You mentioned Hannity, Levin, Savage, Beck, Tom Sullivan, and Rush on the Right, and Norm Goldman, Bill Press, Tom Hartman, Randi Rhoades, John Rothmann, Ray Talifaro, and the late great Gene Burns on the Left.
What I saw was the intent to disconnect the listener from the genre by shutting down the local shows and replacing them with time-delayed syndicated national shows. Of the list you provided, on the KGO hosts (Rothmann, Talifaro, Burns) were local. On the Right, only Savage was local for a time.
Going back into the archives, I recall when KSFO was mostly local: Rodgers, Goeff Metcalf, Jim Eason, Michael Savage, Brian Wilson (remote but live), David Gold (remote but live).
Throughout the years, we saw other local shows shut down: Quinn and Rose, Fred Grandy, etc.
As a final thought, did you read the Lieberman blog post on the passing of Lee Rodgers? Did you compare that to the post on the passing of Gene Burns?
-PJ
Re; Rich Lieb. Obituary on Lee Rodgers as compared to his Obit on Gene Burns; It’s been a while since both has passed. I completely enjoyed both men, as top drawer professionals and complex, sometimes tempermental human beings.
As much as I liked Lee, I was often taken aback by how rude he would be to Officer Vic. Lee would step on OV’s lines, spoil his punchlines with audible sighs and groans. Yet OV weathered the storm. Being your typical male, I personally could’nt have excised my own ego on a regular basis the way he did. The very best times were when the three All Stars; Lee Rodgers, Melanie Morgan and Officer Vic were working together. I guess Lee was the Dad, with Melanie
and OV being the ambitious scions serving as The Sourcerers Apprentice.