BlatherWatch

KOMO goes newsier, KVI recycles and goes memorex.

 

As tipped off last week( but we wanted to wait until they flipped again) The Fisher twins, KOMO and KVI have updated their format in favor of more news at the former and another taco stand for the 570 call, by using second tier conservative syndication and the spare parts of whats left over.

Carlson is back in at KVI with "Commute with Carlson", possibly the only live host. Ken Schram is out but still has daily commentaries on KOMO am and will remain on KOMO TV.  Micheal Savage, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Lars Larson and Don Imus,  albeit mainly taped shows, are part of the lineup along with the junkier Red Eye Radio for the warehouse elite.

KOMO stays with news but adds new anchors,  Bill Rice from 4a-5 and then 9-noon, Brian Calvert from Noon to 3p, with the current KOMO Morning News team of Manda Factor & Gregg Hersholt and KOMO Afternoon News with Jane Shannon & Tom Hutyler staying in place.  At Midnight, Dial Global's Overnight America lulls us until America in the Morning from 3a-4 starts the cycle over again.

KVI to flip back to talk?

 

Will KVI be flipping back (re-flipping, de-flipping?) from oldies to talk coming soon? The answer, which is electrifying the tiny universe of those who care about such things is... probably.

It's only been about a year since the station blew up its venerable talk format for really, old, oldies music. Guess the The 0.3 share must have given Fisher a clue that something wasn't working. (like maybe the people who remember that old music were all dead?)

The word on the street is they will go all-Xmas music after Thanksgiving, and when that gratefully lets up, January 1st they will flip to talk.

Fisher dumps the dumb dump, will stay on as a renter

Fisher is finally out from under one of their worst ideas in a long season of bad ideas!

This from Radio-info's Tom Taylor:

160 million for KPLZ/KOMO/KVI home Fisher Plaza in Seattle.

As CEO Colleen Brown said on her latest quarterly call, it’s not all that simple, trying to sell a building that was built around a TV station. Fisher’s been toiling at it since 2008, and this new deal with Houston-based REIT (real estate investment trust) Hines should be the best of both worlds. Fisher’s KOMO-TV and KUNS-TV can stay on as tenants in the high-tech Fisher Plaza, along with the radio stations. While the $160 million in proceeds will pay down a lot of debt. The facility is near Seattle’s Space Needle, and chances are you’ve seen it on TV – Fisher Plaza is the fictional “hospital” on the ABC-TV series “Grey’s Anatomy.” More about the sale from the Seattle Times. 

Shrinking, shrinking... fisher's a one-town horse, now

Fisher Communications ended its agreement last year with classical KING-FM (98.1),  when it reverted back to public radio status.Though everyone knew that was coming, Fisher's radio top line was bashed: cash flow shrank, and revenues fell.

 Radio-Info:

Also hurting revenues, according to CFO Hassan Natha - "the overall market decline" in Seattle, and the format change at KVI (570). They switched it from conservative talk to oldies, and the recent age 6+ trendline has been 0.2-0.2-0.3. Fisher says the radio ratings continue to be strong at hot AC KPLZ (101.5). There's also news/talk KOMO (1000) and its LMA'd FM simulcast, KOMO-FM, Oakville at 97.7.

And then there's the pale pachyderm that is Fisher Plaza. Once touted to be the 9th Wonder of The Media World, they've been trying to dump it since 2005. Since selling it hasn't worked out, CEO Colleen Brown, who still has her job despite all of this, says they continue to "evaluate options." They're getting more "creative," according to Radio-Info, and considering a sale/leaseback or a re-financing.

Brown is confident "there will be a good outcome", though it's tricky trying to sell something that was "built around a TV station."

(BlatherWatch suggests burning it down for the insurance, perhaps leaving the management teamed tied-up in the management suites. That's called "Soprano option").

(photo: "pale pachyderm")

Last week the i's were crossed and t's dotted for the sell-off of the Great Falls, Montana cluster, Fisher is now just a Seattle company, their loopy regional radio dreams are over.

KOMO: news 19/7!

The severely puckered Seattle newshole shrank a little more last week.

KOMO radio has given up 24/hour live news and is playing re-runs of weekday talkers John Carlson and Ken Schram in the overnight.

(photo: former KIRO overnighter/dweeb, Bryan Styble)

But... says a commenter on the trade Radio-Info forum:

To be fair, KOMO does have on-air-ready producers, something many other news stations don't have. Still, it's bad enough that we have six hours of talk on a "news" station; now the bulk of the all-night shift is talk reruns, with some news being done by the producer/editors.

More austerity from Fisher for the radio sector which always sucks hind teat to teevee in corporate considerations.

KIRO gave up live & local overnight in 2008 when they fired the insufferable Bryan Styble. They nowovernight with the syndicated George Noory, while KTTH does a Laura Ingraham rehash (daily, 1-4a) and America's Morning News, (daily, 4-6a) a right-wing tilt on the previous day's headlines from the blarmy Washington Times.

Jason rantz stunner: after swine flu, what?

His real name isn't Rantz- that was his nom de goon as a right-wing talk host and radio producer.

He's really Jason Antebi and the new Asst. Programming Director at KTTH and KIROFM.

As is not untypical of his kind (radio talk hosts, real or aspiring) what Jason lacks in social skills or taste, he makes up for in narcissisism and the expectation the rest of the world actually gives a shit about where he throws his dirty socks.

Old Seattle Radio Saturday: the commentators in the alley

John Carlson, Ken Schram from when Fisher actually promoted their radio talent.

 

Old Seattle Radio Saturday: KVI past: meet KVI prologue

This ad is from 1986 - for oldies KVI is prior to the Rush Limbaugh detour of KVI radio which began in 1991. What goes around sometimes actually does come around- the station was flipped back to oldies November 1, 2010. Unfortunately, no one has heard from it since.

KOMO radio: a rudderless ship

"There's nobody in charge, no plan," says a Fisher radio staffer. 

KOMO World is in suspended animation; employees are in a deep malaise.

A common thread with the KOMO people we've talked to is that the news talk station is doing OK at the moment, but they worry about the future. "We've got a lot of great people here, but we're just drifting along while KIRO makes all the changes."

There's a reason why there's no big picture stategizing for the 101-year-old Seattle company

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."