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Fox News Radio: Unfair and Incompetent

J

johnny05

Guest
Has anybody noticed how poorly of a job Fox News Radio is doing?

Just this morning they miss 3 of their top of the hour 5 minute newscasts....
No explanation to the affiliates, no warning...
They sometimes start 4 seconds late, end early, fire sounders and elements off-key, stumble upon words... You can actually hear the anchors desperately trying to hit the two minute mark..They outcue, then come back for 5 more seconds... Its embarassing....
 
The Fox News Radio Amateur Hour

> They sometimes start 4 seconds late, end early, fire
> sounders and elements off-key, stumble upon words... You can
> actually hear the anchors desperately trying to hit the two
> minute mark..They outcue, then come back for 5 more
> seconds... Its embarassing....

It's been pretty bad most of the time I've heard it. Fox News Radio is not ready for prime time, or most times.

I've heard maybe ONE good anchor. Some of them are mediocre, some are bad, and some are just downright awful, and would be laughed off most major market stations, even on weekends or overnights.

It's no wonder that one recent CC-owned FNR station launched their own locally-anchored TOH casts after talking about it in-house for YEARS, long before they moved from ABC to FNR. The quality of the FNR nationally-anchored TOH casts is what prompted them to do so.

The problem with FNR is not their bias or conservative leaning, whatever that may be...the problem is their on-air TALENT on radio.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: The Fox News Radio Amateur Hour

> > They sometimes start 4 seconds late, end early, fire
> > sounders and elements off-key, stumble upon words... You
> can
> > actually hear the anchors desperately trying to hit the
> two
> > minute mark..They outcue, then come back for 5 more
> > seconds... Its embarassing....
>
> It's been pretty bad most of the time I've heard it. Fox
> News Radio is not ready for prime time, or most times.
>
> I've heard maybe ONE good anchor. Some of them are
> mediocre, some are bad, and some are just downright awful,
> and would be laughed off most major market stations, even on
> weekends or overnights.
>
> It's no wonder that one recent CC-owned FNR station launched
> their own locally-anchored TOH casts after talking about it
> in-house for YEARS, long before they moved from ABC to FNR.
> The quality of the FNR nationally-anchored TOH casts is what
> prompted them to do so.
>
> The problem with FNR is not their bias or conservative
> leaning, whatever that may be...the problem is their on-air
> TALENT on radio.

Most of the problems seem to be when TV Talent anchor the casts.

Their radio only talent seem to be pretty solid. Lisa Brady (PM drive on West Coast), and Dave Anthony (evenings on West Coast) do a good job.
 
Maybe it's a generational thing....

The members of the Brokaw/Rather/Jennings generation started in radio, so they were comfortable when pressed into service on the radio networks.

The Fox News "news" talent (as opposed to the commentators) is younger than traditional network news, and even a bit younger than CNN, and likely came up with no radio experience at all.

CNN rarely if ever places its Atlanta TV eye candy behind the radio mics.

The Fox radio talent is mostly third-tier New York radio people who couldn't make the grade at WCBS, WINS and Bloomberg, much less at other radio networks...

They don't seem to be recruiting rising talent from a Seattle-market-sized radio station the way CBS or ABC might..




<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by FloridaBear1776 on 10/09/05 12:44 PM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: Maybe it's a generational thing....

> The members of the Brokaw/Rather/Jennings generation started
> in radio, so they were comfortable when pressed into service
> on the radio networks.
>
A couple of years ago, when they pressed Rather into doing the 5 PM Eastern radio newscast again, his first tries at it were awful. One day he obviously wasn't in the booth, and neither was a replacement. The top of the hour sounder went off, and then the network went into silence. He came on the air more than a minute after the top of the hour.
Other times, he struggled to hit the hard three-minute commercial break. It was embarrasing to hear him do radio. However, after several weeks of this, he eventually did do well. And whenever he was on the road, they only went to him for the top story and went back to a radio anchor for the remainder of the cast.
Fox needs to realize that they don't have to put their TV talent on the radio to get good cross promotion. Having Fox on the radio is cross promotion enough for their cable network.
 
Re: Maybe it's a generational thing....

> They don't seem to be recruiting rising talent from a
> Seattle-market-sized radio station the way CBS or ABC
> might..
>

Note that Fox Radio's Washington DC Correspondant (and I have also heard him anchor) is Rich Johnson, formerly of 710 KIRO in Seattle (and formerly of ABC, and AP radio, I think). Rich, at least, always sounds good.
 
Re: The Fox News Radio Amateur Hour

> Their radio only talent seem to be pretty solid. Lisa Brady
> (PM drive on West Coast), and Dave Anthony (evenings on West
> Coast) do a good job.

I believe Lisa Brady was the one I'd heard, in early afternoons (ET)...who I thought was a pro. They have a couple of others...including a couple I recognize. But after those two or three, the anchor talent drops off a cliff. I'm not familiar enough with the TV network's talent to know which of these awful anchors is from the TV side. (Well, aside from high-profile TV folks like Shepard Smith, who's now doing the traditional 5 PM ET "TV promo" cast on radio, much like Peter Jennings and Dan Rather used to do for ABC and CBS. I haven't checked to see if the current ABC and CBS anchors still do the 5 PM radio cast.)

I'm almost afraid to tune in for the weekend casts on FNR, to hear how bad those anchors are.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: The Fox News Radio Amateur Hour

> It's been pretty bad most of the time I've heard it. Fox
> News Radio is not ready for prime time, or most times.

The anchors sound fine to me during the limited times I hear them, but I'll take your word for it.

Would I be right in guessing that the only reason stations dumped their previous news provider was because they don't put much value in it anyway and just take the best financial/avails deal?<P ID="signature">______________
"A man is about as big as the things that make him angry" - Winston Churchill

<a href="http://saltydog.5gigs.com">
The Salty Dog</a>
</P>
 
> Just this morning they miss 3 of their top of the hour 5
> minute newscasts....
> No explanation to the affiliates, no warning...
> They sometimes start 4 seconds late, end early, fire
> sounders and elements off-key, stumble upon words... You can
> actually hear the anchors desperately trying to hit the two
> minute mark..They outcue, then come back for 5 more
> seconds... Its embarassing....
>

I remember the early days of the CNN radio network were like that...

CNN put its mic, sounders, and spots on automation. It turned on at the top of the hour, shut off at 2:00, turned back on at 3:00 and turned off at 5:00. You had to hit a option at 03:30. All the newscaster had to do was read the cast and hit the marks.

One cast I heard:

*sounder*
(silence)
(door open and slam)
(anchor sits in chair, shuffles papers)
"CNN Radio News..." (out of breath)

Otherwise, you'd often hear their outcues get clipped by the automation system. If the newscaster couldn't hit the marks, they weren't about to miss spots.

It got much better when they added little 5 second music beds before each break to give the anchors an audible cue. You could hear the anchor start to wrapitup as soon as they heard the theme in their headphones.<P ID="signature">______________
...co-moderator of the Satellite Radio, Phoenix, and San Diego boards...</P>
 
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