Obituaries--End of an Era

KGO radio, long one of the best talk radio stations in the nation, is dead for all intents and purposes. It decided to sack several of its longtime hosts, including Ray Taliafero and Gene Burns, in favor of an all-news format.

From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, I was a regular listener of the station. I "grew up" listening to Ira Blue, who was the resident centrist, when centrism actually meant something. He'd be far left now if he were alive (he died in around 1974). I remember when Ronn Owens first arrived at the station in the mid-1970s from Atlanta. He had been a big supporter of Jimmy Carter, and then, of course, he decided to do a 180 or whatever and become more of a moderate or right-of-center host. He was a hardliner on Israel, as I recall. Now he has a sappy morning show which he has had for many years and will probably retire when his contract expires in 2013, if he doesn't expire himself.

I was an avid listener during the nightmare of 1978 with the assassinations of Harvey Milk and SF Mayor George Moscone and the days earlier mass suicide at Jonestown.

Back on those days, during the era of the Fairness Doctrine, KGO's talk radio was more educational, more fair, and not all of this shit like Limbaugh and his ilk who are nothing more than propaganda pieces.

I hate to see the death of SF talk radio, but I guess it was inevitable.