KFOG, But Not 10@10

[darryl]

Man, how many times a day do they play that clip of Irish Greg saying "We need to do all this over again"?

Ugh yeah, these soundbites are the worst, even if it's Greg.

I caught some of Pinfield's syndicated show in The Bone. Flashback something or another. I was confused.

Oh from that other thread, in case people are also confused about WTF is up with KFOG's new playlist, have a gander at what I think is *everything* on it:

http://www.mediabase.com/mmrweb/7/stationplaylistrequest.asp?c_let=KFOG-FM

Requests, anyone? :-}

[RGMike]

Oh from that other thread, in case people are also confused about WTF is up with KFOG's new playlist, have a gander at what I think is *everything* on it:

http://www.mediabase.com/mmrweb/7/stationplaylistrequest.asp?c_let=KFOG-FM

Requests, anyone? :-}

 also from that other thread: lo and behold they played the previously MIA Matt Nathanson TWICE in a half-hour this morning. (I'm guessing he was there in the studio chatting with Pinfield?)  John Mayer better get his ass to SF pronto

ETA: yes, Nathanson was on the Morning Show today. One way to get airplay.

[darryl]

Ha! I too heard the new Matt Nathanson song as I rolled into work and had to Shazam it. Indeed he was in studio, with Pinfield profusely thanking him for dropping by the station, acknowledging that he was a friend from before he started, and hoping that he continues to drop by.

Matt (Nathanson) was gracious of course. (Hey, they played his new tune, finally.)

There was a nice bit where Pinfield said the tune, (weirdly named "Bill Murray") reminded him of a great scene at the end of "Lost in Translation" where Bill chases down Scarlett Johansson, whispers something unintelligible, finally gives her that kiss, and they depart, to the tune of "Just Like Honey" by The Jesus and Mary Chain. Matt concurred that it was a great scene and song.

And so I looked it up, and indeed, it is a great scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOpXt30kZCw

So yeah, Pinfield's music geekery is strong. I never thought that was in doubt, after reading his bio, it's clear he's a huge music geek. But then, is that something that this target demo is looking for? And again, if so, why fire Annalisa (and likely antagonize her whenever she went too far "off playlist")?

Lastly, Greg chimed in that Matt is too modest to promote himself, then plugged his upcoming shows at Wente and Mountain Wineries. Pinfield gushed more and pledged to go to both of those shows. Huh, Livermore on a Tuesday night and then Saratoga on a Wednesday night? I guess if he leaves SF early. But then don't morning jocks need to be in bed by like 9PM?

[RGMike]

Rockwell is on "live" right now.  And I swear that whenever I punch up KFOG in the car they're playing Dishwalla.

[urth]

If you haven't had a chance to check out Peter Finch's "Finch Files" podcast in which he gives the KFOG staff a chance to say their goodbyes and talk a bit about their history at KFOG, I'd highly recommend it. It's a little longish (90 minutes or so) but you can pause and come back, and it's rather illuminating.

http://www.finchfiles.net/podcasts/2016/4/18/kfog-dj-goodbyes-episode-52

Ironically the one who comes off the most bitter is Dave Benson, who was fired 5 years ago, not last month. Maybe it's because he's not still bound by NDAs or what have you (Annalisa does comment that "the paperwork's not all signed yet) but he has the most to say about the ineptitude of Cumulus and the people they put in charge. His assertion that one Cumulus manager is "a pathological lying douchebag, and you can quote me on that." is particularly pithy.

Dave is his usual gracious self on air, and the rest of the staff mostly just says thanks to the fogheads and reminisces a bit about the good ol' days. (AL does give a shoutout to the Guttersnipes.) One thing that struck me is that, while they reached out to Benson and Dave Morey for comment, no mention of Big Rick Stuart (who coincidentally just hooked on doing middays at a station in Napa). I don't recall -- did he leave KFOG voluntarily or was he canned when they decided to bring Webster back?

[RGMike]

If you haven't had a chance to check out Peter Finch's "Finch Files" podcast in which he gives the KFOG staff a chance to say their goodbyes and talk a bit about their history at KFOG, I'd highly recommend it. It's a little longish (90 minutes or so) but you can pause and come back, and it's rather illuminating.

http://www.finchfiles.net/podcasts/2016/4/18/kfog-dj-goodbyes-episode-52

Ironically the one who comes off the most bitter is Dave Benson, who was fired 5 years ago, not last month. Maybe it's because he's not still bound by NDAs or what have you (Annalisa does comment that "the paperwork's not all signed yet) but he has the most to say about the ineptitude of Cumulus and the people they put in charge. His assertion that one Cumulus manager is "a pathological lying douchebag, and you can quote me on that." is particularly pithy.

Dave is his usual gracious self on air, and the rest of the staff mostly just says thanks to the fogheads and reminisces a bit about the good ol' days. (AL does give a shoutout to the Guttersnipes.) One thing that struck me is that, while they reached out to Benson and Dave Morey for comment, no mention of Big Rick Stuart (who coincidentally just hooked on doing middays at a station in Napa). I don't recall -- did he leave KFOG voluntarily or was he canned when they decided to bring Webster back?

I seem to recall that Big Rick's KFOG contract was up and that K-Fox offered him more money so he split.

And Dave Benson left KFOG in April 2009 (a few months after Morey retired). He ended up in Seattle after that; here's an interview with him from (mostly) 2007, slightly updated in '09. He's had quite a career.

http://chicagoradiospotlight.blogspot.com/2007/07/dave-benson.html

"Over the 3 years of Cumulus' ownership the company's priorities and capabilities had become clear. Cumulus is a broadcast property consolidation company. Quality, localized programming isn't something they excel at or seem to aspire to. And the reality of their precarious financial position just made them more and more desperate, which lead to even more screw tightening and fear-based decision making."

[RGMike]

Ironically, now that they only have live deejays 8 hours a day, they've gotten rid of the computer voice that was back-announcing new/current song titles/artists.

[darryl]

Heard a long informercialish sounding commercial around 6:30 tonight for some hair product or treatment that guaranteed to get the Frizzies out. What the what?

Ok I GUESS that trying to target a female demo would explain the return to an Alice/KFOG woman-centric playlist from the 90s. But why hire Pinfield? Why fire all the women? Why keep No-Name (because of his stint with Sarah on Alice) and then force him to drop the nickname??

(Some fucking accountant/consultant greedily taps his fingertips together like Mr. Burns and whispers, "Yesss yessss it's all going according to plan....")

[dischead]

Heard a long informercialish sounding commercial around 6:30 tonight for some hair product or treatment that guaranteed to get the Frizzies out. What the what?

Ok I GUESS that trying to target a female demo would explain the return to an Alice/KFOG woman-centric playlist from the 90s. But why hire Pinfield? Why fire all the women? Why keep No-Name (because of his stint with Sarah on Alice) and then force him to drop the nickname??

(Some fucking accountant/consultant greedily taps his fingertips together like Mr. Burns and whispers, "Yesss yessss it's all going according to plan....")

Apparently this is what responsible corporate stewardship of the public airwaves looks like.

[RGMike]

Heard a long informercialish sounding commercial around 6:30 tonight for some hair product or treatment that guaranteed to get the Frizzies out. What the what?

Ok I GUESS that trying to target a female demo would explain the return to an Alice/KFOG woman-centric playlist from the 90s. But why hire Pinfield? Why fire all the women? Why keep No-Name (because of his stint with Sarah on Alice) and then force him to drop the nickname??

Precisely. Makes no sense.  I'd also say that women prefer hearing a live deejay voice (whereas guys just want nonstop tunes with little talk) so of course they're jockless from 10-3 -- prime office or moms-doing-errands in cars time.

[radical347]

There have been some comments on the “Save KFOG” group about how we who dislike the new format aren’t supposed to be listening to it at all. While I get what they’re saying, I don’t see the point of self-imposing a lifetime ban on listening to the station UNLESS we have a PPM (which I don’t and most/all of the people in the group don’t either.) A better strategy is to not support the advertisers. I no longer make it a point to listen to KFOG for long stretches of time like did pre-“evolution” (currently, the only station left where I do that regularly is Live 105, and occasionally Mix 106) but it’s been relegated to KOIT/KBAY/Alice/Star/Kiss/Breeze status for me which means I flip through the stations and listen to small snippets of these at a time, maybe tune in for a song if it’s new or one that I really like then move on.

If they’re trying to woo new listeners, the updated playlist isn’t helping. I think it’s even more boring that before, despite being about ~10 years newer. I’ll give them credit for a couple of underplayed 90s hits I heard (Porno for Pyros - Pets and Adam Ant - Wonderful), but that’s it. Having ten of U2’s big hits as their entire 80s repertoire makes my brain go numb.

I don’t like the Pinfield show, but I’m not going to call him Pinhead. The problem is much more comprehensive than him, so in the scheme of things calling him names just seems like a cheap shot that avoids the larger problem.

[RGMike]

There have been some comments on the “Save KFOG” group about how we who dislike the new format aren’t supposed to be listening to it at all. While I get what they’re saying, I don’t see the point of self-imposing a lifetime ban on listening to the station UNLESS we have a PPM (which I don’t and most/all of the people in the group don’t either.) A better strategy is to not support the advertisers.

Yes. I've had that argument with a few folks -- I certainly don't listen to KFOG for pleasure at this point but I'm a radio geek since childhood and trying to figure out what they (or KGO, or Kiss-FM) think they're doing is kinda in my blood. And so far what they're doing doesn't seem to make much sense. 

Lots of comments about the fact that Pinfield's personal FB page still has NYC as his location. I've no doubt he's staying in a hotel or a high-end AirBnB deal.  Funniest line of the week, in re: Pinfield's constant name-dropping - "He's like a star-fucker who doesn't actually get to fuck stars."

[RGMike]

anybody looking for a job?

https://apply.hrmdirect.com/resumedirect/ApplyOnline/mobile/JobDetails.aspx?req_id=enc-16.5908255268811772

[dischead]

anybody looking for a job?

https://apply.hrmdirect.com/resumedirect/ApplyOnline/mobile/JobDetails.aspx?req_id=enc-16.5908255268811772

Uh, didn't KFOG have three or four people meeting those requirements on their payroll a couple of
months ago?

More corporate cluelessness...

[RGMike]

anybody looking for a job?

https://apply.hrmdirect.com/resumedirect/ApplyOnline/mobile/JobDetails.aspx?req_id=enc-16.5908255268811772

Uh, didn't KFOG have three or four people meeting those requirements on their payroll a couple of months ago?

Indeed; altho' all were over 40   (yes I know Pinfield and NoName are too) You'd think they'd've had someone lined up to start with, however. This is a loooong time to be jockless in middays. I'm gonna guess they will hire a young-ish woman. If they hire another guy then the music mix *really* will make no sense.