106.7 news

[JRH]

ABC still has four networks, although they're not identified as such on the air. As of a couple of years ago when we dropped ABC, they still referred to them as Information, Entertainment, Direction, and Contemporary. Only Information gets exclusive material; the others get shared such as a top of the hour cast fed to both Entertainment and Direction, but with different sounders and ads. There's also "ABC News Now" which apparently is a 5th network, I'm not really sure how it fits in with the others.

USA Radio News is now IRN USA as the USA Network was purchased by IRN, Information Radio Network.

Fox offers two types of affiliations... one only get the hourly one-minute update, the other gets the full five-minute top of the hour and the update.

 

[jabba17]

Meanwhile Fox Radio News is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and is anchored at Fox News headquarters in NYC.

Actually it's owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, not News Corp (which only has the old News Corp's dead tree media). Premiere (iHeart) also owns a stake in it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Radio

 

[TheBigA]

All of this TOH national network news is such a holdover from the old network radio days, and really only a useful product on dying AM radio stations searching for cheap content. If you're a news operation with a local staff, as 106.7 is, there is no real benefit from TOH national network news that originates from NYC. Especially when everyone knows that Atlanta is the news capital of the world.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

As an addendum to what TheBigA just posted- - - Maybe this should be part of the programming logic if you are going to run a news operation in a market as large as Atlanta: "Top of the Hour has traditionally been reserved for the best, the most important news... what newspapers would headline or put on the front page." In a market the size of Atlanta, if the news constructed and produced in your own newsroom is not what belongs in this Top Of The Hour slot.... maybe there is a crisis in your priorities. A national network news segment is just one more stringer to fit into the mix... somewhere in the hour.

 

[TheBigA]

And as an addendum to what GRC said, how many times have you heard TOH national news lead with some dumb story that really doesn't relate to people in Atlanta? Having been in a few of those newsrooms, I can tell you that quite often, it's a real stretch trying to come up with a fresh lead story every hour, and sometimes you just lead with whatever's new, even if it's the annual Santa Anna winds in southern California.

 

[On the Dial]

I disagree. Given the light staffing of most radio newsrooms (often, just one person on duty at a time), almost any time the newsperson spends monitoring and writing national news comes at the cost of time that could be spent gathering and writing local news. When you concentrate on national news, local news suffers; when you concentrate on local news, national news suffers. If I'm working local news, I like the idea that I can concentrate on that local news, knowing that the network will be taking care of the national stuff.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

When you concentrate on national news, local news suffers; when you concentrate on local news, national news suffers. If I'm working local news, I like the idea that I can concentrate on that local news, knowing that the network will be taking care of the national stuff.

I don't know that what you are saying is in that much disagreement with this latest direction in the thread.

Some of us are saying that the focus on national news can be at other places in the hour... we no longer have this "religious superstition" that Top of the Hour MUST be national (and world) news... and that prestige at the local level demands that you are good enough to warrant being affiliated with the best of the national news networks. It can be some kind of network syndication that is not even identified, or it can be from a named national organization, but it can be anywhere in the hour.

The next question becomes: how much of your time and energy does it take to grab some kind of news-feed (audio or copy) and put it on the air?

And if you are in a lower population market, your points become much more valid to the conversation. But implied in this thread is the concept that if you are going to compete in the Atlanta market or other market of comparable size, maybe management is kidding themselves if they think ONE JOURNALIST on a shift will be able to create competitive news programming.

Your comments are very much On-Target if your market is Springfield, MO or LaCrosse, WI or Ft. Wayne, IN.

But if you are going to play in Atlanta or Houston or St. Louis, dress your station news department in Big-Boy Pants.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

ABC still has four networks, although they're not identified as such on the air. As of a couple of years ago when we dropped ABC, they still referred to them as Information, Entertainment, Direction, and Contemporary. Only Information gets exclusive material; the others get shared such as a top of the hour cast fed to both Entertainment and Direction, but with different sounders and ads. There's also "ABC News Now" which apparently is a 5th network, I'm not really sure how it fits in with the others.

I believe ABC News is currently producing three hourly newscasts, a 5-minute a 1-minute, and a 2-minute. I'm not sure if they still use all the brand names.

 

[kf4rca]

ABCNewsNow-isn't that a video service.
I agree with GRC, if you're in a major market, you should sound like major market. So, why does WCFO (We Can't Find Ourselves) continue to be a dissapointment?
So much potential there, a real embarrasment.
USA Radio Network has dropped the IRN designation, at least on the SW feeds that I hear.

 

[TheBigA]

So, why does WCFO (We Can't Find Ourselves) continue to be a dissapointment?
So much potential there, a real embarrassment.

Single station owner. Very limited resources. The equivalent of a backyard hamburger stand competing against McDonalds.

People romanticize mom & pop radio, but this is what you often get.

 

[jabba17]

Single station owner. Very limited resources. The equivalent of a backyard hamburger stand competing against McDonalds.

People romanticize mom & pop radio, but this is what you often get.

Actually two stations (the sister is 1690 WMLB, which probably makes even less money than WCFO). But your point remains.

You can tell that Jeff Davis is working hard and trying to make chicken salad out of chicken scratch, but the station's production values are horrid. As someone said on another thread, spots keep appearing at weird times and cuts back to the show are clumsy. Plus, as I have mentioned before, WCFO has to be the worst-sounding 50k signal in town--maybe even the worst signal 10k and up.

And that "Southern College Football Frenzy" they ran on Fridays during the season was a joke. I've never seen a station go out of its way as much as they did to avoid talking about Georgia Tech and the ACC and talk trash and worn-out cliches when they did.

But their talk lineup is decent and they seem to get third choice of syndicated talk after Wisbee and WGST.

 

[On the Dial]

I don't know that what you are saying is in that much disagreement with this latest direction in the thread.

Some of us are saying that the focus on national news can be at other places in the hour... we no longer have this "religious superstition" that Top of the Hour MUST be national (and world) news... and that prestige at the local level demands that you are good enough to warrant being affiliated with the best of the national news networks. It can be some kind of network syndication that is not even identified, or it can be from a named national organization, but it can be anywhere in the hour.

The next question becomes: how much of your time and energy does it take to grab some kind of news-feed (audio or copy) and put it on the air?

And if you are in a lower population market, your points become much more valid to the conversation. But implied in this thread is the concept that if you are going to compete in the Atlanta market or other market of comparable size, maybe management is kidding themselves if they think ONE JOURNALIST on a shift will be able to create competitive news programming.

Your comments are very much On-Target if your market is Springfield, MO or LaCrosse, WI or Ft. Wayne, IN.

But if you are going to play in Atlanta or Houston or St. Louis, dress your station news department in Big-Boy Pants.

I work in a major market, and maybe management IS kidding itself, but yes, there are frequently times when there is only one person on duty in the newsroom. And yes, it DOES take time and energy to grab national material, if you're going to do it right. Your network may feed sound bites, but you frequently need to write scripts to go in and out of those sound bites, you have to keep checking the wires for changes in national stories you may have already written (death counts, etc. can change every half hour; something that was expected to be a minor snowfall last hour can be declared a major blizzard the next, a politician who made a bonehead statement last hour could apologize for it the next hour, etc.) Sometimes, a voice report that your network provided just hour ago has something deep inside it that is suddenly outdated by new information, and you will miss that if you're not paying attention. You also need to watch for important new stories that can pop up instantaneously. All this can certainly be done. But it can become serious distraction when you're trying to make calls, cut tape and write updates on developing local stories.

 

[AMFMRadFan]

Does anybody run USA Radio Network news?

Great 88/88.9 FM WMSL in Athens, GA airs USA Radio News at the TOH some of the time. They don't air the full 5-minute TOH newscast. However, they do go the extra mile to include USA Christian News.

Another station that airs USA Radio News is Straight Talk 1370 AM WFDR in Manchester, GA. They do air the full 5-minute TOH newscast. No, they do not include USA Christian News. In addition to airing USA Radio News, WFDR-AM also airs SRN News. The airing of SRN News mainly occurs during the Dennis Prager & Michael Medved shows. Of course, those 2 are SRN talkers. I don't know if WFDR-AM airs the Hugh Hewitt Show. From what I've listened to online so far, WFDR-AM airs Georgia's Morning News with Tim Bryant & Katie Andrew, a WGAU Athens, GA/GNN (GA News Network) morning show, from 6AM-9AM. WFDR-AM then airs what appears to be an hour of Doug Stephan's Good Day from 9AM-10AM. From 10AM-11AM, they air paid advertisements. From 11AM-12PM (12 Noon), they air the Sam Sorbo Show; Then Dennis Prager from 12PM (12 Noon)-3PM; And then Michael Medved from 3PM-6PM. I do not know what they air evenings and overnights. However, it appears they play Southern Gospel on the weekends. Their website at http://www.wfdram1370.com/straighttalk, needs some serious updating. Laura Ingraham no longer comes on the station. Andrea Tantaro's show no longer exists anymore. Mike Huckabee's radio show no longer exists because of him testing the waters with an exploratory committee, and possibly running for President. It's not yet official on whether or not he'll run. Tom Sullivan's radio show no longer comes on the station. And then there's Rusty Humphries. His show no longer exists anymore. Jerry Doyle may still come on the station. I don't know this for sure. Both Jerry Doyle & Sam Sorbo are TRN (Talk Radio Network) personalities. WFDR-AM is owned by Ploener Radio Group, LLC which also owns 2 Country stations. Those being Mountain 94.5 WFDR-FM also in Manchester as well as Bubba 1090 AM WBAF in Barnesville. Anyway, that is all.