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CBS Evening News on WBZ-AM
- Thread starter DavidZ
- Start date
F
FredLeonard
Guest
It does demonstrate that mostly the well-coiffed TelePrompTer reading Kens and Barbies really have lousy pipes. I suppose if somebody looks good, it doesn't matter what they sound like. Well maybe it does, look at all those silent film stars whose careers collapsed with the advent of talkies. They first put the evening news on the radio with Katie and she sounded terrible. Jim McKay's kid or some other genius at CBS had the brainstorm that CBS News was "multi-platform." Sean McManus got to experience the agony of defeat first hand.
They haven't—they did it once a couple of weeks ago, too.
There might have been something going on locally at 6:30 that they didn't want to break from (probably storm coverage).
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TV on radio irritates the hell out of me, too. Too much left unsaid because the primary audience can see what's going on.
Methinks that CBS as well as mandates that its O&O news(-talk) radio stations which have sister O&O TV outlets in the same market carry (some portion of) The CBS Evening News, as well as 60 Minutes.
You can't imagine the pressure that comes from New York for an O&O to clear network stuff! ;-)
When Larry King was doing his CNN show....Westwood 1 offerred the audio to radio stations (Although I never knew a station that carried it.) You might remember that David Letterman's TV show was offered to CBS affiliates as well.
As far as 60Minutes and BZ goes....it seems to be an appropriate time (sun 7PM on radio). Given the cache that is 60 minutes...would you run the audio of a well know, and award winning show...or have another hour of someone reading the same headlines they've been reading all day long?
Awhile back when WTKK was running Hannity in the evenings....I always thought it would be a good idea to run the Hannity TV audio after the radio show (at 10PM). Why not?
But, fundamentally, I don't like TV audio on radio.
O
Omnibus
Guest
Perhaps, it is a sign of my age but I grew up with TV/Radio simulcasts. Even remember as a very little kid hearing the Jack Benny show simulcast from his TV broadcast. The long forgotten Arthur Godrey's morning show was also simulcast. Think it is a good idea. I have Sirius Radio in my car and I get CNN,MSNBC and Fox simulcast on the radio.
Fundamentally, I like TV audio on radio.
Fundamentally, I like TV audio on radio.
That reminds me of when WTKK used to carry NECN news between 4:30 and 7:00 AM. I'd wake up to that when I was teaching early morning classes and wasn't fond of it. "As you can see..."
I'm with you: TV audio on radio is not a great idea.
Re 'BZ and 60 Minutes: I remember when they carried Pat Desmarais talk program from 6 till 8 PM on Sundays. Then they decided that even live news on weekends was not cost-effective and began running infomercials. I suppose infomercials are a revenue source, but they are of little class, in which case, yeah, bring on 60 Minutes.
U
Unregistered
Guest
KNX in LA does the same thing, but they do it at 3:30PM. I guess they pick up the primary East Coast feed.
There's an awful lot of TV audio on Sirius XM, some of it tolerable, some not. The simulcasts of some of the MLB Network's talk shows on MLB Network Radio and the Mike & Mike show on ESPN Radio generally work because that's all they are -- talk. But that's only if you're familiar with the hosts' voices, because they're not going to identify themselves much after the opening since a graphic of their names can take care of that by occasionally appearing on screen as they speak -- which listeners, of course, cannot see. Likewise, if a guest is being interviewed, you'd better be tuned in right from the start because that's the only time his name is going to be mentioned. Same goes for the political and other topical talk shows on the simulcasts of CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNBC. If the guest is some little-known House member, you'll have no idea who he/she is unless you hear the person introduced.
What don't work well are newscasts that include lots of visual elements, especially scene-setters with ambient sound leading into a reporter's spiel. All you hear are machine guns, factory equipment, chirping birds, highway traffic, or whatever else is going on, with no context. Half-hour or hour-long "special reports"? Fahgeddaboutit! Also, radio play-by-play and TV play-by-play are very different animals. Sirius XM generally sticks with radio, but its soccer channel carries TV audio of big matches from Europe (oh, and spare me the soccer snark, OK? I see enough of it every time I read Shaughnessy in the Globe.) which are impossible to follow with the minimalist play-by-play of TV. Yes, there is a lot of time in which nothing directly building up to a scoring chance is going on, but a radio announcer will let you know where the ball is and who has it, and fill with background info or other scores. On TV, the other scores appear in the corner of the screen or in a crawl, and nothing is said except when the ball is moving into an area in which a chance might be generated.
It's hard to imagine wide acceptance of TV on radio, but whatever negative feedback SXM might get must not be translating into canceled subscriptions. So I guess it's just another radio-geek thing that the vast majority don't find a problem, similar to tight playlists.
What don't work well are newscasts that include lots of visual elements, especially scene-setters with ambient sound leading into a reporter's spiel. All you hear are machine guns, factory equipment, chirping birds, highway traffic, or whatever else is going on, with no context. Half-hour or hour-long "special reports"? Fahgeddaboutit! Also, radio play-by-play and TV play-by-play are very different animals. Sirius XM generally sticks with radio, but its soccer channel carries TV audio of big matches from Europe (oh, and spare me the soccer snark, OK? I see enough of it every time I read Shaughnessy in the Globe.) which are impossible to follow with the minimalist play-by-play of TV. Yes, there is a lot of time in which nothing directly building up to a scoring chance is going on, but a radio announcer will let you know where the ball is and who has it, and fill with background info or other scores. On TV, the other scores appear in the corner of the screen or in a crawl, and nothing is said except when the ball is moving into an area in which a chance might be generated.
It's hard to imagine wide acceptance of TV on radio, but whatever negative feedback SXM might get must not be translating into canceled subscriptions. So I guess it's just another radio-geek thing that the vast majority don't find a problem, similar to tight playlists.
Imagine you're listening to a radio simulcast of a local TV newscast:
"So if you're in this green section you'll be getting rain; purple, about 2 inches of snow, white about 6-10 inches of snow..."
I do remember driving at night some years ago going back and forth between (XM simulcasts of...) Fox News and CNN as they described the
Japanese tsunamis. Despite being fairly visual it did get some facts over about the destruction, though...
"So if you're in this green section you'll be getting rain; purple, about 2 inches of snow, white about 6-10 inches of snow..."
I do remember driving at night some years ago going back and forth between (XM simulcasts of...) Fox News and CNN as they described the
Japanese tsunamis. Despite being fairly visual it did get some facts over about the destruction, though...
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Whoops, I take that back. It was on again last night, and they said during about the 7:40 break, something to the effect of, “...CBS Evening News, which can now be heard weeknights at 6:30, and then again at 7:30”.
UGH! 6:30 AND 7:30?!? Once may be tolerable, but then repeated an hour later?
J
Jul
Guest
60 Minutes is not on Philadelphia, PA radio. I'm puzzled by that.
When I was at then-CNN2 (now HLN) at its beginning (1982) - the audio was split off for radio feeds. Writers were instructed to not include anything in their copy that referred to the visuals. Eventually, the radio feed became a stand-alone feed...
Locally, the CNN Radio simulcast was carried on 1150AM. I remember listening and hearing them show a volcano erupting...wondering if the producers and writers knew that they were on radio as well! (...or cared!)
WCAP AM simulcasts the WCVB TV news in the early morning 530 to 600, then from noon to 1230, and again at 530 to 630 pm, .but WCVB is making no effort to write for radio, nor should they for such a small radio station, but it really sounds like WTF sometimes....
O
Omnibus
Guest
For those WMRE fans one of the most interesting TV/Radio simulcasts happen in 1986. Channel 25 then owned by the Right-Wing anti-semitic Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting [ an oxyMORON] refused to broadcast Joan Rivers late night show. So, Jack Roberts who could sell snow to Eskimos arranged for WMRE to broadcast the audio portion of Rivers show. This poster was very close to the person at WMRE at the mic who introduced Rivers' show to Boston. People who listened believed there were limos and Klieg lights outside the WMRE Fenway Park studio. Only one glitch. Joan Rivers had called in but the station was unable to patch the call to air. After all there is only so much one can do with chewing gum qnd bailing wire...
I went to the going-away party for WMRE at a place called the Breakfast Club, corner of Boylston St and Brookline Ave. You could go there at night and order breakfast
items like omelettes to go with your beer. Bob Katzen was there along with someone who used to do characters like Yugas and Finkel the Fox. I think I spotted Christopher
Lydon, too, and at one point they put on the radio and the audio of the Joan Rivers show was playing. As Omnibus said, Pat Robertson wouldn't allow WXNE-25 to run
Joan Rivers so WMRE had to run the audio and I think they mentioned Jack Roberts on the show.
I believe due to the Pat Robertson ownership they couldn't run an episode of McHale's Navy where the Captain's crew dressed up as ghosts to scare someone--apparently
they didn't like the ghost part (some kind of Christian belief?). Robertson built up a huge empire (PTL Club) in Virginia Beach VA and it included Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker
I believe, though they left to start their own 700 Club.
Frank Zappa's song "Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk" ("...would he really ask Tammy to do His work? uh, uh!) on BROADWAY THE HARD WAY talked about Pat and his "invisible
army" and his run for the White House. At one point reference is made to how Pat and his followers prayed for a hurricane to NOT hit Virginia Beach and whaddaya know,
it veered off... and hit New England instead. Thanks Pat!
I still remember seeing bus ads for WXNE-25 which showed some of their programs, like Gomer Pyle and the 60s King Kong cartoon. Maybe Get Smart too.
Somehow Ch 25 ran Fox (a then fledgling network) then Fox wound up buying the station eventually. There was some arrangement where the PTL Club wound up on
cable's Fox Family Network, which became ABC Family etc but eventually the show went away, at least from THAT network.
items like omelettes to go with your beer. Bob Katzen was there along with someone who used to do characters like Yugas and Finkel the Fox. I think I spotted Christopher
Lydon, too, and at one point they put on the radio and the audio of the Joan Rivers show was playing. As Omnibus said, Pat Robertson wouldn't allow WXNE-25 to run
Joan Rivers so WMRE had to run the audio and I think they mentioned Jack Roberts on the show.
I believe due to the Pat Robertson ownership they couldn't run an episode of McHale's Navy where the Captain's crew dressed up as ghosts to scare someone--apparently
they didn't like the ghost part (some kind of Christian belief?). Robertson built up a huge empire (PTL Club) in Virginia Beach VA and it included Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker
I believe, though they left to start their own 700 Club.
Frank Zappa's song "Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk" ("...would he really ask Tammy to do His work? uh, uh!) on BROADWAY THE HARD WAY talked about Pat and his "invisible
army" and his run for the White House. At one point reference is made to how Pat and his followers prayed for a hurricane to NOT hit Virginia Beach and whaddaya know,
it veered off... and hit New England instead. Thanks Pat!
I still remember seeing bus ads for WXNE-25 which showed some of their programs, like Gomer Pyle and the 60s King Kong cartoon. Maybe Get Smart too.
Somehow Ch 25 ran Fox (a then fledgling network) then Fox wound up buying the station eventually. There was some arrangement where the PTL Club wound up on
cable's Fox Family Network, which became ABC Family etc but eventually the show went away, at least from THAT network.
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O
Omnibus
Guest
I was at Channel 25 when they went on the air. Each day started with a required Prayer Meeting. Most of us were not "Fundies" or fundamentist Christians. Actually, a majority of us were/are Roman Catholics. At times it was a way to start the day but often times the prayer meeting would go on for an hour and we could barely get our work done. Some of the real "Fundies" were really off the wall..."didn't believe the Pope was a Christian" for example and yes, they wouldn't broadcast the cartoon "Casper The Friendly Ghost" because it was about a ghost. The best thing they ever did to their credit was to bring back Rex Trailer and Boomtown. Rex picked up like he had down the show yesterday. However, the technical qualities of the old studio on Second Avenue in Needham were not the best. Often, while watching the show you would hear the intercom go off and the receptionist pagng someone. In the last days, Pat Robertson's son, Tim, was running the show. Word was that he almost lost the whole station when he forgot to sign and submit new syndication contracts. Wasn't there when that happened and I tend to doubt that really happened. Tim seemed like a bright fellow and was more reasonable than some of his colleagues or his father. [ Tim is half Catholic on his mother's side if that matters]. Again, they brought back Rex Trailer and that has to be a positive in my book.
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