Oregon Media Insiders

I don't know much about the other KPAM employees who were apparently let go, but Mark Provo's news expertise is outstanding.

I'd love to see him tag-team both crime and general assignment coverage with Mark Glyzewski over at KPTV. They are both Über-credible and could cover a lot more breaking stories. Go for it, KPTV!!!!!

I also hope that KPAM isn't so stupid as to mess with Victoria Taft's shift. She's one of the best things that remain there, now.

A Fan

I like Mark Provo (had to scroll up to check the spelling because the trolls have been out lately).

I hope he lands at another PDX radio station that has news. KXL perhaps?

Too bad - Gallagher and Provo are two of the better news folks in the area. Would enjoy seeing both land at KPOJ in some capacity. It bothers me that POJ's news break feature so many stories from Seattle and Spokane.

Bill Gallagher, Mark Provost and the rest of the news staff won a slew of AP awards last winter - last time I tuned in, the station was still running promos crowing about it. As a downsized former KPAM employee myself I can say for sure that Gallagher is the hardest working ND in the NW and has uncomplainingly put up with a ton of crap over the past few years, particularly the continual downsizing of the once-robust news staff as well as the space they have to work in (the newsroom in that awful Milwaukie building is less than half the size of the one in downtown Portland). I can't imagine KPAM benefiting in any way (least of all financially) from his departure.

This station is largely irrelevant and has been for a long time. What's the identity ? Is it Bob Miller ? I guess so. Besides Miller it doesn't jump off the radar screen in any way, shape, or form. I feel bad for those who lost their jobs.

The bloodbath at KPAM has all the marks of Greg Clapper....but wait he's no longer there.
Anyone know what he is doing theses days?
Probley getting ready to make some cute sounding political commercial as we speak.

This new combination GM/PD--there's a clue right there to the value placed on the radio station by the company--is completely disingenuous when he claims this bloodshed has nothing to do with the business aspect of the station. The ownership has been incredibly patient; it's a trigger that would have been pulled long ago at Clear Channel, CBS, or Entercom. KPAM barely nudges the Arbitron needle. If KPAM scored anywhere remotely close to the numbers its competitors do, they would not be off-loading salaries like this.

Rotsa ruck turning suburban weekly newspaper writers into radio reporters. Here's your digital recorder. We want sound bites, and by the way, your deadline is now, not Tuesday at 6 PM.

Bill Gallagher is a smart and reasonably liberal guy who once did a decent local talk show on other AM stations before being drawn to the phantom potential of the new KPAM in 2000. I don't know him, but he must have been sorely disappointed by every turn of the page, and he's fortunate to have survived this long. A great deal of money was sunk in salaries and marketing, and very early on it was a worthwhile station to listen to. But nothing they tried worked in a business sense, and the station veered wildly like a dinghy in a hurricane. Their afternoon shows make Sarah Pallin sound like an intellectual.

If any of these good people who were let go this week land on other local commercial stations, they will experience an even more pronounced lack of patience for instant success. Just ask Dave Hood, or any of the revolving door formats on 105.9 or morning shows at Z100.

I was a huge Bill Gallagher fan when he was a radio talk show host at KXL, KEWS and for a time at KPAM. As a talk show host, he did a superlative job covering both local and national issues. And as news director at KPAM, they won all kinds of reporting awards.

I haven't seriously listened to KPAM since Viktor Bok was named a host at the station, but periodically I would listen to its news on the top and the bottom of the hour. Mark Provost and Bill Gallagher did a great job. They both brought instant credibility to KPAM.

Well, with the firing of the last decent people on staff (save for Bob, of course ... wonder what he's thinking about all this) KPAM completes its long, painful slide into irrelevancy.

I read the article on OLive and it was peppered with comments like "Who" and "KPAM? Who's That?"

I think about the KPAM of the first year and wonder how it could have been. Now it's just the Victoria Taft full employment program.

Gallagher deserves much better than he's been getting. I never missed his program back when KXL was listenable. Then Teh Lars went from fill in to full time and eventually that rot spread thoughout nearly the entire dial. Same With KPAM.

Gresham's Law, as applies to radio programming in formerly-good stations in PDX, is proved once again.

Samuel John Klein, a/k/a ZehnKatzen
samuel.klein@gmail.com or zehnkatzen@gmail.com
graphically involved at http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com

KPAM is beating KXL in the ratings, so why did Steve Clark destroy a good team?
I guess the answer is that Paul Allen has deeper pockets than Dr. Bob and can afford the financial losses better.

12+ numbers. Virtually meaningless. Check out demographics and dayparts.

Hard to image that the dayparts look much better!

Monday-Sunday 6am to Midnight

Adults 25-54
KPOJ #10 3.3 share
KEX #13 2.7 share
KXL #17 2.0 share
KPAM #23 1.1 share

Women 25-54
KPOJ #12
KEX #14
KXL #18
KPAM #25 tied with KWIP and KDUK

I'm not going to hand-pick the dayparts that work for my argument. You know what dayparts I'm talking about and I'm betting you know the key daypart in question. I'm not into pissing matches.

So we've gone from:
"KPAM is beating KXL in the ratings"
to
"12+ numbers mean nothing. Check out demos and dayparts"
to
"Well, you know what dayparts...I'm not going to get in a pissing match"

C'mon, go ahead and piss. What dayparts (you stated plural) what demos?

Is Miller winning with 65+ females? Is there a Saturday 7p to midnight when KPAM eeks out a win?

(Oh wait, with that signal it couldn't possibly be nights)!

Give us the facts or apologize for "misstating" and move on.

...to the radio nut who can identify the following email address: radioblogman@techie.com. Anybody?