• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

iHeart Radio announces major restructuring

...Over at WBUR, they repeat Morning Edition and All Things Considered during the day. And they repeat the other news shows overnight. This is all standard stuff.

WBUR runs the BBC World Service live from England overnights 12 midnight- 5 AM. The BBC repeats some of their own material on their end at times, but that’s done in England, not at BU.
 
WBUR runs the BBC World Service live from England overnights 12 midnight- 5 AM. The BBC repeats some of their own material on their end at times, but that’s done in England, not at BU.

The point is when you're on a budget, and you're deciding how to use live & local resources, overnight is not your top choice.

We'll see how the BBC World Service is affected, now that they've announced cuts of 450 workers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-idUSKBN1ZS1Y3?il=0

Some may think there are no consequences, but there are.
 
Radioinsight ongoing list of iHeart cuts has added assistant prog dir Jared Diglio at WRKO/WXKS AM

Krazy K00nah mentioned this on his show last week before going on sick leave again.
 
Has WBZ changed its newscaster shift scheduling?

I awoke to Jeff Brown at 8:30, followed by three solid hours of Laurie Kirby.

Susan Sallsville (sp?) is on now at noon.

Are the staff getting like 3-hour shifts now?
 
I noticed this morning that Jeff Brown was the anchor for the 1st hour. I thought that someone didn’t show up to cover the 2nd half hour.

So iHeart continues making changes at WBZ. I wonder If this will lead to another anchor or two being shown the door. :(
 
I noticed this morning that Jeff Brown was the anchor for the 1st hour. I thought that someone didn’t show up to cover the 2nd half hour.

So iHeart continues making changes at WBZ. I wonder If this will lead to another anchor or two being shown the door. :(

I don't know what time Jeff Brown began, but, assuming it was 5:00 AM, then I suspect he went straight through till 9:00 AM, at which point Laurie Kirby took over till noon, followed by Suzanne Sallsville till 3:00 PM, then Nicole Davis till 8:00 PM, when I stopped listening.

Turns out Jim McKay (sp?) was sending in live reports from NH in anticipation of the Primary tomorrow, and I suspect Ben Parker (whom I did not hear today) may be resting up for a long day/night on Tuesday as well.

we'll have to wait and see if the schedule change was an aberration to accommodate the NH Primary, of if it's the latest and greatest from Newsradio 1030.

If the latter, then I suspect very strongly that neither Deb Lawler nor Josh Binswanger will be coming through the Cabot Place doors anytime soon.
 
Ben Parker was anchoring at 3 yesterday afternoon when I was listening through and including the next half hour.

Jeff Brown was on this morning starting at 5 and then again at 5:30.

There were promos running this morning that said Ben Parker would be anchoring their election coverage tonight starting at 8 with Dan Rea.
 
Meanwhile, in non-WBZ news, Worcester's WSRS debuted their new morning show this morning following the layoff of Greg Bedard a few weeks ago. Suzanne Lewis has been flying solo since then. And, out in Springfield, Chris Zito was flying solo on the Mix 93-1 morning show since his co-host was laid off. Yup, you guessed it. It's the Chris Zito (actually just Zito) and Suzanne Lewis Morning Show. Suzanne loses top billing. There is video of the show on the WSRS Facebook page. They are simulcasting on both WSRS and Mix 93-1 from the WSRS studios. Zito referenced his time doing mornings on "that other Worcester station" (that would be WXLO as Zito and Jen) although he did not reference his brief time doing mornings with Karen Blake on the old WODS/Boston. He mentioned that he's "never been in this building before" but then mentioned a couple minutes later that he did afternoons on WSRS a couple of years ago so I'm guessing he voicetracked that (or he was lying). Lots of people commenting that it's not the same without Greg and they won't listen while some others are commenting that they are just now (3-4 weeks later) finding out that Greg (and Tony Bristol) were laid off. Listening to the video on the FB page, to me it sounds very much as if Zito has basically taken over and it's his show (after all, he does have top billing). It's going to become Zito and Jen all over again. Jen (over on WXLO) thrived once Zito left. Over there, it's Jen and Frank and they both sound like equals just as I thought Suzanne and Greg Bedard did. Just my opinion.

https://www.facebook.com/961srs/

Also, https://961srs.iheart.com/ now shows the on air personalities again updated with The Morning Show with Chris Zito and Suzanne Lewis. Jana and Delilah are the only 2 other shows listed.

You may all go back to harping about WBZ now.
 
Last edited:
I don't know what time Jeff Brown began, but, assuming it was 5:00 AM, then I suspect he went straight through till 9:00 AM, at which point Laurie Kirby took over till noon, followed by Suzanne Sallsville till 3:00 PM, then Nicole Davis till 8:00 PM, when I stopped listening.

Turns out Jim McKay (sp?) was sending in live reports from NH in anticipation of the Primary tomorrow, and I suspect Ben Parker (whom I did not hear today) may be resting up for a long day/night on Tuesday as well.

we'll have to wait and see if the schedule change was an aberration to accommodate the NH Primary, of if it's the latest and greatest from Newsradio 1030.

If the latter, then I suspect very strongly that neither Deb Lawler nor Josh Binswanger will be coming through the Cabot Place doors anytime soon.


No longer listen to the train wreck in slow motion. Listened only once for 10 minutes since the layoff a couple Saturdays ago to see if they were still using the "Always Live and Always Local" tag - they were - need to write the attorney general about the false/misleading claims.

WATD is proving to be a good alternative to avoid listening to iHeart stations on the south shore and cape (no WXTK also an iheart mess either especially since they nuked the WCOD morning show). The WATD news is more targeted to my area than BZ anyway and has just as good traffic and weather info. Plenty of good locally owned stations I will support like WATD, CCB-Media stations (WQRC, WOCN, WFCC, Cape Country), WPLM and Cape Cod Radio Stations (Frank FM, Y101, WPXY, KOFFEE-FM).

The big corporate owned stations are doing nothing for local communities anymore. All about centralization. It is going to put the squeeze on local businesses who will increasingly find it difficult to advertise on national ad. controlled media platforms.

If I mistakenly tune in an iHeart stations, when I hear "an iHeart Radio station", I change stations. Entercom is a close second.
 
The big corporate owned stations are doing nothing for local communities anymore. All about centralization.

That's not true at all. In particular iHeart does a lot of local charity work. They also host a lot of local music events and concerts. Have they replaced any local news with centralized national news at WBZ? I haven't noticed that. They could have replaced overnight talk with a national host, but they keep all that on RKO. As far as Entercom, what centralized national programming do they run? Can you be specific?
 
Listened only once for 10 minutes since the layoff a couple Saturdays ago to see if they were still using the "Always Live and Always Local" tag - they were - need to write the attorney general about the false/misleading claims.

Is a no-longer-true slogan used to attract listeners to an over-the-air radio station subject to legal intervention? Are listeners losing money or anything of tangible worth because of this deception? If not, why should the AG, the consumer protection department, the BBB or any other pocketbook watchdog get involved?
 
I was talking with a friend earlier and they were listening to WBZ. I ceased the opportunity to see if they had notice any difference in the station lately, particularly within the past month or so? They said that they haven't anything different at all, go figure!
 
I was talking with a friend earlier and they were listening to WBZ. I ceased the opportunity to see if they had notice any difference in the station lately, particularly within the past month or so? They said that they haven't anything different at all, go figure!

Makes sense. The average radio user doesn't listen during the graveyard shift from which the local talk has been replaced by prerecorded news, and doesn't form any sort of bond with the news readers and reporters. That's all radio-geek stuff. If 'BZ was no longer doing news at all, had dropped its traffic reports, was playing hip-hop between newscasts, etc., that would grab their attention.
 
It sounds like the “Traffic On The 3’s” reports are actually still live overnights. They are updated with current conditions, and the traffic announcer ends them with the current Boston temperature, which is not included in the repeating pre-recorded weather forecasts that follow them.

If I’m correct, then there is at least that person still “live and local” during the overnights.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom