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Keith Menconi Was Shaped By Broadcasting In Taiwan Before KCBS

“It was a hybrid show about living in Taiwan. It appealed to me as I always gravitated toward long-form planned out production.”
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3 weeks ago

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It doesn’t matter how prestigious, mediocre, elite, or expensive your college was, a common denominator among all higher learning institutions is the esteemed career fair. With all of our technology today, they seem almost quaint. Veteran KCBS radio reporter Keith Menconi earned his undergraduate degree from Berkeley majoring in economics and history. During his last semester, like many of his classmates, he attended a career fair on campus. Not as good as a kegger, but certainly more productive.

“I wanted to pursue a career where writing was the main component of the job,” Menconi said.

That much he knew. One of the speakers at the career fair was a senior editor at KQED in San Francisco. Menconi went up to her after she spoke.

“I asked her if she thought there was a career for a guy who read a lot of history and wanted to write,” Menconi said. “She told me about internships in either public affairs or a newsroom. I ended up getting internships in both of those. I did that three days a week for six or seven months.”

Nothing if not honest, Menconi said the job kicked his ass at first when he was hired at KQED. The job was a bit more demanding than he may have thought. 

“It was a rough start,” he admits. “I was very impressed with the people I was working with. Everybody was able to focus, had the ability to boil things down to their essence. I was coming from an academic background, and there I did reasonably well, but, of course, in school you get a month to come up with a topic for a paper.”

A newsroom isn’t as forgiving as your college was.

“There is the daily grind of turning out copy, and at first I struggled to get up to speed,” Menconi explained. “They tolerated me despite my early stumbles and I made it through all right. I think it gave me a sense of potential for what this job can be. I really wanted to be good at it.”

He left KQED when he was offered a scholarship to study Chinese in Taiwan. Menconi was 22 years-old at the time.

Menconi is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

“My time in Taiwan  gave me the chance to think about the nuances of culture,” he explained. “I think about culture now as an extension of language: just another way that you express yourself. How you accept a present from somebody; how you argue; how you order at a restaurant. All of these are different ways to express yourself that will be received differently depending on where you are.”

Menconi spent nine months teaching English in Taiwan. He then said he “lucked out” when he called an English-language radio station looking for work. The station was ICRT, which stands for International Community Radio Taipei. Menconi said he was in the right place at the right time.

“Broadcaster Eryk Smith had quit something like a week before I called ICRT,” Menconi said. “They were looking for somebody to take over his show. Eryk hosted Taiwan Talk, an interview series about Taiwan life and culture. It appealed to me as I always gravitated toward long form planned out productions. I think my past radio experience gave me a leg up. I worked there at ICRT for three-and-a-half years.”

Menconi said he enjoyed his experiences in Taiwan.

“Learning the language is a bottomless pit; you can continue studying forever.”

He explained there is always more to study. He learned a lot about Taiwanese politics and current events during his stay.

“You could spend your whole life diving into that kind of thing,” Menconi said.

Along with his reporting duties, Menconi has a weekly program titled KCBS In Depth. Topics from recent shows include; ‘Are Bay Area homes ready to go all electric?’ ‘What could follow this latest wave of gun violence?’ ‘Confronting the youth fentanyl crisis.’

“On the most recent show, we covered the lifting of Covid restrictions in California and the Bay Area.  It’s a retrospective episode speaking with local health experts. Looking at what the Bay area did right and what it did wrong.”

Menconi likes to bring different opinions to In Depth on KCBS.That’s his goal.

Reflecting on his time in Taiwan he said, “I made a lot of friends in the local arts and music scene. I went to a few open mic nights.” His parents got him a guitar when he was young and he likes to play songs from The Cure and The Beatles.

“The few Chinese songs I learned to sing took a long time to get under my skin and commit to memory,” Menconi said.

Menconi was born in Milpitas near San Jose. Today he lives in San Jose and works as a general assignments reporter on most days.

He put together a small studio in his home and paid for it himself.

“Management is generally willing to buy my gear, but I’m working on some other projects and I just wanted to own the equipment.”

At KCBS, Menconi said the assignments for the day are generally figured out by 9 am or 10 am.

“It’s sort of your typical newsroom,” he explained. “We have our own sources, our own tips. We make sure we’re not missing any big stories. We pull stories from the wire service.”

Menconi will check in with the assignment editor and make sure he got everything, then hit the streets.

He’s able to stay in San Jose a lot of the time and said some reporters cover more physical ground.

“When it was flooding at the beginning of the year I was driving over the Santa Cruz Mountains regularly for a couple of  weeks.”

If the news is breaking fast, Menconi said he’ll do live reports from the field.

“On any given day there are eight reporters running about and we’ve got six or seven anchors.”

Menconi said during the George Floyd protests in San Jose he started the day at 7pm.

“By then, police were squaring off with protesters,” he explained. “I believe tear gas had already been fired into the crowd. I was reporting for five or six hours straight.”

His work is gratifying and Menconi said he likes being part of a business that delivers and helps crystalize information. He likes to distill the information down to relatable stories.

“The good feeling for me comes from making something genuinely useful for an audience. A resource that people can draw on as they make decisions, perhaps about voting or perhaps deciding what Covid precautions to adopt. The hope at the end of the day is that I’ve made  some useful contribution to the public conversation.”

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Trump vs DeSantis Talk in 2023? You’re Wasting Your Listener’s Time

“I could scan local TV stations, newspaper websites and blogs and find more compelling stories with a more immediate and local impact in less than five minutes.”

Published

1 day ago

on

March 24, 2023

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I’m already tired.

No, not because I’m a morning show host who’s about to wrap up the week. I’m tired because it’s only March of 2023 and half of what I see on Twitter is Trump vs. DeSantis trolls going after each other.

Make. It. Stop.

OK, I can’t do that.

Although I guess I could stop following certain people on the platform, but that’s an option for another day.

But as it pertains to talk radio, before thinking this is a great Topic A or B for a show, let’s actually dissect whether or not this makes any sense to discuss at length.

First off, conservatives are usually the ones more likely to rightly point out that Twitter, and the rest of social media, is not real life. But for too many on Twitter, and elsewhere, they aren’t taking their own advice on this issue. It’s wildly hypocritical. 

Granted, some of them are employed by either side, but most are not, and it’s exhausting to open up a social media app and see this back and forth with still one year to go until most primaries take place. 

However, more importantly, as it pertains to local talk radio, there’s very little value in bringing any of this to your talk show in March of 2023. Walk around your community, do you really think the water cooler conversations are about Donald Trump vs. Ron DeSantis? I would guess that’s highly unlikely unless you work at the RNC or you’re a landscaper at Mar-A-Lago. 

I could scan local TV stations, newspaper websites and blogs and find more compelling stories with a more immediate and local impact in less than five minutes. It might be more work from a topic development standpoint, but it’s doing the service that your audience expects of you as a local host. Plus, who wants to spend the next 12 months debating this nonsense?

Count me out.

That day will come as the 2024 election draws near, the storylines build and it becomes of more interest to the audience. But this week we just hit the first day of spring… in 2023! 

On top of that, this topic is very likely to divide much of your audience earlier than you need to. What’s the benefit of that? Once again, that day may come, although who really knows what the next several months could bring?

If there’s anything we should know living through and covering the last few years of news, it’s to expect the unexpected. What we think will happen 12 months from now is almost guaranteed to not actually be the case. 

So let’s go down the three-point check-list here: 

  1. It’s not local or incredibly topical for most people right now
  2. It’s an audience divider
  3. The landscape isn’t guaranteed to look the same in 12 months

In this case, we can check off all three of those items with confidence. 

So while national politics will likely always be blended into a multi-hour show, when appropriate, there’s absolutely no point in doing deep dives or taking multiple segments of callers on this topic at this point and time. It’s going to be a tune-out for most.

Plus, spare yourself the pain this early. And trust me, it will be painful when the time comes. At some point, you’ll be longing for the simpler days of March 2023.

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BNM Writers

Make Your AM Radio Content Necessary And Don’t Hope For A Government Bailout

If there is something so crucial to the mix, why have and why do AM signals regularly cross their content over to an FM signal?
Bill Zito

Published

2 days ago

on

March 23, 2023

By

Radio

Let us venture back to the business of radio. The fate of AM radio in cars is once again creating a buzz, a buzz electric car makers say is one of the reasons they’re not putting the AM band in their new EVs.

Apparently, the electric components in the EVs create static interference, making the AM signal unintelligible and useless.

On its face, that makes some sense to me. Plus, I know nothing of frequencies or signals and not much more about intricate technology.

So, I don’t see what the big deal really is if some cars don’t have AM radios. Some boats don’t, most tractors either, haven’t seen one on a horse lately.

I do not want nor do I advocate the elimination, disappearance, reduction of services or personnel connected to AM radio. I currently work in AM and FM radio, why would I support the demise of the AM signal? But can we be real, can we be accurate here?

Look around, it’s already begun. Volkswagen, Audi, Tesla, and Porsche have already pulled or will be pulling AM radio from their electric vehicles. Ford’s F150 Lightning and next year’s Mustang will also be minus the AM band.

From a business standpoint, I would assume the market for cars — as for many things — is largely directed towards the emerging as well as the current consumer. What do they want and what do they make use of? I think it’s fair to assume that a lot of people are or will be looking for EVs.

How many will be looking for or want AM radios in those cars?

The broadcast industry would be better served if they looked for the answer to that question.

Besides, what does AM have to offer at this point that FM does not? What is it that AM can do under these conditions that FM cannot?

The broadcast pharaohs and their political fronts say we must maintain the presence of AM radio in cars, even electric cars, because when it comes down to it, AM radio will be the source of moment by moment information when disaster strikes.

This week, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced his multi-pronged plan aimed at keeping AM in all vehicles. Along with urging automakers to go along, Gottheimer has called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to add AM radio to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”

According to his website, that move would “require all automakers, EV included, to have AM radio as a stock feature in their vehicles.”

Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) launched similar measures last year.

Let’s go back to the question: what can AM do that the FM cannot? And if there is something so crucial to the mix, why have and why do AM signals regularly cross their content over to an FM signal? More news, talk, sports, whatever pops up on the FM all the time. It’s already a haven for spoken word broadcast (I just love working in the term spoken word wherever I can).

In case of emergency and disaster, would an FM station not do what an AM brand would? If the tornado or missiles are heading our way would the FM just keep playing Lizzo and Dua Lipa? Will the Giants game go on uninterrupted while we drive along in ignorance?

If emergency information is on the AM only and not on the FM there’s only one reason that can be; the people in charge are not putting it there.

Listen to 1010 WINS in New York City at 1010 AM and then 92.3 FM, notice a difference? Where are you finding WTOP or KNX these days? Why? Maybe it all sounds better.

This is an old argument with an evergreen answer, these were studied, calculated business moves.

The idea? To find and attract as many listeners as possible.

Where do you put your best people, your best content? Where they are accessible, yes? Where an audience is likely to look for and find them, right? It’s hard to make them go looking for it.

For a radio, AM/FM or otherwise to be of any use, to do any good at all, it has to be on.

Look, there is no shame in wanting to keep AM radio from going away. It’s perfectly understandable. I have a 1941 Zenith upright in my living room. I love the way it looks plus it gets AM, FM and occasionally the drive thru at Arby’s.

But I also have an Alexa, a Bose, and I don’t know how many channels to watch and stream on my TV. I mean, unless you’re driving the overnight long-haul route to Butte, how many of us have CB radios in our cars? Or 8-track, cassette or CD players?

Try and buy a new car with a standard transmission. Most things in life have a generational shelf life. For now, the AM listeners are still in their cars, they’re certainly not at home.

But that will continue to change, at minimum it will evolve.

So how much effort and expense are we going to put forth to try and convince people they want something they obviously do not or prove to them they need something they don’t think they do?

Convince me. Convince them.

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BNM Writers

Cable News Channels Saw Massive Spikes During Alex Murdaugh Verdict

Even the prime time lineup of nascent news outlet NewsNation got a sizable bounce, especially for “Cuomo”, which achieved its most-watched edition in total viewers, to-date.
Doug Pucci

Published

3 days ago

on

March 22, 2023

By

The Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial came to a conclusion on the evening of Thursday Mar. 2, Murdaugh, a member of a prominent South Carolina family and former attorney, was found guilty of shooting and killing both his wife Maggie and their youngest son Paul at their residence, and cable news outlets benefited greatly.

The court case that riveted the nation throughout the month of February was, of course, covered by many news outlets including broadcast and cable news as well as the various syndicated newsmagazines like Inside Edition and TMZ.

Leading the pack in cable news coverage was Fox News Channel. Normally topping the 7-8 p.m. hour with Jesse Watters Primetime on this night that hour delivered 3.51 million total viewers including 443,000 within the key 25-64 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. A far distant runner-up in total audience was MSNBC with 1.37 million; in adults 25-54, CNN (243,000) was closest to FNC among cable networks.

All three outlets drew at well above-average levels within the 7 p.m. hour and the few hours afterwards due to the verdict, as the following percentage increases show in comparison to their prior week (Feb. 20-24, 2023) returns:

Fox News Channel

  • Jesse Watters Primetime (7-8 p.m.): 3.511 million viewers (+32%); 443,000 adults 25-54 (+65%)
  • Tucker Carlson Tonight (8-9 p.m.): 3.346 million viewers (+9%); 449,000 adults 25-54 (+15%)
  • Hannity (9-10 p.m.): 2.852 million viewers (+18%); 404,000 adults 25-54 (+37%)

MSNBC

  • The Reidout (7-8 p.m.): 1.373 million viewers (+24%); 156,000 adults 25-54 (+42%)
  • All In with Chris Hayes (8-9 p.m.): 1.515 million viewers (+39%); 153,000 adults 25-54 (+53%) (for Feb. 20-24, MSNBC aired nightly hourlong specials in the 8-9 p.m.slot marking the one-year anniversary of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine)
  • Alex Wagner Tonight (9-10 p.m.): 1.317 million viewers (+6%); 145,000 adults 25-54 (+26%)
  • Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (10-11 p.m.): 1.544 viewers (+15%) viewers; 118,000 adults 25-54 (-9%)

CNN

  • Erin Burnett Outfront (7-8 p.m.): 1.130 million viewers (+89%); 243,000 adults 25-54 (+91%)
  • Anderson Cooper 360 (8-9 p.m.): 1.183 million viewers (+79%); 191,000 adults 25-54 (+48%)

Even the prime time lineup of nascent news outlet NewsNation got a sizable bounce, especially for “Cuomo”, which achieved its most-watched edition in total viewers, to-date.

  • On Balance with Leland Vittert (7-8 p.m.): 123,000 viewers (+146%); 44,000 adults 25-54 (+389%)
  • Cuomo (8-9 p.m.): 231,000 viewers (+116%); 49,000 adults 25-54 (+227%)
  • Dan Abrams Live (9-10 p.m.): 160,000 viewers (+44%); 29,000 adults 25-54 (+32%)
  • Banfield (10-11 p.m.): 180,000 viewers (+82%); 40,000 adults 25-54 (+135%)

CBS was the lone broadcast network whose breaking news coverage of the Murdaugh verdict was published by Nielsen. It delivered 3.824 million viewers from 7:04-7:14 p.m. Eastern; that night’s edition of the CBS Evening News which preceded the special report on many CBS affiliates in the Eastern and Central time zones had drawn 5.11 million.

Cable news averages for February 27-March 5, 2023:

Total Day (Feb. 27-Mar. 5 @ 6 a.m.-5:59 a.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 1.375 million viewers; 177,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 0.693 million viewers; 76,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.446 million viewers; 84,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.148 million viewers; 38,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.114 million viewers; 26,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.114 million viewers; 12,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.109 million viewers; 19,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.092 million viewers; 9,000 adults 25-54

Prime Time (Feb. 27-Mar. 4 @ 8-11 p.m.; Mar. 5 @ 7-11 p.m.)

  • Fox News Channel: 2.087 million viewers; 253,000 adults 25-54
  • MSNBC: 1.130 million viewers; 106,000 adults 25-54
  • CNN: 0.530 million viewers; 105,000 adults 25-54
  • HLN: 0.203 million viewers; 48,000 adults 25-54
  • CNBC: 0.159 million viewers; 43,000 adults 25-54
  • The Weather Channel: 0.134 million viewers; 21,000 adults 25-54
  • NewsNation: 0.115 million viewers; 22,000 adults 25-54
  • Newsmax: 0.099 million viewers; 14,000 adults 25-54
  • Fox Business Network: 0.061 million viewers; 12,000 adults 25-54

Top 10 most-watched cable news programs (and the top programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) in total viewers:

1. Jesse Watters Primetime (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.511 million viewers

2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.346 million viewers

3. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 2/27/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.313 million viewers

4. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.189 million viewers

5. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 3/1/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.133 million viewers

6. The Five (FOXNC, Tue. 2/28/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.087 million viewers

7. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 2/27/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.076 million viewers

8. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 2/28/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 3.009 million viewers

9. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 3/1/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.943 million viewers

10. The Five (FOXNC, Fri. 3/3/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.899 million viewers

21. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Mon. 2/27/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 2.383 million viewers

120. Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN, Thu. 3/2/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 1.183 million viewers

181. Real Time With Bill Maher “Episode 626” (HBO, Fri. 3/3/2023 10:00 PM, 57 min.) 0.738 million viewers

360. The Daily Show “Mar 1, 23 – Hasan Minhaj” (CMDY, Wed. 3/1/2023 11:00 PM, 30 min.) 0.378 million viewers

375. Varney & Company (FBN, Thu. 3/2/2023 10:00 AM, 60 min.) 0.344 million viewers

379. Highway Thru Hell “(1108) Deep Freeze” (TWC, Sun. 3/5/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.335 million viewers

424. Forensic Files (HLN, late Sat. 3/4/2023 12:30 AM, 30 min.) 0.269 million viewers

425. Fast Money Halftime Report (CNBC, Tue. 2/28/2023 12:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.268 million viewers

460. Cuomo “Alex Murdaugh Verdict” (NWSN, Thu. 3/2/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.231 million viewers

Top 10 cable news programs (and the top  programs of other outlets with their respective associated ranks) among adults 25-54:

1. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Wed. 3/1/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.459 million adults 25-54

2. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.449 million adults 25-54

3. Jesse Watters Primetime (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.443 million adults 25-54

4. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Mon. 2/27/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.417 million adults 25-54

5. Hannity (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.404 million adults 25-54

6. Tucker Carlson Tonight (FOXNC, Tue. 2/28/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.403 million adults 25-54

7. The Five (FOXNC, Thu. 3/2/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.362 million adults 25-54

8. Jesse Watters Primetime (FOXNC, Mon. 2/27/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.359 million adults 25-54

9. The Five (FOXNC, Mon. 2/27/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.351 million adults 25-54

10. The Five (FOXNC, Wed. 3/1/2023 5:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.340 million adults 25-54

29. Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC, Mon. 2/27/2023 9:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.263 million adults 25-54

32. Erin Burnett Outfront (CNN, Thu. 3/2/2023 7:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.243 million adults 25-54

105. The Daily Show “Mar 1, 23 – Hasan Minhaj” (CMDY, Wed. 3/1/2023 11:00 PM, 30 min.) 0.154 million adults 25-54

145. Real Time With Bill Maher “Episode 626” (HBO, Fri. 3/3/2023 10:00 PM, 57 min.) 0.124 million adults 25-54

241. Forensic Files (HLN, late Wed. 3/1/2023 2:00 AM, 30 min.) 0.094 million adults 25-54

342. Shark Tank “Shark Tank 713” (CNBC, Thu. 3/2/2023 10:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.072 million adults 25-54

385. Weather Underground (TWC, Fri. 3/3/2023 2:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.064 million adults 25-54

487. Cuomo “Alex Murdaugh Verdict” (NWSN, Thu. 3/2/2023 8:00 PM, 60 min.) 0.049 million adults 25-54

609. Mornings with Maria Bartiromo (FBN, Mon. 2/27/2023 8:00 AM, 60 min.) 0.034 million adults 25-54

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research

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