1210 News in the mornings

[tater]

Has anyone noticed the past few days they have skipped news at the top of the hour and Smerconish goes right into a topic? Can they not find someone to substitue as news anchor, even if it's only to talk about the Phillies?

 

[JaMa]

Rumor has it that this has nothing to do with not being able to find a fill-in. Those geniuses at the Big Talker decided to stop doing news at the top and bottom of the hour in the morning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't news important to what they do?

 

[carnyfeet]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't news important to what they do?

They decided to get rid of it because those pesky facts keep getting in the way of their conservative talking points.

 

[bk1808]

Rumor has it that this has nothing to do with not being able to find a fill-in. Those geniuses at the Big Talker decided to stop doing news at the top and bottom of the hour in the morning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't news important to what they do?

I am not inside at this particular group, but when I worked at multi-station, corporate-owned clusters (CC and Entercom), after a while the regional programmers would run out of things to tweak and they'd start trying to diminish what they called "internal dilution." That's when they notice two stations in their group sharing too much audience. If I was a wagerin' man, I'd say that CBS decided to focus those who want news to KYW and those who want opinion to WPHT.

Joe Thomas

 

[BRNout]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't news important to what they do?

They decided to get rid of it because those pesky facts keep getting in the way of their conservative talking points.

Speaking of facts that can get in the way of dogma: Smerconish really isn't a conservative. He's slightly right of center, but not by that much. He is hardly another version of Rush or Hannity, both of whom are much more conservative. Perhaps you've mistaken this thread for one on daily kos?

Now to radio.....

Perhaps it was decided that all of the necessary breaks were interrupting the "flow" of the show. Doing a talk show in the morning can be very challenging because there are so many elements that need to be included. So, you're trying to interview a guest and you have to deal with a heavy spot load, traffic and news. That can make it very difficult to conduct and in-depth interview and I could literally hear Smerconish being frustrated by it. Not to mention that he was often running over the bottom of the hour breaks by 2 or 3 minutes.

Given that CBS Radio also has KYW, and they have some research which indicates that a good percentage of those who punch out of WPHT end up on KYW, perhaps they figured that they could have it both ways.

Though I can see where they are coming from, they probably should have tried to cut back a bit on the news without completely eliminating it. As it stands now, you get very little info about news, weather and traffic on WPHT; now you have to go elsewhere. That's not good for a news/talk station.

 

[Slant]

I think its a smart idea..Smerconish is probably going to hit the big stories anyway. Why waste that five minutes with national headlines and local news of a house fire in Kensighton? Too much clutter kills TSL.

 

[Rustyfender]

Some of you got it right--basically, the decision to eliminate the news/traffic in the mornings and moving Joan to the later slot was the feeling that KYW being the "all-news outlet" here--why split the audience? So the news breaks have been eliminated for a continuous focus on Smerconish.

 

[trolleyk]

WPHT-AM 1210 is now a disgrace and disrespectful to to their parent company for not carrying CBS Network News at the top of the hour. Their NY sister station WCBS-AM still carries CBS Network News on the hour. They even compete with All News 1010WINS. WPHT has gone downhill in recent years when it comes to intelligent programming. Programs like the self-centered pompous Smerconish is a good example of this. Dom Giordano is far superior as a local talker than he is. Even IMUS was better when they carried him.

 

[qtpieislit]

During the course of a talk content program, you elicit longer listening patters of listening. The same news headlines at the top and bottom of the hour is redundant, and may cause a margin of the audience to stray for the predicable repetitive headlines. Thus, losing fragments of 2-quarter hours. By cleaning up that mess, 1210 stands to increase their ratings, even with an established audience pattern. This get’s down to the first basic of broadcasting. ‘It is not necessary to cause your audience to tune out for indiscriminant reasons’.
However, it seems completely contradictory, trying to stabilizing your audience, in the face of a deteriorating signal.

 

[Jul]

WPHT-AM 1210 is now a disgrace and disrespectful to to their parent company for not carrying CBS Network News at the top of the hour. Their NY sister station WCBS-AM still carries CBS Network News on the hour. They even compete with All News 1010WINS. WPHT has gone downhill in recent years when it comes to intelligent programming. Programs like the self-centered pompous Smerconish is a good example of this. Dom Giordano is far superior as a local talker than he is. Even IMUS was better when they carried him.

I agree with you. Does anyone on WPHT or CBS Radio management remember WCAU-AM and how they programed and formatted the news and talk programming and the talent they had. Maybe they need to listen to any WCAU-AM tapes that are out there and maybe learn something.

 

[imhomerjay]

Julius, that was long ago and a different business reality. Enough with the comparisons to something that made sense generations ago. Welcome to 2007.

 

[Evangelist]

WPHT is a "disgrace" to its parent company by not running the CBS hourly news? Geez, give me a break.

The management at 'PHT wants to keep its audience tuned in longer and maybe they think this is one way to do it. It might just work. And if CBS really cared about running its hourly newscasts all the time on 'PHT, they would make the station do it.

 

[trolleyk]

The network O&O's in other major market cities are loyal. Why should 1210 be any different. If one doesn't support one's own network, it doesn't say very much about the example the O&O affiliate sets.

 

[imhomerjay]

The network O&O's in other major market cities are loyal. Why should 1210 be any different. If one doesn't support one's own network, it doesn't say very much about the example the O&O affiliate sets.

It has nothing to do with loyalty, it has to do with business. If the management feels this is the best way to go in this case, then that's what's best for the company as a whole. As is so often pointed out on these types of boards, just because it's done a certain way in other markets doesn't mean it has to be done that way in this one (and vice versa).

 

[BRNout]

The network O&O's in other major market cities are loyal. Why should 1210 be any different. If one doesn't support one's own network, it doesn't say very much about the example the O&O affiliate sets.

Not necessarily true. In CBS' case, WPHT, WBZ, KNX, WINS and others do not carry CBS Radio Network news at the TOH unless it is during the middle of the night. Some don't even do it then - as long as they have local news available. They all have the affiliation, but don't take all of the programming offered and are not required to do so.

 

[carnyfeet]

bep bep bep bep

doesn't matter

if they're not doing business the way Julius says they should be doing business, I agree - they are a DISGRACE

 

[Evangelist]

The network O&O's in other major market cities are loyal. Why should 1210 be any different. If one doesn't support one's own network, it doesn't say very much about the example the O&O affiliate sets.

"support one's own network?"

Those stations are part of the network. Their purpose is to make money. The corporate bigwigs don't care if they run the hourly CBS News or not as long as the stations make money. The stations are programmed by people who work for CBS because they are a part of CBS. They cannot be disloyal to THEMSELVES.