The axe swings at bay area sports station KNBR.

[usonian]

The wonderful people at Cumulus Radio, who have repeatedly laid off hosts, have axed Pauly Mac in the morning show and have wiped out the 6-10 pm show, "Sportstalk" which was recently manned by former Giant and A's player F.P. Santangelo.

F.P., who worked for Washington for a time, including a world series win, will hopefully get a job with the Giants.

Every so often, Cumulus takes the axe to high-paid hosts. Perhaps the revenue from the every half hour ad for the guy promoting "ERC" (employee retention credit --- FREE MONEY FROM UNCLE SAM), the dick-stiffener clinic and of course, Kars for Kids, is not enough.

The most famous incident was when Ralph Barbieri, who practically invented sports talk radio in the bay area, let it be known that he had early Parkinson's disease and was shortly thereafter let go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Barbieri

In 2011, Barbieri disclosed to KNBR and the public that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2005.On April 11, 2012, the 66-year-old Barbieri was let go by KNBR. KNBR's parent company, Cumulus Media, said he "refused to honor some of the most basic terms of his contract". Barbieri's legal team cited age discrimination and disability discrimination in the termination. In 2013, he settled with Cumulus for an undisclosed amount, reportedly over $1 million.

I recall that he was represented by the formidable Angela Alioto.

To all the "Chainsaw Al Dunlap" folks at Cumulus Media, I offer the Elon Musk salute.

F U all.

[NCIndie]

1. Reminds me of the ESPN bloodletting, but at a local level.

It's a bummer for the locals.

[leftieNanner]

2. Ralph was the only sports talk I could ever listen to

He was smart and funny. Didn't let call-in morons take over a discussion.

[RockRaven]

3. I did not care for the morning show, but I imagine other people liked it

given that those guys were on the air together for nearly two decades.

Follows KNBR's predictable playbook of cutting costs by dumping half of a well-established duo, which usually makes the listen much worse. The chemistry between a pair of sports talk radio hosts is half the reason for listening -- there isn't much new information to be conveyed or chewed over every hour, every day.

[usonian]

4. I didn't care for the show, either.

I don't know what demographic they appealed to, but Bruce Springsteen seemed to come up daily, or so it seems.

They apparently got ratings, and the prime on-air interviews.

I just hate to see someone abruptly lose their job for the nickels. It can't be for performance, because I could never tell the two apart.

The best combo had to be The Razor (Ralph Barbieri) and Mr. T (Tom Tolbert) ... I kept visualizing the OTHER Mister T. ... and the worst, Rick and Rod (Rick Barry and Rod Brooks). Rick was right every time, of course, and poor Rod couldn't get a word in, it seems.

But the spectacular blunder was losing the Warriors games to that little FM station. Just when ....