Interview with Chris Collins: End of the Zoo
SacTV.com "Video of the Day" review by
Alex Cosper on April 6, 2012
Chris Collins talks about how the Morning Zoo came apart
following a series of management changes. Following the departures of Marty Greenberg and Brian White, a new
management team started making budget cuts. Collins had topped out near $300,000, which was most likely the
highest salary in Sacramento for an air personality. It may even be the highest radio salary of all time
in Sacramento. The new management started trimming the Morning Zoo roster, cutting out Mike Reynolds then
Kil R. Bee. Collins held on until November 1992 before they fired him, but gave him a huge severance check.
But Collins didn't just forget about it. He collected information then a year later he sued KSFM, which
quickly ended in a settlement that benefitted Collins. He had become comfortable with his work in Sacramento, which
had expanded to calling UC Davis and San Jose Sharks games. But Collins was back on radio within a week
doing 9a-12noon on talk station 650 KSTE. Collins looks back at FM 102 as a long lasting
success, partly due to the moves he made back in the eighties, which eliminated the competition and opened the
door for KWOD to venture into modern rock. Read more about Chris Collins
here. Read more about Sacramento
Radio History at Playlist Research.
Update: June 23, 2013
There's still no word of a Zoo revival, but Kil R Bee interviewed with SacTV again in May 2013 to talk
about the radio industry. His comments remain inline with this interview series that corporations don't
want to invest in talent. What's fascinating is every industry has to invest in something to grow. Radio
has focused on automation software as its big investment, which unsurprisingly, still isn't paying off.
Personality was clearly the key to radio becoming a part of people's lives in the 60s through the 90s.
But in the corporate era since loosened regulations of the 1996 Telecom Act, not many people talk about
their favorite radio personalities or morning shows. Personality simply isn't as good on radio in the
new century, not due to lack of talent, but due to poor corporate decision making.
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