BREAKING: Dori Monson 1995-2012; Ron Reagan Starts Monday

The King of Seattle Talk Radio has been dethroned.

In an abrupt end to a remarkable 17-year run as one of Seattle's most controversial talk show hosts, at the end of his shift Friday Dori Monson (KIRO-FM 12-3p) was given ten minutes to gather his things. Then, carrying a suitably little box of his desk's contents, Monson was escorted out of the Bonneville radio complex on Eastlake by building security, his long reign over.

A source inside Bonneville says Monson will be replaced, starting this Monday, April 2, by former KIRO host Ron Reagan. After his one-hour KIRO show (12-1p, immediately preceding Monson) was cancelled in 2007, Reagan hosted a national show on Air America until its 2010 demise and then, in 2011, published a memoir of life with his father. Reagan lives in Seattle and has a number of miscellaneous free-lance radio and TV gigs that he will reportedly continue to do along with his KIRO show.

"Management wanted the anti-Dori," says the source, explaining the choice of the genial, mild-mannered Reagan. "It wasn't any one single thing...his ratings were stagnant, and they were just sick of Dori's act. Salt Lake feels that, in this market, bile isn't a sustainable business model. Every other daytime show KIRO is now airing is light, positive, fun.

"Monson's schtick is sustained outrage. It just didn't fit any more, and Larry [new KIRO PD Larry Gifford] was at wit's end trying to pair Dori with foils who would soften his image. Dori wanted none of it, and did everything he could off air to make their jobs miserable.

"Eventually the decision was made that the negatives outweighed the positives. And frankly, when the news broke just about everyone in the building privately cheered. The guy's a prick."

If the source is right, and Monson - who is reportedly still under contract to Bonneville - was bounced because he didn't fit KIRO's move to lifestyle-oriented talk, it's telling that the suits didn't simply move him to conservative sister station KTTH (The Truth). KTTH has been languishing in the ratings of late, with its only local show a peculiar one-hour afternoon stint by former morning guy Dave Boze (KTTH, 3-4p), who was also subbing for Dave Ross last week. Either Monson's contract is up; he was fired with cause; or management decided that the hassle of dealing with Monson's outsized ego so outweight the boost he could give their struggling conservative talk franchise that they would rather pay him to go away. (Hint to anyone in the know over at Eastlake: We'd love to know which it is. E-mail us at [email protected] Anonymity assured. We especially want to know if he was in a car accident while on a Twinkie run during a news break.)

Left unaddressed by this is the contrast between Monson's often hyperlocal schtick - he could spend entire shows venting about a local politician or a minor news item from Maple Valley - and Reagan, who is a national figure. During his last stint on KIRO, Reagan showed no interest in doing anything but national topics. Will that fit on the new KIRO?

Monson's dismissal creates some other issues for KIRO as well. Monson padded his six-figure salary by doing personal endorsement deals with just about any local company that would have him, and his ubiquitous voice during commercial breaks means a lot of commercial accounts will need new spots (and perhaps new air talent endorsement deals) in the coming weeks. Monson has also, since 2002, played key roles in the Seahawk football broadcast, doing pre- and post-game and halftime hosting and analysis on the Seahawk network. The Seahawks employ Monson and their other announcers separately from Bonneville. Will the team still want the irritating, jock-sniffing Monson after he's no longer on their flagship station?

Aside from his undoubtably bruised ego, which takes up about 80 percent of his body mass, Monson himself is sitting pretty. In the short term, he's financially comfortable, and Bonneville may still be paying him for years. At age 50, he still has plenty of working years left. Monson would doubtless have more opportunities had he not spent so many years being a colossal jackass to so many people; and his future prospects are handicapped by being short, Icelandic, and having a girl's name. Still, somebody will want him, if only for his notoriety.

But not in broadcast radio. Unless it's on infomercials, it's hard to see where else he'd go on air in Seattle. A home boy (he trades heavily on being from Ballard, though he actually lives in Lake Forest Park), Monson's occasional efforts to expand his audience outside Seattle have been dismal failures. And outside KIRO and KTTH, nobody else in Seattle really does commercial political talk any longer.

Monson probably has a standard non-compete clause in his contract that will keep him off Seattle's airwaves for either six months or the length of the contract. But even then, where would he go? KVI's conservative talk is long gone, replaced now by a vapid mix of syndicated and local lifestyle shows with dozens of listeners (on its better days). KOMO's midday talk shows (former "Commentators" John Carlson 9a-12p and Ken Schram 12-3p) are a cheap way to use air talent already under contract without having to spend any money on programming; and KOMO is also big on the genial, happy-talk approach. They're not about to pay out big bucks for the incendiary Monson.

Sports talk is also a non-starter. Bonneville, which just fired Monson, also has one of the two sports-talk stations in town (KIRO-AM, aka ESPN 710). The other, KJR, just eliminated its local evening show for budget reasons and has three decade-plus station veterans parked in its daytime lineup. Even KKOL is gone from the talk stable. The odds are, unless someone undergoes a format change or Dori decides he wants to do a morning show on a music station (think Bob Rivers, only without the likeability), Monson is done in Seattle.

Moreover, he might not be the only one. Given KIRO-FM's move away from acerbic commentary, our source noted: "One of these weeks John Curley is going to wander in to do his show and find that his key card doesn't work any more."

Lastly, under Gifford's watch, KIRO's move has been to not only a softer-edged, politically tinged lifestyle approach, but to having a second voice - either a co-host or a newsie or producer as foil - on each of the daytime shows. Who will bat around the day's entertaining events with Reagan? And will Reagan make his opportunity stick this time?

Tune in Monday at noon to find out.

 

 

Comments

[Sneaky]

Hmm. Let me check today's date. It is April Fool's Day.

[Rich Meell]

a good idea no the lesss

[Chucks]

We can all share the joy of knowing that Keith Olbermann was escorted away from Current TV and will be collecting his $450.00 a month in unemployment benefits for a while.
I hear that he will be doing a radio show in the overnight hours in Wichita for a while.
He will be missed.

[jameschan]

we could only hope. Any word on Jessica Gottesman?

[Mike Barer]

April Fool!

[Mike Barer]

Jameschan, Jessica is a facebook friend, let me see if I can find out.

[Mike Barer]

Jess is working at Sirius/XM.

[Radiohead]

Bla'M trained you people too well.

[Tom]

Good one Dori. I believed it for almost 5 minutes.

[KS]

The give away here besides the current date was that noone was assigned for the 1-3pm part of Dori's show.
Good one though.

This rumor was a long time coming on April Fools day, would have been say April 1st, 2007 would be where disdain for Monson on BW was in full bore.

[Pete]

Chucks: Even Seattle uses nationally syndicated programs for its overnight broadcasts now - and Wichita, a much smaller market, surely does, so if Olbermann is on the air overnight there, that's why. You sure you wanna consign Olbermann to a future with a widely distributed national radio show? I don't think that's what you meant.

More likely, he'll go back to the sports world. Maybe he can do color commentary on the Wichita State play-by-play broadcasts.

[Pete]

KS - you're wrong. The 12-1 p is clearly written as a reference to Reagan's 2007 show. This post just says Reagan will "replace" Dori, presumably for all three hours.

If it were 2007, this would have had Dori being replaced by Mike Webb. Webb was murdered in mid-April 2007, so at the time of April Fool's he was still alive, exiled to his basement podcast and still the object of a lot of BW ridicule. Having him making a KIRO comeback and replacing Monson would have been perfect...

[KIRO Fan]

"Jess" (no one calls her that) worked for Sirius on the side while at KIRO. It's an "in your basement" voice tracking gig. Wonder if she'll ever surface again in the Seattle market. Let's hope not.

[Mike Barer]

KIRoFan, got an e-mail back from Jessica. You are right on all counts. She signs, Jessica and she has been with Sirius since 2004. She does do the show from her home.
She said she enjoyed doing the show with Dori and misses him.
She was pretty ambigous on why she left the station, but she seems like a wonderful person.

[Mary]

Ron Reagan would have me listening to KIRO again. I'm thoroughly disappointed that it isn't true.

[KS]

My mistake - the 12-1 pm slot referred to Reagan Jr's 2007 stint.

[quasigentrified]

how i wish. how i wish. listening to him and that babbling knuckledragger jake bicker over parking space etiquette is the worst episode of masochism i've ever inflicted on myself, and i've drank four loko.

[Bob Nelson]

Here in Boston Olbermann either quit or was fired from the ABC affiliate after refusing to guest host the bowling show (host was sick) and complaining about lack of a car and driver provided to him (he didn't drive, and apparently still doesn't).
The same station once employed a guy
from the NY area who would later do talking points on a very highly rated show on Fox News: What say you? (Clips of O'Really on CH 5 Boston are on youtube)

[Finis Hominis]

This is fabulous news. I think we should have an enormous party in the middle of downtown Seattle. Champagne, fireworks and British food for all, it’ll be the party of a life time, and I’ll pay for it with the 600 million I won in the mega-million.

[KIRO Fan]

Mike Barer, ever seen the movie, "Fatal Attraction?"

[Mike Barer]

Yes, I have. What does that have to do with the price of rice?

[KIRO Fan]

Glenn Close seemed like a wonderful person too.

[SJ]

Yeh, I WAS taken in but the effect is to make me doubt anything I read here.

Not funny and not professional.

[Mike Barer]

SJ, many respected news sources have fake stories on April Fool's. Ron Judd had some funnies in his column. It's just a chance to see who's paying attention.

[SJ]

Being punked is OK, but that ought to mean some humor.

I just do not see the joke.

[Katherine]

Radiohead,

I bet that you used to overfeed your goldfish as a child and later graduated to fluffing cat fur in the wrong direction.

That post was flat out cruel. Really.

I hope you are still smiling smugly after you get blasted with a jolt of static electricity the next you time you touch a brass door knob when you let the cat out.

I have already signed up for a year's worth of counseling to deal with all my hopes being crushed.

Of course, I shouldn't mention that I am now drinking heavily again as I try to cope, but I will.

The only upside here is I get nice check at the end of the week when I go to recycle all the empty beer cans (crushed just like my hopes).

And it just keeps getting worse.

With these new expenses, just how am I supposed to afford all the extra gigabytes on my cell phone data plan I use when listening to out of town radio stations from noon to 3 PM each day?

Before this happened I was barely keeping up with that expense. I guess I will find a place to cut back; mostly like in the children's food budget.

Now I done. Thank you so much.

I shouldn't have point this out to you but I will: that thank you was in done with sarcasm.

Normally I wouldn't draw attention to such a subtlety but I suspect that you are much like a Mariner's infielder in early September - they simply don't have the ability any longer to stop things from getting past them.

With Regards,

Traumatized in Seattle

[Radiohead]

Katherine,

Sorry about that. Regular readers of this blog know (or should know) never to trust anything it publishes on April 1...

[Fremont]

"Sorry about that. Regular readers of this blog know (or should know) never to trust anything it publishes on April 1..."

...including the caution that mistrust should be limited to posts published on April 1...

[Mysterion]

Too bad this was an April fools thing. Would love to have ron Reagan back on KIRO for a daily show.

[YLB]

Ojala!

[bob19]

I thought that April fools jokes were supposed to be funny.

[Guilty Bystander]

Frankly, Dori's show has become a snooze. He no longer takes calls from listeners unless it's a tightly-controlled situation like a quiz, so it's just him and Jake yapping endlessly. As well, Dori's program content is more and more consumed by lightweight pop-culture dross. If I want that crap, I'll watch TMZ.

At this point, I'll listen to Ken Schram on KOMO or even Michael Medved. Both have their share of self-righteousness to wade through, but they are issues-oriented and aren't afraid of their listeners.

[Larry W. Long]

When Dori first started his show, about the 1995 era, I had a job where I was pretty much chained to a desk. I listened to his show every day. Back then, I enjoyed it. I did not always agree with his view point (about 60/40) but he did present well thought out cogent arguments for or aginist an issue. At times, callers were even able to sway his opinions with the proper facts. Starting with the Bush era, Dori, for reasons unknown, became little more than a right wing mouth piece. Short of sodomizing a barn yard animal on the capitol steps, I doubt that a cop, or a conservative could do anything wrong in Dori's view. He dispises the poor, government workers, and any other group of people less fortunate than he is. Nothing seems to give him greater pleasure than to poke fun at people he does not approve of. He is constantly harping on President Obama and the teleprompters. I never heard him spoofing G.W. Bush's gaffs, and the deer in the headlights look. Let there be a sex scandal in the news and he dewlls on it for weeks. Heaven forbid there should be a pedophile issue in the news. He goes on and on. Does the old phrase "me thinks he protests too much" or the "guilty dog barks first" ring a bell?. I quit listening to him years ago because he no longer does open commentary on the issues, he trys to manufacture issues where none exist. I now consider him nothing more than an advertising ass clown.

[Jason]

I knew this was likely an April Fool's joke because I accidentally tuned into Dori's show yesterday just before listening to Ron & Don. I was hoping, however, that it was true, and that I was mistaken. Everything said in this article is absolutely true, and I consider myself a conservative talk show listener. Dori is a sad, mad man. I would love to hear anyone but him in that timeslot. Lately, it's the only time of day I don't listen to Kiro. I can't listen to Dori's nasal voice for more than 5 seconds without leaping for the radio dial or mouse button to click him off my computer.

Hopefully by April 2013 this blog post will come true.

[Barry]

It seems Dori has some kind of close relationship with management that he will never be fired. We just have to wait until the station gets sold to new management or when he retires. Sigh.