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John Higdon

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Jun 1, 2012, 3:25:57 AM6/1/12
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So now I see from the website that 22% of KGO's broadcast day on average
is neither live nor local. It's fourteen-hour-old east coast marketing
blather. But the bright side is that they have brought back the Gold
Bond powder spots!

A quick listen to the news reveals that the stories being selected are
more and more trivial, more and more repetitive, and are just irritating
enough to be poor background chatter. The traffic/weather/sports
rotation is torturous.

The syndicated honkers at KKSF are far more entertaining than the KGO
endless news wheel. And as a reward for listening, you get Len and Gil
stuck in the middle, and they're always entertaining.

Oh, Radio! By the time I'm in Pahrump, I won't miss it at all.

--
John Higdon
+1 415 852-3811

Patty Winter

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Jun 1, 2012, 10:38:16 AM6/1/12
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In article <higgy-984F2B....@news.announcetech.com>,
John Higdon <hi...@kome.com> wrote:
>
>A quick listen to the news reveals that the stories being selected are
>more and more trivial, more and more repetitive, and are just irritating
>enough to be poor background chatter.

Talk about irritating, a couple of times recently I've caught the
news people playing music to illustrate a story. And no, I don't
mean a story about a musician. A day or two ago, the news people
were even singing along with the song. I guess they're trying to
emulate those morning "news" programs on the TV networks that are
basically a couple hours of fluff with hourly updates of real news.


Patty


spamtrap1888

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Jun 1, 2012, 12:29:56 PM6/1/12
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On Jun 1, 12:25 am, John Higdon <hi...@kome.com> wrote:
> So now I see from the website that 22% of KGO's broadcast day on average
> is neither live nor local. It's fourteen-hour-old east coast marketing
> blather. But the bright side is that they have brought back the Gold
> Bond powder spots!

Can Hooked On Phonics and S O C K S be far behind? What about
Therapeutic Mineral Ice?

>
> A quick listen to the news reveals that the stories being selected are
> more and more trivial, more and more repetitive, and are just irritating
> enough to be poor background chatter. The traffic/weather/sports
> rotation is torturous.

Is it different from KCBS?

> The syndicated honkers at KKSF are far more entertaining than the KGO
> endless news wheel. And as a reward for listening, you get Len and Gil
> stuck in the middle, and they're always entertaining.
>
> Oh, Radio! By the time I'm in Pahrump, I won't miss it at all.

Other retirees really seem to enjoy helping college or community
radio, as John does even now. Can he really go cold turkey?

Neil

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Jun 1, 2012, 1:49:26 PM6/1/12
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A year or so ago, Randy Michaels, fresh off his debacle at the Chicago
Tribune Co., formed Merlin Media, bought FM stations in New York and
Chicago, and replaced music formats with "all news" that was
suspiciously like what KGO has turned into. In both cases, the ratings
plummeted into "college station" territory. (WEMP in NYC, which hadn't
been good enough getting 2.x shares with a smooth jazz format, is now
getting about a 0.6 with their version of all-news. The competition,
WINS and WCBS, routinely get 4.x shares. In Chicago, the numbers are
even worse, in the 0.3-0.4 range.)

Observing the radio biz these days is so much fun. Like watching
lemmings follow the leader off a cliff.

David Kaye

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Jun 1, 2012, 2:39:17 PM6/1/12
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"Patty Winter" <pat...@wintertime.com> wrote

> Talk about irritating, a couple of times recently I've caught the
> news people playing music to illustrate a story.

Meanwhile, KQED Radio speaks to the intelligent listener and yet is the
ratings winner here.



John Higdon

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Jun 1, 2012, 5:55:33 PM6/1/12
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In article
<cb2be9f9-a2b3-42fa...@f7g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,
spamtrap1888 <spamtr...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jun 1, 12:25 am, John Higdon <hi...@kome.com> wrote:
> > A quick listen to the news reveals that the stories being selected are
> > more and more trivial, more and more repetitive, and are just irritating
> > enough to be poor background chatter. The traffic/weather/sports
> > rotation is torturous.
>
> Is it different from KCBS?

Yes. KCBS picks better (read: more significant) stories and it makes
varied versions to play throughout the day. At least you don't feel like
deja vu all over again all day long. It is obvious that KCBS knows what
it is doing and KGO does not.

> Other retirees really seem to enjoy helping college or community
> radio, as John does even now. Can he really go cold turkey?

I suspect there will be no cold turkey in Pahrump.

Bhairitu

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Jun 2, 2012, 3:26:55 PM6/2/12
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We had a power outage over here on Thursday afternoon. It only effected
2000 homes but no station either KCBS or KGO picked it up. But then
neither did any local news rag web pages. PG&E pegged it at being out
for almost 3 hours but it was restored after an hour and a half.
Sometimes the CC Times won't report these but the SF Chron will. Weird.
We've lost so much with these automated non local programmed stations.
The corporate gangsters have spoiled everything.

David Kaye

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Jun 2, 2012, 5:20:16 PM6/2/12
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"Bhairitu" <nooz...@sbcglobal.net> wrote

> We had a power outage over here on Thursday afternoon. It only effected
> 2000 homes but no station either KCBS or KGO picked it up.

Given that the Bay Area is about 7 million people, why should they report on
an outage of 2000 people unless it is something newsworthy? I define news
in the traditional way: what is NEW. What's new about a power outage?
Nothing. But if the power outage is caused by the storm of the century,
that's news. Or if it affects the heart transplant center at Stanford,
that's news. But, just 2000 people without power? Not news.



Bhairitu

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Jun 3, 2012, 3:23:12 PM6/3/12
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Because they have before and there was probably plenty of "filler" news
they could have dropped to do so. Since I didn't have both stations on
at once and was listening to KGO via Internet (which stays up due to the
UPS) I wouldn't know except for dropping in on them on a radio
occasionally whether KCBS reported it. And since I see in the police log
they had to cover for traffic lights out it could have been mentioned in
the traffic updates.

I know there are stations in the area but they are probably all
automated. OTOH, even the local rag hasn't said what the cause was
though they have before nor even mentioned it. I couple years back a
squirrel got into something at the substation that caused a similar
outage and it was reported. And also once a tree fell down up the street
onto an high tension line leaving the neighborhood without power
overnight and that too got reported.



David Kaye

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Jun 3, 2012, 3:44:07 PM6/3/12
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"Bhairitu" <nooz...@sbcglobal.net> wrote

> I couple years back a squirrel got into something at the substation that
> caused a similar outage and it was reported.

Because it's news. Remember, "news" = new.



John Higdon

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Jun 3, 2012, 3:46:50 PM6/3/12
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In article <CQOyr.3189$9Q6....@newsfe18.iad>,
Bhairitu <nooz...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> I know there are stations in the area but they are probably all
> automated. OTOH, even the local rag hasn't said what the cause was
> though they have before nor even mentioned it. I couple years back a
> squirrel got into something at the substation that caused a similar
> outage and it was reported. And also once a tree fell down up the street
> onto an high tension line leaving the neighborhood without power
> overnight and that too got reported.

I think that the local media owes it to Bay Area residents to keep them
apprised of the third-world infrastructure they depend upon. Since I
have been monitoring power reliability in Pahrump (a real hick nowhere
place, right?), the score has been SFBA 4, Pahrump 0 in terms of
outages. There are no "Flex-ur-Power" alerts in Pahrump. The price per
KWH is less then 25% of what it is in the Bay Area. The cost to air
condition an 8100 sq. ft. house in the desert is actually less than a
2000 sq. ft. house here.

So, I wonder why the media in the BA doesn't bother to point out that in
other parts of the country:

Power is much cheaper;

Power is far more reliable;

Power is available in sufficient quantity for customers' use.



Had a two-hour outage in Tracy today. Why? Is it even worth trying to
get PG&E's latest excuse?

--
John Higdon
+1 775 253-3838

AWC

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Jun 4, 2012, 4:20:50 PM6/4/12
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> A quick listen to the news reveals that the stories being selected are
> more and more trivial, more and more repetitive, and are just irritating
> enough to be poor background chatter. The traffic/weather/sports
> rotation is torturous.

last friday during their evening news, KGO played thursday's business
report by maistake at the :25 and :55 past the hour twice. i could tell
when the stock market numbers didn't match what really happend in the
market. I guess nobody cares what they do with the evening news.

i just had the radio on in the background while doing something else, so
don't think that i am a regular listener. if i was, i'm sure i would
hear a slew of mistakes.
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