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CBS News Radio Closed
- Thread starter TheBigA
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They may very well end up licensing the brand and content to whomever steps into the void, particularly for the Audacy newsers.
Totally off topic, but not exactly: Can someone tell me where I might find unscoped KCBS-AM airchecks from 2001-2008?
I'm listening to the newscast from the morning of August 26, 1981, and I wanted to compare it to how it sounded in the early 2000s (basically before the FM simulcast began at 106.9 KFRC).
I must say that KCBS before Audacy definitely sounded more interesting (KCBS' presentation in the 2020s is much more fast-paced and prone to getting stale and repetitive after only about 30 minutes or so; I don't remember that being a problem even a few years ago. Cost cutting at work?)
c
I'm listening to the newscast from the morning of August 26, 1981, and I wanted to compare it to how it sounded in the early 2000s (basically before the FM simulcast began at 106.9 KFRC).
I must say that KCBS before Audacy definitely sounded more interesting (KCBS' presentation in the 2020s is much more fast-paced and prone to getting stale and repetitive after only about 30 minutes or so; I don't remember that being a problem even a few years ago. Cost cutting at work?)
c
KCBS Radio 740: The Complete Aircheck Collection | Bay Area Radio
KCBS Newsradio 740 San Francisco, California The Complete Collection KCBS Newsradio 74 and KCBS FM Stereo 99
bayarearadio.org
The Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame has airchecks on KCBS San Francisco.
Don Swaim has airchecks for when WHSQ was WCBS 880 in New York.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't cover it, only that it should not be the lead when more substantive stories are out there.
Trump skillfully uses the fact that they all start slobbering like Pavlov-trained dogs whenever he posts something goofy on Truth Social.
It's why he does it frankly, and they never seem to figure that out.
So you're saying the president purposely lies to the public and the press, and therefore they should ignore what he says?
Here's an example of what you're talking about. Which part of it was "something goofy?"
Trump threatens Iran's energy and water if deal isn't reached soon; Tehran calls U.S. plan 'unrealistic'
Follow NBC News' latest coverage on the Iran war, Trump's ground operation threats, peace talks and energy prices.
www.nbcnews.com
Live Updates: Trump renews threat to Iran's power plants as war sends oil prices soaring again
Energy markets remain volatile as Trump threatens Iran with an invasion to seize its oil while also suggesting a deal could soon end the war.
www.cbsnews.com
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Imagine yourself as an editor in a newsroom.
A story comes in, either on the wire or from one of your reporters, with something the president has said or done.
Assume you ignore it, or give it lesser prominence, because of the "here he goes again" factor.
Do you think your competitors are going to make the same decision? Unlikely. Then where does that put you? Not in a good place, probably.
Here's the thing: Trump's always got material. It may be crazy material, but it comes from one of the most powerful people in the world. And he's accessible. He complains about the media but he continues to engage with them. He takes out his frustrations through other means and through tools like Brendan Carr, and sometimes yells at individual reporters. But he makes news. It may not be good news, but news it is.
What Trump's opponents, especially progressives, haven't figured out: if you want better coverage, you had better engage with reporters and be consistent about it. Even if you don't always like what they do.
Not just "mainstream" competitors either. The right wing media is also reporting all of his social media posts as news.
Take a look at Fox News, OAN, or Breitbart, and tell me when he's saying "something goofy."
Yes this president is a reality TV star, and so why are we surprised that he uses social media and his office to provide fodder for the media?
I've had real-life obligations get in the way of replying, but you are spot on regarding demographics and listener habits.
As a child of the 1990s, I think I'm in the last generation to have a habit of expecting top-of-the-hour news on the radio, before it became the norm to pull up anything anytime on social media apps. My late mom sometimes listened to NPR News on car rides. And after moving from the Midwest to California, around 1998 or '99 I discovered KCBS All-News and the tail end of that 1967 CBS sounder.
A New York Times article shared on another page associates "the decline of radio news...with the rise of podcasts and other online sources of information" and quotes Bari Weiss as expecting CBS News to change with modern media norms. But it must be asked: Does the Internet provide more roadblocks or shortcuts to be an informed news observer? Is a "what I want, when I want" media diet really practical? How many people will realize that Instagram and TikTok hot takes are not the best forms of reporting compared to a five-minute news summary?
Here is the 1967 premiere of WCBS Newsradio.
The 1967 sounder was replaced in 2001?!
I could've sworn I'd heard it on KCBS as late as 2005 or so!
Nevertheless, the sounder they used from 2001-2018 is OK too, and still better than the newest (and as fate would have it, final) version.
My memory of KCBS before 2004 is hazy because I tended to mostly listen to music stations back then, although I do have a distinct memory of taping a portion of a traffic and weather segment (I can clearly remember the old traffic and weather sounders, which were used in some form until at least 2008) sometime in 1998 (the tape's long gone now, I'm sure, and I was terrible at documenting things then, so I can't prove it).
c
Someone else posted the 2012 CBS webpage with downloadable MP3 files of its radio jingles. It links to one version dated the 1980s-90s, and another from the early 2000s-2018, essentially confirming NetworkNewsMusic's timeframe of 1967-2001.
As a ninth grader in 2005 I'd sometimes listen to KCBS at 8 or 9pm during the week. There was always the 2001 CBS sounder to start the hour, as I also recall in the few times I glanced at KCBS around 2002-04.
Sadly no one on YouTube has posted audio of the late '90s/early 2000s KCBS theme music; it was more downtempo than the 2013 (or faster paced 2014) "what's happening and why" music:
Huh, I do remember in general when the '01 sounder was introduced, but I guess I misremembered the year.
Frankly, I wish they'd never changed it. I like the 67-01 sounder best.
As for archival recordings, someone, somewhere must have some.
I would be especially fascinated to hear an aircheck of the 5 O'Clock hour of October 17, 1989 and, of course, 9/11/01.
Regarding 9/11, I heard something interesting last September 11 on KCBS, which was airing a sort of remembrance segment. I can't recall all the details, but someone who was covering the events of that day actually asked, live on the air, if anyone had a recording of KCBS from that day, because evidently, there was a technical problem of some sort and the station didn't archive it.
So apparently I'm not the only one interested in acquiring some airchecks. KCBS itself is looking for some, too!
c
Frankly, I wish they'd never changed it. I like the 67-01 sounder best.
As for archival recordings, someone, somewhere must have some.
I would be especially fascinated to hear an aircheck of the 5 O'Clock hour of October 17, 1989 and, of course, 9/11/01.
Regarding 9/11, I heard something interesting last September 11 on KCBS, which was airing a sort of remembrance segment. I can't recall all the details, but someone who was covering the events of that day actually asked, live on the air, if anyone had a recording of KCBS from that day, because evidently, there was a technical problem of some sort and the station didn't archive it.
So apparently I'm not the only one interested in acquiring some airchecks. KCBS itself is looking for some, too!
c
I'm in the middle, and I don't pay any mind to it either-- it's nowhere near news as I grew up watching and hearing it (I'd sooner listen to an old 1010 WINS newscast from YouTube than anything on Fox News Radio of today).
While I think your analysis is on target (Mr. Trump is a chronic liar after all), I also think that both @TheBigA and @Mark Roberts raise valid points regarding the competitive nature of our news media. Sadly, there is an audience out there who really believes that the mainstream media has not only been lying to them about what the President says but that has also been supportive of a federal bureaucracy that they believe is not serving the interest of the American electorate. Unfortunately, Fox, OAN, and others have been taking advantage of these beliefs (some of which have been held for a long time) for their own financial gain.
What I'd recommend to all about this U.S. president, given his penchant for lying to both the U.S. press and the American public (and given the closely-guarded secret of his actual mental state) would be to keep an eye on what he actually does, not what he says. For example, during his latest speech, he said the war with Iran would be over in two weeks or so--a claim he's been making (among others) since the first of March. Now, if that claim is true, why is he sending more Marines (foot soldiers) to the Middle East right now. This is where the news media needs to keep the President's feet to the fire.
However, what happens when the guy they like is in charge of the thing they don't like? I saw an interview on Fox News yesterday with the new acting AG that was asking some unusually tough questions. All of a sudden, the right wing media is now asking about the federal bureaucracy. They see the corruption, they see the Epstein coverup, and they want answers.
This is spot on, Mark. Very well stated. I think that by and large, CBS Radio does a very nice job figuring out what to use for their "lead" stories. They'll be missed for sure.
I'd concur. Their radio news is pretty good coverage and I don't see a whole lot of bias. Maybe slightly right at times. Yes, they occasionally use wording that might appeal to right wing folks more... but NPR news does that frequently with left leaning language and I'd say more often than I hear right wing buzz-words from Fox News Radio.
That's Fox's radio news product. Otherwise... they're way off the reservation.
That said, I haven't ever really listened to Fox's radio news updates frequently (and haven't really listened to them much at all the past few years), so I can't say what it's like currently regarding their coverage. Most of the stations I listen to air CBS.
It's a real shame that CBS is going away because they were clearly the best and (I'd say) most centrist of the radio news services.
I agree!
I would say that ABC and what's left of NBC aren't too bad, either, but CBS is (was) the best of the lot, with the clearest delivery and decently unbiased reporting (ABC is fairly unbiased too. Not sure about NBC).
c
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