I apologize to anyone who was offended by my phone call to Ed Stolz.
The Board of Supervisors of San Francisco has passed a resolution urging radio station owner Ed Stolz to “rehire the talented staff” of Energy 92.7, a station that “was adored and appreciated by so many fans throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area.”
Stolz should “reconsider his choice to abandon the successful format,” the Supes resolved.
As we’ve reported, KNGY’s Gay oriented dance music format disappeared from the airwaves early last week following the sale of the station to Stolz. Radio Survivor readers know that I called Mr. Stolz the other day just to get his reaction to all this, and he was not happy to hear from me, to put it mildly. But he did make what I thought was a reasonable point, that the previous station owner had abandoned the format, not him.
Pressure campaigns
Nonetheless, Fox News camp follower Brian Maloney has accused me of being part of a “pressure campaign” against Stolz, because I had the nerve to call him on the contact number that he or his staff gave to the Federal Communications Commission, and which is part of his public file. Plus I started “peppering” him with “questions about the operation.” Eeek!
“Since there is little doubt ‘progressives’ will back Obama’s coming crackdown on talk radio, how could they possibly walk away from the chance to strong arm KNGY’s forced return to the airwaves?” Maloney warns.
Ah, it’s all coming together now.
Never mind that I asked Stolz questions that I think any journalist would have asked. Never mind that I noted that he had a reasonable response to one of my queries. Never mind that KNGY wasn’t a talk radio station and neither is Stolz’s replacement, KREV. Never mind that the SF Supes’ resolution does little more than ask Stolz to consider returning Energy 92.7 (something I suspect they know is unlikely). Never mind that there are thousands of people out there who could give a crap about the politics; they just want their dance station back.
Everything in Maloney-land gets read through the paranoid fear that somehow if people have even the slightest say over what happens over the public airwaves, it will hurt conservative talk radio (which, judging from Maloney’s web site, he seems to have just a slight career investment in).
While I’m pissing people off, here’s something else I’ve been wondering about. It would be interesting to know whether when Stolz bought the station, the transfer agreement required the previous owner to dismiss Fernando and Greg and the rest of the old Energy 92.7 team before Stolz got there. Not that I’m saying that happened, but it is sometimes part of such deals. Anyway, I’ll probably never find out, and it’s all water under the bridge now anyway.
