It is once more into the breach for Former Listeners of KGO, still furious over the Cumulus owned AM station dumping a slew of popular talk show hosts on December 1. The group has announced its second demonstration in front of the station’s studios: 900 Front Street in San Francisco.
KGO protest; San Francisco; 12/15/2011
The first was held two weeks ago (we were there; photo on right). Now the protesters say they will hold a candlelight vigil on Friday, December 30, at 5 pm, and collect food donations for the Bayview-Hunter’s Point YMCA Food Pantry. “The food donations are being made in honor of Ray Taliaferro, legendary bay area broadcaster who was fired on December 1 along with other well known radio personalities at KGO,” the Facebook press release says. “Mr. Taliaferro was born and raised in the Hunter’s Point neighborhood and had worked at KGO radio for decades.”
According to a Former Listener member, Taliaferro will be there himself. He was on KSCO AM in Santa Cruz earlier this month, and in high dudgeon. The show started with KSCO’s Kay Zwerling offering some praise for Donald Trump’s ideas, especially his opposition to the Obama administration’s health care reforms.
Taliaferro was asked to respond.
“I think anyone who pays attention to Donald Trump is ridiculous, stupid, unknowing, absolutely ridiculous,” he began. “What the hell has Donald Trump done for poor people? What has he done to try to make sure to help the people that I grew up with, I grew up poor in Hunter’s Point?”
“Why on earth are people so stupid in the United States of America that they’ve got to come with a commentary like that?” Taliaferro demanded. The exchange got quite heated. Perhaps Taliaferro will have more to say about these larger issues at the Friday demonstration.
Radio Survivor readers are reporting that various dismissed KGO folk have found jobs elsewhere. One comment says that Len Tillem and Gene Burns have landed new DJ work at Clear Channel’s KKSF (910 AM), beginning January 3rd. Len’s show will run from 3-4 PM. Gene Burns show will follow from 4-7 PM. We contacted Clear Channel to confirm this, but have received no reply.
Noah Shanock from Stitcher Radio also posted an invitation:
We at Stitcher Radio were saddened to hear of KGO’s recent decision to remove their talk programming content. KGO’s change in formatting is lamentable, both for our community and for the outlook of terrestrial talk radio. We believe that some of the most interesting and engaging content on the radio are talk shows, and are fully committed to providing the best platform for talk shows to reach and engage their listeners online. We’d love to have these great talk shows on Stitcher and have reached out to each of the hosts who were laid off – offering up our San Francisco recording studio for free, no strings attached – where they can record live Internet radio streams and podcasts.
The commentary notes that Stitcher provided air time to the morning show duo Fernando and Greg “back in 2009 under similar circumstances.” Their program on Energy 92.7 FM in San Francisco was cancelled following the station’s sale.
And KSCO has been trying to recruit former KGO staff, among them Dr. Bill Wattenburg, who hosted KSCO’s Good Morning Monterey Bay AM Drive for a week this month.
