Occupy KGO – radio listeners care
Posted on Friday, December 16th, 2011 at 11:17am. #
We already know that radio listeners feel incredibly close to their favourite radio station. Radio has a tremendously strong bond with its audience.
When change happens at a radio station, most listeners accept the changes with a little grumbling. Sometimes, they write letters, or run a Facebook campaign. But it’s rare that they come down and demonstrate angrily outside: much less run an “Occupy”-type demonstration.
But that’s exactly what’s happening at talk station KGO in San Francisco.
The station was bought by Cumulus (roughly an equivalent of GMG Radio in terms of UK size ranking) a while back; they’ve reduced the amount of local programming and got rid of many of the station’s long-serving voices. And it turns out the listeners don’t like it much: so they’ve come to the station to protest.
Read this coverage from RadioSurvivor.com for a good overview, including video interviews and more. And industry publication RadioINK has taken up the story too.
A loss of local radio to national syndicated programming sounds eerily familiar to us here in the UK; but a protest of angry listeners? Not so much.
Photo nicked from radiosurvivor.com
Philip Stone
One minor correction, in this case Cumulus didn’t replace much of KGO’s lineup with syndication as they have everywhere else. They did let go of much of their previous talk format and replaced it with expanded news blocks and cheaper talk hosts to compete with the market leading NPR affiliate KQED and CBS’ All-News KCBS. They’re still local 20 hours a day, but have removed much of the previous heart and soul from the station to duplicate the efforts done better elsewhere.