Let The Sun Shine In

This is a sane article about the FISA memo:

The Library of Congress

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-met-republican-memo-kass-0204-story.html

That Curious FISA Thing

CCA-2.0

Many former KGO Radio listeners used to listen to that talk station to hear various sides of an issue.  It was a curious audience, open to opposing arguments that expanded their knowledge of issues.  It was with great regret I had to abandon that programming in December, 2011 and forced to seek other talk formats.  I tried to hang on, listening to Gil and others on that other station that is now Spanish.  Gil’s screeching wife drove me away from that place and, even though I had been a fan of Gross, that was it for me.  Couldn’t listen to him any longer and would not listen to him now.  I was *gasp* forced to the other side.

At first it was cringe-worthy.  Every little thing was sensationalized by the other side to some scandal or another.  But, an interesting thing happened.  An election.  And, with it, some very curious political happenings.

I’ve listened to and watched both sides as this little FISA thing has been unfolding.  It is curious that most people have no idea this is even happening.

So, as a former KGO Radio listener, if you still have that curiosity within, this article gives a detailed account of what one team of journalists has discovered and, if it is revealed as true, then we have other things to worry about than what national park will be open today.

Do not allow others to tell you how to think.  Listen to all sides and then you decide.  It’s difficult to do because we don’t know what to believe any more.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/20/house-intelligence-committee-will-vote-to-release-fisa-corruption-memo/

The Ronn Yawner

 

Sorry, Ronn, we’ve moved on.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/KGO-ends-Ronn-Owens-Show-after-42-years-12496942.php

I checked the Cumulus stock price about a year back and it was hovering at the $.30 mark.  Since then it has declined to under $.10 and, somehow, Ronn Owens is holding onto his diminished celebrity status at the once-famed KGO radio station.  As the sfgate article states:

As of Monday, “The Ronn Owens Show” has ended, making way for the debut of “The Ronn Owens Report” the next day.

The new show, premiering Tuesday, will air weekdays… and cover whatever topics Owens finds interesting that day.

“My goal is to be a 2018 version of Paul Harvey and Andy Rooney,” he said in an interview in his KGO office after his final show.

Owens said the decision is a “win-win” for him and the station. “They get the credibility of still having me, and it helps me because ‘Ronn Owens KGO Radio’ gets me a better table than just ‘Ronn Owens.’”

That sums it up.  He’s hanging on by his fingertips because he wants people to know ‘he’ deserves a better table at a restaurant because, technically, he’s in media.   I guess ten minutes every week day is enough to make restaurateurs suck up to ego.

How’s this for timing, ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950) aired last night on KQED.  I watched snippets of it, including the scene where Norma Desmond rides in her aging luxury automobile to the studio where she had been a money-making star in earlier days.  The few people who remembered her showed respect.  Others looked with curiosity at a relic of time gone by.

Ronn is a relic who will be remembered by former KGO listeners as the guy who always claimed he could do or say whatever he wanted without corporate interference but when it came time to prove that, in December, 2011, he gushed something similar to ‘this will be a good change’ after his colleagues had been escorted to the door.

 

Radio Industry’s Fake Outrage Over KGO

Jody, in the comments section:

The final chapter in killing KGO began to play out in 2011. That’s when Cumulus announced it was rebranding KGO as “news and information,” and moved from a news-talk format to a primarily news format. The company fired all but one of the regular M-F talk hosts and instead expanded its news operation.
I wanted to hear the “new” format and was listening to Justin Wittmayer as Ronn Owens first guest who said that there are glorious days ahead with the “NEXT GENERATION OF KGO,” and the new format.

 

The beginning of the end:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/12/02/kgo-radio-plans-immediate-shift-to-news-oriented-format/

 

To be fair, I know Ronn’s comment about getting a better table was an attempt at humor.

But those of us, who used to listen to him over the years, know there is a bit of Norma Desmond lurking in his soul:

 

You used to be big.  You used to be a morning host on KGO Radio.

I am big, it’s radio that got small.

 

 

 

Tax Dollars at Work

There is a lot of construction going on in the city now.  Electrical upgrades, gas pipe replacements, road redesign, and who knows what else.  It’s loud and dusty and ‘good luck’ finding a parking space.

I did notice one city work crew on my way back from lunch this week.  I had to do a double-take because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  One of the crew was standing in the bed of a big truck, one of those huge construction type of vehicles.  Below him, another guy was standing in the street a short distance away in front of a heavy-duty wheelbarrow.  The guy in the truck was tossing bricks, one at a time, to the guy standing near the wheelbarrow, who was catching each brick and placing them, one by one, into the wheelbarrow.

Really, SF?  Think about that next time the city is asking for more tax dollars out of your pocket.

Think about that in November.

Joe Pags Clowns Around with Creepy Song

CCA-SA 3.0

It’s not the song that is creepy but Joe’s rendition of it.

Joe Pags is the type of radio host that draws listeners in and keeps them coming back for more.  He brings an irreverence to radio but he respects intellect.  I don’t agree with his politics but I appreciate the logic he incorporates into arguments.  He Rickrolls callers off the show, but it’s never mean-spirited because, you know, he loves you like a brother.

Lately, his shows have been hilarious.  You never know when it will hit, he’ll be talking his host talk and taking calls, and then the show veers off in another direction with unexpected results.  I can’t explain it, you have to hear it.

One example is a recent segment on the creepy clowns hysteria.  The last time I laughed so hard over a radio segment was the ‘Float On’ confession on the BBC Radio 2 show, Simon Mayo’s Confessions.  I wish I could find a copy of that audio because now I laugh every time I hear the song ‘Float On’ by the Floaters.

On Thursday, Joe Pags brought in the clowns.  He had me laughing so hard I was nearly crying and, unknown to me, blobs of wet mascara dripped underneath my eyes and somehow, smudged off above them so it looked like I had two sets of eyebrows.  I’m sure you can imagine how it looked:

By courtney murray rhodes [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The next day I played the podcast for a friend who’d never heard the Joe Pags show before.  He could not stop laughing, especially later in the segment with the phone calls.  You really have to listen to the entire segment.  My friend kept asking, who is this guy?  Then, he said, who the heck is that girl?  I’m sure Joe will appreciate that.  My friend did ask why doesn’t she care about the people? ha ha.

This is the show, the clowns section begins at 57:13 on the audio and lasts through 1:17:40:

https://player.fm/series/joe-pags-show-69067/joe-pags-show-10-6-16

This is Joe Pags website:

http://www.joepags.com/

You can listen to his podcasts and hear him live on iHeart:

http://www.iheart.com/show/The-Joe-Pags-Show/

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pags

 

How could I not add this?

 

Here is a version of another well-known Judy singing the song:

 

 

I don’t think the Joe Pags version of the song will be on YouTube anytime soon.

 

Joe Pags Goes Public with a Frightening Family Matter

Pierre-Joseph Redouté [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Thankfully, it has a happy ending.  Radio talk-show host, Joe Pags, was able to bring home his missing teenage daughter last weekend.  He said she is safe and looks healthy.  He also said he has to rethink his parental role and he feels “an utter failure as a father right now”.

After this experience, he will do more to help other families in the same situation.  On his radio broadcasts, he will bring more attention to missing children and will partner with the appropriate organizations to do that.

I missed most of this because of the long holiday weekend.  Last week, he’d mentioned on his show that he had a problem with his daughter and he sounded worried over it but he couldn’t say anything more about it.  What I didn’t know was that she was missing.  He was able to speak out publicly on his Friday show.  His daughter was found safe on Saturday, thanks to all of the help provided by those who heard his pleas on the radio.

Here are some articles about what happened:

https://saboteur365.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/conservative-radio-talker-joe-pags-16-year-old-daughter-missing/

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/09/03/conservative-radio-host-pleads-missing-teen-daughters-safe-return/

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/157294/update-joe-pags-teen-daughter-located-safe

 

This is how it played out on his Facebook page.  I can’t see the page with the Facebook blocking mechanism, but if you are able to then look for September 3rd as the date he announced his daughter had been found.

https://www.facebook.com/JoeTalkShow/

 

According to the articles, this happened on Wednesday, August 31st.  He first talked openly about it on Friday, September 2nd.  I’d heard him mention something about a problem with his daughter on Wednesday and Thursday.  Here’s where you can listen to podcasts of his shows:

http://www.iheart.com/show/The-Joe-Pags-Show/

(you don’t need Flash installed for the player.fm site):

http://player.fm/series/joe-pags-show-69067

http://www.joepags.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pags

 

Adiós Gil Gross

I was not surprised to hear that Talk 910 has disappeared into the ether.  I hadn’t been listening to it for at least a year, now.  It seems to have gone out with a whimper.  There is no uproar over the program change.  I heard about it recently and it seems it’s been a week or more since the change.

I searched around for any information about the change:

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/NewsTalk-910-AM-sf-espn-deportes-8409787.php

http://www.radiolineup.com/stations/KKSF-AM

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/155853/kksf-talk-910-san-francisco-drops-talk-flips-to-es

http://www.yelp.com/biz/910am-san-francisco

http://www.talkers.com/tag/kksf/

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?695883-iHeart-pulls-the-plug-at-910-now-ESPN-Deprtes

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ba.broadcast/UvLnp447O_s

 

This is a bit off-topic, but as I searched for information about the Talk 910 change, I found an interesting thread that is very dishy about that media blogger guy:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ba.broadcast/I9oQ9rHGYuk

 

That’s about all I could find about the recent program change at Talk 910.  I’m sure Gil Gross will land on his feet.  Same with LLoyd Lindsay Young (if he doesn’t decide to retire) and the news staff.  Gil was good at one time.  I’m sure he could be good again.  The wife thing was a failed venture.  She might be good at crossword puzzles, but a talk show host she is not.

The not taking calls thing was idiocy on a station called Talk 910.

No Talk, no listeners, no ratings. Not a surprise.

 

Lloyd Lindsay Young still on the minds of New Yorkers

HELLOOOOO! Lloyd Lindsay Young!

BigMacSC99 at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

The one voice that always makes me smile is the voice of Lloyd Lindsay Young.  This guy is the real deal and a heart without malice or deceit and a head that has no ego.  That’s hard to find in a business that is built on egos.  I’m glad he has a gig, but the station he’s on now has really misfired on its programming.  It’s not a listening destination and it will not take callers.  That’s unfortunate because I had hopes for the station back in 2012 after the Cumulus geniuses fired all of their talk show hosts on KGO.  We all know how that turned out.  What is Cumulus stock at now?  ummm, $0.17 cents would be a high quote.

One station I stream now is WOR710AM-New York and they have a late morning host I enjoy, Mark Simone.  On Thursday, he was discussing baseball with a guest and the subject was a guy named Lindsay (don’t know if that’s how the baseball guy spells it).  That’s when Mark said the first name he thought of and, hey, guess who it was…

It’s at the very beginning of Simone’s second hour on May 26, 2016.  They are talking about baseball and there it is (1:12 into the podcast)… he even references the year.

http://www.wor710.com/media/play/27028506/

Want to know where Lloyd Lindsay Young, everyone’s favorite weather guy, has worked through the years?  HELLOOOOO! Wikipedia!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Lindsay_Young

I’ve said this before, but it’s interesting that the programs I listen to now all take listener calls.  It’s a regular part of the programming.  It’s also interesting that these stations are all climbing and growing in the ratings.  hmmm.   nuf’ said.

Want to hear a guy who loves taking calls?  He loves to debate and Rickroll anyone who mentions his counterpart on the show.  Oh, and the guy loves to sing.  He’s not too bad, but his Motown sing-alongs are so bad you can’t stop listening.  Unlike Gil’s wife, whose voice is so bad and screechy you have to turn it off.  Have I mentioned she should not be allowed on radio?

I love to hear the callers, and the phone lines light up on both the Mark Simone show and the other guy I love hearing, Joe Pags.  Below are some links to his show:

http://www.joepags.com/

http://www.iheart.com/show/The-Joe-Pags-Show/

https://player.fm/podcasts/joe-pags

These guys may be conservatives, but they know how to put on a radio show.  Plus, it doesn’t hurt to hear the other side every so often.  It is getting really messy on both sides now, so it’s good to hear what everyone has to say about it.

That’s all I have for you.  I hope you are all on your way to a fun Memorial Day weekend!  Enjoy it!

Cumulus flushes everything down the toilet – it seems their listeners’ favorite stations are just cold goldfish to them

Again!  They did it again.  Of course, they did.  Would we expect anything else from the dark cloud of Cumulus that hangs over the Bay Area?

CCA-SA 2.0 Generic

 

Read about it here and see the comments that follow, 417 at last count:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Ronn-Owens-moves-to-KSFO-7218704.php

 

I’ve seen it on newscasts as well.  I will post more links as I see them.  I have to work over the weekend so I wanted to put it out there for now until I’m able to read more about it.

 

More links to information:

 

http://soundwavestv.com/2016/03/31/kgo-and-the-death-of-radio/

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/KFOG-axes-DJs-future-up-in-the-air-7223598.php

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?693580-Changes-at-KGO

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ba.broadcast/3cKxG4i1XFs

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ba.broadcast/5C07hGlqYoQ

http://www.allaccess.com/the-letter/archive/24075/as-goes-kgo

And, this one is for the ‘if you don’t go away how can I miss you’ file:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Ronn-Owens-to-stay-at-KGO-after-station-reverses-7225772.php

 

Everybody was Kung Fu Listening – Woo-Hah!

55+ radio listeners will know what this is.

I noticed this old thread from radiodiscussions.com, it’s a discussion about the radio market today.  Maybe I posted this previously, but here it is again:

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?690210-Imus-Unloads-on-the-Dickey-Brothers

Imus says what we’ve all been saying since December 2011.

“They [the Dickey brothers] “went around the country and ruined radio stations” …

“Now [WABC] is being programmed by the sales department. It’s a disgrace…

I’ve never listened to an Imus show, but, as someone noted in the comments, it’s too bad he spoke up only after the Dickeys left the building.  Not blaming him, but if more people had boycotted the Dickey’s business maybe it could have prevented the destruction of radio as-we-knew-it.  It’s still puzzles me why former KGO listeners would listen to one second of that station, knowing what they know now.  It’s a Cumulus station and banned from my airwaves.  Currently, the Cumulus stock can’t go much lower.  The last time I checked the stock was at $0.27, but it looks like it’s climbed a bit since then.

This says it all:

The current last sale of $0.48 is 166.67% Higher than the 52 week low.

You can watch the drop of the Cumulus stock price here:

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/cmls

I’m always open to other listening options.  That’s how I found Joe Pags.

If you have not yet heard The Joe Pags Show, you are missing some good talk and general messing around.  When Pags was on vacation recently, a fill-in host said, “I’d better take some calls because Joe left instructions that calls take priority.”  That about sums it up for The Joe Pags Show.  I love it!  Thank you, Joe Pags, for bringing the talk back.

I have to say the same for Mark Simone.  I haven’t forgotten him and those wonderful New York callers.  Many say radio is in decline because of the 55+ audience but some of those 55+ are the most interesting and funny callers.  Mark Simone brings it out of them by teasing and asking unexpected questions, or he pods down the volume and makes comments over them as they speak.  It’s fun to hear.

The same thing happens with Joe Pags.  He brings so much energy and discussion to his show.  It’s obvious that he’s having fun doing it.  He’s based out of San Antonio but is carried on many stations across the country and his show is catching on.  Every week he’s adding more stations.

It seems all of the popular shows on the radio include callers.  That whole talk and no listener interaction format is not working.  Yes, Gil Gross, I’m talking to you.  Boring is boring, no matter how many hours one host talks to himself and it doesn’t get interesting no matter how many Politico correspondents are on the phone as guests.  Yawn.  Yawn.  YAWN!

So, what do you get with Joe Pags Show?  This guy has a silly format that is seriously working.  Every work day has a theme and song to go with it.  Pags sings along.  He also creates his own parody songs.  Some make you cringe, others make you laugh.  You never know what you’re going to get.  I admit to cringing during the Rubio song when I first heard it, but later this week I had to laugh out loud.  Okay, Pags, you got me.  It was hysterical.  Not the song itself, but the way you used it on the caller who said you ruined Kung Fu Fighting for him forever.

Anyone want to hear it?  Listen to this clip, around 1:16:30 (it’s near the end of the podcast).  You’ll also be able to hear the caller who was Rickrolled before the Kung Fu guy.

Joe Pags Show – Wednesday 3/23/16

https://player.fm/series/joe-pags-show/joe-pags-show-3-23-16

The shows on player.fm can be played without Flash.  These are archived shows so it takes a day or two to find the most recent show in the playlist.  If you want to hear the complete Rubio song it’s on the Friday podcast dated 3/25/16 and it plays around 1:05:00 (near the end of the podcast):

Joe Pags Show – Friday 3/25/16

https://player.fm/series/joe-pags-show/joe-pags-show-3-25-16

He also plays songs on the show that a musician friend of his creates, usually about the people who work on the show and all of their idiosyncrasies.  You can hear one of the songs around 42:00 on the Friday podcast.  Vote for Joe Pags.  ha ha!

The show has a consistent theme for every work day:

• Motown Monday (oh. my. gawd, when he tries to sing along with Motown it will make your cat cry because that’s what it sounds like)
• Taco Tuesday
• Hump Day
• Feeling Alright, bring it like it’s been brought’n
• Thank God It’s Friday/Free Speech Friday

There is a song for each theme and Pags sings or hums along.  His singing is so effective his listeners want to get into the act and post online selfie clips singing with Joe who is singing his show songs.  His listeners feel they are a big part of his show and they engage with him in social media.

Pags posts his own Facebook and Twitter, he never has anyone else do it for him.  He is the one who responds.  I like that.  I can’t see his Facebook page now with that blocking feature.

I’m not a Facebook user but sometimes I’ll view a Facebook page to see what’s going on with someone or something.  Looks like Facebook doesn’t want someone like me roaming around public pages.  There is a blocking feature now that moves further up the page as you scroll down.  It obscures the page under a white transparency.  I don’t know how long that has been in place.  It’s been awhile since I looked at a Facebook page.  Oh well, doesn’t affect my life.  I just know to stay away from Facebook now and not even try to view it.  Nothing against Facebook users, I just can’t view it now as a non-user.

Here are some Pags sites that you can view:

Just so you know, he is a conservative talk-show host who supports Cruz, but I don’t hold that against him.  It’s always informative to hear the other side of the argument.

http://www.joepags.com/

https://twitter.com/joetalkshow

http://www.iheart.com/show/The-Joe-Pags-Show/

https://player.fm/series/joe-pags-show

I usually listen again to his shows because I miss so much while working.  And, I really want to hear what I’ve missed.  It’s refreshing to enjoy a radio show again.  Hey, Simone, I enjoy your show, too, but Pags is bringing it every time and doesn’t repeat all of the same rhetoric spewed by Rush and Hannity.

 

If you listen, you’ll hear that Joe Pags has a similar habit reminiscent of Frosty when he hosted a local talk show in the Bay Area.

Pags drinks Diet Dr.Pepper on the air, always pulling the tab on the can so listeners hear the fizz and Pags’ big, sloppy sip.  His commentary usually includes how cold the soda is and if there are ice crystals in it.  I haven’t had a soda for a long time, but Pags is making me think of picking one up.  Especially as we head into the hot weather season.  But, I prefer water, and don’t want that empty-calorie sugar hit that screws up your system.  So, I have to say it, what the heck’s the matter with you, Joe Pags?  (Listeners will recognize that phrase, although it doesn’t include the echo effect and I altered it a bit by removing the double toothpicks and took it out of Minnesota).

In between soda sips, Joe is an intelligent guy and is a good interviewer.  He always shows respect to his guests.

He includes his staff on his show.  No, not his wife!  We don’t need to hear another Gil Gross disaster on the air!

Joe Pages shares the show with his news anchor, Cari Laque.  It is taken me some time to get used to Cari’s role on the show.  She is a news anchor in San Antonio for NewsRadio 1200 WOAI.  I heard her news reports when I had to stream San Antonio live recently when another station preempted Pags’ show for sports.  On the live San Antonio show, Cari sounds professional reporting the news, but on The Joe Pags Show she acts as a sidekick to Joe.  He teases her and bounces off her sarcasm of him and his antics.  She has to defend herself against Pags’ relentless commentary about (imaginary) Cari fart-fests during the show.

Boys will be boys, as they say.

It used to bother me that Pags, at times, seems more informed abut some of the news than Cari, a news anchor.  She usually responds with, “I did not know that.”  Maybe she’s busy doing other things, or maybe it’s more relaxed for her on the show and the news is not her priority.  At first I wasn’t loving it, but now I get it.  I don’t mind listening to her now.

Another Joe staffer, Polo, comments during the show as well.  Pags brings him in when he wants more interaction or feedback.  I’m warming up to Polo as well.  I’m not sure what his role is on the show, something behind the scenes.  Hey, I’ve just started listening to the show this year.  Give me time.  I do know that Polo admitted to crying at the movie, ‘Marley and Me’.  How can someone not like this guy?

If we’re going to be stuck with streaming live shows or podcasts to get our talk radio fix, then I don’t mind being stuck with Joe Pags.  He gives me hope that talk radio will return the airwaves to the listeners and all voices will be heard.  And, it’s never boring.

By the way, did anyone watch Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show reruns on KRON-TV this week?  I happened to see the episode when Gary Shandling debuted on the show.  It was a great routine and I laughed out loud several times.  At the same time, it was a poignant moment knowing he is now gone.  I’m sure it’s on YouTube somewhere unless the content is blocked for copyright.

I also heard on The Mark Simone show this week that David Letterhead is channeling Grizzly Adams.  See what I mean here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-david-letterman-beard-bald-shaved-head-20160324-story.html

Compare it to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Times_of_Grizzly_Adams

Good for you, Letterman.  Let out that inner grizzle.  I think I’m going to wander away now in search of some grizzlin’ food.  Hot off the grill.

 

And, don’t forget to put a little Kung in your Fu this weekend;

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?lyrics=4572

 

See you all next time!