I heard reporter Sam Farber on KNX announce today that the station will broadcast Sunday Night Football via Westwood One. This will be the first time (at least, that I can remember) in many years that any sports broadcasts of any kind have aired on KNX. I couldn't find any articles about this to link to despite a bunch of Googling.
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KNX to Broadcast Sunday Night Football
- Thread starter Joey1986
- Start date
So, what happens to 60 Minutes? Delayed?
This is a smart move for them. Gets people who otherwise wouldn't tune in to listen on Sunday night and leave the dial there so that it is the first channel up when they go to work again on Monday morning.
I always thought they made a big mistake when they let USC football and basketball go. Brought them a different audience and increased their profile in this town, which is noted as not being a big consumer of all news in the first place.
KNX - Football is bad move
I disagree. KNX's brand is all-news, not sometimes news. With the demise of KFWB and KBRT now stomping over KCBS 740's skywave, this means that during football there will be no access to all-news during those hours, and breaking news does not take a pass (pun intended) while a game is on.
I disagree. KNX's brand is all-news, not sometimes news. With the demise of KFWB and KBRT now stomping over KCBS 740's skywave, this means that during football there will be no access to all-news during those hours, and breaking news does not take a pass (pun intended) while a game is on.
Usually Sunday nights they run some pre-taped news shows, like 60 Minutes and Face The Nation. They will likely have some staffing in the newsroom and can break in if there's news. Plus I don't believe they're allowed to stream the game on their website, so they may run regular programming there.
Right. Very little breaking news happens on Sunday night and even fewer people tune in on Sunday night to get the breaking news that is not breaking. The "brand" will be much better served by bringing new ears to it on Monday mornings as I described above. The USC football and basketball package was almost as non-intrusive (given that they total about 40 games), with most football and basketball games on Saturday afternoons and only a few basketball games on weeknights in the winter, one per week max, and not in afternoon drive.
Plus maybe they can steal a few viewers away from rival NBC on a Sunday night. Who knows?
I know there are a few more, but the only stations I know that will stream Westwood One NFL Football are KNBR/KTCT in San Francisco (owned by Cumulus, current owners of Westwood One)
There are many that do (mostly satellite affiliates out beyond the fringe of the flagship).
Beit absent mindedness or blind disobedience, I'll lean toward the former for their oversight.
Whatever the reason, the NFL wants complete totalitarian control of their shield and dropping cheeky hints of the radio calls that willfully (or not) thumb their nose at the rules are the first ones that'll get a "strongly worded letter" from well suited lawyers for their malfeasances and as a result will immediately cease said practice.
Because you see buying an Annual NFL AUDIOPASS from NFL.Com pays for itself... JUST PENNIES A DAY!
A cup of coffee!
Actually, it was negotiated in the agreement when Cumulus bought WW1, both with the NFL and NCAA that they get to stream live events on stations they own. Pretty much the same deal made with MLB that ESPN Radio get to stream all games they carry on the ESPN app (not just Sunday Night Baseball)
I didn't see this until today, but it looks like the KNX program director is in agreement with me about using the games to grow new audience. I saw this at Don's laradio.com, posted on September 11.
Beginning tonight, KNX will be the exclusive LA radio home for Sunday Night football, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl 51. "It’s a great opportunity for us to try something different and see if it can help drive some new cume to KNX," emailed Ken Charles, KNX program director.
WCBS in NYC carries spill-over sporting events from sister station WFAN, an all-sports station. But because those games aren't streamed, the all-news format continues on the internet. I have mixed feelings about an All-News station that isn't fully All-News, although I could understand the appeal of carrying the games... especially if it means KNX gets the playoffs and the Super Bowl as well.
Even on Sunday night, you might still want an update on the news, weather and traffic. That's why these stations are even running All-News at 4am on a Sunday. In NYC, at least CBS has another All-News station, WINS. But in LA, there's no such alternative... and as mentioned above, 740 KCBS from San Francisco is hard to pick up in some places due to KBRT Costa Mesa on that frequency, even if it is only 190 watts at night.
Even on Sunday night, you might still want an update on the news, weather and traffic. That's why these stations are even running All-News at 4am on a Sunday. In NYC, at least CBS has another All-News station, WINS. But in LA, there's no such alternative... and as mentioned above, 740 KCBS from San Francisco is hard to pick up in some places due to KBRT Costa Mesa on that frequency, even if it is only 190 watts at night.
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The smartphone has killed the need for 24 hour news and traffic radio stations. I get all the news, weather, sports and traffic either from my phone or it is built directly into the car courtesy of SiriusXM. Here is a story that I think illustrates the point.
When I was in college in the late 80s, I had a summer class with an professor that most students considered very tough, harsh, and unapproachable. Few made connections with him, but I was one of the few who did as I learned we were both Red Sox fans. My classes with him would generally start at 6:00 pm. Often times in the middle of a difficult lecture, he would turn around from the white board and ask me "What do you have?" I would respond with something like "Up 6 to 4 in the Seventh" and he would nod his head and then go back to his lecture. The other students had no idea what we were talking about, but what he was asking me was of course, "what is the latest updated Sox score that you know of?" Unless you were sitting in front of ESPN at home or in a sports bar, the only way of finding out the scores of east coast games back then was KNX and KFWB sports reports twice an hour, and we both tuned into the updates whenever we could, but if you weren't doing that you were out of luck.
Of course today in real time all either of us has to do is look at our phone and we would instantly know the score, the inning, who is at bat, who is pitching and any vital statistics with just a click or two. Same is true for business news. Who needs the stock report when all of anyone's specific portfolio is updated in real time and major headlines are only a click away? And when it comes to news, I learn more from a 60 second scan of the Drudge Report than any 22 minutes a news station can give me. Newsradio simply is not relevant or timely anymore and its full demise is not too far away.
All news is also, as we know, such an expensive format to run. You need an anchor (sometimes 2), a producer, and people checking the scanners at all times, even overnights.
New York, Philly and Washington are the only markets that have true 24/7 all-news (they don't take a break at some period). WTOP has 14 on-air editors and 14 digital editors.
WBBM in Chicago has carried the Bears for years and years, in addition to "When Radio Was" late at night. They also break for an hour of business every day at noon.
Houston and Atlanta didn't even have enough support for all news, and the second all-news station in DC (CBS owned), has switched to Bloomberg.
KNX carrying the NFL may not seem like that big of a move, but there's people driving through the Southland that can't watch the game on TV and don't have satellite radio. This could help their ratings then.
New York, Philly and Washington are the only markets that have true 24/7 all-news (they don't take a break at some period). WTOP has 14 on-air editors and 14 digital editors.
WBBM in Chicago has carried the Bears for years and years, in addition to "When Radio Was" late at night. They also break for an hour of business every day at noon.
Houston and Atlanta didn't even have enough support for all news, and the second all-news station in DC (CBS owned), has switched to Bloomberg.
KNX carrying the NFL may not seem like that big of a move, but there's people driving through the Southland that can't watch the game on TV and don't have satellite radio. This could help their ratings then.
They're two very different types of systems. You have push and pull. Radio is push. The phone is pull. Which is easier? Which is less work? For most people, having the radio tell you everything is easier than looking it up.
Especially when it's kind of important to keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel (to quote Jim Morrison).
My phone is less work. I can click anything faster than I can turn on a radio. And radio doesn't tell me everything. It tells me what it thinks most people want to hear. Take traffic for example. I can always count on the news stations to tell me the 405 is backed up, but what if I am on a lesser traveled freeway like the 210 or 57? They may not tell me about my specific jam at all. Conversely, I can get my specific traffic info just by speaking my destination into my smartphone. Google knows the best route, if there is any construction and how heavy the traffic is and tells it all to me plus it gives me an amazingly accurate estimated time of arrival. I don't even use XMs dedicated traffic channels anymore, even though they are quite good and quite comprehensive. Google and Apple phones are simply better.
Newsradio's problem is that people who think tuning into the AM newser and waiting 22 minutes plus commercials to get the information they want are literally dying off by the day and they are being replaced by Millennials who have no idea what the AM band is but absolutely know how to get their information from Siri, Google, etc. They don't think pulling is more difficult than pushing, and this time I agree with them.
Don't get me wrong, I am not here to bury newsradio. I am a radio geek and take no pleasure in seeing the demise of lots of formats that I have loved for decades, which of course includes newsradio. But change is inevitable and newsradio is simply not keeping up with it.
If you want to look for it. And NOTHING can TELL you everything. You have to be willing to look for everything. Once again, the difference between push and pull. And sometimes, there are things you can't think of that will bite you in the butt. I have Google maps on my phone, and it doesn't know the best route. It knows what it thinks are the best route. Just like Pandora picks what it thinks I like. It's often wrong.
Actually, they are. They realize the limitations in the air signal. They have an app. If you're willing to take the time look it up.
You and I usually disagree on most things. However, I really like the push and pull analogy. I'd never really thought of radio vs. smart-phone in that way. I've been thinking about it as I listen to KNX on my commute.
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