Tuesday, December 6, 2011

What fun.

I woke up at one o'clock, was still awake at three thirty, decided to get up to knit on my Christmas presents. I was strong enough to get past the Advent Calendar. Watched an old, old who-done-it and fell asleep until six. It was Jane's turn to have a present hanging on the sixth hook. Felt like a small sort of can. It was a small can of Trader Joe's Anchovy Filets. What a great gift. Can't wait till five tonight to have a couple of crackers with a slice of hard boiled egg and a taste of that can with my drink. Thank you Jane.

I have such sad news. My favorite radio station, KGO, has totally changed their night time programming. One reason for my insomnia. What could have happened that they fired all the oldtime people. I have listened to Ray Talgiaphero since our Diablo days. And I have admired John Rothman since he was a fill in until he became a nightly person from ten until one or two. And the wonderful woman with triplets. How will I ever sleep again with all my night time friends gone. If any reader of this blog knows what happened, please let me know. I can't tell you how devastated this has made me. From, going to bed with a glad cry, I have become, Oh, must I.

2 comments:

Joe said...

Googling "KGO radio" brings up some news stories about the format change. The Huffington Post story contains some information about the station's reasons. Every time something good disappears, it seems that there's the same underlying reason: nothing matters except trying to put another nickel in someone's pocket.

Kylene said...

I don't think I've commented before but I've been reading for a while and I love reading your updates.

I looked up KGO and found that it has it's own Wikipedia page. Part of the article is a whole section about what happened this week.

Quoting Wikipedia here (the full article is herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGO_(AM)):

Until December 5, 2011, KGO created nearly all of its own local programming, with very limited syndicated content. The majority of its programs were hosted by San Francisco Bay Area broadcasters. The daily schedule included many issues-oriented talk shows, with weekday hosts that included Gene Burns, Gil Gross, Ronn Owens, John Rothmann, and lawyer Len Tillem. The station also carried a variety of specialty programs, particularly on weekends, with John Hamilton discussing travel and leisure, Gene Burns covering fine food and dining (on a show separate from his weekday program), Joanie Greggains hosting a health-and-fitness program, and Brent Walters, who teaches "Comparative Religions" at San Jose State University, hosting the early Sunday morning show, God Talk. News/talk weekend hosts have included Brian Copeland, Karel Charles Karel Bouley, Dr. Bill Wattenburg, and Pat Thurston.

The weekday morning news (from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m.) is currently co-anchored by Jon Bristow and Jennifer Jones-Lee. The afternoon news (from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.) currently features veteran reporter Chris Brecher and award-winning reporter/anchor Bret Burkhart.

On December 2, 2011, new owner Cumulus Media announced that KGO was rebranding itself as "news and information," moving to an all-news format from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. (in addition to the existing morning-drive, noon-hour, and afternoon-drive news blocks) on December 5. This had resulted in the abrupt firing on December 1 of most of the talk hosts (including Gene Burns, Gil Gross, John Rothmann, Ray Taliaferro, Len Tillem, and Dr. Bill Wattenburg). Ronn Owens's morning show as well as weekend talk programming remains, although some of the weekend hosts (including Joanie Greggains, Michael Finney, and Len Tillem) were also fired on December 1, 2011. Bob Brinker's syndicated "Moneytalk" has been moved to KSFO, a politically conservative talk radio sister station. Leo Laporte's weekend syndicated tech talk program was also a casualty of the format change and is no longer being broadcast on KGO.

The format change and firing of many popular talk show hosts has sparked outrage among long-time listeners, many of whom are now campaigning for sponsors to drop their advertising on the station.