San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Local sports talkers snubbed in ‘Heavy 100’
KNBR’s Larry Krueger said he appreciated the recognition but dismissed the poll as “a popularity contest.”
“The Heavy 100 of Sports Talk” is little more than a glorified poll. Not even a popularity poll.
An industry publication, Talkers, does all the deciding, and the editors say criteria range from “ratings and revenue” to “courage, effort, impact, recognition, service, talent, potential and uniqueness.”
What-ev.
The list is in its sixth year, and several tendencies are evident. It’s heavy on New York, New England and syndicated shows. It’s light on the Bay Area. In fact, Talkers apparently has not heard of KGMZ (“The Game”).
No. 1 is Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports, followed by Jim Rome and Dan Patrick. The highest-ranked local sports talkers are Gary Radnich and Larry Krueger of KNBR, at No. 17. The team of Tom Tolbert and John Lund is No. 20. KNBR’s morning team, Murph and Mac (Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey) ranks 31st. The locals all took dips from their previous year’s rankings.
Krueger said he appreciated the recognition but dismissed the poll as “a popularity contest.” He figures that he and Radnich made the list by way of ratings and reputation. “We’ve had the highest ratings at the station,” he said, and added, “I get paid bonuses, and they’re tied to our ratings, not our rankings. The ratings mean everything, and the rankings mean nothing.”
Fellow KNBR hosts Fitz and Brooks (Bob Fitzgerald and Rod Brooks) didn’t make the list; ditto anyone from KGMZ, whose Damon Bruce and Greg Papa certainly merit consideration. Oh, yes: One more Bay Area connection: Steve Somers is ranked No. 67. Somers attended San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, then did talk shows on KABL and KNEW and anchored sportscasts on KPIX. He has been on WFAN in New York since 1987. Known as “The Schmoozer,” he did the allnight show for years and now appears in various evening hours, depending on the station’s coverage of local games.
Acoustic sundown: KFOG has dropped “Acoustic Sunrise,” a virtual institution there, hosted by Rosalie Howarth on Sundays for some 22 years. A month after Cumulus Media replaced most of its DJ staff in April 2016, Howarth, a Bay Area Radio Hall of Famer, was returned to the air after listeners protested her show’s cancellation.
But her two-year contract expired in May, and KFOG has adjusted its programming and music again, taking an alt-rock turn with the new morning show, the syndicated “The Woody Show.” Program director Mat Bates persuaded management to let Howarth do a farewell show. A few days later, Bates himself was sent packing.
Howarth will be celebrated in a “Fare Thee Well” event at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley on June 10. Hosted by Roger McNamee of Moonalice and former KFOG staffers Renee Richardson and Jude Heller, the Sunday show (10:30 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m.) is open to the public. Food and drinks will be available for purchase, and, noonish, McNamee will perform a set. Acoustic, of course.
(For more on Howarth, see Chronicle reporter Sam Whiting’s article at SFGate.com.) RIP: Gilbert Klein, a talk show host on KFAT in Gilroy who wound up as its historian with the book “Fat Chance,” died April 27 of a heart attack at age 71. Klein was on the freewheeling Americana station from 1976 to ’83. In 1989, he created the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, enlisting Mick Fleetwood, Craig Chaquico and Dick Bright to serve as coaches. He also operated Rock & Bowl, a nightclub mixing lanes and liquor in the Haight from 1983 to 1996. Both brainstorms spread to other cities. He was a rock ’n’ roll visionary.
Employed: Two years after being dismissed, along with several fellow DJs, from KFOG, Dred Scott has found radio work. He’s joined KOZT (“The Coast”), the longtime free-form rock station in his native Mendocino, to do mornings with news anchor Joe Regelski. Other Bay Area radio vets at KOZT include Kate Hayes and Tom Yates … Good news for the beleaguered Cumulus Media’s local cluster: Doug Harvill, late of CBS Radio’s S.F. stations, is taking over as SVP/market manager. Despite notable success at CBS — the local group was No. 1 in ad revenue despite having fewer stations than its chief competitors — Harvill was out after its merger with (and takeover by) Entercom. Now, he’ll try to revive floundering former rivals KGO, KSFO, KSAN and KFOG as well as KTCT (“The Ticket”) and its more successful brother, KNBR.
Hear them roar: Suze Allen, co-founder of the 3Girls Theatre Company in San Francisco, has a piece in the Dramatist, the Dramatists Guild’s magazine, about fellow cofounder Lee Brady. “Lee got hooked on plays through radio dramas,” Allen wrote. She quoted Brady, who’s written 30 plays: “Radio was my portal into the world I wanted to be in. The radio dramas like ‘Grand Central Station’ made me long to be in the scene in New York. Everyone talked too slow where I was from (Seminole, Okla.) and I wanted to go fast!”