New Clocks for Morning Edition

[KMan]

Any comments about the new Morning Edition program Clocks?

See changes here:

http://ripr.org/post/theec-new-npr-clocks

Note that the full 9 minute news cast at the top of the hour has been eliminated. I don't know how many stations actually took the whole thing. When I lived in Juneau, AK, KTOO did, preferring to do a 10 minute local news block at :50 rather than business news (or Marketplace Morning Report).

The bottom of the hour newscast (now anchored by David Mattingly) has moved to :19 and :39, similar to what is hear on Weekend Edition. However, unlike weekend edition where those updates open with "I'm *anchor* with these headlines" this newscast opens with the familiar "From NPR News in Washington, I'm..."

Overall, I like the changes. There are fewer opportunities for local stations to cutaway and make a custom product. Morning Edition has suffered for years from continuity problems because the local affiliates were given so many opportunities to cutaway. KUOW in Seattle was horrid in this regard; you never knew what mix of local and national content would be on in a given day. Additionally, their local editorial control was so terrible that they would preempt ME segments for some really insipid local reports. I've preferred All Things Considered for many years because it has few opportunities for cutaways and thus sounds like a much more "together" newscast.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

So far I don't feel like my local station is executing it well. They're now doing local news 4x an hour, at :06, :21, :31 and :44 which sounds like a lot. They are airing all the promos fed by NPR, so the newscasts are either 1 minute or 90 seconds. Because the newscasts are so short, you get 1-2 stories before time is up. Obvious solution seems to be to cover the NPR news at :20/:42, but now you've got to fill 4 minutes which would be a substantial newscast or lots of underwriting here in Podunk.

I haven't yet taken the time to listen to how a major market station makes the new clock work. I would guess they run local underwriting in the first minute, then the news with Dave Mttingly then local news.

As far as the full 9-minute newscast in the previous clock: I only heard stations carry that very early in the morning (like at 4am) or on holidays when the local staff was off.

 

[TheBigA]

but now you've got to fill 4 minutes which would be a substantial newscast or lots of underwriting here in Podunk.

Four minutes is a lot if its all script. It's a lot shorter if you get some audio.

 

[Ravens]

I find it interesting that they're making their clock public. Is this some sort of weird requirement? I've always thought the idea of a clock was to make things stay on time while sounding seamless to keep the listeners on the hook.

 

[TheBigA]

I find it interesting that they're making their clock public.

The linked article in the OP is a locally written story about how the station is adjusting to the change. Kind of a behind-the-scenes thing. Interesting reading for a fan of public radio, and if you're a donating member, you're most likely a fan of the station.

 

[FredLeonard]

Most all national programs have clocks which are "public," if the listener is interested enough to look them up. I doubt very many are. In the case of Morning Edition, the change is radical enough that some listeners other than radio geeks may notice that something is different - if for no other reason that people are often used to coordinating their morning routines with the radio and now things aren't happening when they are supposed to. Therefore, any change like this is going to annoy people. The change was done to placate the A-reps (and maybe to cut-down on stations cutting away for local or third party programming). Whether or not the A-reps are placated, NPR waffled on their original requirement stopping cut-aways for third party material, so those will continue.

If NPR wanted to change something, they should have fired Steve Inskeep. Good NPR style pipes but otherwise not public radio material. He is a coal country hillbilly. Attended some backwater Appalachian former teachers' college (Raylan Givens State?) and started his career reading ball scores. He is a terrible interviewer, always interrupting his guests and trying to show he is smarter than they. Loves to throw some complicated question at guest and then telling them they only have 10 seconds to answer. The only reason I can see for keeping him on the show is the chance that some guest will have had enough and punch his lights out.

 

[TheBigA]

He is a coal country hillbilly.

Who worked in New York City before moving to Washington DC. If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

You don't believe in social mobility, do you? It's one of the foundations of the American dream.

If you want to talk about coal country hillbillies, how about the Kentucky Colonel?

 

[KMan]

Ignoring the hit job above on Steve Inskeep ... I would agree with the premise. When NPR pushed Bob Edwards out, the replacement crew was tossed together without much of a test run. The biggest problem with Steve Inskeep and Renée Montagne is they are anchoring from different studios. Inskeep works from DC, and Montagne is working some ungodly hours to anchor out of Los Angeles (NPR West). Thus, their newscast sounds chopping and detached because they aren't sitting in the same studio with each other. The newscast improves if someone fills in for Montagne out of the DC studio (David Greene mostly these days).

 

[CTListener]

Who worked in New York City before moving to Washington DC. If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

You don't believe in social mobility, do you? It's one of the foundations of the American dream.

If you want to talk about coal country hillbillies, how about the Kentucky Colonel?

Inskeep is from Carmel, Indiana, a wealthy suburb of Indianapolis, far from coal country. The "backwater" school he went to is Morehead State University in Kentucky, of which Wikipedia (I know, trust at your own peril) reports: The 2014 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report named MSU one of the top 25 public universities in the South, the 10th straight year it has been so recognized.[4] MSU was recognized in 2013 by The Daily Beast as a top underrated school.[5] In 2013, G.I. Jobs magazine ranked Morehead State in the top 20 percent of veteran-friendly colleges, universities and trade schools in the nation, for the fifth straight year. The campus is ranked among the safest in the nation.[6]

 

[FredLeonard]

Who worked in New York City before moving to Washington DC. If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

You don't believe in social mobility, do you? It's one of the foundations of the American dream.

If you want to talk about coal country hillbillies, how about the Kentucky Colonel?

Harlan Sanders was also born in Indiana.

No, I don't believe in social mobility just as I don't believe in Santa Claus and The Tooth Ferry. Yes, it is a dream - not a reality. The gap between the elite and everybody else keeps increasing and the chances of crossing that gap keep decreasing. The one percenters have rigged the game and the tea people are their unwitting enablers.

Inskeep was hired from WBGO in Newark, not New York. It's a jazz station that does not carry Morning Edition (or ATC). And so far, nobody is disagreeing that he is a terrible interviewer - which is his main function besides reading copy.

And, yes, KMan, I have to wonder what somebody was drinking when they decided to set up NPR West. My guess is some Western A-reps were whining that the West didn't get enough attention on the network shows. The facility is under-utilized. They have a co-host sitting in LA (2am-4am local time) working New York bartender hours. But almost all the work and the people who do it (producers, writers and editors) are still in DC. Despite the physical separation they try to do host chat like Ken and Barbie on local TV news (when ping ponging back and forth like Chet and David would make more sense). If they were so interested in a West Coast presence, they should have kept Day to Day (a very good show). Instead, political correctness rules, and they cancelled Day to Day and kept Tell Me More, a show completely out of place on public radio news and information stations and targeting an audience which does not listen to such stations (and driving away the audience that does).

 

[TheBigA]

You obviously don't know who I was talking about when I said the Kentucky Colonel. Not Harlan Sanders. Real NPR listeners know who I mean.

At the time Inskeep was at WBGO, they carried ATC. But he also worked at WOR-AM in NYC, and reported from the NPR New York bureau for a time, before coming to DC.

 

[Avid Listener]

You obviously don't know who I was talking about when I said the Kentucky Colonel. Not Harlan Sanders. Real NPR listeners know who I mean.

Theres another, typical "too hip for the room" elitist comment, of the sort we have come to expect from public radio listeners and their disgusting sneering down their noses at everyone else. If you look up "snob" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of TheBigA. Or maybe some other A-hole.

 

[KMan]

And, yes, KMan, I have to wonder what somebody was drinking when they decided to set up NPR West. My guess is some Western A-reps were whining that the West didn't get enough attention on the network shows. The facility is under-utilized. They have a co-host sitting in LA (2am-4am local time) working New York bartender hours. But almost all the work and the people who do it (producers, writers and editors) are still in DC. Despite the physical separation they try to do host chat like Ken and Barbie on local TV news (when ping ponging back and forth like Chet and David would make more sense). If they were so interested in a West Coast presence, they should have kept Day to Day (a very good show). Instead, political correctness rules, and they cancelled Day to Day and kept Tell Me More, a show completely out of place on public radio news and information stations and targeting an audience which does not listen to such stations (and driving away the audience that does).

Do we think Renee stays up all night and anchors her show before heading home? Or gets up at 11PM to get into the studio and prep before going live?

Listening to Renee and Steve try and do cross talk is painful; and they've been doing this for a decade. It just doesn't work. She's well into her sixties now; I wonder when she will retire from the show to a cushy "Senior Correspondent" role (see: Linda Wertheimer, Noah Adams, Susan Stamberg, etc)

NPR West has been underutilized for years. I don't disagree with having a strong regional bureau - it helps to counter the east coast orientation of many news organizations, but NPR hasn't been able to define its purpose.

Day to Day was a great show. Its cancellation (and the subsequent pinking slipping of its great on air and production staff) was one of the more puzzling moves NPR has made in years. Alex Chadwick and Madeline Brand were let go; Madeline Brand, especially, was an extremely promising on air talent. They brought her back the next summer as an eight week fill in on All Things Considered (as the three hosts took their long vacations) and then slipped away from NPR for good. What a mess.

 

[TheBigA]

Theres another, typical "too hip for the room" elitist comment,

Not at all. I'm just responding to someone who obviously had no idea what I was talking about. You do it all the time.

If public radio bothers you so much, why are you posting on the public radio board?

 

[FredLeonard]

You obviously don't know who I was talking about when I said the Kentucky Colonel. Not Harlan Sanders. Real NPR listeners know who I mean.

At the time Inskeep was at WBGO, they carried ATC. But he also worked at WOR-AM in NYC, and reported from the NPR New York bureau for a time, before coming to DC.

Only Red Barber ever called Bob Edwards that. Red died 22 years ago. Bob left a decade ago. And their weekly chat was in the C segment (on the old clock), which many/most stations did not carry.

Music format stations, like WBGO, should not be allowed to be "NPR members," send A-reps and most of all serve on the NPR board. One current board member is from an alternative music station that likewise does not carry NPR news programming and used to be one of Roger Ailes' lackeys - either should disqualify him for any involvement in public radio.

 

[Avid Listener]

Not at all. I'm just responding to someone who obviously had no idea what I was talking about. You do it all the time.

If public radio bothers you so much, why are you posting on the public radio board?

I enjoy listening to much of the programming on public radio, though Morning Edition and All Things Considered are not anywhere near the top of the list. Sadly, one of my favorite public radio stations is now gone, WRAS in Atlanta.

 

[TheBigA]

Music format stations, like WBGO, should not be allowed to be "NPR members,"

NPR provides music programming in addition to news programming. In fact WBGO produces JazzSet for NPR.

Regardless, what does any of this have to do with the ME clock or Steve Inskeep?

 

[KMan]

Answer:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/b...adcast-by-a-bicoastal-team.html?smid=pl-share

Montagne works an absolutely horrific shift, getting up at 10PM and arriving at NPR West at midnight. She's in bed by 3PM. Ugh.

 

[TheBigA]

I worked overnights for maybe one week, and quit. Yet I know some people who love it.

 

[KMan]

I worked overnights for maybe one week, and quit. Yet I know some people who love it.

Working those particular hours is just brutal. I've worked overnights in the sense that you're off at 4AM or 5AM, and go home and sleep. That is do-able. I've also done early early starts, like 3AM. But starting a in those early early hours is nightmare. I guess if you've done it for 10 years it seems normal, but eek.

In Seattle, the first anchor of the KING 5 Morning News (Don Madsen) used to come in at 10PM and prep the morning newscast all night long, then go on air from 5AM-7AM before the today show. He finally left the show saying he wanted to get back to normal hours about 1990. As far as I know, none of his successors ever worked those hours. I thought they were a thing of the past, then I saw a piece of on news on tvspy about Anchorage, Alaska, morning anchor Shiela Balistreri.

She was retiring from KTUU after 16 years on the morning news. Turned out, she worked the overnight producer shift (just like Don Madsen did) for the entirety of her career at KTUU before going on and anchoring her newscast. I couldn't believe it. I used to watch her when I lived in Alaska; she had more talent and presence than all the rest of the on-air staff in the state combined. (http://www.adn.com/article/20140530/after-two-decades-air-ktuu-anchor-sheila-balistreri-signs)