An Angry Luckoff Signs Off at KGO, KSFO

Mickey Luckoff, president and GM of KGO and sister KSFO has left the building and a high profile resignation in early October. The day after the resignation, he talked  with Ben Fong-Torres at sftgate.com.

Luckoff, 74, who joined KGO as a sales manager in 1972 and became president/GM in 1975. KGO was doing OK, ranked fifth in the market. Within three years, it was Number One, and stayed there until this year.

In 1994, owner Capital Cities/ABC purchased KSFO, and Luckoff oversaw both stations. In 1999, with KGO having been top-rated for 21 years, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame - the first local radio manager to be enshrined. In recent years, despite intense competition and an aging core audience, KGO remained profitable. "We do damned well," Luckoff said. "The stations work; they sell product and we have a great reputation. We serve the community, and it does come back."

Things changed with the purchase of KGO and KSFO by Citadel Broadcasting in 2007.

"Everything that [we were warned about] came true: total control, can't spend a dime, and you'd have to go through layers," Luckoff continued. "And then you found out that the layers were one person. He's something else. He has no regard for people whatsoever. He's apparently pretty damned skilled financially. To be able to overpay for the ABC Radio group, take the company into bankruptcy, come out of it, pay every one of his hand picked (board) directors $1 million each and get himself a $43 million package (in grants of stock) is unbelievable.

"And here we are, requisitioning pencils, driving 7-year-old news cars and going through all the pains of bankruptcy. You can see what that would do to morale."

As for the format: "My big concern is that they'll start bringing in some of that crap they're doing on other stations, like the guy in New York who means nothing out here (Don Imus, who's on WABC and is syndicated by Citadel). And the block programming they run on KABC (Los Angeles). That's always been where I've said 'No.' It's an easy way to cut expenses, but that would be a sad day."

Said Luckoff: "These companies these days - they don't even know the words 'public interest' exist. They're the basis of an FCC license. I'll bet he (Suleman) couldn't tell you those words. ... He sure doesn't know how to operate a radio station. Every station he's touched has turned to you know what."

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