Oh yeah, that Don Martin takes over the world thingie

You know how you want to blog about something, start collecting material on it, and never get around to it?

You know how you think about all of the previous blog posts you're gonna cite, and then you never search for them?

Well, perhaps some day I'll document several years' worth of blog posts about Los Angeles sports radio station KLAC (what's the frequency, Kenneth?), but for now I'm just gonna do a linkdump of some stuff I shared a week ago.

Let's start with Tom Hoffarth on January 20:

Talking to Vic "The Brick" Jacobs at last night's Lakers-Cavs game, it seemed like something was going down today in the land of KLAC-AM (570). We heard several rumors/reports/more rumors during the day ... phone calls starting as early at 7:30 a.m.

But there was some other event going on in Washington DC, so some people missed what was happening. Sports by Brooks gave the blow-by-blow:

[Fox Sports Radio's] Craig Shemon and James Washington Show (9a-noon ET) show has been dropped. Dan Patrick’s Show will fill the void, now syndicated by Premiere Networks.

FSR’s Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez Show (7p-10p ET) show has been dropped. Show will be replaced by KLAC’s “PMS” Show (Petros Papadakis and Matt “Money” Smith)

KLAC’s Steve Hartman and Vic Jacobs, formerly the station’s “Loose Cannons”, will now co-host national FSR show with Chris Myers from 3-7p ET. Myers’ former co-host, Sean Farnham, moves to FSR weekends. Mychal Thompson, part of the Loose Cannons L.A. show, has been dropped.

So who was responsible? Hoffarth names Don Martin ("Don Martin has emerged from a merger as head of both KLAC and Fox Sports Radio"), while Brooks goes higher up ("Clear Channel corporate stepped in and forced the merger - and subsequent clearance" [of talent]).

By January 21, Duncan Riley was blogging about the latter:

After days of speculation, America’s largest radio station owner Clear Channel has announced 1,850 jobs will go, or 9% of its total workforce.

And he concluded by noting

If you thought the loss of local content was bad before, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

On the 21st, Hoffarth also tied the radio moves to the problems of the corporate parent, and also added this speculative tidbit:

The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal even reported that some believe Clear Channel timed it all during President Barack Obama's inauguration "in the hope that the news would be lost in the shuffle."

And frankly, if you live in Los Angeles, the news could very well be lost in the shuffle. The morning programming from 6:00 am to noon is exactly the same as it was previously. The early afternoon show has less of a Bahamas flavor, and the late afternoon show has done away with the advertorials - you know, those uncomfortable radio dialogues where Petros and Matt would suddenly start talking about my boy Barry.

Needless to say, people in other parts of the country have a different perspective:

What will Fox become? The Lakers, Dodgers, and USC network?

And no, I haven't listened to Tony Bruno's replacement yet, but my perspective as someone who watched the Channel 13 sportscaster many years ago is that the true "Brick" is the one with a reduced role on KLAC. Feeling you a bit less.

P.S. If you're interested in my mentions of "KLAC" in the old Ontario Empoblog, here they are.

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