KSTP-AM tubes Willie Clark and Jeremy “Kodiak” Kienitz.
I got this internal memo from a KSTP fan. The writer is KSTP’s program director, Steve Konrad:
Staff,
Effective today, Willie Clark and Jeremy Kienitz are no longer with AM1500 KSTP.
We are appreciative of each of their efforts and hard work. We wish them only the best.
In the coming days, expect an announcement of a freshly re-structured morning-drive show, including who will be sharing the airwaves with Jay Kolls, Kenny, Bergie and Patrick Hammer as soon as some external details get wrapped up.
Steve Konrad
Program Director
am1500 KSTP
Four years ago, KSTP got the memo from the consultants; “conservative talk is dead”. So they moved to a kinder, gentler, more WCCO-like format; they largely ditched politics, they got the Twins, they hired the somnolent Clark to do mornings.
And things fell rapidly apart.
Of course, Kienitz was one of the station’s few links back to its glory days. A sharp, capable producer who could probably host his own program in a just world, “Kodiak” was the producer the night I filled in for Bob Davis in January of 2003. The station’s immense prosperity when it was hitting on all cylinders (Rush, Soucheray, Jason Lewis, Mischke and Bob Davis) allowed it to do something it’d never tried before; invest in solid, capable support staff. Producers had always been pretty much disposable at AM1500; the station’s long-belated success allowed it to start investing in good,capable support staff. Joe Hansen, “The Rookie”, Kienitz and others had the kind of job security (and money) that previous generations of KSTP’s control room galley slaves didn’t even bother dreaming of. And they were worth it; Hansen was an important factor in the chemistry that made Lewis a success; Rookie has been for years just about the only entertaining part of Soucheray’s show.
And Kodiak? Lileks – for whose “The Diner” show Kienitz was the original producer – says it best:
Jeremy has been a voice on the station for every ten years. I repeat this to program directors everywhere: PRODUCERS ARE TALENT. If they’re good. PRODUCERS ARE PERSONALTIES. If they’re good. And he was. You want to attract a younger demo, by the way? Don’t axe the only person at the station with a foot in geek culture. Don’t become the all-grumbly-geezer station.
KSTP-AM has backed away from the one thing that dragged it out of the pack – conservative talk in all its dyspeptic, fun, angry, hilarious variations – and trying simultaneously to “aim young” and be all stations to all people, sort of a WCCO of the 21st century. It’s not even working for WCCO anymore. Indeed, as the recession gets its claws into advertisers, the only part of talk radio that’s close to making money is…
…conservative talk.
Best of luck, Kodiak.
Conservative talk? Nonsense. I would tune in to a radio station everyday to hear peev read one of his broadsheets live, on the air. If he interacted with callers that would be a bonus.
Konrad was terrible in C-bus, and evidently is terrible up there too, but he somehow keeps getting jobs running stations into the ground (or doing it for whoever is really making decisions) — his main talent is being able to tell an employee that they are doing great (often while schmoozing with the help at the company party) and fire them the next morning.
I agree — I’ll miss Kodiak quite a lot. Willie Clark? Not so much.
For me, Kodiak was the only reason to listen to the morning show. He’ll definitely be missed.
About a year-and-a-half ago I asked a well placed source within Hubbard Broadcasting what Clark’s appeal was. I was told that Willie was considered an asset for their Twins coverage since he was such a baseball nut. But even a fanatic like myself wouldn’t listen to 3-1/2 hours of baseball talk, so Clark really didn’t offer much outside of ball talk.
And he came to KSTP from a station in Sioux City, Iowa for crying out loud. Yeah, Willie was doomed from the start.
Yeah Willie was a baseball nut–if you wanted to know every single detail about how the Mets season was going. Not sure why anyone would think that would something that Twin City listeners would want to hear.
The only part of the Willie Clark train wreck that I could stand listening to was the five minutes when Reusse would come on and talk sports.
Kodiak is a definite talent. It’s too bad that he and Bob Davis had a falling out. They were a great team and even though Davis is still the best thing that KSTP has going for it, he’s not quite the same without Kodiak.
I know that not everyone is a fan, but I like Kenny “Soul Man” Olson and would think that if KSTP could find a lead man to pair him with they might have something. What’s Bob Yates up to these days?
Kodiak seemed the be the best thing they had going for them — young, sarcastic, funny, goofy, and yet really talented. Bob Davis has some energy, but Joe’s show is ever so slow (at the Junction), and sports talk is like listening to paint dry. I’d keep them on for the Twins, but that’s 6 months of the year.
Then again, the broadcast industry’s been shooting itself in the foot for so it’s a surprise it’s taken this long for things to catch up with them.
Yes, Kodiak will be missed! I loved his dark humor, and I was bummed when he and Bob parted ways. Bob Davis is the only reason I listen to KSTP, and if they are ever stupid enough to swing the axe his way I think they will lose a lot of listeners.
Bob Yates was excellent. I followed him a couple of times to obscure stations, but I think he is a vapor trail now.
I don’t know why he was dumped from KSTP, but I for one would love to hear the old wordsmith on air again.
Kenny Olson? Meh, not so much.
I’m stunned to hear Swift say he liked Yates, you are of course away, Swift that Yates was a died-in-the-wool liberal, right?
Kodiak was an arrogant, no let me correct that, supremely arrogant ass. He conflated facts, which made him a good pairing with Babs. That he had a falling out with Davis isn’t shocking, there was hardly room in Minneapolis for two heads with that much ego. Still, I’ll take your word for it that he was competent – producers in film raise money, on radio, I assume they manage the program. If Babs Davis was evidence of his ‘skill’, then I guess his talent is something I just can’t appreciate – so I’ll wish him well, and be glad he’s gone, I just wish he’d taken Davis with him, the guy’s a moron’s moron. He once had the gaul to TELL me I paid 50% of my income in various taxes. I know my income, I know my property, state, FICA, federal, SS taxes, I know my sales tax estimates from various rebate programs – I pay about 30% all in, and I make a healthy living. Babs first said I was a welfare slacker, then accused me of being ignorant, then basically sat there dumbfounded wehn I recited basically from memory what I had JUST completed (my returns) and justified the balance based on the facts from my property tax and sales tax rebates. All he had to say was “Well, you’re the exception” – to which I replied, “No, I’m pretty normal, and I make more than average – you just don’t know your facts.” If that kind of BS is what Kodiak encouraged… well, as I said, Babs and he had massive egos. Maybe someday KSTP will recognize that Babs merely draws the nutty flacks and a ham sandwich could do that.
I’m stunned to hear Swift say he liked Yates, you are of course away, Swift that Yates was a died-in-the-wool liberal, right?
Can’t speak for Tom, but yeah, I did. I worked with Bob when he started at KSTP, in ’86-87 as a part-time news guy.
Kodiak was an arrogant, no let me correct that, supremely arrogant ass.
He screened you out, didn’t he?
Unlike you, I’ve met Kodiak quite a number of times. He’s a sharp, sometimes acerbic guy, but – you couldn’t possibly know this – he’s also one of the nicest, friendliest, most outgoing, least insecure and arrogant people I know in a business that is is jammed with arrogant, insecure people (and I was one of them, years ago).
His on-air persona (which can differ from one’s on-air personality – indeed, it can be very useful for that to be the case in talk radio) is a lot more forceful. Don’t mistake that for reality; talk radio is entertainment, not self-revelation.
He conflated facts, which made him a good pairing with Babs. That he had a falling out with Davis
Um, Peev?
You do realize that “Babs” is short for “Barbara”, and was the common nickname for former KSTP morning host Barbara Carlson, right?
And that Kodiak used to be the producer for Bob Davis, right?
I’m sure it was just a slipup…
Still, I’ll take your word for it that he was competent – producers in film raise money, on radio, I assume they manage the program.
Wow. Good thing you take my word for it, since you neither know anything about it nor, apparently, do you have a neighbor who is the bestest radio producer in the world.
If Babs Davis was evidence of his ’skill’,
Oh, wait – it wasn’t a typo! You don’t know that Bob Davis is not Babs?
Oh, my.
then I guess his talent is something I just can’t appreciate – so I’ll wish him well, and be glad he’s gone,
Schadenfreud is not as endearing a quality as you might assume.
I just wish he’d taken Davis with him, the guy’s a moron’s moron. He once had the gaul to TELL me I paid 50% of my income in various taxes. I know my income, I know my property, state, FICA, federal, SS taxes, I know my sales tax estimates from various rebate programs – I pay about 30% all in, and I make a healthy living.
Hold it.
So you DID call in? And I’ll bet dimes to dollars you called in with your usual arrogant know-it-all approach, right?
And he yanked your chain, abused you on the air, called you names and hung up on you, right? And you’re still, er, peeved about it, right?
Babs first said I was a welfare slacker, then accused me of being ignorant, then basically sat there dumbfounded wehn I recited basically from memory what I had JUST completed (my returns) and justified the balance based on the facts from my property tax and sales tax rebates.
Er, Peev? He wasn’t “dumbfounded”.
Speaking of supremely arrogant asses… and a moron’s moron…
Peni, did you ever stop to think…
Oh wait, I just answered my own question! NEVERMIND!
Conservative talk? Nonsense. I would tune in to a radio station everyday to hear peev read one of his broadsheets live, on the air. If he interacted with callers that would be a bonus.
So Terry, I’ll bet you’d especially tune in if Peev read one of his broadsheets live on the NARN followed by a
verbal bitchslappingkind, caring, gentle but firm response from Mitch.