KSFO Host Blames Planners For Advertising Pull-Out

Why is KSFO, the controversial ABC Radio affiliate in San Francisco, losing advertisers? Apparently, media planners are part of the problem. At least that's what KSFO host Melanie Morgan said during a special live call-in session the station aired Friday afternoon to address her morning drive-time team's controversial comments over the past two years.

"If there are sponsors who listen to these idiots, and I'm not sure there are, despite what they say," asserted Morgan, "but if that's the case, I know who it would be. It would be some craven little time buyers at an advertising agency someplace who have no guts whatsoever."

It took roughly two hours for the right-wing talk station KSFO's four hosts to reach media planners on their list of people to blame for the station's hemorrhaging of advertisers in the wake of an Internet flood of audio files of the program's eyebrow-raising content.

The programming insults Muslims, promotes torture and endorses the execution of journalists who do not show proper fealty to the state, among other inflammatory comments, like Morgan and early evening host Brian Sussman calling Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama "Halfrican."

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But advertisers are not leaving because of the program's content, Morgan asserted. Instead, she pointing the blame at "Liberal bloggers," "the George Soros-supported [Web site] Media Matters," and of course, Trekkies--since the one who blew Gabriel's 21st-century virtual trumpet on KSFO's wall of insults, travels the World Wide Web anonymously by the name of Spocko.

Spocko recorded KSFO's rants, posted them on his Web site, contacted advertisers to bring the talk to their attention, and asked them if they really wanted to be part of it.

When some big-name advertisers decided they didn't--and left--Disney slapped a Cease-and-Desist order on the Spocko's Brain Web site and its ISP, and the latter folded.

But Pandora's digital box had been opened, and in less than 48 hours, the audio files were mirrored all over the Net. In 72 hours, Spocko's Brain was back on a new ISP.

Although the hosts made a few passing feints at apology, they mostly said they had already apologized in the past for some of the comments. Mostly, they raged at a list of presumed enemies, and when a few genuine critics made it past the parade of caller sycophants, they were shouted down or hung up on.

The program reached a climax of self-deluded absurdity when the hosts began making fun of Spocko--who declined their invitations to appear on the program--for being anonymous. (That charge is untrue: Spocko provided his real name to MediaPost in a previous story; and uses his real name for correspondence with advertisers.) Conversely, of the hosts spent the entire program in character as "Officer Vic."

Although the program was promoted as no-holds-barred and welcomed calls from both supporters and critics, the deck was stacked. The morning of the special broadcast, those liberal bloggers posted an email blasted the night before to hundreds of thousands of conservatives across the country, written by Morgan, asking them to call into the show as a show of support. The hosts defended sending the email by pointing out the program streams live on www.ksfo.com, and thus, it has many online listeners.

But that should not be relevant for advertisers, since most of the commercials are not broadcast online.

Morgan's morning co-host Lee Rogers was the most defiant. He claimed he didn't want to do the special, and that "if you're waiting for an apology, you'll be waiting a long time."

He also seemed to threaten former advertisers. Responding to an email question, Rodgers declined to name advertisers that have withdrawn their support, but added: "People who want to play that boycott game seem to forget this is a sword that cuts both ways. We have plenty of people that listen to this radio station that say 'hell, if somebody is trying to shut up the people on my favorite radio station, I don't think I want to give them any money,' so it could work two ways."

Although Morgan claimed that all but one of the departed advertisers had come back, she would not identify them. None of the four confirmed advertisers that departed--Visa, MasterCard, Federal Express and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation--were available for comment late Friday.

The entire special program can be heard at www.ksfo.com.

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