Memo to 92.3: daily, expected #'s are not "breaking news"

[indieradioguy]

Is there a reason why 92.3 still announces the daily numbers as "breaking news"? It's not "breaking news." The daily numbers are announced, and anticipated to be announced, at approximately the same time every day: in between 8:00am-9:00am.

Can you guys please stop calling it "breaking news"? It won't be breaking news when you announce it tomorrow, nor the day after that, nor the week after that.

Huge pet peeve.

 

[KCIR72]

Exactly. Cheapens the whole "breaking news" thing... So annoying. Of course KTAR does a lot of things that are annoying. Wish there were better options. 😂

 

[TheBigA]

Wish there were better options. 😂

Depends on what you consider "better."

 

[landtuna]

I am not a fanatic follower of virus news but the channel 10 AZ/AM seems to have a pretty good recap every morning.

 

[DrAkbar]

In case you haven't picked up on it, KTAR News is formatted similarly to FOX News. Every time FOX starts a newscast you'll see the graphic and hear the sounder, alerting you something big is going to happen. Most of the time it's just a rehash of what you already know...but creates more interest.

And because my attention span is longer than Nurse Jeff's, I sure wish 92~Three would give more than just three things I need to know. The grey matter under my fez can handle it!

 

[mofocat]

Fifteen years ago I think it was when KFSN Ch 30 Fresno started opening EVERY evening newscast with "BRrrEAKING News!!!" Hardly... I do remember as a 9 or 10 year old, waking up at daybreak to the sound of a 'paper boy' shouting "EXTRA! EXTRA!! I thought it quite amazing that The Bay City Times already had papers on the street, with photos, I believe, about the plane crash that happened less than 10 hour earlier just out of town that killed all 50 on board. These days I dont think of anything that happened 10-12-...24... hours ago as 'BRrrrEAKING NEWS!!!' Anything to 'get your attention'.

 

[seatownmedia]

It is all just hype and it should come back to kick these outlets in the butt, but it won’t and that is why they do it. So who is really to blame? Yep, us.

 

[asugeorge1]

Phoenix needs a true all-news station, but sadly I don’t think that will ever happen. KTAR has the talent and staff to pull it off, but the news department keeps get squeezed out for more Dave Ramsey, more Broomhead, etc... Unfortuantely, unless a city already has a legacy all-news station in place, no one is willing to fork over the $$$ to start on up. This is why cities and metropolitan areas smaller than Phoenix like Seattle, Detroit and San Francisco have all news stations and others (like Houston, Miami and Atlanta) don’t. It seems that the heritage CBS News stations are a dying breed!

 

[TheBigA]

This is why cities and metropolitan areas smaller than Phoenix like Seattle, Detroit and San Francisco have all news stations and others (like Houston, Miami and Atlanta) don’t.

Both Houston and Atlanta tried doing all-news in the last few years. Both were ratings failures.

 

[KeithE4]

Phoenix needs a true all-news station, but sadly I don’t think that will ever happen. KTAR has the talent and staff to pull it off, but the news department keeps get squeezed out for more Dave Ramsey, more Broomhead, etc... Unfortuantely, unless a city already has a legacy all-news station in place, no one is willing to fork over the $$$ to start on up. This is why cities and metropolitan areas smaller than Phoenix like Seattle, Detroit and San Francisco have all news stations and others (like Houston, Miami and Atlanta) don’t. It seems that the heritage CBS News stations are a dying breed!

Phoenix tried all-news in the mid '70s (KTAR 620 and KPHX 1480 locally, and KRUX 1360, with NBC's ill-fated News and Information Service), and the early '90s (KNNS 1360). All failed.

Now, there are only 8 hours per day on weekdays (5 of which are overnight) without news on TV, when you add up all the stations' newscasts: 4 AM to 1 PM and 4 PM to 11 PM. But I doubt there will ever be a 24/7 news station on radio ever again.

 

[davideduardo]

Both Houston and Atlanta tried doing all-news in the last few years. Both were ratings failures.

And Miami, if you recognize that it is truly a Latin American city, does not have sufficient non-Hispanic white population to even be a top 20 market.

 

[The Media Observer]

All I know is that Lunkhead (i.e. Broomhead) tries way too hard at being "moderate". He isn't, wasn't previously, and never will be.

 

[asugeorge1]

Phoenix tried all-news in the mid '70s (KTAR 620 and KPHX 1480 locally, and KRUX 1360, with NBC's ill-fated News and Information Service), and the early '90s (KNNS 1360). All failed.

Now, there are only 8 hours per day on weekdays (5 of which are overnight) without news on TV, when you add up all the stations' newscasts: 4 AM to 1 PM and 4 PM to 11 PM. But I doubt there will ever be a 24/7 news station on radio ever again.

Not disagreeing with you, but Phoenix is a significantly different market than it was in the mid 70’s. What didn’t work then, might work now and vice versa. The metropolitan area has grown significantly and the demographics have certainly changed. Not saying an all news station would work or is even financially feasible, but Phoenix has grown into the 13th largest radio market and 10th largest metropolitan area in the entire United States.

 

[TheBigA]

Phoenix is a significantly different market than it was in the mid 70’s. What didn’t work then, might work now and vice versa.

In the markets that have all-news stations, the audience tends to be older than might be commercially viable. KTAR was the closest thing to an all-news station, and has been enlarging the talk aspect of it's format. They're doing that for a reason.

 

[davideduardo]

Not disagreeing with you, but Phoenix is a significantly different market than it was in the mid 70’s. What didn’t work then, might work now and vice versa. The metropolitan area has grown significantly and the demographics have certainly changed. Not saying an all news station would work or is even financially feasible, but Phoenix has grown into the 13th largest radio market and 10th largest metropolitan area in the entire United States.

It's pretty well proven that all-news underperforms in Sunbelt markets. Atlanta and Houston failed, LA is way below San Francisco, Dallas also underperforms.

Phoenix is a young market, and the format leans very old. It has a very high ethnic composition... it is down to just over 50% non-Hispanic white and the ethnic groups severely under-index with all news stations.

 

[asugeorge1]

It's pretty well proven that all-news underperforms in Sunbelt markets. Atlanta and Houston failed, LA is way below San Francisco, Dallas also underperforms.

Phoenix is a young market, and the format leans very old. It has a very high ethnic composition... it is down to just over 50% non-Hispanic white and the ethnic groups severely under-index with all news stations.

Exactly. For the life of me, I don’t understand why KNX does not do better in LA. It’s a high quality, heritage all news station. It’s not necessarily the fact that there are less non-Hispanic whites in LA as KFI and KRTH perform very well in the market. It’s also not the signal issues that plague other Sun Belt cities like Phoenix where there are no 24/7 50 KW non-directional AM stations. KNX has a monster signal that I can hear clearly throughout the Southland and the San Diego area (even better than KFI in my experience). Also, scientific studies have shown that Non-Hispanic whites in Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and LA, tend to be less educated than those in northern cities where all-news stations do work (San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, New York City, Detroit, Philadelphia and Seattle). I think that’s the key.

 

[DrAkbar]

All news is a grandfathered format. No one in their right mind would plunge into all news today. It's expensive; takes years to attract an audience; demos are old, and there are so many other ways to get news. As far as the education level of the Valley goes, just look at the last three monthlies for KFYI. No doubt there are a lot of post grad listeners diggin' 5~Fifty

 

[CAVEMANager]

WTOP in Washington reaches old folks that no advertiser wants or needs. It fails to reach the all important Hispanic market. It is a severe underperformer but widely reported to have the highest gross of any radio station in the nation.

KNX has been all news as long as anyone can remember but they don't seem to realize that they could do better by playing rap in Spanish.

 

[TheBigA]

WTOP in Washington reaches old folks that no advertiser wants or needs.

Washington is a very unique market for obvious reasons. The classical station gets pretty good ratings too.

 

[davideduardo]

WTOP in Washington reaches old folks that no advertiser wants or needs.

WTOP is America's highest billing radio station, over 15% and $10 million higher than the #2 biller. It's even #2 on average in 18-24 listeners and a strong "must buy" in every sales demo from 18-34 to 25-54.

It fails to reach the all important Spanish market.

The Hispanic (I think that is what you meant... the "Spanish market" is in Spain) market there is pretty much ignored, as it is from such varied origins that it is hard for stations to be focused. WLZL is below 15th in billing and has not had a share above the mid-1's for six years.

It is a severe underperformer but widely reported to have the highest gross of any radio station in the nation.

It is a magnificent performer in every demo.

KNX has been all news as long as anyone can remember but they don't seem to realize that they could do better by playing rap in Spanish.

There is essentially no "rap" in Spanish. The contemporary music form across Latin America is called "reggaetón" and is an adaptation to Latin American tropical music, particularly salsa, of Jamaican riddim and dancehall.

And, because of the younger average or median age, Hispanics have pretty much abandoned AM and would certainly not listen to the band for music. In some Latin American nations like El Salvador, commercial radio has nearly abandoned AM... most stations are silent there and the remaining ones are mostly Evangelical Christian outlets.

Mexico accepted the non-viable nature of commercial AM and allowed 80% of the stations to migrate to FM by changing the channel separations. Only on the border or in a few huge cities were the AMs not able to abandon AM.