Entercom: KGON's Turner, Fan's Dawson Gone

Submitted by LynnS on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:44am.

KGON DJ Mike Turner, who I think has been there since the Beatles were still a band, has been dismissed in Entercom's company-wide layoffs. He's followed down the road by the Fan's Gavin Dawson. No word on who, what, from where will take their places.

"Local" radio. Yeah.

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Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:03pm.

Who are the Beatles? Just kidding. I haven't been in Portland in years and I remember listening to Turner all the time. The end of an era indeed.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 12:14pm.

Gavin Dawson was the only good thing about 1080 the fan.
Can't believe they kept Issac and big Suck.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 1:00pm.

Dawson was perhaps the only guy at The Fan who was a total pro on the radio. He will be missed. No doubt his spot will be taken by a part-timer/intern.

Submitted by Tv_Viewer on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 2:41pm.

Premiere Radio has decided to take Jim Rome off the air. No firm date yet.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 5:41pm.

And yet that idiot Colin Cowherd will stay on?

Dawson was one of their best. He'll find something else soon.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:37am.

Anonymous Source wrote:
And yet that idiot Colin Cowherd will stay on?

Dawson was one of their best. He'll find something else soon.

Colin is the only one worth tuning in for. The other's are boring.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:48am.

Colin is boring! I don't care about his view on Pop life. If I wanted pop life, I would watch the damn E channel. And when he does talk, god his nasely voice just irritates the hell out of me. Rome is the way to go. It sucks that 1080 the fan took the ONLY West Coast Live Sports show and put the first hour last to extend an already overexposed Cowherd.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 9:57pm.

He just signed a new multi-year contract late last year. To drop him now would be stupid. OK, well maybe it's true.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 9:59pm.

Good, I can't stand Jim Rome!

Submitted by SCJ on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 3:28pm.

The thing that baffles me is, the one unique selling propostion radio had was live & local, able to respond quickly the the needs of a community because production costs were fairly low and it was done by people who were part of, or had a good pulse on the community. Was the premise faulty? or has the world changed that much? (excluding the concept that the corporate suits simply don't know or care what they're doing)

SCJ

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 7:45pm.

sad sad sad. radio is a dying biz, tv next. it's all the internet now. sorry to hear about the job loss for the both of you. good luck in your next ventures.

Submitted by bigboy on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 1:14pm.

It's not the medium that's dying, it's the terrestrial commercial radio business model that is dying. Public radio seems to be thriving and although satellite radio has not been an unqualified success, it certainly is not dying.

Submitted by Tv_Viewer on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 4:31pm.

I tend to laugh out loud when I hear an ad for HD radio. How exactly is HD radio going to be different.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 9:36pm.

I worked with Mike Turner back in the 1980's at KINK...a great guy. Terrific talent, smart, one of the best in the biz.

A helluva loss to Entercom and all Portland radio listeners.

Mike, you deserve better...and you'll get it!

Submitted by BobTorheim (not verified) on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 7:36pm.

Yes for those grey beards who remember Mike Turner's legacy at KGON,
light a candle, smoke a joint and take me back to news and commentary
by Mike Turner at KGON. This goes back to the mid 70’s. The fountainhead was Paul Hanson who brought a totally unique News direction to an alternative Rocker KGON.
It was fresh, irreverent but always focused on the audience.
Mike took the lead from Paul and put his own stamp on "News" for the
18-24 year olds. News for 18-24 year olds? Yes, that is what
Paul and Mike did for us at KGON. We all know that demo does not
listen or watch News. Didn’t then, will not today.
So why did it work at KGON and why did Mike stay so long?
We learn. We adapt. We ultimately know our audience. And if we can be considered "aware" we deliver what the audience wants.
But Mike never delivered a typical Newscast. He delivered a story which contained News. It was relevant to his audience. There was a time when KGON was innovative. Alan Watts was heard on Sunday Morning and Mike Turner created News for an audience who never listens...but they did. They listened to Mike.

I just bought three vintage Shure microphones. One is the Fat Elvis 55S.
They sit atop mic stands in my dining room. They are historic, beautiful and Iconic. But they are silent. Let’s hope Mike Turner and his talent break that trend and we find him flipping his next microphone’s “on” switch once again.

Bob Torheim
KGW

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 11:55pm.

Can't we have quality over more short term profit for once.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 12:07am.

This is another shoe dropping, another milestone in the demise. I hope corporate shills will see that they are being used. Sad! We have no alternative now but public radio--questionable at the local level, but NPR is great.

Submitted by Fan Listener (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:20am.

Im sad to see Dawson go. He had a true passion for sports and the Trail Blazers that showed. I thought he did a great job of creating opportunities for himself in the 1080 lineup by doing Sports Saturday, Trail Blazer postgame show, and doing updates on Comcast.

I know he was hinting for his own show on 1080. The guy truely created things for himself on the air and he will be missed.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 9:01pm.

I seriously doubt Premiere is going to take the Jim Rome show off the air when it has more than 200 affiliates and has added two more in the past week. He's the highest ranked sports talk host in Talker's latest Heavy 250 (#29) two spots down from Lars and in between Stephanie Miller and Clark Howard. Now maybe its a mutal thing or they're going to sell the show to ESPN Radio, who only have Mike & Mike (#47) in the top 100, but I highly doubt they're just going to end it.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Sun, 02/17/2008 - 10:53pm.

THE REALITY OF RADIO CAREERS TODAY...

To remain profitable, most radio conglomerates retain a small core of critical employees; gm gsm sales geeks & pd. They then hire experts (air talent) to help develop a specific project, i.e. a format.
Project workers can then be laid off to give the company a more pleasing bottom line.

On-Air Talent need to see themselves as self- employed because companies actually “rent” their time as long as there is a need for their contributions.

A reminder to those with jobs and those seeking radio employment. What is occurring in the marketplace now will change. It means that current decisions are only temporary. Explaining the above mentioned to Turner and Dawson would be a difficult task, at best.

Submitted by Kevin Sherwood (not verified) on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 10:16pm.

Gavin Dawson did an exceptional and through job on the radio, entercom made a costly mistake firing him. He deserved better and I think less of entercom for dismissing him like an obsolete machine.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 10:34pm.

I was stunned when I read Kerry Eggers column Saturday to discover that Gavin is gone. I wondered where Sports Saturday was this morning and was disappointed that it was not on the air today. It seemed like my Saturday morning routine was out of kilter.

I am not the typical demographic sports talk listener. I am female and over the age of 55 +. But I have listened to sports talk radio first in Seattle and now in Portland for several generations. I remember when Bill Schonley was at KVI pre Trail Blaxers and broadcast Triple A baseball with Keith Jackson. I appreciate real dialogue and varying opinions. Gavin is not only a talented broadcaster, but someone who is passionate. He has always worked hard at his craft. His love of the broadcast industry and his intelligence shines through. He should and could be a real star.

I've never quite understood why The Fan has embraced Big Suke, a one note pony, and a redneck to boot. Issac and Gavin would have brought fascinating conversations and enlightment to us all.

I am disenchanted and sad to hear of the demise of a thoughtful, entertaining, and comprehensive program, Sports Saturday. I am sure that Entercom could have found other ways to save money and not turn off real sports fans.

I am thrilled to hear that Jim Rome is going, going, gone. I don't how someone can be considered a radio celebrity when they repeat the same phrases over and over for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, in a negative tone.
His lack of vocabulary, let alone original thought is apalling.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 12:48am.

I just saw the following posting on Rick Emerson's site:

"We'll also be joined in studio by Gavin Dawson, who was, until recently, employed at 1080 The Fan. How did it go down? What's he up to?

All that, and more...Thursday. Be there!"

Sometime between 11 & 3 on 970 AM.

Submitted by Tv_Viewer on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 4:32pm.

I didn't get a chance to listen. Did anything of importance come from the interview. I listen to the fan once in a while and I know that I miss Gavin.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 10:48pm.

Gavin Dawson should have been fired years ago. He came up with Issac Raup and I have to say, Raup carried him on their saturday morning show. I have heard some of the most idiotic things from his mouth. Often times, he uses the oldest trick in the book by saying something so wrong as to get listeners to call in. Most of us are smarter than that. One day he was calling for Blazer Head coach Nate McMillan's head, the next week he was calling him "His boy". Layoffs suck, there is no getting around that. Gavin had not shown any improvement in the past 5 years. What do you expect. When layoffs occur, you cut the dead wood first. Goodbye Gavin.

Submitted by Tv_Viewer on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 12:40pm.

Don't know when it happened but Jim Rome is gone from the fan. But they have added Dan Patrick and the shows from ESPN are live now which is nicer.

The funny thing is that they are still running commercials that Jim Rome has recorded. That seems weird but oh well.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 2:48pm.

then I have no reason what so ever to listen to "the Fan". I hate Cowherd, despise Turico, and think the local guys suck. If this did truely happen then it was today because he was on last week on tape delay.

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 5:46pm.

Didn't he move on to something else? I used to listen to him and heard he was leaving, and now he's back on the Fan/ESPN radio. Are these re-broadcasts?

Submitted by bigboy on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 1:55pm.

Dan Patrick has a new syndicated show (not an ESPN show) that airs on several stations around the country as well as XM Radio.

According to 1080 Fan's website, their new lineup is:

4-6am - Mike and Mike
6 - 10am - Colin Cowherd
10-Noon - Mike Tirico
Noon - 3 - Dan Patrick
3 - 7 - Isaac and Suke

Submitted by Spiro on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 2:26pm.

Rumors are hot and heavy in the radio biz (what's left of it, anyway) that Paul Allen's Jammin 95.5 will flip to all-sports, building on Rose City Radio's PBP contracts with the Blazers, the Seahawks, and the Ducks...and including Jim Rome..and John Canzano.

discussion ongoing at pdxradio.com...

Submitted by bigboy on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 3:08pm.

Perhaps worthy of its own posting even.

Submitted by Spiro on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 5:27pm.

to the Jammin rumor is that KXL.com is streaming the Jim Rome show. Which means they've already made a deal. They're not going to dump His Larsness or O'Reilly, so that leaves one broadcast platform--the FM.

Submitted by LynnS on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 10:49pm.

have at it, boys and girls.

-----
Lynn Siprelle * Fairy Blogmother

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