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News outside of morning drive on commercial music stations

MarcB

MarcB

Most commercial music stations if they have news on them at all only has the news during morning drive. How many commercial music stations air news outside of morning drive?

1. WZBG 97.3 Litchfield, CT - they run an Adult Contemporary format from Westwood One and air CBS News hourly. They also do local news at times outside of morning drive as well.

2. Kool 96.1/990 WNTY Southington, CT - they run a 1 minute newscast from Westwood One hourly. Sister stations Kool 104.3/1180 WSKP in Westerly, RI and Kool 100.1/1270 WACM in Springfield, Mass air a 1 minute newscast from CBS hourly. Their format is Classic Hits.

3. Oldies 98.1 WPTY HD2 (I don't remember the calls of the 98.1 translator) in Suffolk County, Long Island airs hourly news from ABC.

4. 96.7 WTSA-FM in Brattleboro, Vermont used to do news every hour (CBS and local news I think). I don't know if they still do or not. Haven't listen to the station in quite a while.

5. The now defunct WQUN AM 1220 in Hamden, CT used to air CBS news hourly. They ran the America's Best Music format.
 
MarcB said:
Most commercial music stations if they have news on them at all only has the news during morning drive. How many commercial music stations air news outside of morning drive?

1. WZBG 97.3 Litchfield, CT - they run an Adult Contemporary format from Westwood One and air CBS News hourly. They also do local news at times outside of morning drive as well.

2. Kool 96.1/990 WNTY Southington, CT - they run a 1 minute newscast from Westwood One hourly. Sister stations Kool 104.3/1180 WSKP in Westerly, RI and Kool 100.1/1270 WACM in Springfield, Mass air a 1 minute newscast from CBS hourly. Their format is Classic Hits.

3. Oldies 98.1 WPTY HD2 (I don't remember the calls of the 98.1 translator) in Suffolk County, Long Island airs hourly news from ABC.

4. 96.7 WTSA-FM in Brattleboro, Vermont used to do news every hour (CBS and local news I think). I don't know if they still do or not. Haven't listen to the station in quite a while.

5. The now defunct WQUN AM 1220 in Hamden, CT used to air CBS news hourly. They ran the America's Best Music format.
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The multistation Great Eastern Radio oldies combo in the Connecticut River Valley in VT/NH -- WFYX Walpole NH and translators in Keene and the Lebanon/Hanover/Norwich area (I believe the morning show, the only local program, is done from Lebanon.) -- runs CBS news at the top of each hour.

All these stations serve (or in WQUN's case, served) older audiences. I'd imagine hourly news on music station will eventually disappear unless the listening habits of younger generations suddenly reverse themselves, and that's highly unlikely given the easy, instant access to news (or stuff that looks like news) available to them via the internet and television.
 
A lot of small market stations still air news on the hour.
For example, in my area:
103.5 WTCM (country) has news (FOX and local) at noon, 4pm, and 5pm outside of morning drive. They're the dominant market leader in the Traverse City-Petoskey-Cadillac et al market.
93.9 WDOR (AC) airs news most hours on weekdays.
101.5 WMTE (AAA-leaning classic rock) airs ABC News at some TOHs outside of morning drive.
 
I work for a 50,000 Watt FM standalone locally owned station in a market of 40,000 with 5 commercial stations and a few non comms.

One commercial FM owned by townsquare doing country has news on it at some level on and off during the day. A cluster owned by a lawyer has regional news done for them by an contract news service for two of their markets.

The music formatted commercial FM station I work for does local news at 7, noon and 5pm weekdays. We air a statewide newscast several times a day weekdays and we air a 1 minute ABC newscast 24/7/365. We also air a statewide sportscast several times every weekday as well. And we air weather at 20 and 50 after the hour 24/7
 
WBRF Galax VA, an FM classic country station with a tower on top of a mountain which covers most of the Greensboro NC market, has Mike Moss, whoever that is, once an hour.

WNAM Oshkosh WI (America's Best Music) has the same thing. They used to have a local noon newscast.
 
vchimpanzee said:
WBRF Galax VA, an FM classic country station with a tower on top of a mountain which covers most of the Greensboro NC market, has Mike Moss, whoever that is, once an hour.

WNAM Oshkosh WI (America's Best Music) has the same thing. They used to have a local noon newscast.
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Moss is one of Westwood One's generic news voices.
 
Until a few years ago KFDI in Wichita and KTTS in Springfield, MO had both; local and live newscast 24/7, when the stations were owned by the Journal Broadcast Group. Scripps and Summit Media has made cuts to the news staff at both stations in the last few years but you can still hear live newscast mornings through afternoon drive.

Both stations are in tornado alley and are well known for there weather coverage. When Journal owned them they still had 3 or 4 news cars equipped with 2-way radios for each station, there were times for both stations were they did tornado/severe weather coverage for several hours nonstop.
 
WHUD (FM), in the Hudson River Valley (north of NYC), is a really solid AC station that has a full ... LIVE ... air lineup 24/7. Yes, also overnights. In addition to morning drive, they do locally-produced news updates (about 2-3 minutes long) just before noon, 1 pm, 5 and 6 pm. Obviously, so close to the city, there are lots of traffic and weather updates also throughout the day. Another sister station in the cluster, CHR K104.7 (WSPK) is also live around the clock, but the news ends after 9 am. That is, unless there is something really important.

I am quick to criticize Pamal Broadcasting-owned clusters further north, especially in Vermont, where it's the difference between night and day.
 
KMZU 100.7FM in Carrollton, MO has local news on the hour.
KRLI 103.9FM in Malta Bend, MO (Formerly on 97.5FM - Studios in Carrollton, MO.) has Fox News Radio 10min past the hour, every hour.
KMMO 102.9FM & 1300AM in Marshall, MO airs CBS News on the hour.
KTTN 92.3FM in Trenton, MO has (Or used to have.) AP Radio News.
KCHI 102.5FM (Formerly on 98.5FM &, before that, 103.9FM.) & 1010AM in Chillicothe, MO (Or used to have.) ABC Radio News.
 
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KOZI 93.5 Chelan WA has CBS News every hour, long-form news at 5PM, and the 2nd Cup of Coffee interview show weekday and Saturday mornings 8:45-10:15A. Also includes swap shop/yard sale listings.
KSWW 102.1 Aberdeen WA has Westwood One News every hour. They just recently went to WW1 after being on the ABC Entertainment News network for years and years.
KSRW 92.5 Bishop CA still has news at noon and 5pm along with WW1 every hour, even with the Alternative format. They previously were on NBC News/CNN Radio TOH news during their Sierra Wave NAC/AAA days.
KOHO 101.1 Leavenworth WA airs local news at noon and 5pm weekdays.
KJAN 1220 Atlantic IA (Adult Contemporary) airs Fox News every hour on the hour.

Small town FMs still follow that top of hour news approach it seems.
 
DonMatsen said:
WHUD (FM), in the Hudson River Valley (north of NYC), is a really solid AC station that has a full ... LIVE ... air lineup 24/7. Y
I am quick to criticize Pamal Broadcasting-owned clusters further north, especially in Vermont, where it's the difference between night and day.
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Interesting that this station takes 50% of the market revenue, and with its two sister stations they take in about $17 million of the $19.5 million the whole market reports... 15 commercial stations.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Interesting that this station takes 50% of the market revenue, and with its two sister stations they take in about $17 million of the $19.5 million the whole market reports... 15 commercial stations.
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WHUD, I'm sure, also brings in a decent amount of ad money from NYC. The station throws a pretty good signal into the five boroughs ... also Western Connecticut and New Jersey. It is also the first media outlet in the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant public warning system. Talk about news.

Two former WMCA Good Guys, Ed Baer and Joe O'Brien (both deceased now), worked at WHUD.
 
MarcB said:
Most commercial music stations if they have news on them at all only has the news during morning drive. How many commercial music stations air news outside of morning drive?

1. WZBG 97.3 Litchfield, CT - they run an Adult Contemporary format from Westwood One and air CBS News hourly. They also do local news at times outside of morning drive as well.

2. Kool 96.1/990 WNTY Southington, CT - they run a 1 minute newscast from Westwood One hourly. Sister stations Kool 104.3/1180 WSKP in Westerly, RI and Kool 100.1/1270 WACM in Springfield, Mass air a 1 minute newscast from CBS hourly. Their format is Classic Hits.

3. Oldies 98.1 WPTY HD2 (I don't remember the calls of the 98.1 translator) in Suffolk County, Long Island airs hourly news from ABC.

4. 96.7 WTSA-FM in Brattleboro, Vermont used to do news every hour (CBS and local news I think). I don't know if they still do or not. Haven't listen to the station in quite a while.

5. The now defunct WQUN AM 1220 in Hamden, CT used to air CBS news hourly. They ran the America's Best Music format.
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even a week weeks later, but this is an interesting question can't think of any music stations that airs news outside of morning drive.
 
staggmovie said:
even a week weeks later, but this is an interesting question can't think of any music stations that airs news outside of morning drive.
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if youd read the thread earlier.. i posted.. our AC Variety station does... local news at 7am, noon and 5pm... statewide news reports multiple times a day all day, abc radio news every hour all day, statewide sports reports several times a day and local weather twice an hour every hour 24/7
 
The station I work for does 60 second network news capsules (ABC on hour, state network on half hour). Weather 2 times an hour. Sort of music intensive full service. Yep, it's a small market.
 
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