BlatherWatch

UPDATED: KIRO to all sports? Not in the 'foreseeable' future...

Bye-bye KBSG: From faithful blather reader, Rev:  I was awake at 4:00 this AM, so I heard the dying gasps of KBSG: They played about 20 minutes of "that's the end" songs with no announcements or commercial break, and then at about 4:20, there was a "This is KIRO-FM" ID, followed by the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up." When that ended, they faded into the middle of a commercial and picked up the KIRO(AM) stream in progress, which was running the syndicated Wall Street Journal report. No announcement of the new signal or anything else -- just business as usual. So I went back to sleep.

KIRO suits left the door wide open today to what we've been told is the "inevitable switch" to all-sports programming for KIRO.

It even sounds like they've been talking to ESPN.

At 5a Tuesday morning, KIRO began simulcasting on 97.3 FM, shoving the oldies and the oldsters who loved them to Warmer climes in a move to serve the  "maggot-infested, long-haired FM-types," as Rush Limbaugh so poetically but inaccurately describes an audience who are actually the vast majority of radio listeners.

KUOW.org: where old men take their fathers

We're reminded of that old saw about the Rainier Club: It's where old men take their fathers.

We're not talking about a downtown private club past its prime in the 21st Century, but the first redesign of the KUOW website since we don't know when. (KUOW is Seattle's popular public radio talk station).

Unfortunately it's just a rearrangement of the furniture with some tech flourishes and furbelows.

Can Luke Burbank Make A.M. Radio Cool Again?

A brilliant profile of Luke Burbank and Too Beautiful to Live in Seattle magazine:

Luke Burbank lives a blessed life. He’s got his own radio show on KIRO-AM 710, Seattle’s mightiest, highest-rated AM news talk station, where he can do anything he wants and be exactly who he is. What’s more, he has every male radio host’s dream: a female sidekick who gets paid to laugh at his jokes...

Read the rest here.

(photo: Richard Darbonne)

BlatherWatch asks: 'Too Beautiful To Live' ... is it, will it?

(While we're out this week, we're asking some questions. We'd love your feedback for some changes we're cooking up for BlatherWatch).

So what do you think about something totally different than the old  "rile 'em up and get 'em mad enough to call in" kind of talk show?

KIRO is innovating with TBTL (m-f, 7-10p), and is somewhat departing the usual AM formatics with Ron & Don (m-f, 3-6p). R& D are doing OK, and TBTL feels like it's catching on. (We'll have numbers soon).

Aside from the usual sniping, can radio survive and grow a new audience with such a departure?

TBTL: Awesome or not awesome?

Whither (wither) am radio? "cut-costs-at-all costs companies will not survive"

"The choice is between the immediate satisfaction of making the bottom line look better for investors today and thinking five years down the road. Most companies in the United States, unfortunately, choose the former option." ~~ Chris Core, former DC AM radio talk host

In February, conservative radio talk host Chris Core, arguably the best local political talk radio show in the Washington DC area was let go from a 33 year run at WMAL. Citadel's cuts included Core, the news director, the national sales manager, and the on-air staff of a sister station. Effective immediately.

He writes eloquently about the end of his terrestrial radio career in a The Washington Post Sunday piece that might be an obituary for the AM dial.

His observations shed some light on the future of KOMO if they lose the Mariners' contract in July; puts the cutbacks at KIRO, KVI (and across the dial) into grim perspective; and should serve as a cautionary tale to KUOW, and Seattle pubic radio.

TBTL: it lives!

Everyone wants to know: Is KIRO's show Too Beautiful to Live?

Seems the KIRO suits were high-fiving each other Monday: "We're the highest rated show on the station in the 18-34 demo," says Luke Burbank, the host of the new low-concept show (m-f, 7-10p).

This seems like a fine distinction, he says, "except that when we  took over the slot, it was at 0.00. And the whole idea behind TBTL was to get the youngsters."

Well, although they haven't yet seen their numbers separated out from the Phil Hendrie Show (the initial book lumps the shows together), it looks like they're doing just that.

The not-so-incredible shrinking seattle radio market

AM Talk radio made its chops on hard-edge, piss & moan conservative boilerplate. With the death of live and local programming there are signs that the next wave may be lighter in content and softer in volume.

Conservatism took a big hit after it became the establishment, and its practitioners -- the Bush administration, and the Republican majority blew it so utterly. (The R's are so freaked out they've nominated a gen-u-wine RINO).

The Takeaway, starts today on New York's WNYC with veteran NPR and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN.

The show, from Public Radio International, will strive to counter the staid feel and taped interviews of NPR’s venerable Morning Edition.

The New York Times wrote Sunday, "Public radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre."

Activity, if you want to call it that, ain't so frenetic around here with local public stations, KUOW, and KPLU. The Takeaway will be heard in NY, Boston and Baltimore, and presumably will be available to all; but we doubt we'll be hearing it any time soon except by podcast or livestream -- despite the local stations run ME simultaneously in the the same market.

KUOW, with all their resources, cash reserves, and penny-pinching; enjoying 2nd or 3rd place in the market every book, doesn't seem much interested in investing in the future that the rest of public radio is clamoring for. 

~~ Culture Warrior to the perves. We know why we love The O'Reilly Factor. It's for the sex (not the articles). Latest prurient thrills you can't get anywhere else on cable: Tuesday, Billo ran great c-phone shots of a 12-year-old stripper in Dallas stripping. The ensuing discussion included two attorneys, who also happened to be young blonde women. The consensus: 12 is too young to be a stripper. Probably would be illegal to download those pics from the net -- thanks Bill, for indulging our inner pedophile.

~~ An exasperated KIRO staffer who calls himself kissdangerboy wrote to complain that the best-of replays of Too Beautiful to Live (KIRO m-f, 7-10) that replaced David Goldstein on Saturday evenings are butchered screwed up they make no sense. "They were talking," he writes, "about Luke's conversation with Mister T's agent. However, at the first commercial break on the (clearly forced) clock, it was cut off mid-sentence and then again at 7:30 for the bottom of the hour required news update and commercials. After that, the program came back to an entirely different topic!!! Can't [PD Rod] Arquette at least make them edit it to be concise and fit the clock? I mean c'mon, the big national shows do it for their weekend re-treads (ie Sean Hannity Weekend). Not awesome, guys.

"Remember how Stella got her groove back?" asked Mo Rocca. "Well, that's how Luke got his hymen back -- that's the story of Luke Burbank."

We'd caught up with Mo Rocca Saturday afternoon at his place in Chelsea to ask him about Burbank. They're friends.

(Truthfully, we hadn't "caught up" with him at all. He wasn't running; our talk was prearranged; he was washing his socks, and picking up around his apartment, not scurrying or trying to escape. What's more, we weren't in New York; we were in Seattle phoning New York. We wrote that about "catching" Rocca because we thought, as have so many interviewers before us, that it'd make us sound breezy and maybe a little equal to this urbane, funny, famous man. It was supposed to be a " O busy, busy us FINALLY connected with busy, busy Mo" sort of thing... it was cheesy, sorry.)

Mo Rocca, 39, is a veteran comedian and CNN political commentarian known for breathing the gift of life into Larry King during the 2004  presidential conventions and appearing all over the teevee as correspondent on The Daily Show; an Animal Planet host; a judge on Iron Chef. He is known for incisive commentary and impeccable grooming. He recently summed up Barack Obama: "I trust a man with big ears." Rocca's blog, Only Half as Tedious as the Regular News can be found at MoRocca180.com.  

So what's this about Luke Burbank, creator of KIRO's peculiar new show, Too Beautiful to Live (m-f, 7-10p) regaining his virginity?

When will KUOW get on the bus?

The Takeaway, starts today on New York's WNYC with veteran NPR and NBC journalist John Hockenberry and co-host, Adaora Udoji, formerly of CNN.

The show, from Public Radio International, will strive to counter the staid feel and taped interviews of NPR’s venerable Morning Edition.

The New York Times wrote Sunday, "Public radio is drawing its largest audience ever, some 28 million listeners nationwide each week. But if it’s a golden era, you wouldn’t know it from the frenetic activity to remake the genre."

Activity, if you want to call it that, ain't so frenetic around here with local public stations, KUOW, and KPLU. The Takeaway will be heard in NY, Boston and Baltimore, and presumably will be available to all; but we doubt we'll be hearing it any time soon except by podcast or livestream -- despite the local stations run ME simultaneously in the the same market.

KUOW, with all their resources, cash reserves, and penny-pinching; enjoying 2nd or 3rd place in the market every book, doesn't seem much interested in investing in the future that the rest of public radio is clamoring for. 

Wednesday oddems: cultural warrior to the perves; wife-beating kitty; david gregory and gender equality; incest reality; radio astroturf des canucks; supervising ron & don; are morons a race?

~~ Culture Warrior to the perves. We know why we love The O'Reilly Factor. It's for the sex (not the articles). Latest prurient thrills you can't get anywhere else on cable: Tuesday, Billo ran great c-phone shots of a 12-year-old stripper in Dallas stripping. The ensuing discussion included two attorneys, who also happened to be young blonde women. The consensus: 12 is too young to be a stripper. Probably would be illegal to download those pics from the net -- thanks Bill, for indulging our inner pedophile.

~~ An exasperated KIRO staffer who calls himself kissdangerboy wrote to complain that the best-of replays of Too Beautiful to Live (KIRO m-f, 7-10) that replaced David Goldstein on Saturday evenings are butchered screwed up they make no sense. "They were talking," he writes, "about Luke's conversation with Mister T's agent. However, at the first commercial break on the (clearly forced) clock, it was cut off mid-sentence and then again at 7:30 for the bottom of the hour required news update and commercials. After that, the program came back to an entirely different topic!!! Can't [PD Rod] Arquette at least make them edit it to be concise and fit the clock? I mean c'mon, the big national shows do it for their weekend re-treads (ie Sean Hannity Weekend). Not awesome, guys.

Mo Rocca: luke burbank is the great hope for all the sluts out there!

"Remember how Stella got her groove back?" asked Mo Rocca. "Well, that's how Luke got his hymen back -- that's the story of Luke Burbank."

We'd caught up with Mo Rocca Saturday afternoon at his place in Chelsea to ask him about Burbank. They're friends.

(Truthfully, we hadn't "caught up" with him at all. He wasn't running; our talk was prearranged; he was washing his socks, and picking up around his apartment, not scurrying or trying to escape. What's more, we weren't in New York; we were in Seattle phoning New York. We wrote that about "catching" Rocca because we thought, as have so many interviewers before us, that it'd make us sound breezy and maybe a little equal to this urbane, funny, famous man. It was supposed to be a " O busy, busy us FINALLY connected with busy, busy Mo" sort of thing... it was cheesy, sorry.)

Mo Rocca, 39, is a veteran comedian and CNN political commentarian known for breathing the gift of life into Larry King during the 2004  presidential conventions and appearing all over the teevee as correspondent on The Daily Show; an Animal Planet host; a judge on Iron Chef. He is known for incisive commentary and impeccable grooming. He recently summed up Barack Obama: "I trust a man with big ears." Rocca's blog, Only Half as Tedious as the Regular News can be found at MoRocca180.com.  

So what's this about Luke Burbank, creator of KIRO's peculiar new show, Too Beautiful to Live (m-f, 7-10p) regaining his virginity?