I found that, between 2010 and now, US have seen 8 new all-news radio stations include: FM News 101.1 (Chicago), FM News 101.9 (NYC), News 92 (Houston), All News 106.7 (Atlanta), All News 99.1 (Washington), LiveWireRadio 103.9 (Johnson City), WLRI 92.9 (Lanchester). But, only 2 latter stations are successful, all others have been shut down after 3-5 years. Who can explain to me this?
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Why were all-news stations launch in 2010-2015 failed?
- Thread starter News24/7
- Start date
Lancaster, not Lanchester.
WLRI is not all news. It's Pacifica and other progressive talk.
LiveWireRadio is a small market shoe-string operation that has been on for about three months.
Successful? Only if you define "successful" as "hasn't flipped yet."
There have been few successful launches of all news stations in 40 years.
Listening times are short, so you need a large cume.
The format is expensive. Even syndicated all news services (NBCNIS, AP, CNN) have failed.
Hardly any stations that call themselves "all news" really are. They have ballgames (maybe they claim ballgames are news). Talk shows (they talk about news). Weekend infomercials (hard to make the case Colon-Blow is news).
Radio is terminal. In its current state of decline, it's still possible to retain an audience but almost impossible to build one.
WLRI is not all news. It's Pacifica and other progressive talk.
LiveWireRadio is a small market shoe-string operation that has been on for about three months.
Successful? Only if you define "successful" as "hasn't flipped yet."
There have been few successful launches of all news stations in 40 years.
Listening times are short, so you need a large cume.
The format is expensive. Even syndicated all news services (NBCNIS, AP, CNN) have failed.
Hardly any stations that call themselves "all news" really are. They have ballgames (maybe they claim ballgames are news). Talk shows (they talk about news). Weekend infomercials (hard to make the case Colon-Blow is news).
Radio is terminal. In its current state of decline, it's still possible to retain an audience but almost impossible to build one.
News radio is about the most expensive format a local station can run.
It is far more labor intensive. Computers can't go out and dig-up a story,
chase down sources, interview newsmakers or write copy.
We have a small AM station here, KQV, that has been all-news since 1975. Can't for the life of me
figure out how they are continuing to do it, particularly since urban sprawl has outrun their signal.
CBS is always looking for a profitable quick hit. They should have known better.
It is far more labor intensive. Computers can't go out and dig-up a story,
chase down sources, interview newsmakers or write copy.
We have a small AM station here, KQV, that has been all-news since 1975. Can't for the life of me
figure out how they are continuing to do it, particularly since urban sprawl has outrun their signal.
CBS is always looking for a profitable quick hit. They should have known better.
For most of the stations you listed, they attempted to launch in markets that already had long established all news stations. Atlanta is a clear exception. That market clearly isn't one where all news can take hold. The format remains a ratings leader in most of the markets where there is a station, but rarely is there room for two. Even in the top market, NYC, WINS is at the top of the ratings and WCBS, while it does well, brings in a significantly lower audience. If there is any market that could support two such formatted stations it would be New York. Not many others can.
New York is the only market that can support two news stations and WINS is the truly all newser. WCBS runs play by play, the audio of the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation and 60 Minutes and now run three hours of infomercials on the weekend. LA had two for many years, KNX and KFWB. KNX remains. Chicago had two over the years, WBBM, 101.1(forgot the calls)and earlier WMAQ. Washington had two for a few years,WNEW and WTOP. WTOP is the one still standing andf is or close to the top biller in the nation. Wonder what Merlin was thinking when they launched 101.9 in 2011. Maybe they thought the fact it was on FM, it would have the advantage. Obviously, it didn't gain much traction, garnering only a .6. 101.9 should have gone to a news talk hybrid,but they failed miserably.
I wish there was an all news national service that would work,but nothing tried has been successful. I think the best effort was NBC's News and Information service(NIS) which sounded terrific and employed some great people. That was forty years ago.,maybe ahead of it's time.
Atlanta and Houston's recent news stations sounded good,but never gained traction and as mentioned are very expensive to operate.
I wish there was an all news national service that would work,but nothing tried has been successful. I think the best effort was NBC's News and Information service(NIS) which sounded terrific and employed some great people. That was forty years ago.,maybe ahead of it's time.
Atlanta and Houston's recent news stations sounded good,but never gained traction and as mentioned are very expensive to operate.
In the case of Chicago WBBM is the top rated all news station in that market and killed off 101.1 FM.
San Francisco had KGO-AM go mostly news in 2011 but that got killed off by KCBS all News and NPR News/talk affiliate KQED San Francisco.
Washington DC had a similar issue WTOP all News and NPR News/Talk station WAMU-FM killed off WNEW FM.
Well TRN had ARNN news to go to stations but it was mainly political and big markets didn't air them and was killed off in 2013.
KLIV was mostly News for San Jose but limited to areas south of the San Mateo Bridge. KLIV was killed off by KCBS because 106.9 got the entire Bay Area market.
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/sho...ws-radio-made-for-apps-all-are-national-feeds
Here's another thread. I was amazed there were 5 all news radio feeds made for apps and all are national.
Here's another thread. I was amazed there were 5 all news radio feeds made for apps and all are national.
And WBBM countered by adding an FM "near simulcast".
WNEW (FM) is a rimshot and could not compete.
KFRC-FM's 65 dbu signal bareley touches Santa Clara County, and KLIV was playing to the San Jose book, which is just that one county. The change was reported to be a mix of the aging of the format in general and the limited viability of an AM station on a high dial position in a market that had fewer and fewer local direct accounts.
Are you saying that KQV is a CBS station? It isn't and wasn't. It was purchased from ABC by Taft 41 years ago, and then a decade later went to the current local owners.
There are a variety of reasons.
In the markets that already had newsers, new stations did not have the product (Chicago and NY) or the signal (DC) to compete and existing stations were seen as superior and "old reliable friends".
In the sunbelt markets such as Atlanta and Houston, the potential usage of all news seems to be limited, just as LA has not had the same news shares as New York or Chicago even when there were two stations in the format. This has been discussed, and it has to do with market demos and lifestyles as well as a habit of not looking for all-news radio.
It's interesting to note that one of the Top 15 radio markets had three all news stations going into the new Millennium and now has zero. The format aged out of anything advertisers wanted and now all three are talk stations with some news-based shows, but no news blocks.
Wilmington, NC even had one for almost 2 years. 6am-6pm. Too tiny of a market for it to survive. Atlanta's all news effort (106.7) had the Braves but still didn't get high ratings.
We had America's Radio News on the radio here (one of our local stations nearly changed to a all-news feed of that), but the network folded.
We had America's Radio News on the radio here (one of our local stations nearly changed to a all-news feed of that), but the network folded.
Your right too 740AM covers a bigger territory of Northern California than 106.9 and 1590AM combined.
http://www.iheart.com/live/associated-press-radio-6986/
http://www.iheart.com/live/nbc-news-radio-6043/
I'm Amazed that Iheart managed to have distribution rights to two all-news feeds AP Radio and NBC News Radio (Formerly 24/7 News). How do I find out which parts of the country supports NBC News Radio and which parts of the Country supports AP Radio on Iheart?
We had similar threads about all-news radio specifically for WINS and WCBS All News in New York where 1010 WINS aims for the 5 boroughs and WCBS 880 aims for the New York Suburbs.
How is All News carved out for Iheart's 2 all-news feeds between AP Radio and NBC News Radio?
http://www.iheart.com/live/nbc-news-radio-6043/
I'm Amazed that Iheart managed to have distribution rights to two all-news feeds AP Radio and NBC News Radio (Formerly 24/7 News). How do I find out which parts of the country supports NBC News Radio and which parts of the Country supports AP Radio on Iheart?
We had similar threads about all-news radio specifically for WINS and WCBS All News in New York where 1010 WINS aims for the 5 boroughs and WCBS 880 aims for the New York Suburbs.
How is All News carved out for Iheart's 2 all-news feeds between AP Radio and NBC News Radio?
If you tried to stream "NBC NewsRadio" on iHeartRadio at the time of breaking news, you likely won't hear anything about it. It seems to be a series of pre-recorded segments that air in rotational perpetuity.
To address more of the original topic: People have given the reason for a new all-news startup's failure is "its expensive." And it's true. It's very expensive, but in more ways than one might initially think.
A newsroom (whether it's to drive an all-news format or to provide a competent and reliable news product on a mainly talk-format) required a good number of people with skill sets. Local radio notoriously pays crap, but usually there are people willing to do the job because they consider the pay to be "enough" and they genuinely love the work. Regardless, it takes people. And "people" is the one expense radio operators today have demonstrated they hate the most. They don't like having to pay humans for work.
A second expense are tools. Electronic news gathering and production requires technology be purchased, serviced, and even replaced when necessary. A couple of computers in the newsroom and a telephone line won't be enough. Recording/production/remote-live gear is needed to do this correctly. This costs money in form of buying/repairing/replacing/renting gear.
But the third expense is time. A music station can gain a following pretty quickly because all it's doing is playing music. If people hear a few good or favorite tunes the first time they listen, they likely return to listen. An entity (radio or otherwise) choosing to be a source of news for people needs time to build a base of trust with the audience at large. This takes more than a month or two or six. It could really take years. The audience needs to a) learn the station exists, b) learn that it offers competent, timely and relevant news coverage, and c) can be relied upon should important or catastrophic news breaks.
Radio operators (under pressure themselves to make money quickly) are not too keen on spending all that money on so many people and their needed equipment over such a long period of time without being able to show much return for it.
This the 21st century. Most people have "remote-live" gear on their smartphones. One desktop in the newsroom is enough.
The problem is audience turn-over. People stay tuned for music. News gets people for "22 minutes."
No, I'm saying that KQV has been all-news for 41 years because they are NOT owned by CBS.
CBS would have pulled the plug after six months of looking at the P&L.
CBS would have pulled the plug after six months of looking at the P&L.
One computer? You must work in a small newsroom.
Sure, you can do your field work with a smartphone. I use a smartphone for just about all of my field news gathering, production and live reporting. Sounds beautiful.
But smartphones cost money to buy and use. The good apps for live remotes (the ones in which you can even play you soundbite) cost money in either outright purchases or subscription fees for the service. Either the company incurs the cost itself, or pays the employee for use of their gear, which will include cost of data.
Sure, you can do it without buying the specialized apps. You can go live via Skype or Facetime. Still costs data on the smartphone. Who's gonna pay the bill to Verizon Wireless, or AT&T, or Sprint, etc? I'm sure somebody (the business or the employee) can write the cost off as a business expense, but someone still has to pay the bill. You'll also need a smartphone plugged into your control room. Or I guess you could tie up your one desktop computer in your newsroom.
(oh, and have fun using that smartphone on the public mobile internet to send/receive streaming audio when in a large crowd of people all using their smartphones.)
Those are expenses not incurred by your standard music station.
And while audience turnover is a reality, it's also not a horrible factor. News formats, if done right, engender the audience with assurance that they'll be there when the time comes. That "time" could also be every ten minutes on the 5's, or 8's or whatever for some sort of service element. The format thrives by people tuning back in when needed. If it couldn't thrive that way, WCBS, WINS, KYW, KNX et. al. would have abandoned the format decades ago.
True, more and more people are getting news-on-demand from other sources via mobile phones. But those established news radio stations are still commanding listeners.
A station just starting up may not have corporate backing to spend all that money on people, equipment and time to grow the product just to be able to get a 22 minute turnover.
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Any station in a PPM market "gets people" for an average of around 13 minutes per incident. Like news stations, music stations depend on repeat incidents during the day and week.
News depends on a significant cume making frequent usage of the station for short periods of time. We've known about turnover in news stations since the 60's, so that is not a big revelation you are giving us.
That's, in the end, the legacy of ABC. As the late-comer to the network game, they got what are today's poor facilities, such as WXYZ in Detroit, KXYZ in Houston, KABC in Los Angeles and KQV in Pittsburgh. Today, those are all signals that are not competitive in covering the total market.
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