BlatherWatch

Bankruptcy averted: don o'neill saves KIRO

The true story is finally known: Don O'Neill, the clodular half of KIRO's Ron & Don (m-f, 3-7p) saved the big station during its darkest days after it went to eff-em a couple of years ago.

(photo: "Why wouldn't I be" Don O'Neill)

And if you don't believe it: You can just ask him. He went on (and on) about it last Friday on the air.

"KIRO's on fire," he said, "It's the no. 1 billing station on the dial."

And Bonneville can thank Don O'Neill. (Not those fancy suits like Rod Arquette, Ryan Hatch and the army of those consultants the company threw at the problem).

KIROFM: frank shiers stays, the guy who fired him moves on

First we gotta say, Frank wasn't fired from KIRO... he was only replaced in the evening slot by John Curley (m-f, 7-10p).

Frank says, "I will return to a very familiar role at KIRO. They assure me that I will be filling in on a variety of shows. I'll also work in production, writing, voicing and producing commercials." 

Ironies of ironies, the guy who's responsible for all the changes at the KIRO's Program Director Ryan Hatch is leaving Eastlake.

Hatch writes: "In one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make, my family and I are heading back home to Phoenix. I absolutely love the people and products at Bonneville Seattle, and I’m proud of what the team has accomplished."

He says he'll be Bonneville's VP of News and Sports in Phoenix, and may be here for the next few months during transition of the new PD ...as yet unnamed.

Hatch has been in Seattle only for a year, but o, what a year! Taking over from Rod Arquette last February, (Arquette is now a drivetime talk host in Salt Lake City's KNRS) Hatch has overseen a rehaul of th KIRO's and KTTH. 

Hatch fired Gregg Hershold, and Jane Shannon and hired Bill Radke and Linda Thomas  for the morning news. He hooked-up (so to speak) sparkling punketeur Luke Burbank to the iconic, ironic Dave Ross on mid-mornings. He dumped restaurateur Tom Douglas from his Saturday gig, and fired neither Dori Monson in the afternoons, nor Ron & Don in the PM drive. He did lure local teevee has-was John Curley to replace Frank Shiers in the weekevenings. He got George Noory's Coast to Coast for the wee hours.

We won't recite all Hatch did with sporty KIROAM because we don't care, but for KTTH, he killed 2 of 3 hours of Dave Boze's live and local PM drivetime show, snagged re-runs of Sean Hannity, Lars Larson and Laura Ingraham.

It was a mighty busy year; Ryan Hatch might not have made a lot of friends in Seattle, but he sure made a difference... and left a bloody trail.

Looking for a job?

 

Rod arquette: new salt lake drive-time talent

Congratulations to our old friend and former KIRO PD, Rod Arquette. He’s been hired to host a 4-7p show on Clear Channel’s “Family Values Talk Radio,” KNRS (105.7) in Salt Lake City. He’ll start Aug. 2.

This is the station who grabbed up Sean Hannity (m-f, 1-4p, starting Oct. 4) when Arquette’s old bosses at Bonneville booted him from KSL for being uncivil.

Are those the rumbles of change at KIRO... or just gas?

 Hoards of Bonneville brass washed over KIRO management suites this week creating the tremors that could foreshadow a real shakeup … or not.

The once-proud mixed format AM news talker with heavy news emphasis has become a conservative FM news talker with lite news emphasi. As we've reported for years, now, KIRO's once market-leading ratings took a precipitous dive when the personal meters turned the Seattle market upside down.

A KIRO source tells us: "The FM is in something like 15th place 25-54; the late great 710 ayem is languishing somewhere from 18-20th. You can't make a buck with those terrible ratings in this day and age."

There's already been a recent off-air shake-up. New PD. New news hires, fires. Newsier format on weekends- like the one doing so well for KOMO.  

Rumors have it that a major host will be fired- but who and how, we ask? Long-timers Dave Ross and Dori Monson are the backbone of the KIRO broadcasting day. The iconic, ironic Ross ain’t what he used to be ratings-wise. The furious pipsqueaking Dori is doing better, but is beaten regularly by Ed Schultz (KPTK m-f, 12-3p) KUOW, Sean Hannity (KVI m-f, 12-3p) ... even Michael Medved (KTTH m-f, 12-3p).

(photo: KIRO Program Director Ryan Hatch).

Would KIRO fire one or both of these guys? Or move them around? Why? To where? Ron & Don (KIRO m-f, 3-7p) are mind-numbing fools who are embarrassing to their peers and superiors. Do they get decent ratings? Apparently they do. So will they stay, and Dave Ross go? That’s unthinkable… or is it?

KIRO just seems stuck. Any change in the weekdaily line-up will be controversial: either lateral movement, or “out of the box,” a category with which Seattle audiences are famously uncomfortable.

Stay tuned...
 

Rod Arquette, 2007-2010 R.I.P.

More changes at KIRO/KTTH. Princely Program Director Rod Arquette has resigned  and will leave at the end of March. We’ve been wondering when a head might roll after the dive after KIRO’s ill-fated flip to FM, but we’re not really sure if this be one of them.              Photo: Seattle Times.

Seattle talk radio: we make another half-assed attempt to be nice…

We were raised on Thumper’s genteel dictum: “If you can’t say sumpin’ nice, don’t say nuffin’ at all.” (It didn’t really take, but used to get us laid once in a while).

BlatherWatch has long been accused of committing verbicide against the weakest among us - radio talent. We've been mean to radio in general, the media entity bleeding the most after newspapers.

So we decided to find the ponies under the manure piles. Here they are:

Will KPTK step up to radio reality?

Seattle liberal-interest money groups have long talked up the possibility of buying a radio station to counter the overwhelmingly conservative news talk stations in a market that's overwhelmingly liberal.

That's probably not a good idea, since it's been proven many times that radio should be left to radio professionals...Oh wait, that's right, a generation of professionals put radio where it is today: in the shit.

More advertisers drop beck: how long can fox news, bonneville, LDS church ignore it?

Eight more major advertisers have confirmed pulling their advertising from Fox News' Glenn Beck Show after he said President Obama is a racist who "hates white people."

Locally, Glenn Beck, who identifies as a Mormon, survives on the ratings-troubled KTTH, (m-f, 6-9a) a station owned by the LDS Church, itself plagued with longstanding questions about its racial practices, and attitudes. The low-rated talk station survives as the market delivery system of Rush Limbaugh, who started this racist arms-race between right-wing broadcasters for national outrage/publicity.

Who should stay and who should go?

There will be blood.

Seattle talk stations KTTH, KIRO FM, KVI, KIROFM, are all sucking in ratings and the late summer-fall season is the traditional time to give radio stations haircuts if not decapitations.

KIROFM in particular must make some changes... we're not sure what they'll do... flipping back to AM won't be it, and neither will putting Dave Ross out to pasture or in the afternoon drive.

Brian suits: "I AM a bit of an ass..."

LA talker and former Seattleite Bryan Suits (KFI m-f, 7-10p) says he agrees with one of our commenters, who wrote that he is a bit of an ass.

"I am a bit of an ass and in fact purchased a Nautilus machine to enhance that part. I lack empathy, and I'm cold-blooded but I'm here to tell you I treat people the way they should be treated."

He says a conversation reported by BlatherWatch "never happened, never would have happened."