Quietly over this past weekend news trickled out that local (Reno) conservative talk show host, Bill Manders, was let go. It’s been difficult to find any real information on the dismissal. Manders did say he was not surprised. But the silence makes it seem as if his former station believes no one will notice. Bill Manders has been a fixture in the afternoon slot at KKOH in Reno for several years. They have, at least for now, put KKOH Program Director Dan Mason, in Manders old slot. But no one is sure if that is the permanent solution or just a temporary place holder. The first rumors that came out stated that the change was due to cost cutting measures by parent company, Cumulus Media. It was also believed that Manders eventually would be replaced by yet another nationally syndicated talk show.
KKOH is the number one station in Northern Nevada. According to the spring 2011 Arbitron ratings KKOH held a 9.8 share. That is far superior to number two station, Wild 102.9, with a rating of 8.1. Wild 102.9 is also a Cumulus station. The closest News/Talk station in the Reno ratings is KKFT with paltry 3.3 rating. For the number one station in Northern Nevada, Bill Manders was clearly its best known personality. But apparently money talks and Manders walks.
The KKOH changes come on the heels of other changes by local media outlets. Several weeks back the Nevada Appeal, Carson City’s only semi-major newspaper, had decided to charge for their online content. The Nevada Appeal has a circulation of about 15,500 on a daily basis. I’ll be the first to admit the Nevada Appeal is not what I would call a “stellar news organization” but they were the only newspaper which came from Nevada’s Capital. Like the Manders release I suspect this is all about money. Also, this type of change is not new. Many newspapers have started this process. Unfortunately for the Nevada Appeal I also suspect this will be the beginning of the end. Unless significant improvements are made to the content and quality of information I’m guessing the new fees will make people like me run away. I give the newspaper 18 months.
Whether it be the adding cost to online newspapers or local radio moving to more “nationally syndicated” programming the result is the same. The loss of our ability to understand what is going on in our own backyard. The powers that be are making it harder and harder to stay involved and informed at the local level. It is bad enough if you live in Reno Nevada or Auburn California but it becomes far worse for those living in places like Hawthorne or my home town of Dayton, Nevada. I understand these are business decisions being made. In their shoes I would likely make the same choices. But that only explains the problem. It does not solve it.
Of course that lack of information harms our community as a whole with the daily issues. But the true effect is in the political arena. How does one stay informed about the issues and people affecting their lives on a daily basis? When a politician is up for election or re-election what do we base our decision on? This creates a huge domino effect. One has to understand that in a state like Nevada our National leaders, in large part, come from our state leaders. The state leaders come from the local leaders and without good information locally – good leaders are hard to find.
To me this is just a continuation to the “dumbing down of America”. We are now in a situation where the uninformed choose from a list of unknowns. We live and die by the sound bite. Learn about your future Congressmen in 60 words or less. I’m not so sure that is what our forefathers envisioned.
Now I don’t have the answers. The fact is that as long as technology improves and things like the internet grow this trend will likely continue. There once was a time that news travelled by the Pony Express. Even during World War II our news came by way of Moviefone Newsreels and we saw them when we went to our local movie house to catch the latest flick. Now we can turn on FOX News or CNN and literally charge up the hill with the troops as they advance into Baghdad.
Don’t get me wrong, technology is a wonderful thing. I just wonder about the down side when I, living in Northern Nevada, know more about Marco Rubio then I do about my neighbor who lives across the street? Is it more important that I can see LIVE STREAM of the extradition of the Occupy Portland group but it takes me weeks to know what happened at my local county Commissioner’s meeting?
As I said I don’t have the answers. I guess we will each have to decide individually if it is our “mission” to stay connected locally. But any way you slice it is just seems like more of America’s innocence that is being stripped away. No more small town, it’s all about the big city. There is an old saying “don’t lose the forest for the trees”. But I fear that soon there will be no more trees, only forest.
Bring Manders back
This blog is the ONLY information I could find about Manders’ absence from KKOH. I could have sworn he had recently signed a five-year contract – so I am extremely curious about what happened.
As for Bill himself – I used to love him, then I grew to be irritated by him, and recently started tuning in again. I wouldn’t say I liked him as much as in the beginning, but I didn’t dislike him, either.
As for money, I’m not sure how a syndicated show could be less money than a local host – in fact, I would think they’d be more expensive. But… I’m not in the radio biz, so what do I really know?
Lucy -
Much like you I wasn’t a solid listener of Manders. I generally will listen for two or three months, get a bit irritated or bored and leave for a month or two. But eventually I would come back. That said he was still the best at dealing with local Reno/No. Nevada issues.
I’m not an expert on radio myself but my assumption is if someone in on one station their entire salary is paid by them. If someone is syndicated they can have their salary paid by 10 stations without any additional production cost. I even heard that in some cases the stations are paid by the radio personality to play their shows.
So glad he is gone! Won’t miss this pompus loud mouth that ended most sentences with OKAY
I agree!
I will miss listenning to Bill Manders on my drive home from work. I did
not always agree with him, but he got me thinking and kept me informed
on local issues.
Big mistake by the powers that be !!! I will start listening to any other station.
I have to say, I won’t particularly miss Manders. I didn’t think he was an effective ambassador of conservatism, and even though he was probably the best local righty talker during any time I was liable to be in my car, it was rarely good enough to keep my attention, honestly. The half hour I caught of Mason today was much, much better. Most of the other local folks still spend way too much time on national stuff that the nationally syndicated shows already do better (and cheaper for our local stations).
I do desperately wish we had more and better local talkers, though. But in the meantime, the answer, Bob, is what you already have right here. Nevada’s right wing bloggosphere is far too weak right now, and we have a real opportunity to be incredibly influential given this empty niche.
Or maybe, Bob, you’ll have to start podcasting…
Radio seems to quietly remove their hosts after the fact.
I had nothing personal against Manders but I didn’t like him and haven’t listened to him regularly in years. I didn’t care for his voice which was particularly annoying. Overall, I am happy to see the different line up and will listen to Dan Mason in the afternoon.
Mark – if the initial rumors of syndication are false and Dan Mason becomes the host that would be fine. I don’t really know Dan Mason and don’t have any issues with him. My concern is the having less and less local media to rely on.
With all due respect, regarding the quote, it’s not “don’t lose the forest for the tree’s”, it’s “can’t see the forest for the tree’s”, implying one is being overly concerned with the small things and unable to see the big picture.
With all due respect I verified the quote via the internet and found there are several slightly alternate versions. The one I posted is included. That said if a slightly altered quote is all you found in the article to agree or disagree with one might say you “lost the forest for the trees”
BBP, understood by not having local media on the radio. I remember thinking the same thing when Rusty Humphries left, I didn’t and still don’t like him. I was hoping for a really good local talk show host to take the reins but Manders was from Fresno. He at least tried to fit in. I know Shawn Patrick on 99.1 FM is local but never listen to him.
Do you think Reno is just too small of a market to draw someone who can handle a show?
Mark – I honestly believe it could be done. But you likely are not going to get someone with experience. As an example. Herman Cain was a talk show host in Georgia for a time. He didn’t have a radio background but I suspect he was very entertaining. Radio stations are more and more fearful, IMHO, regarding inexperienced talent. I do believe there are many younger conservatives who are well entrenched in the local political scene who could do an excellent job.
MAybe KKOH will decide to stick with Dan Mason and this will all be moot. But if they don’t that leaves us with Sean Patrick. I’ll be nice and say he is just not my cup of tea.
Wasn’t Sean Patrick on KOH? If so, wasn’t he the guy who sometimes subbed for Manders on occasion? And again, if so – I agree – not my cup of tea. Not awful… just kind of blah.
As for local radio, I loved Ira Hanson. He was my favorite – and I always hope for his return!
Yes. Sean was the sports/news guy for Manders and occasionally filled in for him. I have to admit I liked him as a fill in. But it seems he does not have enough material as an everyday guy. He is also very limited on his knowledge of local issues and I think he likes it that way.
Yeah – he’s much more interested in sports than local issues – and that’s always been quite apparent. And that made him great as the sports guy – but not as a local radio show host!
That’s one thing Manders did seem to get right: focusing on local issues. And I liked how many locals came in to the show – especially loved Dick Gammick’s visits. I always learned something new on those visits.
Lately, I’ve been listening to Panama on KBZZ. I think KBZZ is conservative – but the talk show hosts on that station confuse me, because some of their views are quite liberal.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind listening to views other than my own – however, I’m not sure that station has succeeded in having an easily definable identity. Maybe they like it that way…
Bill’s voice was annoying, but I did listen 85% of the time. I always thought Sean Patrick made him sound better than he was, repairing his mistakes and providing info Bill “knew” but couldn’t bring to mind. I miss Sean, but unfortunately I don’t get 99.1 at home or at work. I LOVE KOH’s bandwidth.
A mistake to let Manders go.At least he was not an atomaton. Good luck Bill. You stuck up for Vets.
Don’t you guys listen to 99.1 ? I switched to them years ago, didn’t even know that Manders was gone. I do know the station was bought and the new owners are trying to restructure. I have enjoyed 99.1 and I hope you will too.
99.1 was good when they had Dennis Miller (at night), Ira Hanson, and Lars Larsen (Larson?) in the afternoon slots. But Rusty Humphries is annoying in more ways than one.
In my mind, 99.1′s quality keeps declining… I am hoping Dan Mason can pull it out of his (censored) and put on a good show. So far, listening to him has been pleasant!
I own a business here in Reno / Sparks. KKOH has ALWAYS been the best bang for my buck in advertising. I also agree – didn’t always agree with Manders – maybe he wasn’t the best host – BUT IN THAT TIME SLOT – folks WANT to hear from a LOCAL!
If KKOH the “new owners” CUMMULAS that want to fix what isn’t broken DO go the other route for another syndicated show in that time slot??? I know another dude that might re-group and take over KKOH in ratings….if Cummulas (sp?) does that??? I might pull my advertising back to nil…YOU ONLY ADVERTISE where it PAYS OFF!
If you don’t like Manders – fine – the new dude – had better callers – is he a better host – we’ll see…doesn’t have a better voice – BUT FIND a local person equal to Rush, Hannity, Levin – etc…a LOCAL CONSERVATIVE voice.
The locals in Reno have never been great. There was one guy filling in right after Rusty left and before Manders took over who was a very good host. I emailed Dan Mason back then stating how much I enjoyed listening to him. Mason agreed and said he was trying to have him on a permanent basis provided the contract worked out; it never did.
I listened to Dan Mason, who I believe is the Station Manager, yesterday talk about courteous drivers and pedestrians. That was a great topic! It was local, engaging, and kept my attention.
This was a good topic to post, BBP. As far as finding local talent without experience, that is a tough call. Experience really matters. Listening a talk show host without some background and experience is like watching the XFL and expecting NFL results. Does anyone remember the XFL?…lol
Mark,
Please join us tonight at 6pm, on http://www.preppersbroadcasting.com for (((Ranters Radio))) a local Podcast.
I am a Reno Resident and have a Podcast that airs every Wednesday night @ 6pm on http://www.preppersbroadcasting.com
If locals don’t support local broadcasters then MSM is all we will get. If people wont get involved then they have no right to complain about the choices that they given.
I also have a blog http://www.rantingfromreno.com
My Podcast is (((Ranters Radio))) and we would love for you to join us.
If we cant grow our support, you will be left with watered down so-called news. We are the “Truth Unafraid”.
Manders never seemed prepared and often made mistakes. When a caller was getting the upper hand on a conversation he would talk over the person because, I believe, he was not capable of carrying on an intellectual debate.
I lived in Fresno when he was on KMJ. I got tired of him there and I got tired of him here. He just wasn’t very good at his job.
I hope the station brings in someone to host a local show instead of just adding another syndicated show. If indeed they want a local show I hope they seriously try to recruit Inga Barks. She is currently at KMJ and has stood in for Mark Levin several times. She is very good.
More of the same. Ratings are high, good, not great host but seemed to care about the area even though he was not from here. Bill made good points and infuriated me with his lack of knowledge on some issues but that is the mantra of most talk show hosts. I hope Bill is not sick again but this seems to just be backstabbing executives at work. I feel empty I guess because I was used to Bill Manders and his love of the area was apparent. He also had the back of Veterans and I feel this was his strongest point. Kind of disgusted with the whole process. Good luck Dan, you seem to be a good man.
Manders wasn’t great in Fresno and he wasn’t great in Reno, but he seemed to give a damn. He wasn’t afraid to share his opinion right or wrong. It will be interesting to see if Cumulus has the stones to put a local on the air who doesn’t bow to the alter of the left or feed us pabulum.
I just tuned in today at 3pm expecting to hear Manders discussing the fire. That’s when I became aware of his firing. I saw the interview on KOLO via utube. I dug a bit more and found this link:
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/how-ira-hansen-got/content?oid=16629
Ira Hansen was fired by Dan Mason back in 2001. Then Humphries joined on. I’m not a big Manders fan and he’s pissed me off from time to time but I always seemed to come back and give him another listen. There seems to be a pattern here with Mason though and it smells fishy to me. It makes me wonder if Manders said something to PO the executives at Cumulus or if Cumulus is as another poster said, trying to dumb us down further. About the only reason to listen to KKOH at this point is Rush but I can listen to him via the internet.
[...] the station – they never look at the change over an extended period. Bob Hastings over at BATTLE BORN POLITICS made the following comment: “The closest News/Talk station in the Reno ratings is KKFT with [...]
One thing which truly seems to energize vigorous local radio talk participation is DIRECT TELEPHONE PICK-UP BY THE ON-AIR HOST. This is one instance which proves the efficacy of the libertarian ethos. “Screeners” — AKA “producers” — are there to keep the fish (callers) who do chance a nibble at the baiting by the host, safely within a control barrel. Hosts such as Art Bell or Travus T. Hipp still consider this system unmanly; they felt competent enough to let anyone approach the mike.
I recall the last on-air days of a number of radio hosts. Travus T. Hipp, for example, conducted direct, live, real time, on-air call-ups of officials responsible for the distribution of surplus government cheese and peanut butter back in the 80s. People (mostly elderly) were being made to wait in cues for hours in the December cold only to experience St. Vincent’s doors being closed to them before mid-afternoon. Individual IDs “had to be” be laboriously cross-checked to assure against any possible “double-dipping” –double-dipping for canned cheese and peanut butter originally destined to be dumped at sea. Hipp was informed by KKOH management that he would not be allowed to fullfill his contract nor resume his show. Ira Hansen apparently stepped on a serious third rail, questioning America’s automatic support of Israel. He was given the hook after protests by a major local advertizer.
Competent gutsy hosts do not hide behind their screeners the way most of the biggest shows do now (“Ditto”). It takes guts to play. This creates excitement, interest, and actual results. Otherwise everyone — including the hosts — becomes bored, cynical, frustrated, and burned-out. I heard Dan Mason say the other day: “I suppose you’ve figured out by now that I’m pretty cynical.” Quite.
So, Bill Manders is back on local radio: 99.1. He sounded different to me – his voice didn’t sound as deep and cranky.
I have to admit, though, I’m fast becoming fans of KBZZ – I love Panama and Todd & Trey. They touch on so many local subjects, and fairly deftly, yet with a sense of humor. Now when I listen to Dan Mason or Bill Manders, all I hear is their anger and whining and disillusionment – and it brings me down.
I’m glad Bill Manders found another home, though. Plus, he’s on against Dan Mason – that must feel like sweet revenge.