BlatherWatch

Radio Gnus

Seattle – Fisher’s news/talk KOMO-AM/FM is #1, 4.7-4.2-6.0. And that Bonneville’s rival news/talk KIRO-FM is on its tail, 5.7-4.6-5.9. So what happened to Holiday-book champion all-Christmas “Warm”? That’s Sandusky’s soft AC KRWM, and it settled from a 12.0 to a 5.5, ranking third. Then you encounter another high-flying public radio news/talker – the University of Washington’s KUOW, in fourth place (4.5-4.2-5.2). The rest of the talk field didn’t do so well. Bonneville’s talk “Truth” KTTH, the home of Rush Limbaugh, has moved 1.6-1.3-1.4. Fisher’s new “Smart Talk” KVI sank from a 0.3 to a 0.1.

Let me repeat that.

KVI sank from a 0.3 to a 0.1.   Apparently Sunrise Seattle isn't impressing too many people. From the website: 

Elisa Jaffe and Mark Christopher and staff members Jennifer Austin, Brittney Perrault, and Marina Rockinger set a silly world record for "most people saying 'Sunrise Seattle' for 20 seconds while holding their tongues."

Riveting radio, no doubt.

(Hat tip to Tom Taylor for the ratings statistics.)

(left-Señor Wences)  In other news, Brian Suits is out at KOGO in San Diego over a scheduling dispute. From his Facebook page:  "So, just to be clear, KOGO and I agreed that I could do the Noon-2 (eventually 3) PM show from Seattle. When a change to 3-6pm was floated, we couldn't agree on what it would take to move to San Diego. The good news is, Bean from KROQ (and fellow Seattleite) is kicking my ass to do a daily podcast and occasional live shows in LA and The OC. So stay tuned."

Ole!

by Rachelle, Star Reporter

UPDATED: Jason Stein 2009-2011 RIP

There aren't many radio producers we take note of, but Monday another one lost his job in homage to the gi-normous ego of one of the talents he served so well.

Jason Stein, who was brought from LA's megatalker KFI to "polish the turds" that was the Ron & Don Show (KIROFM m-f, 3-7p) was fired Monday after repeatedly refusing to polish a certain sensitive proturberance on the person of Don O'Neill, the dumb one.

Don O'Neill, (the "Don" of the outfit) gave Stein the ol' thumbs down like Joaquin Phoenix's character in Gladiator. Don's a blithering fool who handles success by becoming more obnoxious, and is said to be untouchable by management. Even though before they hired Jason, he and Ron fetched diet Pepsis for Dori Monson and were praying on the air in 2009 that the show would last until Xmas.

                                   (photo: Death Angel Don)

They were flailing away in the deep caca; they were #15 in their timeslot, their days were numbered at KIRO. (You'd think...hell, they are inane and puerile, after all)

Enter Jason in Novemberof that year. He'd worked on KFI's powerful John and Ken Show, as well as Bryan Suits' Kennedy and Suits. 

They rest, as they say, is history. Don O'Neill takes credit for saving the station, but it's the consensus of KIRO staffers we know: It was Jason with his big city FM talk know-how, who guided the very lame show into the new world of the PPMs and its present level of success.

They lead everyone - Dori, Dave & Luke, the morning news - in the vital 25-54 demographic; it's #2 in the PM drive (after All Things Considered). Even BlatherWatch has given them props for the show's ability to get and keep earballs.

We're sure Stein, with his resumé and abilities, will land softly somewhere. Sadly, that may be hard to do in Seattle... talk radio, but for the KIRO's is pretty much gone to flowers every one.

Good luck Jason. (and congratulations to the next PD who hires him).

Bombs of awesome heading straight for your earholes: fisher gets noizsome

  We read in a trade quoting Fisher PD Travis Box" that "even prior to KVI/Seattle’s flip from Talk to Oldies late last year, there’d been a lot of conversation around the company’s Emerald City

(image credit: Sibling Rivalry)

headquarters about 'how we could take what we knew about spoken-word audio content to create a product/format for a new generation of listeners.'"

No shit. That's all it's been: a lot of conversation- for years... until now with their new product/format NoizBeam.com, a digital talk platform targeting 18-49 year olds. (Their old platforms, KOMO and KVI have been only marginally successful with the 59-91 demo).

Noizbeam is a collection of established (that's a relative word on the internets) podcasts by some 20 to 30-somethings -- mostly male -- and featured across several mediums, the internet, mobile applications, traditional broadcast and "other non-traditional distribution methods."

Or so reads the press release.

(We loved the throbbing and creaming first graph of a tech site announcing the start-up that read: "Fisher Communications, Inc., a major player in local media innovation..."We who know and love the deeply-troubled local company know they're dragging years, if not decades behind their competitors and the fucking universe in new media. If anything, they've been going backwards in the innovation dep't).

Until now, with NoizBeam.

There's one name we recognize: Jeremy Grater, former KVI and KIRO producer who produced Bryan Suits and Mike Webb (and many other hats at Fisher Plaza). His podcast, The Sibling Rivalry, calls itself a discussion of “real lives, pop culture, news of the day and sometimes farts — because they’re funny.”

We get that NoizBeam isn't meant for us (we're old, and have transcended farts) and been listening to Sibling Rivalry occasionally since Webb was alive. It's our favorite on this site (they've done 174 episodes). The Sibs are conversations between Jeremy and his brother Aaron who lives back East and a woman, Stacy (or Jeremy's wife Sheryl) the feminine foils to the masculine barbarity of the brothers.  

The list of podcasts include The Grapes of Rad, two guys who challenge you to “listen like your sense of humor depends on it.”

Stack of Dimes, two more guys, JD and Thunder talkin' shit. Everything that's not awesome, sucks, naturally. 

Madge and Dave are a bi-gendered couple who figure stuff out, outloud on matters of sex, gender, and rock 'n roll. And also hangovers, dead raccoons and people who only chew half sticks of gum.

The Air Raid Podcast is yet another couple of guys: they're the ones That Drop Bombs of Awesome In To Your Earholes!

Famous radio sidekick/producer Sean Detore (of TBTL and The John Curley Show) makes some appearances on Rad. He has a particularly interesting sense of humor when the FCC's not his overlord.

And it's not, of course, NoizBeam free-styles the seven dirties like there's no tomorrow - it's a big FUCC-you to the FCC.

It's like listening-in on conversations at the urinals while sitting in a stall in the men's room at a wrestling match. It's fat jokes or dick jokes or combinations of both. (Hey, he's got a dick-do! What's a dick-do? That's when your gut sticks out farther than your dick do). It's discussions of hair gel, Anthony Weiner (of course) cock-push-ups, innovative onanism, and other explorations of regions of the nether kind. 

Lots of booze-talk, weed-smoking, of avid discussions about passing gas and/or urine tests. Glib, muchly sophomoric conversations about poop, pop music and culture, body functions and trials in the lives of couples with small children or babies. (There's a poignant tale of an infant who throws-up into her mother's mouth- if that doesn't make you want to dial up NoizBeam immediately, you must be 49 and a half or a woman).

There's much self-absorbed, professional/personal navel-gazing normal with males at that age-stage. And jokes you won't get if you didn't memorize certain action movies.

You get the idea. It's TBTL without the maturity.

 

We're not being condescending here, we like this site. It's uncensored and off-beat funny, styles we admire. Our only criticism is the obvious one- The gender balance is tilted to the Men's Club side. We wish there were a couple of women-only casts ... and how about some gays?

Most of all, we're amazed and love that it lives under the stodgy imprimatur of Fisher Communications.

BREAKING: John Carlson to KUOW’s “Weekday"

KUOW PD Jeff Hansen announced today that longtime KOMO talker, and radio conservative John Carlson will join Steve Scher to co-host the weekdaily, morning blab-cast: Weekday (m-f, 9a-12p). He will start May 15.

“John is a fine broadcaster, and a Seattle native,” said Hansen in a press release: “He’ll bring a new point of view to KUOW listeners."

Confessions of a ppm™ panelist: arbitron unplugs blatherwatch ...

Arbitron released us wide-eyed and buck-naked this month back into the dismal world of who-gives-a-damn-what-you-think.

We felt distinctly abandoned. I'm a man without a meter.

For the last 2 years, me and my significant other have been toting around the little pager-like PPMs™ (Portable People Meters™) collecting puny sums of money for couriering data from Seattle to data bots in Columbia, Maryland.

Arbitron surveys 1/40 of one percent of the population and every two years rotates the sample.

We just got rotated. It hurts.

Wow: KOMO!

In the December ratings book, news talk radio has jumped back to the fore, leaving a bevy of music stations in the dust.

KOMO was no. 2 with 4.9% share of the listenership. That is very good and reflects, we're told, that they ruled the morning. Fisher folded the KVI talk format and turned it over to Bad Nostalgic Hits of the Pleistocene in the November. Did all those KVI-ers come home to Jesus and follow John Carlson (m-f, 3-6p) on KOMO? 

John Carlson remembers KVI

As KTTH ("The Truth") shrivels-up into just another cut-out cookie of syndicated Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck jabber-wabber, KOMO's John Carlson (m-f, 9a-12p) for The Weekly Standard writes lovingly, if not a bit self-servingly about KVI, the pioneering conservative talker laid to rest in November by Fisher Communications. 

Billly Bob: NEW NPR, OLD KVI, DAVE & DAVE

(More Q&A trailer trash-talk from Billly Bob. He's a guy we talked into giving up his radio management career to write for BlatherWatch. He once lived in Laurelhurst, but he had to give that up for the Happy Camper Man-This-Is Really-Livin' Park &  Putt-Putt Golf Course near Monroe, WA. Billly has the ability to make a match burn twice, and has extinguished himself as the only radio critic in America with 3 consecutive consonants in his name. He says the middle L is silent. He's another reason to give us money. Read more BB here).

by Billy Bob

I took last week off, went to the Emerald Queen for Veteran's Day, but now I'm back with more of your radio questions...

Dear Billy: I'm hearing that in recognition of the recent election and the victories by Republicans, NPR is going to start a few new shows which we'll be able to hear on KUOW. The new shows include: Morning Rendition; All Things Replundered, and Wait, Wait, Don't Fuck Me! What do you hear? Signed, NPR Fan in Dupont

Talk radio: it's a post-election gloatation device ...but that's about it

We, like most progressives, have been bracing ourselves for the ass-kicking we were to take in the mid-terms.

(photo: Dino Rossi on the runway)

We steeled ourselves to be philosophical; to man-up and take it from talk radio, and our right-wing commenters, who have been pre-gloating for months.

KVI: oldies in, bryan suits outI

The news was big -- it's the end of Talk Radio 570 as we know it. 

FisherComm pulled the trigger Monday afternoon: heritage talker KVI will flip next week to AM oldies.

It ends a 15-year stint for a station widely considered seminal in the talk format. It was the first all-conservative big-market talk station.

In a written statement, KVI PD Travis Box said the station will play "Greatest Hits of the '60s and '70s", starting Nov. 8. (Music on AM? sounds nutz, but then again we thought right-wing talk was nutz).