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San Diegan Bill Lerach out of prison, living in luxury
Don...We get it. You're no fan of Lerach. But how about Dick Cheney when CEO of Halliburton and exercising his stock options to collect $68.5 million...and the stock then plummets a few, short days later? Maybe that can be your next article? And address all these corporate execs taking millions in stock options? Don't you have a much bigger problem with Lou Pei getting away with $250-350 million out of Enron with his exercised options before the huge collapse than the legal fees recognized by Bill Lerach? The Fortune 500 must have the best stable of attorneys money can buy. Most judges on the appellate bench come out of the corporate defense teams, wouldn't you agree? It's hard to believe that they would all topple easily like dominoes to eagerly settle the suits brought by Bill Lerach. You mean companies like Disney or AOL Time Warner are concerned with bad PR and readily hand over millions to Lerach on behalf of defrauded shareholders without putting up a fight? This doesn't seem likely. Also, is the "15 cents on the dollar" recovery for defrauded shareholders accurate? If class action attys representing plaintiffs are getting 10% of the settlement, where does all the money go? or is it divided up among the class in equal shares rather than proportionately? And lastly, would we be better off with no lawsuits being brought for corporate fraud, which is pretty damned rampant? You report on it all the time...and we've just witnessed some massive Wall Street fraud that is mind-blowing. I'm all for civil and criminal penalties.— May 26, 2010 7:42 p.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
dear joshb .... try listening to thom hartmann and ed schultz for a bit...i think you'll enjoy their approach and their content ... i wasn't suggesting that you take them at their word verbatim....i was urging u to take a statement or position and then do some digging or research on your own... All of the radio hosts should give u food for thought .... it's up to u to determine how much might be bravado and how much might be sincere.... if u review all of the reader comments, i hope u get the picture as to US radio ownership stucture....u have a problem with a radio host....look to who is providing his or her paycheck....the radio talent generally reflects the attitude and bias of the owner....that's just the way it is.... for now...until the public gets united and vociferous re: what is available to us via radio— January 15, 2009 12:25 a.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
Dear joshb ... I have to take issue with your negative brush-off all the left-leaning programs. By what standard are you judging all the political talkers? Did the show teach you something new? Did you get enlightened about an issue? Did a guest or host pique your curiosity and cause you to dig and research a subject? Did the show bring some news/information/local residents to light in an engaging and compelling way? Stacy Taylor and his team (Scooter, Craig Elston, etc) did a fine job. I thought Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz were both great and had unique styles. Thom is the well-read, professorial type who was very knowlegable on American history, constitutional law, and many social issues. Ed Schultz was the regular guy who loved as many listeners call in as possible (whom he never screened, by the way). Randi Rhodes was also street-wise and spoke truth to power. OK, Mike Malloy brought a sardonic edge that was probably an acquired taste...probably as close to a "Michael Savage on the left" as there was. The fact was, AM1360 was the only station in town offering a format that would appeal to over 500K Democrats and a good deal of 350K independents. (with almost no marketing, no promotion, a sub-standard signal that didn't even reach all of the county, and audio quality that sometimes featured another signal bleeding in and even the always dreaded 'dead air'.) And they generated admirable ratings in spite of themselves. If the KOGO advertisers couldn't or wouldn't see the wisdom in putting a percentange of the ad dollars into KLSD to complement their marketing, then that was just plain stupid. My hunch? I think we have to examine the very top layers of the ownership based in San Antonio for the lack of concern for the public and for the management decisions made. Now if you are a programmer, you can see that our market is over-saturated with rightwing talk...KFI, KOGO, KFMB, KCBQ and what's left of AM 1700. The public has abandoned them as the war dragged on, as they paid $70 and more to fill up at the pumps and as their 401Ks and holdings have dropped by 40%. My guess is that the rightwing talk radio ratings are in the tank which coincides with the dearth of cash and credit...and ad sales have plummeted. With all of the e-media competing for consumers, will they ever return as listeners to AM talk radio in significant numbers? There are a few consultants that are saying 'no' ... at least not talk radio, per se to the exclusion of complementary digital networking etc. Time will tell ...— January 11, 2009 5:52 p.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
In all deference to Ms Falkenthal, if Rick Amato is anything like the rest of the KCBQ lineup (Bill Bennett? Dennis Prager? Michael Medved?) ... I doubt there is an eager audience out there for more of the same. I believe the public has tired of pontificating, moralizing, opining and whining by talk radio hosts. They have tired of hate speech and shouting down opposing points of view. Exeunt Bill O'Reilly. Potential listeners are ready for solutions and civil discourse .... which probably might explain how many on the left and right have retreated to KPBS. The rightwing haranguing have drive off the listeners. They will look to other sources of information...mainly online and digital. Really is a shame what has happened to talk radio.— January 6, 2009 3:42 p.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
PhilL... With all of our lofty analysis, the bottom line is ...the bottom line. I again ask you to produce the historical net revenue figures AM1360...for KPOP, KLSD and its successor sports format. We can all agree that KLSO earned substantially more dollars than KPOP. That KLSD produced a spectacular rise in the ratings. That flipping it to provide our listening public a third sports talk format turned out to be a bust. The ratings plunged almost immediately and were described by one radio consultant that it was "as if they turned the station off." And if we want to believe that FCC laws that the "public owns the airwaves"...that with the 9 stations that Clear Channel owns, isn't there a legitimate public interest argument to provide some diversity of opinion, even if the station was breaking even? Stacy Taylor is an intelligent and respected radio voice in this town who has been on the air since the 80s here. No one can convince me that progressive radio was losing revenue and ratings in 59 markets. PhilL, u want to know where progressive talk dominated the competition? It happened right here in this market. Ed Schultz was beating Hannity. Randi Rhodes was doing great in her PM drive slot. Read up on David Brock, the former GOP operative and what he has to say in THE REPUBLICAN NOISE MACHINE. Read up on former GOP strategist, Kevin Phillips and what he has to say in AMERICAN DYNASTY: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. I think, then, you will see the bigger picture.— January 5, 2009 12:30 a.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
Right on, DevorahLeah ... well said! As for the ultimate decision to shut down KLSD, one has to keep in mind that the Clear Channel corporate headquarters are based in San Antonio TX with well-established ties to the Bush family. Clear Channel operated 19 'progressive stations' (59 overall) were dumped. It appears that the tipping point prompting that decision were the midterm elections of Nov 2006, when House and Senate majorities went back to the Democrats. We kept hearing in San Diego that the decision to shut down KLSD was due to "revenue, not ratings." If you start googling around, you'll discover that this was the same corporate "rationale" that was offered in many other cities. KLSD (with a lousy signal, bad engineering and almost no marketing) had risen to #17 in the ratings. If you have attended any listeners events, you would have seen hundreds of rabid and grateful fans. Hundreds of listeners staged at least two rallies at the Clear Channel offices to protest the plan to shut it down. A group called Save KLSD emerged which has now morphed into CPR-San Diego (or the Campaign for Progressive Radio). How can they dump it in Boston where the voter registration is about 70% Democratic? If you want to see what's wrong with radio (and mainstream media, in general), look at the ownership structure. Read David Brock's THE REPUBLICAN NOISE MACHINE: Rightwing media and how it corrupts democracy. See the documentary films "ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE" and "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." What has happened to our media and the news? One has to conclude that most mainstream media has been used as a weapon of mass "distraction", and in some cases, mass deception. We have to look at the ownership caps that were de-regulated by the Telecom Act of 1996. For 62 years, it was fine that no entity could own more than 40 stations. The conservative mega-wealthy who really own and operate most of the country decided to get rid of the old rules and allow unfettered ownership. Clear Channel went from owning 40 stations to 1400 almost overnight. We can now see the political and economic dangers of too much concentrated wealth and control. Look how the term "liberal" has been demonized by the rightwing radio attack. See wikipedia.org and read up on "liberalism". Many of the discoveries and developments that have made our country great have emanated from this school of thought. Haven't we always been about expanding rights of the individual and more social justice? To think that women and minorities did not have equal voting rights in our last century is amazing. I still have faith that out of all this discord, that some daring entrepreneurs will dare to step up and serve some of the huge voids that the rightwing monolith has created.— January 4, 2009 9:56 a.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
Dear PhilL... re: your #2. Do you know how much KPOP was earning at its peak? Do you know how much KLSD was earning at its peak? and what the new KLSD sports format is earning? (also provide the net revenue since the payroll went up when they flipped to sports) ... Then, analyze all 50 progressive talk stations that were systematically dumped across the US after Nov 2006. Then, tell me why the conservative behemoths just added conservative news talk for the next 4 years ... there will be a toal of 2,064 stations providing Rush, Sean, Beck, Ingraham, Savage ... if radio is dead, why do they persist in beating a dead dog? b/c they are an 800 pd gorilla..b/c they are willing to lose money as long as they control the airwaves....b/c u have a lot of crusty old billionaires who don't care what the public would like to hear (talk-wise)... it's a myth that the public owns the airwaves....there were 80 media companies when Reagan took office...now there are 5 ... re: radio, there are only a handful of major players...maybe about 15 total radio entities.... when the Telecom Act was passed, that wiped out dozens of companies ... sad— January 3, 2009 11:09 a.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
Dear BillRayDrums: I take issue with your "internet trumping radio" sole explanation for Nov 4. The rightwing has DrudgeReport and their web-based echo chamber, too. They just haven't figured out a way to prevent networking yet; but that doesn't mean they haven't tried or will continue to try. What do u think this whole "net neutrality" debate was/is about? Obama won because he and Biden were superior candidates and McCain and Palin were not ... plus it was a repudiation of th last 8 years. The market dropped 5,000 pts and people lost $7 trillion in wealth. Paying $4 a gallon at the pump was the great equalizer. No matter what political party u supported, that sucked. We know the unemployment and inflation numbers were worse than they were telling us. Obama won, in spite of the right-wing media machine, which tells you how lousy people feel. In spite of all that, I think Obama/Biden should have won by more. Here's another eye-opener... if we just counted the white votes alone ... McCain would have won 55-43 ... a huge trouncing despite the foreign and domestic abysmal failures ... http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1039/post-election-pe… With the coming challenges, we'd better figure out how to unite efforts and cease with the constant haranguing about personal choices.— January 2, 2009 6 a.m.
Chris Cantore and Hilary Chambers leave San Diego Clear Channel stations
One cannot fully fathom how and why talk radio was ruined until they read the Ctr for American Progress study which indicates that 91% of talk radio content in the US is "conservative." Has nothing to do with "fair and balanced" or what the public appetite is about. It's about crusty, old $$ buying up the airwaves and cramming their failed format, agenda, policies into the ears of listeners...who now have tired of the tripe and moved on. Young listeners tuned out to talk a long time ago. They don't want yelling and screaming...they are desperate for solutions, answers, find common ground and vision. You're not going to get that from Limbaugh, Savage, O'Reilly, etc. And yet, how do u explain the recent NYT article reporting that all the main rightwingers are getting their contracts re-upped. More of the same, it appears. So we'll see what plays out in the coming months....when I see "radio is dead" ...I think that mostly applies to music radio b/c everything is going to "consumer on demand" formats anyway. Some other notes of interest re: KLSD....revenue-wise, it was certainly doing better financially than it's predecessor format of adult oldies music. How do u explain 59 other cities getting their progressive talk formats axed by Clear Channel and other rightwing corporate monolithic owners? Were they ALL losing money? I think not. Also, Stacy Taylor at AM1700, was the lone progressive talker among a sea of conservative talkers ... and I understand his was the higheset-rated show in their lineup. Coincidence, or does this say something about a signficant market being underserved in San Diego? However, I also think there is a public appetite for timely, current, smart and entertaining radio with important information. "Informative and entertaining media" ain't going away any time soon...cf. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.— December 31, 2008 3:52 p.m.
San Diego's retirement liability goes up a billion
How about the Council slash the salaries of all city employees earning over $120,000 by 10% for 2-3 years to help make up the short-fall? How about pursuing a suit against Sempra if there was liability for any of those brush fires? If any pensions were increased illegally, those should also be rolled back per Aguirre's findings. Without going to the extreme of raising sales tax, these might be good places to look for savings/revenue for the city, for starters. Maybe look into some sweet-heart land deals involving the city to see if any revenue can be recovered there.— November 26, 2008 6:10 p.m.