Storm Clouds Over Bay Area Cluster?
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Word out of the Bay Area is that Cumulus/San FranciscoMarket Manager Steve Sklenar has left the building after just one year on the j-o-b. Sklenar joined the cluster, which includes heritage News/Talker KGO, conservative Talk KSFO and Sports/Talkers KNBR and KTCT, in June 2013 from Lincoln Financial Media/San Diego, where he served as Assistant VP and Director of Sales. He’s the latest in a string of execs to “exit” the cluster, as the once mighty KGO continues to suffer significant ratings declines that began following the 2010 resignation of 35-year station President/GM Mickey Luckoff.
Through numerous ownership changes over more than three decades, Luckoff helped steer KGO to an incredible 120 consecutive #1 ratings books during his tenure, with a mix of news, service elements and popular, local, non-partisan talk personalities.
Following Luckoff’s departure, in 2011 then new owners Cumulus pink-slipped veteran KGO talk hosts Gene Burns, Gil Gross, Ray Taliaferro and John Rothman, and moved the station to a more ‘all news’ approach in an apparent effort to better compete with crosstown CBS Radio all-newserKCBS. May 2014 Nielsen Audio ratings show KCBS ranked #2 in San Francisco with a 5.8 share (Mon-Sun/6m-midnight, 6+), while KGO has now fallen to 17th place overall, with a 2.1 (6+) share.
Concurrently, KSFO slides to 20th place, posting a 1.8 (6+) in the May report. A successor to Sklenar is expected to be named soon.
Wow , talk about crapping on the golden goose. Round of applause for the suits taking a once very successful radio station all the way close to the bottom. Imagine the millions of dollars they have lost.
All those graphs , listener groups, surveys , and other assorted bs really back fired big time on this one.