• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

A national news radio idea

MrRadio

MrRadio

No one will ever topple the mighty WSB in the news/talk format, maybe some inroads could be made with people who would prefer all news without the opinion.

What if a station group operated a national news radio channel that repeated every 20 minutes like 1010 WINS NYC, but only reported national news and allowed 3-4 minutes every 20-minute cycle for local news/weather/traffic cut-ins?

All of the stations airing the format would split the cost of the national operation, and the local stations' news departments would feed the national mothership with content.

Viable? No?
 
www.iheart.com

24/7 News | iHeart

24/7 News Headlines from iHeartRadio
www.iheart.com www.iheart.com

Iheart already does something like that for it's app like 24/7 news its all news feed and stations like KFBK Sacramento uses national news segments from them during am and pm drive time.


www.iheart.com

Associated Press Radio | iHeart

Your Definitive Source for News
www.iheart.com www.iheart.com

Iheart also uses the Associated Press All News feed. Now I don't know if it will be on the levels of making Iheart convert KFBK, KFI, WOR into the same levels as KCBS, KNX, WINS, WBBM all news operations that Audacy does.
 
Perhaps you should sample iHeart's Black Information Network, which uses the model you suggest.

This has been tried many times over the decades. Remember when simulcasting CNN Headline News was a format in the early 90s? In a streaming world, there's no usage for radio in this manner to make it financially viable.
 
lanceventa said:
Perhaps you should sample iHeart's Black Information Network, which uses the model you suggest.

This has been tried many times over the decades. Remember when simulcasting CNN Headline News was a format in the early 90s? In a streaming world, there's no usage for radio in this manner to make it financially viable.
Click to expand...
How often is BIN updated? I listened to it briefly the day after the election, after the losing candidate had conceded, and it was running a package about the ways Kamala Harris was trying to attract Black male voters in the upcoming election.
 
106.7 tried all news (albeit locally produced) after dropping oldies and before going to news-talk.

As Lance said, 680 got its WCNN callsign when they flipped from talk WRNG Ring Radio to a simulcast of the audio of the original CNN Headline News in the early 80s, which was on a 30-minute repeat.
 
tunein.com

BBC World Service | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

BBC World Service - News and views from the BBC’s international radio station
tunein.com tunein.com

tunein.com

Reuters World News | Listen to Podcasts On Demand Free | TuneIn

Reuters World News podcast on demand - Everything you need to know about your world in 10 minutes. Go straight to the source with a ten-minute news briefing by Reuters frontline journalists. Join host Kim Vinnell as she takes you around the world every weekday.
tunein.com tunein.com

tunein.com

NHK WORLD RADIO | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

NHK WORLD RADIO - NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN broadcasts the very latest information from Japan, Asia and the rest of the world, as well as a wide variety of programming in 17 languages. Languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian,...
tunein.com tunein.com

tunein.com

ABC Radio Australia English | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

ABC Radio Australia English - Radio Australia provides educational, informative and entertaining content that expands your understanding of the world. We reflect the diversity of opinions and attitudes of the many nations in Asia and the Pacific while also exploring Australian...
tunein.com tunein.com


tunein.com

ABC News | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

ABC News - Live News and Programming 24/7, with headlines every 30 minutes from ABC News Radio and in-depth coverage from ABC News Live. ABC News is a radio station that provides listeners with the latest national and international news and analysis. The...
tunein.com tunein.com

tunein.com

NBC News NOW | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

NBC News NOW - Get live breaking news, in-depth reporting, and news headlines when you want them with TuneIn’s NBC News NOW live streaming station. Listen in to the NBC News NOW live stream for free and enjoy access to journalists and reporters on the ground,...
tunein.com tunein.com

Here are some additional examples Tunein carries BBC World Service, Reuters World News Podcasts, Audio simulcast of NBC News Now. I don't know how that converts to OTA radio but it's working out on the major radio apps. For NBC and ABC News (US) specifically those are funded via cable, Peacock and Disney+/Hulu subscriptions given that they are the audio simulcast of the TV apps.
 
lanceventa said:
Perhaps you should sample iHeart's Black Information Network, which uses the model you suggest.

This has been tried many times over the decades. Remember when simulcasting CNN Headline News was a format in the early 90s? In a streaming world, there's no usage for radio in this manner to make it financially viable.
Click to expand...
I worked at a station that was carrying CNN HN in the mid 2000s... and it sucked big time by then.
 
MrRadio said:
All of the stations airing the format would split the cost of the national operation, and the local stations' news departments would feed the national mothership with content.
Click to expand...

Sounds like NPR. Listen to WABE. Stations pay for the use of NPR News, and affiliates are encouraged to submit stories.

At one time Audacy was thinking about utilizing the resources of its major market all news stations that way, but it didn't happen. They would be most likely to do it. iHeart already has Total Traffic & News. Then you have CBS News Radio and ABC News Radio, using the resources of their TV operations. Commercial stations typically don't pay cash for content. They run commercials from the content provider.
 
The past efforts at all-news have generally had poor affiliate coverage.

15% of Americans live in the top 5 radio markets and 25% in the top 10 markets. A service like this would probably struggle to get an affiliate in most or all of those top markets because of the existing competition from the likes of WINS, KNX, WBBM and WTOP.

Without affiliates in those large cities, it would be hard to make the business plan work.
 




Here's another one to consider Paramount has a deal with Audacy to have an audio simulcast of CBS News feeds both national and local editions of CBS News. We mentioned this when WCBS flipped to WHSQ ESPN Radio in New York and everyone there was looking for a place that is going to carry the CBS News Radio affiliation in New York and it turns out Audacy is protecting WINS because that's where their listeners are at. Also Audacy carries the CBS News Radio feed on their app. Yes that feed is funded from the subscriptions from both cable and Paramount+ app.
 
This would be great --- I wouldn't mind an all-news AM or FM station --- but there's probably no market for it, outside of very large metropolitan areas such as NYC. Perhaps if HD radio were ever to come into its element, which hasn't happened so far, this could be placed on a subchannel.

Streaming Internet feeds might be the only realistic way to deliver such a format.
 
How about a computer voice reading the headlines + stories from ABCnews.com, CBSnews.com, FOXnews.com, NBCnews.com 24/7?

Easy enough to pause the computer voice and place ads at the bottom and top of the hour and ads in the 1/2 hour blocks also.

Since the content is already there, the only cost is the computer voice system setup and distribution to radio stations.

Could be called "All the News from Left to Right".


Kirk Bayne
 
I should have mentioned that the content owners would have to OK this (computer voice) use, maybe some of the ad money could be paid to the web site owners.

Could be thought of as bringing the website content to an additional audience (at low cost) and make some money for the website owners, seems like a win-win.


Kirk Bayne
 
About the only way I could see a national all-news network working out in today’s world is one of two situations:

1) It costs nothing to bring to air (such as CNN HN audio). Turner was paying basically the same price for the TV channel overhead…may as well make a couple bucks in another manner. Given how TV news operates these days, that would be hard to do.

2) “Focused” news, such as iHeart’s BIN or Bloomberg. They don’t depend on ratings…or even revenue, either corporate goodwill or to sell people on other co-owned products (ie: Bloomberg business terminals).

I just couldn’t see how truly national networked news radio would fare these days. In addition, usually by the time a station operator decided to run AP or CNN HN, these stations were usually one step away from going brokered or (in a few cases), entirely dark.
 


Back
Top Bottom