KVI no longer matters

Yesterday Fisher Radio Seattle canceled The Kirby Wilbur Show and fired Kirby Wilbur a month before Kirby's contract was up. Kirby had been on the air with KVI for 16 years; he has never worked for any other radio station.

I have already sent Fisher Communications an email expressing my thoughts on the matter:

To: 570KVI@Fisherradio.com

Cc: dkelly@fisherradio.com ; jclayton@fsci.com

Subject: Kirby Wilbur

Fisher Radio Seattle Management,

I just wanted to let you know that I will no longer be listening to any of the Fisher Radio Seattle stations. Your decision to not renew the contract of Kirby Wilbur after 16 years of loyal service to KVI is a classless move that will rapidly prove financially unwise.

After the amateur handling of Michael Medved's show, pairing John Carlson with Ken Schram and then moving Carlson off of KVI altogether, the firing of Bryan Suits (who I'm sure was unhappy for all of 10 minutes when KFI then begged him to move to Los Angeles' much larger market), the many ridiculous attempts to fill dead air from 9 to Noon, the soap-opera like relationship your company created with Carleen Johnson (is she next to be axed, again?), and now the firing of quite literally your most loyal broadcaster, why would ANYONE in the greater Seattle talk radio format market keep 570 AM on their presets at all?

Six years ago I strongly disagreed with Premiere Radio Networks' decision to pull The Rush Limbaugh Show from Fisher and give it to (then) Entercom in the Seattle market. I thought it was a mistake. Obviously I was wrong. Fisher Radio Seattle's experiment of managing the affairs of a financially successful, highly rated, nationally-recognized local-paired-with-national conservative talk radio station has proven that Clear Channel, Bonneville International, and Premiere Radio Networks were visionary in their high-speed retreat from the dying giant formerly known as 570 KVI.

With so many other local TV and radio outlets, let alone the satellite radio and internet streaming venues available to me and the average listener I know of no reason I ever need to watch or listen to a Fisher station again. I don't just mean talk radio either. KOMO News Radio is the CNN Headline News of news radio - even KIRO 97.3 FM is more interesting! Star 101.5 is rendered needless by Jack 96.5 and satellite radio. KOMO TV has no local programming anymore, and there are plenty of other local stations that air the news on TV.

I certainly hope that Coleen Brown disregards any past successes and company loyalties you may have had when it comes time to decide what, if any, contract you all get next time - just like you've done with Kirby Wilbur. Rest assured that I will be contacting several companies who advertise with Fisher to let them know how I feel about Fisher and those that fund their reckless decisions with advertising dollars.

Fisher's sales staff might as well start booking work-day infomercial time slots.

Sincerely,

Eric W.

former Fisher/KVI listener and viewer

So I guess I'm relegated to listening to Glenn Beck in the morning. Glenn is fine, but I prefer something a bit more local to start my day. I already tune-out local radio at 9 AM in order to listen to The Fred Thompson Show.

I certainly hope Kirby continues to be heard on the air somewhere. I know I would follow him to another local station.

I also plan on letting several of KVI's advertisers know how I feel about their continued support of an ungrateful rotting station.