On weekends, Fox News Radio is using recorded segments of newscasts that were done an hour earlier on its 24/7 Headlines channel for Siris XM in place of live newscasts. There are two segments in each of the 24/7 news hours that mirror the format of the newscasts on Fox News Radio (terrestrial) network. One of these segments is recorded and played back at the top of the next hour on FNR (terrestrial). Same is done for the terrestrial one minute cast at the bottom-of -the hour. To make matters worse, the 24/7 newscasts are only done live every other hour on weekends and repeated the following hour. This means the recorded top-of-the-hour newscasts on FNR are also repeats. But it’s not consistent. Some weekend mornings will be done by Pam Pusso for FNR. Other weekends, there will be recorded playbacks of a segment from the previous hour’s 24/7 cast. Weekend afternoons seem to be the exception. So, apparently the number of air staff on weekends is much less than previously. And some of that news must outdated (an hour or two old) by the time it is aired on FNR. I’ve also heard this happen on some weekday, bottom-of-the-hour 1 minute newscasts. Budget cuts? A different direction for the network? Affiliates can’t be pleased if they know they are getting re-hashed 24/7 SiriusXM newscasts. But it’s obviously not the quality it used to be. I’m sure ABC and CBS aren’t doing anything like this.
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Fox News Radio using recorded newscasts
- Thread starter Anchor61
- Start date
Don't be so sure. Paul Harvey used to pretape his news & comment before the top of the hour. NBC Radio used to take its bottom of the hour newscast, and run it again five minutes before the hour. Back in the day when ABC had 6 news networks, some of them ran repeats of the other networks in the overnight. NPR pretapes most of its major news shows, and the west coast versions of the shows are usually completely recorded. Same with west coast editions of the TV news. These are just a few examples that are coming to mind.
The fact of the matter is that most of the time it doesn't matter unless there's a big breaking news story. If it happens, you call everyone in and they go live. But most of the time, nobody knows. It all goes back to Bing Crosby. He was hosting a radio show in the 1930s and didn't want to do it again for the west coast. So he invested in this California company called Ampex, and they made a professional tape recorder just for him. Before tape, the networks recorded on transcription discs.
The Crosby investment in Ampex was post-WW II. The technology for tape recording was captured in Germany after the war, and was most successfully implemented in the USA by Ampex.
I don't think so. After NIS went away in 1976, NBC Radio Network started feeding it's hourly newscasts live at x:54, then send out a second feed of that same cast at the exact TOH, allowing affiliates the choice of airing news pre- or post-TOH. (A few taped the newscast locally and aired it later into the hour.)
Sorry, no. While most of NPR's news magazines start out largely with pre-taped segments, the shows themselves go out live in their first feed, live host(s) in the studio doing live intros to each segment, and on some breaking stories the hosts interview the NPR reporters covering those stories live, blemishes and all. One of the day's hosts is always in the building to cover the program during its airing window, updating segments or adding new material if breaking news warrants. The window for Morning Edition is until Noon ET/9 AM PT; for All Things Considered it's 10 PM ET/7 PM PT. The weekday programs' final feed is rarely 100% identical to the first feed anymore.
The network newscasts used to be the way you describe, but more and more, they too have moved to a model that allows for breaking news to be inserted into later feeds. PBS Newshour has, for a few years now, had someone at Arizona State University providing updates for insertion into their west coast 6 PM airing.
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Exactly. Of all the things to get worked-up about. What they don't seem to understand, is many news stories, or entire newscasts have been recorded since the days of recording began.
The point is there's a lot of pre-recorded news. Several Audacy all-news stations run entire hours of pre-recorded news in overnight.
Just FYI: Back in the day when everything was fed via telco, Mutual would pre-feed four newscasts for stations to use if they were not taking the MBS Notre Dame foorball feed.
NBC hourly newscast fed live at XX54 and was digitally recorded. (Yes, the recorder took up 4 rack units and would hold exactly 6 min.) This then played back at the top. However, the news caster would stay in the booth in case there needed t be an update which hapened more than one would think.
NBC hourly newscast fed live at XX54 and was digitally recorded. (Yes, the recorder took up 4 rack units and would hold exactly 6 min.) This then played back at the top. However, the news caster would stay in the booth in case there needed t be an update which hapened more than one would think.
I think the bigger point is that Fox New Radio and its SiriusXM 24/7 channel were both fully staffed for live casts, days and nights. If Fox totally replaces its live terrestrial newscasts with recorded audio from its SiriusXM 24/7 channel, there will have to be staff cuts. There’s no way they will need to be fully staffed. This will be a major change as Fox News Radio has had at least two anchors and editor each shift since it began. When 24/7 news came along in 2015, it was staffed separately.
CBS Radio News (which you can listen to via their app and on the Audacy app) is sad these days. It mostly consists of audio clips from CBS Mornings and CBS Sunday morning and on weekends a travel and money/personal finances talk show along with a few other shows/podcasts. Sometimes I wonder of anyone is actually monitoring/listening live as a few times I’ve heard the same CBS Mornings audio clip replayed 20 or 30 minutes after it first aired. They still carry the top of the hour CBS Radio News newscasts, presumably live.
In the late 70s/early 80s, the main noon hour feed of Paul Harvey News and Comment was at 12:30pm Eastern. However, there was a pre-feed at the odd time of 11:35:10 for recording, though we took it live where I worked at the time. I presume Paul recorded it sometime in the 9 or 10am hour Central from Chicago. More recently I remember Glenn Beck having an "out" for Harvey affiliates at 11:45am Eastern.
That may have been before ABC added the Direction network.
It's inevitable. Ad revenues at all radio, regardless of platform, are dropping. Top of the hour newscasts are mainly used on AM stations, and we all know where that's headed. There are too many networks doing this kind of thing for the amount of money available. So they have to cut expenses, which means combining services.
AM stations carry Fox News because of the brand name that appeals to its audience. Not because it's live or distinct from Sirius.
Because they can't afford any actual reporters. I don't know, but my guess is that their syndication deal with SkyView is they get a percentage of ad revenue, which has to be dropping like a stone.
Just as a side note; I believe SiriusXM has a contract and pays Fox for the 24/7 Headlines product.
I find this interesting as there is (or was) a rule that required events to be identified as recorded if they could be confused as being live. I seem to remember hearing overnight news which started with KHJ Los Angeles, recorded, I'm Announcer's Name. The rule would not effect satellite radio, but over the air stations really are not supposed to present "news" that is recorded....if my old and foggy memory serves. I know it's done and always has been though. I remember the Traffic Hawk at WKIP in Poughkeepsie used to record the last two or three traffic reports on Friday afternoons so he could have the plane landed and be at the pub at the end of the runway before afternoon drive ended. Fortunately in Poughkeepsie in the 70s there was no actual traffic to report. But having the airplane was cool for bragging rights.
Correct. The issue would be if it's exclusive. If you're saying the SXM material is used on the radio, then it's not. This isn't unusual.
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Not getting worked up over anything, just want to be sure the record is accurate. (Or at least as accurate as I remember it.) No different than anyone else here. I didn't dispute that Fox is airing pre-recorded newscasts, or that WCBS is doing the same. But I'm relatively familiar with how NPR and PBS do their thing, and what it had been at NBC Radio in that era, so I corrected BigA's narrative. Feel free to roll your emoji eyes as much as you like.
I'm also very familiar with NBC Radio and NPR,
It was.
For a while they were airing live audio of CBS News tv streaming service. I don’t even mind snippets from CBS Mornings. Just don’t air the same clip within 30 minutes of previously airing it
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