"my ego wouldn't allow me to work for $300,000 a year."
That's the message allegedly coming from KGO's Ronn Owens, who insiders courtesy of Rich Lieberman' 415 Media Blog say will retire in December, one month before his 6 year, -+million dollar a year contract is up. Owens, being that last of the long, full-time hosts left at KGO before the mass firing- squad last December , in which many speculated that his contract would not be renewed by Cumulus Media.
Cumulus, who really hate the idea of keeping an award winning talk format in one of the highest rated talk markets, based on listeners loyalty and replacing it with boring news and traffic( and part timers working for cheap-hoping-for-the-old-days-of-kgo-or-another-station-to-come-along) but we digress.
KGO drone-copter Eight-10
We have to wonder what is keeping other hosts such as KIRO' Dave Ross in the local market, is Bonneville any better than Cumulus in keeping and attracting hosts and loyal listeners or are they just biding their time til a KGOne event happens too?
We'll do a formal RIP for Owens when it happens.
Any chance Ronn Owens could be on KIRO-FM after he leaves KGO ? Maybe he will go syndicated to make that possible. That would help transform talk radio in Seattle.
Posted by: KS blathers | September 25, 2012 at 09:36 AM
noon to 3 for Owens on 97.3, perfect, and a tremendous improvement over the kiddie show that's in that time slot now.
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal | September 25, 2012 at 09:51 AM
Maybe Puget Sound and you could start to lobby for Ronn and dump the devil Dori - bwahahaha
Posted by: KS blathers | September 25, 2012 at 06:42 PM
I just got seasick trying to read this latest post. What's up with the multiple font sizes and whacky picture captions? I'm an old geezer using a Mac power PC. Do you need Esmerelda to help with the proofing?
Ronn Owens Disputes Lieberman's Story
Posted by: Whatever | September 25, 2012 at 07:12 PM
The only KGO alum to head north was Lee Rogers and that was when KGO PD Ken Berry brought him here in the 90's after Berry was hired to turn KIRO around. The Rogers show was barely a blip here.
The days of 6 and 7 figure salaries fronted by a local station are gone. Owens knows this and will stay in the Bay Area hoping he invested enough to stay out of the Rmoney 47% demo.
Posted by: Preston | September 25, 2012 at 07:14 PM
Good to hear it is apparently a false alarm. LIeberman sounds like a Roger Stone stench spreader from Politico.
Lee Rogers was to politically incorrect for Seattle. He seemed to be head and shoulders above Dave Ross - because he was objective, but he went on to bigger and better things.
Posted by: KS blathers | September 25, 2012 at 08:58 PM
I don't mind censorship by deleting a comment,
(ok, if you insist)
Posted by: Whatever | September 26, 2012 at 05:20 PM
I'll behave from now on and not try to be an ass :)
Posted by: Whatever | September 27, 2012 at 02:56 PM
...."Cumulus, who really hate the idea of keeping an award winning talk format........and replacing it with boring news and traffic".......which is it? Does Cumulus hate keeping the old format, or do they hate replacing it with boring news and traffic......... they can't hate both things at the same time..... just liek i cant choose capt morgens over boons famr,,,,
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal | September 27, 2012 at 03:58 PM
Cumulus really hates the idea of keeping an award winning talk format in one of the highest rsted talk markets, based on listeners loyalty, and have replaced it{"are replacing it", 2nd option since the Owens chess piece is still left to be removed off the board} with boring news and traffic.........
Posted by: Hedge Fund Hal | September 27, 2012 at 04:07 PM