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WBFO Has Imploded

Mike Sheridan said:
WBFO made a big mistake the people of Buffalo will remember. This is a problem for a station claiming to cover news.
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Outside of the posters in this forum, nobody remembers who covered the Blizzard of 77. No one in Buffalo will remember what WBFO had on the air DURING the storm. If the ratings take a huge dive and members stop donating (and they specifically site no storm coverage as the reason), then you may have a case.

Other posters have said "Buffalo gets storm warnings all the time" and it's no big deal. This storm forecast was expected to be very bad with rapidly deteriorating conditions. Some people will never pay attention even when Blizzard conditions, hurricane force winds, flash freeze are all in the forecast. WBFO and other national outlets ALL stressed how serious this storm would be many days in advance...
 
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tbolt909 said:
Outside of the posters in this forum, nobody remembers who covered the Blizzard of 77. No one in Buffalo will remember what WBFO had on the air DURING the storm.
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Disagree. About a week after the Blizzard of 22, I was talking to a very non-radio, probably 60 year old guy at Valu (local hardware store for those not living in WNY) and without proding or pre-reference, the guy says, "I remember the Blizzard of 77 listening to Danny Neaverth..." and he went on to talk about what his family and neighborhood endured. Weather events are seminal and take up a special file folder in average, non-radio people's brains. Maybe people won't remember what WBFO had on during the storm, but very likely, they will remember what WBEN had on, because that's the radio station that came through for them.
 
They didn’t cover Damar Hamlin story much. It’s apparent that they are now just a repeater for NPR.
 
Roch989 said:
They didn’t cover Damar Hamlin story much. It’s apparent that they are now just a repeater for NPR.
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They seem to have channeled all of their local resources into "Buffalo, What's Next."

www.wbfo.org

What’s Next?

Buffalo, What’s Next? unapologetically confronts the reasons why the May 14, 2023 mass shooting occurred in Buffalo. Each hour-long episode will amplify voices that have traditionally been marginalized. The show provides a forum for open, honest, and candid conversations about what happened...
www.wbfo.org www.wbfo.org

More long form documentary, less short form news coverage. Perhaps at some point they'll devote a show to Damar.

Meanwhile I was hoping Alan Pergament would revisit the WBFO story, and he's been wall-to-wall Damar.
 
Rusty Bridges said:
Weather events are seminal and take up a special file folder in average, non-radio people's brains.
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I agree, and you make a good point.

I still remember tuning (talk about an ancient term) to KFWB in 1994 moments after the Northridge earthquake. I had hammered my way out of my apartment and was driving to pick up a staff member to go to our own station (KHJ) and the memory of how rapidly KFWB... at 4:31 in the morning... initiated coverage and restored a bit of confidence in the ability of humanity to deal with disasters.

Yep, it was a special folder for sure!
 
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TheBigA said:
They seem to have channeled all of their local resources into "Buffalo, What's Next."

www.wbfo.org

What’s Next?

Buffalo, What’s Next? unapologetically confronts the reasons why the May 14, 2023 mass shooting occurred in Buffalo. Each hour-long episode will amplify voices that have traditionally been marginalized. The show provides a forum for open, honest, and candid conversations about what happened...
www.wbfo.org www.wbfo.org

More long form documentary, less short form news coverage. Perhaps at some point they'll devote a show to Damar.

Meanwhile I was hoping Alan Pergament would revisit the WBFO story, and he's been wall-to-wall Damar.
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I don’t think Alan Pergament pays too much to radio unless it’s sports.

The Buffalo News already devotes a lot of resources on the Tops shooting. Unfortunately, I don’t know how much more can be said about it.

Of course, that is more up NPR’s alley.

In fairness, WBEN doesn’t exactly do any real in-depth news on most subjects.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
Let us remember who owns WBEN, WGR, WWWS, and WWKB today not to mention FM stations WTSS, WLKK, and WKSE. Just because they aren't news stations it doesn't absolve them from the requirement to stop the music and do some updates. They all could have used the resources of either WBEN or even the 3 area TV stations WGRZ 2, WIVB 4, or WKBW 7. This would have been a big help to those without power. In South Florida during a hurricane many of the FM music intensive stations partner with one of the Miami TV stations to provide information.

WBFO made a big mistake the people of Buffalo will remember. This is a problem for a station claiming to cover news.
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TheBigA said:
Assuming people have battery-powered radios. Using myself as an example, I don't. From the research I've seen, I'm not unusual.
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Okay for arguments sake let's take a look at that. If you live in hurricane prone South Florida or snowbound Western New York state you should have a battery powered radio next to your flashlight. Still no radio? What about the one in the car? many people in the Buffalo area have an attached garage. Due to the winter weather folks usually keep at least onr car in there.
 
TheBigA said:
Assuming people have battery-powered radios. Using myself as an example, I don't. From the research I've seen, I'm not unusual.
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People have cell phones, tablets, computers, and favorite station apps. A lot of people who have WBFO's app may not have (or want) WBEN's app. No matter how you listen, this is still a major fail on WBFO's part.
 
SirRoxalot said:
People have cell phones, tablets, computers, and favorite station apps. A lot of people who have WBFO's app may not have (or want) WBEN's app. No matter how you listen, this is still a major fail on WBFO's part.
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You keep harping on this "fail". Didn't the local CBS affiliate also fail for airing the Bills game instead of giving people storm information? Why were folks watching football during an apocalyptic storm while others were struggling to survive?

Sure, WBFO could have repeated the obvious over and over. "Conditions are horrendous. First responders cannot help if you are outside. We told you days in advance not to travel, but you ignored us. Sorry". The folks who lost power at home would want to know the estimated restoration time for service. The power company, not WBFO would provide that information...
 
Has WBFO made any statements other than their initial there was a flood in the building? I can’t imagine them ignoring any donor questions or complaints.
 
SirRoxalot said:
People have cell phones, tablets, computers, and favorite station apps. A lot of people who have WBFO's app may not have (or want) WBEN's app. No matter how you listen, this is still a major fail on WBFO's part.
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As you've noted before, cell phones, tablets, computers, and apps may not work during a power failure. I know of many places that experienced internet outages and cell outages during storms.

But if they have access to all of those things, that means they have access to VISUAL media, which means they can SEE the effects of the storm, and know to stay indoors.
 
TheBigA said:
As you've noted before, cell phones, tablets, computers, and apps may not work during a power failure. I know of many places that experienced internet outages and cell outages during storms.

But if they have access to all of those things, that means they have access to VISUAL media, which means they can SEE the effects of the storm, and know to stay indoors.
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Video requires a lot more data, and a lot more battery power. When there's a white-out, there's not much to see. People on limited data plans can listen to an audio feed for a much longer time without incurring additional charges. That's important, especially for poor people who may have very limited government-backed programs.
 
CTListener said:
And now the persistent "atmospheric river" -- 2022's meteorological buzzword of the year -- soaking California has authorities asking fans not to drive to tonight's NFL playoff game in San Francisco. I wonder if KQED has all hands on deck!
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I don’t know if KQED has all hands on deck tonight. But I did hear a local host at 6:59pm PST on KQED do a live weather update, specifically mentioning the flood watch that is in effect through Monday. And the main page at the KQED website has seven distinct weather-related stories. So, it would appear that San Francisco public radio listeners on this Saturday night have access to more information than we did from our public station three weeks ago tonight.
 
Mark1981 said:
I don’t know if KQED has all hands on deck tonight. But I did hear a local host at 6:59pm PST on KQED do a live weather update, specifically mentioning the flood watch that is in effect through Monday. And the main page at the KQED website has seven distinct weather-related stories. So, it would appear that San Francisco public radio listeners on this Saturday night have access to more information than we did from our public station three weeks ago tonight.
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You mentioned they had content on their website. Many posters here have said that online doesn't count. All that matters is that a station must put Joe Caller on the air saying useless things like "Man it's windy. It's a Blizzard and I can't see nothin'". That's worthless info to someone who got stranded in their car because they ignored the dire forecast.

Since this Buffalo storm landed on a Friday the day before Christmas Eve, WBFO management made decisions not to have staff in the studio. Had they put storm updates on their website, that still wouldn't satisfy the people who are whining on this forum. I'd be interested to know how listeners have actually contacted WBFO to complain. My guess is very few...
 
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tbolt909 said:
I'd be interested to know how listeners have actually contacted WBFO to complain. My guess is very few...
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All you do is guess and complain. I'm still waiting for your first positive post. You lack local knowledge, yet you opine here with little basis for relevance. BTW, WBFO wasn't even posting on their website during the storm, so it's a false equivalency to compare them to KQED.

To be fair, people are able to travel throughout much of the Bay Area under the current conditions. That was not the case during the Buffalo storm. Once WBFO people left that building Friday morning, there was no going back. Once they failed to plan for an extreme weather event the number of options to rectify that were limited. Mostly, WBFO's response appears to be a top-down failure, not an indictment of the people near the bottom of the food chain.
 
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