Update 4/4 – It looks like management has been listening. KGO has announced live and local programming and reversed their decision and are now keeping Ron Owens. The comments we’ve read about what people are hearing so far, are very positive.
4/1 – So many people this morning were upset and outraged at KGO’s announcement and the current layoffs that ensued. Phone calls were made, panic! People thought it was an April Fool’s prank, but it isn’t. We saw posts and comments of people who have listened for 10, 20, 30 years and more who woke up this morning to an odd sounding KGO radio. If you take the time to read the comments, you will see just how upset the listeners are.
Veteran talk show host Ronn Owens will be moved from KGO radio (his home for 40 years) to KSFO.
On their Facebook Page there is an announcement stating “The next generation of KGO 810 is coming Tuesday morning at 6 am”. We aren’t sure what that means, so we’ll be waiting to see just like you.
C. Crane’s very first radio ad, aired on KGO 810 and we continued advertising with them until their first format change several years ago when they laid off much of their local talent. We still have people call to this day, telling us that they first heard about us on KGO. We were fortunate to work with Mickey Luckoff and Jack Swanson in the hay day of KGO & KSFO. Both stations have a long history and are two of the greatest stations ever formed. We hope and pray the Cumulus management endeavors to carve a path with the creativity and talent that the radio hosts and the former management have previously done because we’d LOVE to advertise again!
Tell us in the comments how you feel about this change!
I stopped listening at the major format change a few years ago. I had been listening using a Selecatenna from you before I ever got a decent radio also from you later on. Now I listen to the BBC via internet radio on equipment that also came from you. Getting the Shipping Forecast at 9:20 PM here in PDT is great fun as is “Farming Today,” at 9:45. They are just getting up when we are going to bed. I still miss the great hosts of KGO. Being able to use internet radio is some compensation.
Thanks!
April Fool?
Nope – Real life.
It’s got to be an April Fools joke.
Honest to God it isn’t.
Cumulus owns KGO. They will be airing wall to wall syndicated talk shows starting on Tuesday leading off with Armstrong and Getty who are based in Sacramento. The news department will be virtually non existent. Quite the fall for a radio station that was #1 for decades. A 50,000 watt powerhouse signal that will be totally wasted.
This is one critical review of the events. Sad day. https://www.facebook.com/claudia.lamb.7/posts/10209237549320936
I have enjoyed AM radio, talk programming for many years. Still listen sometimes while at work, at home during the day and every night. KGO 810 was the first station I listened to regularly for years, and now I listen to KGO and our local AM station with talk/news programming. I can’t wrap my head around the changes at KGO yet, but will definitely miss the news programming and hosts of the news type programs. I’ll give it a chance, can’t guarantee if I’ll stick if its too focused on entertaining me though.
Bring back the entire format of KGO 810 AM. Cumulus are idiots. Bring back the programming of the morning news, traffic, weather as well as the afternoon news. What the heck where you thinking changing the station. I can listen to New Generation radio on FM. Bring our what is not broken back. How dare you decided what listeners need to hear and what we want hear
I was sickened when I heard about even more changes coming to the GREAT KGO 810 in San Francisco. When the new owners pulled that nasty trick several years ago, I began to stop listening even more and more. I am mostly certain shortly thereafter when they pulled the “NO NOTICE” firings of most of the talk hosts that that is what probably caused the near sudden passing Gene Burns (radio was his life).The this time it is too much. I haven’t heard the “New Generation” yet, but I can only guess that it will be horrible. This is absolutely one big sad state of affairs. Wake up Cumulus Broadcasting! You’re thoughtless and reckless changes are destroying what very little bit of KGO that is left. In fact, on second thought, you might invest your money in some shovels for the burial that’s coming. -Steven Gibson, K6KGO, Lake Almanor, CA.
I am a 61 year old man and remember listening to KGO at breakfast every morning with my dad as a young boy and have been listening every since. I have seen many changes but this one I do not understand. You have taken the power of great radio and distroid it. I’m sure Rush is glad to see it as he will no longer have a formidable opponent presenting logical radio. I am very disappointed in your I am very disappointed in your changes to change the format of a great radio station full of information and news and great hosts.