ABC’s pre-recorded newscasts

[Wright County Guy]

With a number of high-profile all-news and news/talk stations now with ABC, the late night news of the passing of Lindsey Graham was notably absent due to ABC’s overnight newscasts being pre-recorded.

Radio news outlets lacked national reporting on Senator Lindsey Graham's death

July 15, 2026 - Affiliates of ABC News Radio received no national news updates on Senator Lindsey Graham's passing until hours after his death was announced, sources said.

thedesk.net

 

[Theater of My Mind]

A fumble like that opens up opportunities for ABC's hungry new competitors. Lee Harris responded to an article about this on LinkedIn:

WorldWide News Network was live and had the news in our 3am cast. We're live 24/7/365. http://wwnn.news

 

[nomadcowatbk]

wasn't the CBS newsroom empty during the Princess Diana on a holiday weekend in the US?

 

[Gregg.]

When ABC News Radio didn't have that many affiliates taking the top of the hour newscasts, maybe the idea of prerecording overnight news was tolerable. But let's look at the new affiliates it picked up, all of them carrying ABC newscasts overnight, now that CBS News Radio is no more. All of their listeners had to wait to hear about Sen. Graham's passing until 5 a.m., even though the story broke I think just after midnight.

WBBR New York (Bloomberg)
KNX Los Angeles
WBBM Chicago
KRLD Dallas
KCBS San Francisco
WPHT Philadelphia
WTOP Washington
WBZ Boston
WBOS Boston (Bloomberg)
KIRO-FM Seattle
WWJ Detroit
WCCO Minneapolis
KXL Portland OR
KMOX St. Louis
KNXT Las Vegas
KJCE Austin
KDKA Pittsburgh
WTIC Hartford
WGAN Portland ME
Sirius XM POTUS channel
Sirius XM Bloomberg channel

I think all those new affiliates, running ABC's commercials, justify the cost of a live overnight anchor.

 

[ted chittenden]

With a number of high-profile all-news and news/talk stations now with ABC, the late night news of the passing of Lindsey Graham was notably absent due to ABC’s overnight newscasts being pre-recorded.

Radio news outlets lacked national reporting on Senator Lindsey Graham's death

July 15, 2026 - Affiliates of ABC News Radio received no national news updates on Senator Lindsey Graham's passing until hours after his death was announced, sources said.

thedesk.net

This was why (though not because of this story) the late Susan Stamberg had to give up her hosting duties on NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday," back in the mid-1980s. The show had been taped on Saturdays so Mrs. Stamberg could spend time at home with her husband. Then came the Sunday morning when a major national story broke (I don't remember what it was now), "Weekend Edition Sunday," didn't air a story on it, and the following week Susan had been replaced as the program's host by Liane Hanson who was willing to work live on early Sunday mornings.

 

[bigdonho]

Some interesting notes about network newscasts:

When there was only one telco loop that feed all of the stations, MBS would pre-feed newscasts to stationas (sometimes 4 pre-feeds in a row) to stations that did not carry the ballgame.

NBC had a pre-feed of the 'cast at XX:55. That was the actual the live feed and the TOH was a playback of the prefeed. The prefeed was recorded digitally on a device that would only hold 6 minutes and was about 10 rack units.

CBS originated the Sunday midnight newscast from Miami because it saved them an entire newsroom shift in NYC.

 

[TheBigA]

I think all those new affiliates, running ABC's commercials, justify the cost of a live overnight anchor.

No they don't. Almost all of those stations are recorded at some point in the overnights, but especially on Sunday.

Most people aren't glued to their radios at 3AM.

ABC News Radio Faces Questions Over Pre-Recorded Overnight Newscasts

Several program directors, meanwhile, who air the newscasts, said they were not briefed by the network that select newscasts would be pre-recorded or re-aired.

barrettmedia.com

 

[CTListener]

No they don't. Almost all of those stations are recorded at some point in the overnights, but especially on Sunday.

Most people aren't glued to their radios at 3AM.

ABC News Radio Faces Questions Over Pre-Recorded Overnight Newscasts

Several program directors, meanwhile, who air the newscasts, said they were not briefed by the network that select newscasts would be pre-recorded or re-aired.

barrettmedia.com

And who really had any pressing need to learn that Lindsey Graham -- or ANY politician who wasn't the president of the United States -- had died, a need that couldn't be fulfilled four or five hours later? Come to think of it, what impact would not knowing that the president had died until 7 a.m. have on anyone not directly connected with him?

 

[ted chittenden]

And who really had any pressing need to learn that Lindsey Graham -- or ANY politician who wasn't the president of the United States -- had died, a need that couldn't be fulfilled four or five hours later? Come to think of it, what impact would not knowing that the president had died until 7 a.m. have on anyone not directly connected with him?

The other side of that coin is this. If a group of U.S. troops landed on the ground in Iran and began fighting immediately with Iranian troops at 3:00am ET, shouldn't the news carry the story as it was happening? There are times, especially nowadays, when I think financial considerations outweigh everything else when making decisions. And when you're talking about news, that is a very bad sign, indeed.

 

[TheBigA]

If a group of U.S. troops landed on the ground in Iran and began fighting immediately with Iranian troops at 3:00am ET, shouldn't the news carry the story as it was happening?

Perhaps they should, but that doesn't mean they'll know about it. Journalists aren't everywhere to see things happen. I'm not aware that anyone has reporters in Iran. Unless the pentagon tells them in advance, they won't be ready. You know what the relations are with the pentagon now. The president wants to be the first to report on stories. So until he posts something on his social media site, everybody is in the dark.

Then came the Sunday morning when a major national story broke (I don't remember what it was now), "Weekend Edition Sunday," didn't air a story on it,

I'm not sure that's completely true. The newscasts at the top of each hour were always live. If big news happened, they would pre-empt the A segment. That was where the Dan Schorr chat usually went. There were always people in the building who could update the show if news happened. Yes, most of the segments were pre-taped during the week. But they had a system to deal with breaking news.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

And who really had any pressing need to learn that Lindsey Graham -- or ANY politician who wasn't the president of the United States -- had died, a need that couldn't be fulfilled four or five hours later? Come to think of it, what impact would not knowing that the president had died until 7 a.m. have on anyone not directly connected with him?

Local tv and radio News outlets in South Carolina? but that would be one of them that would have a pressing need to cover Lindsey Graham given that a majority of the state voted for him as senator it would be covered more in detail. But for the rest of the country not sure except a brief mention in headlines and updates.

 

[kevtronics]

And who really had any pressing need to learn that Lindsey Graham -- or ANY politician who wasn't the president of the United States -- had died, a need that couldn't be fulfilled four or five hours later?

We recently had a U.S. congressman (Tom Kean Jr.) and senator (Mitch McConnell) go missing for a month or more, and there was hardly a peep about them in the news.

In fact, we still don't know if Mitch is alive, other than one photo that even some MAGA politicians are suspicious it may have been doctored.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Local tv and radio News outlets in South Carolina? but that would be one of them that would have a pressing need to cover Lindsey Graham given that a majority of the state voted for him as senator it would be covered more in detail. But for the rest of the country not sure except a brief mention in headlines and updates.

North Carolina too, especially Charlotte.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Come to think of it, what impact would not knowing that the president had died until 7 a.m. have on anyone not directly connected with him?

Except for getting a head start on celebrating, I wouldn't care when the death of the current POTUS was released to the media.

 

[FreddyE1977]

When ABC News Radio didn't have that many affiliates taking the top of the hour newscasts, maybe the idea of prerecording overnight news was tolerable. But let's look at the new affiliates it picked up, all of them carrying ABC newscasts overnight, now that CBS News Radio is no more. All of their listeners had to wait to hear about Sen. Graham's passing until 5 a.m., even though the story broke I think just after midnight.

WBBR New York (Bloomberg)
KNX Los Angeles
WBBM Chicago
KRLD Dallas
KCBS San Francisco
WPHT Philadelphia
WTOP Washington
WBZ Boston
WBOS Boston (Bloomberg)
KIRO-FM Seattle
WWJ Detroit
WCCO Minneapolis
KXL Portland OR
KMOX St. Louis
KNXT Las Vegas
KJCE Austin
KDKA Pittsburgh
WTIC Hartford
WGAN Portland ME
Sirius XM POTUS channel
Sirius XM Bloomberg channel

I think all those new affiliates, running ABC's commercials, justify the cost of a live overnight anchor.

Excellent point. With an opportunity like that sitting on the table you'd think they would have kept more on-top of things.
Particularly if they were out selling all of those stations on becoming affiliates.

Sadly in the current environment what I think all of this will lead to is AI newscasts.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

I think all those new affiliates, running ABC's commercials, justify the cost of a live overnight anchor.

No they don't. Almost all of those stations are recorded at some point in the overnights, but especially on Sunday.

There's still an expectation that broadcast news is live and should be a reliable source to turn to for major breaking news. This is true not just for public perception, but also for the network affiliates' expectations.

Many of those stations scrambled to pick up ABC News after losing their CBS Radio News service because ABC was a trusted legacy news brand. Now those affiliates see that ABC was on autopilot while other services were on top of the big breaking news. Disney already demonstrated some time ago that radio is not its priority so this should come as no surprise, but it does serve as a reminder to its affiliates that they might want to shop around at contract renewal time.

Most people aren't glued to their radios at 3AM.

There are plenty of drivers on the road overnight who could very well be glued to their radios. Amazon, UPS, FedEx, USPS, long-haul transport drivers, and regular people like me who choose to drive at night. So there is an audience for breaking news on talk radio stations, but again the main audience for this story is radio station executives who see the trade publication headlines like the one linked in the first post, and take that into consideration at contract renewal time.

 

[TheBigA]

Many of those stations scrambled to pick up ABC News after losing their CBS Radio News service because ABC was a trusted legacy news brand.

From what I can see, this isn't a new thing. Apparently they've been doing this for 2 years, pre-dating the end of CBS News Radio.

Just because it was pre-taped has nothing to do with its accuracy or trustworthiness.

There are plenty of drivers on the road overnight who could very well be glued to their radios.

A lot of truck drivers listen to Sirius because they don't have to change the station every hour.

the main audience for this story is radio station executives who see the trade publication headlines like the one linked in the first post, and take that into consideration at contract renewal time.

They also have to deal with expenses at their own stations and decide how to handle their own staffing. How many radio stations do you think are live & local Monday morning at 3AM? CBS News Radio shut down because it was losing money. That's something radio executives understand.

 

[crainbebo]

Sometimes, mass shootings are also first reported at 2 or 3AM ET. Like the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that killed dozens in 2016. The shooting began after 2AM, and all the TV networks had special report preemptions for several hours on Sunday morning and afternoon.

ABC needs to think twice on prerecording newscasts before midnight. Breaking news happens around the clock.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

A lot of truck drivers listen to Sirius because they don't have to change the station every hour.

Aren't you the guy who keeps telling us how the future of radio is talk formats? Now you're telling us there's no need to produce timely talk programming because all the drivers are listening to SiriusXM.

You should decide where you stand. Every sector of legacy media including AM/FM radio has modern competition. Are they supposed to concede defeat and not bother to create worthwhile content anymore because people have more choices than they did in the 80s? I guess your solution is don't even bother trying. I would argue a better strategy is when faced with increased competition, create a better product and compete to win. Especially in this case where the better content wouldn't cost anything extra.

They also have to deal with expenses at their own stations and decide how to handle their own staffing. How many radio stations do you think are live & local Monday morning at 3AM?

They are mostly running syndicated programming and the news service gets inserted through automation. The stations pay for that service, even if it's with barter. I don't know about you, but I like to get what I pay for. If the other news service is live 24/7/365 covering breaking news as it happens, and they charge the same in barter, why should the radio station keep the one that is NOT doing that?

 

[CTListener]

Again, news from Orlando that could have easily waited until 8 a.m. for anyone in Yakima. And that includes the big-rig truckers listening to music, right-wing talk or trucking-industry recorded programming on SiriusXM.