![203px-Sacramento_Kings.svg[1]](https://dongeronimopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/203px-Sacramento_Kings.svg1_.png)
After over 15 years of my national radio show being syndicated in Sacramento on KHTK, I retired, unretired, and moved fulltime to Northern California over four years ago to re start my show again on KHTK. I love many things about living in Sacramento, and not just it’s two hours from somewhere better, no matter which direction you go. The people here are great, and loyal. They’ve been loyal to me over the years on radio, and now through my podcast. They are also fiercely loyal to the only major sports team in town, the Sacramento Kings. In the time I’ve actually lived here, the Kings have come close to moving to Anaheim and Seattle. Both times the former ownership was ready to pack up and leave, but the fan base made enough of a line in the sand the proposed relocations never happened. Then the team was sold to a new, vibrant ownership group and they made the promise to keep the Kings in town, and now a new downtown arena is being built. Heady times for the Kings, who have sucked major ass the last 10+ seasons. They have all the momentum of the city behind them, and they rightly are feeling good. The ownership has committed to making the team a success, on and off the court. Well, I bought in. Literally.
A few months ago, I was more than interested in advertising my podcast with the Kings. More than ever, there was never a better time to support the team, and no better way to reach the people of Sacramento to further spread the word about the show. So I reached out to the team, to inquire about advertising and buying season tickets to give away on my show. Keep in mind the Kings radio broadcasts locally are carried by KHTK, my former home and the folks who fired me a year ago. KHTK (and their mighty 50,000 watts) is NOT a factor in the ratings locally. They can’t even break the top 20 and regularly get beaten by a low power AM ESPN affiliate. So my goal was not to buy advertising on KHTK, rather on the Kings radio network which included KHTK. I figured despite the fact it’s KHTK, people would again listen. The Kings assured me that their time on KHTK for game broadcasts was THEIR domain and CBS could not tell them who to sell advertising to. I told the Kings repeatedly that KHTK had fired me, and they said point blank, “We make the decisions.” I believed them, to the tune of a package worth $40,000. Season tickets, advertising on the radio broadcasts, and a web presence on the Kings site. We discussed promotional nights for the show at the arena, and advertising the show using the Kings logo. It was a done deal, they ran it up their legal flagpoles, and sent us a copy of the contact to sign and return. We got the contract on a Tuesday. We contacted the Kings, and decided that on that Friday afternoon we’d all meet at the arena to have them sign off and take some pictures. I talked about it on my show the following day, Wednesday. Within 24 hours the Kings contacted us to say KHTK had some clause about ‘competition’ and they were vetoing the advertising. Needless to say, we were floored. The Kings, pillars in the local community, all about local business. Bullshit. They went back on their word after sending out contracts, and after we told them up front about my history with CBS radio Sacramento. My last conversation with my Kings rep was to say what the heck is going on, and then asking about the tickets I wanted to purchase to give away. He said he’d get back to me.
He never did. And coincidentally, KHTK is now giving away Kings tickets on a regular basis for the first time ever.
I still root for the Kings. But this is NO way to do business. I expected this from the management at KHTK, not from the new Kings group. BOO. And not in a Halloween way.
Don Geronimo
deejay