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Talk Radio Reacts To KGO 810 Format Change

Listeners were shocked to hear the station interrupt The Mark Thompson Show Thursday with a recorded message shortly after 10 a.m. 

Ryan Hedrick

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One of the oldest news/talk brands in the country is signing off. San Francisco’s KGO 810 is changing formats Monday. The station made its debut back in 1924. 

The Cumulus-owned station has not confirmed what the format change will look like but according to The Desk, KGO Radio will relaunch as a sports betting format using the moniker, ‘The Spread’. A combination of BetQL and local sports betting talk programming is expected to be featured starting Monday.

Late Thursday, broadcast industry professionals reacted to the news via social media.

“It has been a dream come true. When I was a college student at San Jose State University, I always said my dream was having my own show on KGO Radio,” said host Nikki Medoro on Facebook. For the last several years, I fulfilled my dream of talking with people in the Bay Area, the hometown that I love.” 

Listeners were shocked to hear the station interrupt The Mark Thompson Show Thursday with a recorded message shortly after 10 a.m. 

“End of an era, but not all that surprising considering the way the winds are blowing in that business,” tweeted former overnight man Ray Woodson.

“This is extremely sad. I have nothing but happy memories of producing @KGO810 for 6 years. Feel terrible for my old coworkers losing their jobs and to the KGO listeners,” said former producer Albert Ermelo. 

KCBS Radio’s Doug Sovern said he was shocked to learn of the format flip. 

“This is shocking, to say the least,” he tweeted. “A Bay Area Radio institution, which had already been gutted, quite frankly, for years, is dead,” he said. “One of the great stations in the history of radio. Rest In Programming.”  

“So apparently, the last shovel of dirt has been thrown on KGO, interestingly after their best book in some time,” added former KGO host Gil Gross. From the teasers during the music stunting of songs about money and the stupid tease line “you can bet on it”, it’s going to be another robot run sports betting format which is all the rage among brainless, out of ideas, radio companies.” 

WBBM Radio host Rob Hart said that KGO’s 27-year run as the top-rated station in the city was remarkable. 

“I had two co-workers who had long tenure at KGO Radio in San Francisco, and a bunch of people who were second- and third-degree radio connections so I knew the esteem it once held in that city,” he added

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Dick

    October 7, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    I guess this is the end of AM radio for me….this is truly SAD….. I don’t listen to other people sports, but nice to see your comments (at “3 seconds” after you posted it this morning..)

    :… I have only listened to KGO from Junior Hight days(nights)……(talk show at the Hungry Eye….)(also, later in the night, conversely, Wolfman Jack on XERB “over Los Angeles”…….)

    My latest ‘find’ on KGO AM radio was John Batchelor’s show `”CBS Eye on the World”

    Good luck with KGO ‘news’..Thanks for listening…Dick(Oregon/Idaho with a C.Crane radio)

  2. Jay Berwanger

    October 7, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    What kind of format will the station have this Monday? Does anyone know, or the keeping it a secret? RIP KGO!!

  3. kay gee oh

    October 8, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    What a joke. They are going to turn it into a sports betting circus show. They are counting their chickens before it hatches. prop 26 and 27 for sports gambling in California will not pass. The people have spoken. Mark my words on it. This new format stage act of a show is a dud and a failure from the get go. It too will go out of business.

  4. SeaPenny

    October 10, 2022 at 2:48 pm

    I listened to KGO for decades. I did so because I wanted to hear what the left was thinking and talking about. I am very far politically from all of their hosts. I remember Bernie Ward, before he went to prison… I really like his show… Owen’s, he was full of himself. In the last few years KGO went even further to the left, the woke pronoun focused left. I figured they would still make it in the bay area because they were preaching to the choir down there…. This is a bad sign for the leftists in the bay area… To go woke and broke in the bay area is a sign the left has jumped the shark. RIP KGO

  5. Nick Priest

    October 10, 2022 at 7:47 pm

    I must say I am highly disappointed in KGO’s new programming. As of today, I quit listening to KGO.

  6. Sandra Abraham

    October 11, 2022 at 2:46 am

    I don’t like the new format. I like the talk show listening to people with their ideas & opinions and the talk show hosts. I’ll miss them. All I can say is good bye KGO Radio I won’t be listening to you

  7. Pedro C Wilson

    October 11, 2022 at 7:11 pm

    I’m at a total loss, I live in Arizona where the GOP still pretty much have a strangle hold on everything. It was so nice listening to KGO radio, it was like a breath of fresh air for us here. I will miss you KGO. I don’t gamble so I won’t be listening anymore.

  8. Linda Shelby

    October 12, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    I have been listening to KGO all my life. I am now 75. Stated with listening with my Grandmother.
    It was the one station where you could get the “real new”!!!
    I will never listen again!
    I see the station has gone the way of the world.
    How very disappointing!
    Sports and betting!! All I can say is wow!
    All about the money, big business and no more real, honest talk about what is really happening in the world!

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News Radio

Dana Loesch: Like Ronna McDaniel, ‘I Like to Go Where the Fight Is’

“Sometimes it’s not about winning the battle, but planting the seed is the victory, right? So that’s how I look at stuff.”

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(Photo: Dana Loesch)

Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is no longer a contributor at NBC News after intense internal backlash. Dana Loesch believes that while McDaniel wasn’t a successful political leader, she had the right intentions with her media aspirations.

During The Dana Show, Loesch argued that she was upset about the reactions from MSNBC hosts that ultimately led to McDaniel’s departure, saying she never wanted to be in a position of supporting the former RNC chair.

“I’m mad because I feel like these people are putting me in a position where I’m defending her,” said Loesch. “And that makes me mad because I don’t want to defend her. I think that she was an incompetent RNC head.”

However, she pushed back on the idea that Ronna McDaniel made a mistake by partnering with a liberal cable outlet like MSNBC to begin with.

“People are like, ‘Well, her first mistake was going to MSNBC.’ I disagree. I like to go where the fight is,” Loesch revealed. “I was one of the first token conservative contributors at CNN back in this was like 2011, 2012, 2013. Yeah, you kind of know that most of the people hate you. But you do have a couple of allies.

“I like to go where the fight is. Because sometimes it’s not about winning the battle, but planting the seed is the victory, right? So that’s how I look at stuff. I’ve never shied away from — clearly — going into any arena, literally or anywhere else. So I don’t fault her for going to MSNBC.”

Dana Loesch concluded by positing that the money for McDaniel’s contract — reported to be $300,000 per year — was an impressive figure because most contributors are only paid around $75,000.

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News Radio

Dom Giordano: Joe Rogan Needs to Remember He’s an Entertainer And Stay Away From ‘Dangerous’ Topics

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything.”

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(Photo: 1210 WPHT)

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan has never been afraid to wade into controversial topics or interview less-than-desirable guests on his podcast. 1210 WPHT host Dom Giordano believes it might be time for him to start.

In a recent podcast episode, Rogan claimed he believed Israel’s treatment of citizens in Gaza since the October 7th terrorist attacks from Hamas has bordered on genocide. He sat idly by as a guest equated the situation to that of the Allied Forces bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II, which killed an estimated 25,000 people.

Rogan claimed the message would be “We’re basically saying genocide is ok as long as we’re doing it.”

After hearing those comments, Dom Giordano admonished Rogan.

“Look, I get Joe Rogan’s prominence, but this is a dangerous area. The guy throwing Dresden — and a lot of listeners might remember that the firebombing of Dresden — the allies took it out. They did. I forget how many people were killed. World War II was not pretty. That, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, but it was exactly the moral thing to do,” said Giordano. “That’s exactly what needed to be done. So we’re not committing genocide here and then blaming the other side.”

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything…he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about here.”

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News Radio

Buck Sexton: NBC News Paying Contract of Ronna McDaniel is Nothing Compared to Megyn Kelly

“$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

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A photo of Buck Sexton and the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show logo
(Photo: Premiere Networks)

NBC News severed its ties to former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after intense internal backlash. Radio host Buck Sexton says paying out her contract will be a simple one for the network, especially after what it paid to Megyn Kelly.

In 2018, Kelly insinuated it was ok for people to wear blackface as long as they were impersonating a black character. The subsequent backlash led to her departure from NBC News, with the outlet paying her the rest of her contract.

A similar situation unfolded with Ronna McDaniel, who has signed a reported two-year, $600,000 contract with the network to serve as a political analyst after resigning from her role with the Republican National Committee earlier this month.

After her hiring, many at MSNBC and inside the NBC News organization pushed back against the idea of hiring someone who had been intensely critical of the mainstream media, and also touted lies about the validity of the 2020 Presidential election until joining the network as a contributor.

NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde revealed it was his decision to end the relationship with Ronna McDaniel.

“I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it,” he wrote in an internal memo to staffers.

After the news of McDaniel’s departure became official, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show began the show with the topic, leading Sexton to argue this isn’t the first time NBC News has been in this position.

“They did it. They actually fired the former RNC chair. I think she did one interview. The reports are they’re gonna pay her $300,000 for both of the years of her contract. For NBC, that’s nothing. Remember, NBC had to pay out Megyn Kelly’s contract a while ago at like $70 million or something,” said Buck Sexton. “$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

At the time of her exit from NBC News, it was reported Megyn Kelly would receive $30 million from the outlet.

Co-host Clay Travis argued that while listeners of the show may not be big fans of McDaniel, people should be concerned about the treatment of Trump supporters. “They aren’t interested in talking to half the country,” he posited.

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