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ARE THERE ANY TRUE ALL NEWS STATIONS IN FLORIDA?
- Thread starter jmtillery
- Start date
drt said:My final answer:
In a word........ NO
No to what question? There have many schools of thought on this thread...
Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]
NO is the answer to the question/subject line of the thread:jmtillery said:drt said:My final answer:
In a word........ NO
No to what question? There have many schools of thought on this thread...
Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]
Are there any true all news stations in Florida? Sadly, I'm come to the conclusion that the answer is no and what is even sadder is that the closest to a true station is in one of the smaller markets in the state; Pensacola and not Miami, Jax, Orlando or St. Petersburg/Tampa.
drt
drt said:NO is the answer to the question/subject line of the thread:jmtillery said:drt said:My final answer:
In a word........ NO
No to what question? There have many schools of thought on this thread...
Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]
Are there any true all news stations in Florida? Sadly, I'm come to the conclusion that the answer is no and what is even sadder is that the closest to a true station is in one of the smaller markets in the state; Pensacola and not Miami, Jax, Orlando or St. Petersburg/Tampa.
drt
You may be right... Here in Ocala, we had an All News station for about 2-years, first as CNN Headline News, then as AP 24-hour News service, only to go back to CNN Headline News. Then they started adding talk to the mix and it began to sound all over the road.
Just up the road from me in Gainesville we had an all student run All News AM station that lasted maybe a year before it became a Radio Disney affiliate. The students did a very good job. I'm a little surprised it didn't last very long...
Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]
What station was that?? WAJD?? Thought that was in the late 80s and several formats came in between (Gator Rock, a WYKS simulcast, a stint at All Sports and a "College Radio" Alternative format under CE Wayne Irwin who left for KTK and left 1390 in semi-abandonment with an "All CD Changer" format).
btw: even though it is not All News, WRUF-AM, the commercial UF Talk station does have a sizeable news department that consists of almost all UF students receiving credit for their work and at least when I was there produced longform news blocks and headlines from about 5a-11p or so. WUFT-FM, the University's NPR station also has a student run news department and newscasts, and WUFT-TV, the PBS affiliate also has "News 5", a daily newscast which is also done by the Telecom school.
M
MN Maniac
Guest
I was attending SFCC during the days of the "all-CD changer, all the time" format. That's exactly what it sounded like, too. Apparently, they were using either a Pioneer (6-disc) or Sony (10-disc) changer. You'd hear a song fade all the way out, followed by several seconds' silence as the next disc was selected and the cut cued up. If you cranked the volume on your radio during the silence, you could even hear the mechanics of the CD changer doing it's thing!
This may well have been the original JACK-FM, years before the format was coined! ;D
This may well have been the original JACK-FM, years before the format was coined! ;D
What Gainesville AM was playing heavy metal & alternative back around 1990?
This thread started around the topic of all news stations in FL. I pointed out that WNRP Pensacola was close, but sadly they are quickly drifting further away from the all news format to a standard news/talk format. When WNRP signed on with all news they were live and local with news and local talk personalities all day and no syndicated stuff until after dark. Now they have lost their midday news show and I think Larry Butler has left too. They have added the syndicated Dennis Miller show in the middle of the day and another syndicated show that I'm not familiar with. They are also carrying some 30 minute call-in shows centered around the local business sponsoring the show. Now WNRP is only live and local about half of the daylight hours, with about the same amount of local news/talk programming that WCOA and WEBY carry.
On a related note, how common is a 24 hour CNN Headline News station? I know they tried it in Atlanta about 20 years ago, but it didn't last long. Mobile had one about 10 years ago that didn't last either. We've had one in Pensacola going strong on one of the best AM signals in town for over 15 years.
This thread started around the topic of all news stations in FL. I pointed out that WNRP Pensacola was close, but sadly they are quickly drifting further away from the all news format to a standard news/talk format. When WNRP signed on with all news they were live and local with news and local talk personalities all day and no syndicated stuff until after dark. Now they have lost their midday news show and I think Larry Butler has left too. They have added the syndicated Dennis Miller show in the middle of the day and another syndicated show that I'm not familiar with. They are also carrying some 30 minute call-in shows centered around the local business sponsoring the show. Now WNRP is only live and local about half of the daylight hours, with about the same amount of local news/talk programming that WCOA and WEBY carry.
On a related note, how common is a 24 hour CNN Headline News station? I know they tried it in Atlanta about 20 years ago, but it didn't last long. Mobile had one about 10 years ago that didn't last either. We've had one in Pensacola going strong on one of the best AM signals in town for over 15 years.
1390 was the metal-alt station in Gainesville, around 1989. Interesting to note that they had five minutes of news every hour -- like almost every Gainesville station at that time, perhaps because there were so many UF comm students willing to work for low wages (or maybe just credit?).
It doesn't surprise me that WNRP has drifted from all-news. It does sadden me that they're drifting away from local content. I don't know if I'd call 790 in Pensacola "thriving". It doesn't take much to run a satellite feed.
It doesn't surprise me that WNRP has drifted from all-news. It does sadden me that they're drifting away from local content. I don't know if I'd call 790 in Pensacola "thriving". It doesn't take much to run a satellite feed.
smedge2006 said:
The legendary Mitch Craig was the station voice for the metal "Gator Rock"....He did the vo work at the time for sister WYKS, so he was also on board for the AM.
Re: the CD Changer, if I recall correctly, that's the way they used to handle the overnight hours for the "College Radio" format that ran on 1390 ca. 1994....About a year later, the CD changer took over fulltime......My favorite was when the CD changer would 'get stuck' for days on end and skip on a note.
They had a timed cart machine that would spit out "WAJD Gainesville" and sometimes a PSA wherever the CD was--if it was working correctly.
When WRUF-AM dumped Oldies/Classic Hits music in favor of News/Talk in the Fall of '91, they ran CNN Headline News during the day whenever they were not running live/local news blocks, or at night when they ran TalkNet. I believe (after I left town) they had been running large blocks of AP All News Radio just as that network folded.
1390 was the station? Was is 5000 watts days back then? It's possible I only heard it at night, but I don't believe the signal reached I-75.. it just barely covered the dorms and the student ghetto.smedge2006 said:
No, I wouldn't call it thriving either, but it has become a staple on the Pensacola radio dial. If you catch wind that some big national news story is unfolding, everyone knows to tune to 790. I think the Schroeder's are satisfied with the revenue they bring in too.smedge2006 said:
radiosanchez said:
Radio Sanchez,
Yes, the All News station was, indeed, WAJD-AM 1390. Perhaps it was the late 80s because I was working at WKTK in 1989 when heavy metal "Gator Rock" came on the scene on AM 1390. I thought the students did an exceptional job considering they were students just starting out in the business...
WRUF-AM has always had a very large news staff with a huge student run news department... We ran a close second news department at WSKY-FM in 1998 - 1999 in terms of size. WSKY was, and still is to some extent, very news oriented. When we first transistioned the former WRRX-FM to WSKY, we had a three hour All News morning news block which aired live weekdays from 6AM - 9AM. WE did use some UF students as interns in our news department, taking WRUF-AMs overflow. The morning news known as "The Morning Edition" was cancelled in late 1999, replaced with The Greg Knapp Show in an effort to cut back on expenses. That three hour news block was expensive. We had six full-time reporters, a main News Anchor, an Ocala News Anchor/Reporter, 4-news writers, an Assigment Editor, News Director, Assistant News Director, Overnight News Editor, and several support staff members in additional to subscribing to various news services such AP Wire.
Radio Sanchez, when were you in Gainesville attending UF?
Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]
jmtillery said:
Fall '94 until Spring '98, although I was familiar with the market before and after.
Alan-We won't mention how many years ago that was and I am amazed you would remember or that you would describe the long-haired hippy hanging out at FSU and working an 8 hour daily board shift at WMEN as a gentleman. But thanks.
WMEN used the NBC News and Information Service feed. It was an incredible news network. Think CNN on radio if CNN was done right. I'm trying to remember the name of the man who was the brains behind it. A friend of mine in Stone Mountain still has the tape of the sounders and news music and I believe the "Evergreen" tape we were supposed to run when we lost the network. Which happened more than we liked. You were supposed to run the evergreen tape all the time so that at any given moment you could just switch over to it at the next break. We of course kept it on a shelf and back-timing with commercials, psa's, promos and pre-produced news stories to synch to the right break was a more intense challenge than anything in life.
We did 8 minutes (I think) of news at the top and bottom of each hour and actually had a pretty good staff covering lot's of local and state news. Money was always an issue but the real challenge was the transmitter and the fact that at any given time there were only 500 or so folks listening.
There are a few other choice stories and lessons learned at WMEN that I still remember. Thanks for remembering our efforts.
Sea Stipe
WMEN used the NBC News and Information Service feed. It was an incredible news network. Think CNN on radio if CNN was done right. I'm trying to remember the name of the man who was the brains behind it. A friend of mine in Stone Mountain still has the tape of the sounders and news music and I believe the "Evergreen" tape we were supposed to run when we lost the network. Which happened more than we liked. You were supposed to run the evergreen tape all the time so that at any given moment you could just switch over to it at the next break. We of course kept it on a shelf and back-timing with commercials, psa's, promos and pre-produced news stories to synch to the right break was a more intense challenge than anything in life.
We did 8 minutes (I think) of news at the top and bottom of each hour and actually had a pretty good staff covering lot's of local and state news. Money was always an issue but the real challenge was the transmitter and the fact that at any given time there were only 500 or so folks listening.
There are a few other choice stories and lessons learned at WMEN that I still remember. Thanks for remembering our efforts.
Sea Stipe
sea2ocean said:
It has been discussed elsewhere on this board before, but WINZ in Miami and WQSA in Sarasota also ran NIS, which was based out of WNWS (97.1, now WQHT) in New York. I believe all of NBC's O&O FMs ran it. News on FM in the late 70s....Probably an idea way too ahead of its' time as we sit here in 2009 with stations like WTOP, KIRO and WIBC migrating to FM being the new 'fad'.
Think I read somewhere that Charles McCord (Imus' news guy?) was somehow involved with NIS.
When NIS folded, Dick Casper, who had been at WINZ, went to WFUN/790 in Miami, re-christened it WNWS ("W-News"), and did a local All News format (with the NIS "ding-ding-ding-ding", etc sounders). That lasted from about 1978 until 1980 or so when WNWS evolved from All News to Talk, with news blocks.
Why don't you check out wmnf 88.5 fm an 6:00 pm m-f, you can get the "real" news in the tampa bay area there. no only do they cover loca issues, but you can get information regarding international issues too. You know those issues that the local media is too scared to cover and the other side of the story you won't hear from the corporate media. Check it out, and if you like it, go to wmnf.com and donate to this local radio station tha tell it like it is with no BS.
Eric Z
Eric Z
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