without any evidence or logic that she needed a beer. I don't get the connection. Sorry.

[Puget Sound Blathers]

yes Mary, everyone has a right to an opinion. does she sound like she is giving an informed opinion? does that sound like 'some pretty decent logic' that she is putting out there? she's making a wild ass guess. for the record, turns out that there was no connection between the fires and blackwater. right?

jeez, one can visualize ol randi 'googling away' as she makes wild ass inferences with nothing to base it on as she plays blackwater as the boogeyman.

too damn funny. folks recall when randi took a header off the curb one of her cohosts rushed to the air claiming it was some bush goons or some such behind the 'attack.' turns out it was randi just having trouble navigating a curb. no attack.
just misinformation.

[Mary]

I respect her. Hindsight is 20-20. Visualize to your hearts content - doesn't make it so.

[Mary]

Also, I don't know what caused the fires. I'm not up on it.

[Vic Whaley]

Listened since ira blue monte stickles art finley and was an avid fan of all that had a show. Yeah Watenberg was a leaning to the right but in a tolerable way. thank god for pbs. Jazzbo the list is endless.On this issue i just can't agree to disagree. Radio is only a right wing joke able to confuse people and bash anyone in their way.

[Puget Sound Blathers]

well mary, we know what didn't cause it: blackwater.

here is her own statement on her 'mugging' which turns out to be wrong. her fill in host jon elliott got left out on a limb and made to look the fool.
why would she say she was mugged? she fell down. no one saw her be mugged. randi is outside the bar smoking her cigarettes when she falls down.
she thinks its a good idea to say she was mugged?

nor did blackwater attack her

[Mary]

Were you there? She explained the message. Did she pass out? Faint? Get pushed on purpose or inadvertently? Does it matter? Why do you persist in character assassination when you don't know? Her blackwater comment wasn't serious. Couldn't you tell?

Think what you like. Nobody else cares.

[Mary]

Just for fun, can you prove that an agent for Blackwater didn't push her? :)

[Puget Sound Blathers]

Were you there? She explained the message. Did she pass out? Faint? Get pushed on purpose or inadvertently? Does it matter? Why do you persist in character assassination when you don't know? Her blackwater comment wasn't serious. Couldn't you tell?

Think what you like. Nobody else cares.

Posted by: Mary | January 16, 2012 at 06:19 PM

hey, Randi was the one who falsely claimed to be attacked or assaulted. it was her station that put out the Blackwater folks were behind it. she didn't tell her station that she fell or fainted. she purposely said she was assaulted. why did she put out a lie?
maybe it WAS blackwater that made her drink at that Irish Bar. maybe it WAS blackwater that lured her out to the alley for a smoke.
after all, if blackwater would commit arson is there anything it would not stop at? and with the amazing randi ferreting out the real story no doubt they feared her amazing intellect and abilities to suss out their sinister plot.

[Coiler]

All the audience is booing Juan Williams at the SC debates, so much for racial harmony.

[Mary]

"she purposely said she was assaulted. why did she put out a lie?"

She told you. Listen again.

Can you prove that she wasn't mugged. Why so much sarcasm when you don't know?

Is it your assumption that she was drunk and simply fell on her ass? What proof do you have?

But back to your original post: what does beer have to do with Randi's talk show? Your debate goes pretty far afield if you ask me. Character assassination does little to further the conversation.

"Blackwaterdidn't cause it." I'll take your word for it.

[KS]

Who gives a flying except you ?

[Mary]

Apparently Puget Sound.

[RQ]

Well, that makes two of you. Move along, folks...nothing to see here.