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KNX Los Angeles and KCBS San Francisco to Simulcast Overnight Programming

I was just thinking the other day that there were only four All-News stations with live and local programming 24/7: KNX, KCBS, WINS and WTOP. The other All-News stations do prerecorded news overnight with a live traffic reporter every ten minutes. Actually WBBM Chicago even prerecords its traffic, only using planned-ahead-of-time construction and only a few times each hour, not every ten minutes. If a tanker truck overturns on the Dan Ryan Expressway overnight, there's nobody at WBBM to report that.

The Canadian All-News stations are sort of doing what KNX and KCBS are doing, using one live anchor overnight for CFTR Toronto, CKWX Vancouver and a few Canadian stations that do All-News sometimes with talk shows at other times.

Among Sports stations, I think only WFAN and WSCR Chicago have live and local sports talk shows all night. And I don't think there are any live and local overnight Talk Radio shows now. WABC comes close. On weeknights, Lionel is syndicated to several other stations from 1 to 5 a.m. But WABC has a local show just for NYC on weekend overnights.

It is sad how overnight live radio programming is de-evolving.
 
Gregg. said:
It is sad how overnight live radio programming is de-evolving.
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What's sad is there's no advertising money for it. If there was, you'd have more programming.

But factually speaking the bottom fell out of overnights 40 years ago. The only way the Larry King Show made money was requiring affiliates to carry the network news during the day. Otherwise, it was DOA. That was a long time ago. So you can imagine how bad things are now.

There was a similar deal for the old After Midnite country show hosted by Blair Garner. Affiliates had to carry spots during the day to get the show.
 
The stations have had the ability to simulcast for decades, though it's been used only in emergency situations. I don't remember exactly when (it was several years ago), but the last time was when KNX staff was forced to evacuate from the building. During that time, KNX broadcast KCBS programming.

As long as both newsrooms are staffed and there's the ability to break into programming with urgent information -- let's say, in the event of an earthquake, which, at least in the Bay Area, tends to happen in the middle of the night -- then I don't see a big issue. It's disappointing, but not surprising.
 
Mark Roberts said:
As long as both newsrooms are staffed and there's the ability to break into programming with urgent information -- let's say, in the event of an earthquake, which, at least in the Bay Area, tends to happen in the middle of the night -- then I don't see a big issue. It's disappointing, but not surprising.
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Anyone who works in news knows they're on call at any time. Typically they can get into the studio in a half hour. But today, they just need an engineer in the studio to dial them up from their home studio, and they can be on the air pretty quickly.
 
TheBigA said:
But factually speaking the bottom fell out of overnights 40 years ago. The only way the Larry King Show made money was requiring affiliates to carry the network news during the day.
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Actually they only had to clear the spots. In my time at KTRH in Houston, the station carried King, but never carried Mutual newscasts. At the time, it was a CBS affiliate and that's whose network newscasts it carried.
 
TheBigA said:
Anyone who works in news knows they're on call at any time. Typically they can get into the studio in a half hour. But today, they just need an engineer in the studio to dial them up from their home studio, and they can be on the air pretty quickly.
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We'll see how you feel about it when you're awakened by an earthquake at 3:30 in the morning. That'll shake the smugness out of you.
 
KilowattKat said:
No official announcement from Audacy? I don't see this being reported elsewhere. The link has only the 'we're hearing that...'
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Remember, companies generally don't issue press releases for subjects they consider to have no promotional value or which constitute internal "housekeeping".

In this case, it's a "non-rated" (it is rated, actually, but not included in public data) daypart and not a positive change.
 
Gregg. said:
I was just thinking the other day that there were only four All-News stations with live and local programming 24/7: KNX, KCBS, WINS and WTOP. The other All-News stations do prerecorded news overnight with a live traffic reporter every ten minutes. Actually WBBM Chicago even prerecords its traffic, only using planned-ahead-of-time construction and only a few times each hour, not every ten minutes. If a tanker truck overturns on the Dan Ryan Expressway overnight, there's nobody at WBBM to report that.

The Canadian All-News stations are sort of doing what KNX and KCBS are doing, using one live anchor overnight for CFTR Toronto, CKWX Vancouver and a few Canadian stations that do All-News sometimes with talk shows at other times.

Among Sports stations, I think only WFAN and WSCR Chicago have live and local sports talk shows all night. And I don't think there are any live and local overnight Talk Radio shows now. WABC comes close. On weeknights, Lionel is syndicated to several other stations from 1 to 5 a.m. But WABC has a local show just for NYC on weekend overnights.

It is sad how overnight live radio programming is de-evolving.
Click to expand...
But Vancouver and Toronto are 4 Time zones apart...so does that mean CKWX "overnight" programming begins at 9 pm PST ? Sounds like the Pacific Coast versions of CNN and MS NOW. Corporate apparently doesn't think enough people are awake after 9 pm in the Pacific Time Zone to make original programming profitable. (I must say, though, that folks on the West Coast that have access to CNN International thru the CNN app, generally have live programming available after 9 pm, and in the past, at least, that programming actually originated from the CNN Center in Hollywood!)
 
TheBigA said:
Anyone who works in news knows they're on call at any time. Typically they can get into the studio in a half hour. But today, they just need an engineer in the studio to dial them up from their home studio, and they can be on the air pretty quickly.
Click to expand...
In such a catastrophic emergency, what if there's no power available at any of the staffers homes?
 
TomásEstefan said:
But Vancouver and Toronto are 4 Time zones apart...so does that mean CKWX "overnight" programming begins at 9 pm PST ? Sounds like the Pacific Coast versions of CNN and MS NOW. Corporate apparently doesn't think enough people are awake after 9 pm in the Pacific Time Zone to make original programming profitable.
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This overnight network all-news programming is heard on CJNI Halifax (Atlantic Time), CFTR Toronto and CKGL Kitchener (Eastern Time), CFFR Calgary (Mountain Time) and CKWX Vancouver (Pacific Time). There may be others I'm not aware of.

I suppose stations join and leave depending on their time zone. IIRC, there are two anchors, one heard in odd hours, one in even hours. The programming is provided for eight hours. On weekends, I know CKGL and CJNI continue carrying it into the morning hours. Maybe the Vancouver and Calgary stations play back some recorded hours when it's morning in the East but still overnight in the West? I'm not sure.
 
KilowattKat said:
They can call in to the studio from ther cell phone. Same, if they are en route to the scene or studio. Of course, assuming cell service would still be available in a catastrophe.
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In real catastrophic emergencies, the cell phones don't work either.
 
TomásEstefan said:
In such a catastrophic emergency, what if there's no power available at any of the staffers homes?
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We're at a point where it's possible for a private home to have a generator. My neighbor has one. But worst case, you drive to the studio.

A home office ups system (uninterruptable power supply) is usually good for a half hour.

KNX also has access to a news operation in NYC. They are affiliates of several networks. They might have a backup arrangement with a local TV station.
 
Here's an idea...if the government deems passenger airline service as 'essential' for smaller communities that airlines won't service due to not being profitable, and subsidizes it. Why not the same subsidizing for selected radio stations, to provide 24/7 staffing as essential public safety coverage, 'in case of...'
 
KilowattKat said:
Here's an idea...if the government deems passenger airline service as 'essential' for smaller communities that airlines won't service due to not being profitable, and subsidizes it. Why not the same subsidizing for selected radio stations, to provide 24/7 staffing as essential public safety coverage, 'in case of...'
Click to expand...

This is a government that rescinded funding for public broadcasting. They're also looking to shut down FEMA.

Don't count on this government to subsidize any media. The gov't money goes to DHS, and they have access to every radio or TV station in the country.
 
TomásEstefan said:
In such a catastrophic emergency, what if there's no power available at any of the staffers homes?
Click to expand...
KNX and KCBS should have a significant number of sources for audio.

The report makes it sound like someone will still be at both stations, even if they aren't staffing for all-night on-air newscasts. The overnight editor/producer could go on, if there was an earthquake or tsunami or other disaster.

The odds of a massive power failure affecting a significant proportion of KCBX/KNX staff are low. Even lower are the odds that any of this occurs at 3:14am.

As Kat says, cell phones exist and would likely provide a short-term solution.
Audacy has news resources in other markets (New York, Chicago) that could be uplinked to satellite if needed.
If there was something catastrophic, CBS News Radio would likely be on it.
The local government could activate EAS.

But the bottom line is that contingency plans only go so deep. You have Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. You don't have Plan M, N and O.
 
Back when KFWB was also all-News, they used to repeat some hours overnight. Is this really any worse?
 


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