Column: An abrupt format change at a beloved Bay Area station shows what's wrong with the radio business

The iconic AM station’s all-talk format was gone, supplanted by a sports gambling format and a branding change toListeners had nowhere to go to express their dismay in public except the station’s Facebook page. “Corporate greed at its finest,” wrote one listener. “There is no sense of community anymore.”— Former KGO talk show host Pat ThurstonThe station’s hosts, their voices suddenly cut off, fielded questions and comments from their audience members through private emails and tweets.

that could be owned nationally by a single company and doubled to eight the number of stations a single owner could control in the largest metropolitan markets. The statement acknowledged KGO’s 80-year history at 810 on the AM dial but quoted the station’s general manager, Larry Blumhagen, as saying, “Times change, and we must change with them.”Newton Minow looks back at the bombshell he fired at TV executives in 1961.

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