Free Republic

Gene Burns, a long-time political talk show host and food critic whose sharp wit and eloquent speech garnered the respect of listeners for decades, died Saturday in San Francisco.

Gene Burns is one of the Bay Area talkers ousted by Cumulus at KGO (810), and he was supposed to start this week at Clear Channel's revamped talk KKSF (910). Instead, 415 Media Exclusive's Rich Lieberman has a report from KGO's Pat Thurston, to the effect that Burns had a stroke and is recovering. In his place at KKSF this week will be a rotating cast of other former KGO personalities: Bill Wattenburg (today), Gil Gross, John Rothmann and Rosie Allen. Burns' regular shift is 4-7pm Pacific time.

Clear Channel is beefing up the lineup on its 910 AM frequency, first by hiring fired KGO hosts Len Tillem and Gene Burns, and now by adding Rush Limbaugh. The new lineup starts Jan. 3. Limbaugh’s move was revealed publicly in a tweet by 910 morning hosts Armstrong & Getty. There are two schools of thought about why Limbaugh is changing stations. One is that his show is expensive and KSFO’s owner, Cumulus Media, is cutting costs. That’s why they laid off most of the talk hosts at KGO and replaced them with less expensive news staffers. Another theory is...

ALL ACCESS hears that CUMULUS cuts have hit the on-air staff at Talk KGO-A(M)/SAN FRANCISCO hard, with hosts GIL GROSS (2-4p), GENE BURNS (7-10p), RAY TALIAFERRO (1-5a), and JOHN ROTHMANN (10p-1a) let go on THURSDAY as the station prepares to add more news programming on MONDAY (12/5). GROSS, the nationally-known host and newsman who joined KGO's lineup in 2007 and confirmed his departure to ALL ACCESS, bade his local listeners farewell on FACEBOOK, posting, "It's been fun SAN FRANCISCO. Truly the most fun I've ever had was at KGO. See you soon." KGO will be going to an essentially all-News...