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HS Football and automation made pgh radio lose the Ben story and the Mayor

T

thefalcon

Sadly we all knew Mayor Bob O'Connor was going to pass away at any time. But I think everyone kept checking the radio since thursday at work and in the car. Well friday night during the pirate game we know the Mayor passed away. I was in the car and looking for more information. Well KDKA did a special report from the newsroom and then the pirate broadcasters kept saying the right things during the game. We just knew there would be good info after the pirate game. There was. KQV which usually is right on the money was deep into McKeesport Tigers football. I found some mentions during the game about the Mayor. Then after the football game. Waiting for info on all news KQV right! But no it's that same wrap up show that is on other am stations about HS Football. As the general manager or owner of KQV I would have told the HS sports informercial crew. I am sorry but if the mayor passes away. We are going to go to that story at the very least after the game is over. I am not some wild eyed dreamer that does not understand contracts and obligations. I purchase media. But if President Kennedy was killed would Don Rebel say I'm sorry but we are running McKeesport Tigers football. I am sure that sponsors that had ads on the air scheduled on that day in November of 1963 would understand. Some things are just more important like Mayor O' Connor. KDKA had it all the reactions by Sophie, and anyone and everyone. everyone else is running automation or nothing. So pittsburgh has to turn to tv or the internet. Local radio other than KDKA got a D minus other than KDKA B+.
(This is why 1360 should stay in McKeesport and serve that area. they can run McKeesport Tigers football weither they are playing NA or not!)

So know we jump to Sunday night. I'm in the car and I heard that PG.com has a story that Ben is out for the game. Go to the steeler station 102.5. More of Scott Paulsons cute taped comedy bit promos. Nothing!
1250 the espn sports station. the same promos that 1250 will have the best coverage for this weeks game(Over and Over.).oops. the quarterback is out. isn't that the biggest story of the game. If I were the GM. would I not get my people on the air as soon as possible. Holiday weekend or not! sorry nope! All of the radio sports people have to be on TV sunday night What about 970 the other steeler station! automation playing about the best steelers coverage. But wait the national hosts have the story and are at least talking about it. So the biggest sports story since Bens accident. one 5000 watt station has something.
nothing on clear channel. nothing on CBS radio. KQV radio theatre.. ..Could eric hagman have made the trip in and talked to callers about Ben? Father Ron on KD is talking about the spirituality of animals. How about the O' connor story for two hours. people need to heal a little with a man of God! nope 50kw fm after 50kw fm
locked in automation. and the biggest sports story is waiting for one or two days. I wonder if the NFL network on satellite had the story and the callers. Wake up Pgh radio! you continue to take a back seat to TV and now the internet. even JPA and the butler stations seem to know how to cover local stories. A giant Failure on sunday night for Pittsburgh Radio. Gee we just can't seem to sell spots! I wonder what's wrong.
maybe Kid Chriss can get those numbers up when the mayor of Pittsburgh dies and the superbowl champion quarterback is out for maybe one or more games. and we'll so some potty talk. O and A made it on the letterman show and spend the show talking about their appearance.. that's local.. we love IT??? NOT!
 
Here's a sad piece of reality for you. Things change.

Radio used to be the medium of choice for breaking news. The key words are "used to be". It isn't any more. Things changed.

Radio is a business. The stations exist to make a profit. There are maybe three or four stories like the Mayor dying and Ben getting his appendix out every year. No station can afford to keep enough people on the payroll to be ready to cover breaking news like that all the time just to be prepared to cover three or four stories a year.

Regardless of whether or not any local radio stations were covering those stories, the only audience who would have turned to the radio first would be people driving in their cars. At home or at the office, the majority of people would have been checking either television or the internet.

The bottom line is that Pittsburgh radio didn't "lose" those stories. Broadcast radio simply isn't in that business any more.

There's an old saying, "You have to take the good with the bad". To all of you radio professionals who jumped all over my case whenever I lamented tightly researched and scientifically programmed playlists because you all thought they were "good", the "bad" side of that management mentality is automation, no live DJ's, and no live news departments. That's the bad you have to take with the good.

Every time you defend tightly researched playlists, central programming of the music instead of letting DJ's at least pick the sequence of the records, and all the other "innovations" that squeezed the life out of music format radio, you're also defending the same people and the same thought processes who took the next step and squeezed out the live and local human beings.
 
For once, Mr. Realist, I agree with you. Mostly.

Radio has certainly abdicated any notion of "breaking news" on the FM music stations. I cannot remember one example since 9/11, and before that, the O.J. Simpson verdict, and the Oklahoma City bombing. That's three stories in eleven years.

I think most stations can afford to have one live person in the building in case of such incidents, but that's just me.

As I've said before, I think the days of tightly researched and scientifically programmed playlists (using that phrase in every bad sense of the word) has taken radio as far as it will, but you still have to play the hits.

The people who "squeezed out all the live and local human beings" did so for monetarybudgetary reasons. I really don't connect that to the music.

And I'd be interested to hear what 104.7 did, if anything. For a long time, they were (and might still be) importing the news from Cleveland. My suspicion is, nothing happened. But, you tell me.
 
Radio used to be the medium of choice for breaking news. The key words are "used to be". It isn't any more. Things changed.

Yes, but if what thefalcon says is true, a better job could have been done by KQV. I know Frank Gottlieb, and I'm surprised at your remarks, falcon. Friday morning, I predicted to my colleagues that with Mayor O'Connor's worsening state, that I would be very surprised if he survived the evening. He didn't. In an instance like this, the news department should have held a brief meeting on the matter. Have some soundbites from O'Connor's inaugural days as mayor and maybe old sound from other local politicoes ready in the event that it did happen. I'm not saying get some "we'll miss him" sound before they guy's dead. God, no! Maybe even a couple of wrap stories already in the can for when that moment arrived. You don't date it...just make it in a retrospective format, with the anchor talent using the day and time of his death to introduce it. I know making such preparations sounds morbid before His Honor has passed, but this would have been a far better situation for a station trying to adhere to budget guidelines. If anyone from KQV is monitoring this board, I welcome your input.

Once the mayor started worsening, we mentioned his condition on our stations, and two out of three don't penetrate the city of Pittsburgh. We monitored it closely, and we did have something on the air first thing the following morning. We didn't go too in-depth, but we did have it.

So, Realist, I agree with you that Radio is no longer the medium of choice for breaking news, unless you're in your car. 70 percent of radio's audience is mobile. But...Radio should never cease its obligation to find out how to do things a little bit better. The successful stations keep reinventing themselves to prove their worth.

As for Roethlisberger, how much can you talk about an appendectomy? I think the motorcycle crash was far more serious than that. A simple script mention would have been enough. I would regard that as maybe "less is more".
 
Radio_Realist said:
No station can afford to keep enough people on the payroll to be ready to cover breaking news like that all the time just to be prepared to cover three or four stories a year.
Click to expand...

You meant to say: they can afford it but won't, right? Any of the corporate entities can afford to have someone there to route breaking news stories to all the stations. Not a staff, per se, just one person in one studio.
 
"You meant to say: they can afford it but won't, right?"

No, I didn't. Keeping a warm body in the studio isn't enough. If all you have is a warm body to handle a "rip & read", you still need someone to type up the sheet that will be ripped & read.
 
The mayor died at 8:55 p.m. on Friday. KQV's news format ceases to exist after 7 p.m. Really. It's like they hang a sign on the door that says, "Closed. See you tomorrow." If it doesn't happen between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., it doesn't happen on KQV.

Their announcers are all too old to stay up late.
 
Their announcers are all too old to stay up late.

It's also AFTRA union shop, so there may be restrictions on how much they can be worked. If KQV did indeed drop the ball, maybe they'll learn something from this. I'm sure at least a couple of listeners complained.
 
Radio_Realist said:
"You meant to say: they can afford it but won't, right?"

No, I didn't. Keeping a warm body in the studio isn't enough. If all you have is a warm body to handle a "rip & read", you still need someone to type up the sheet that will be ripped & read.
Click to expand...
Dude: one of our illustrious corporate broadcast entities has a term for what I'm talking about. That term is "Ghost Work" - "Even though your job description says this, this and this, you will also voice track a shift for station A, you will do a live shift on station B, you will (just to illustrate my point) catch any late breaking news and get it on all applicable stations, you will handle imaging for station C, etc., or you will find somewhere else to hang your hat."

I don't know when you got out, but nowadays, all of radio is Renda Broadcasting.
 
There is a friend of mine who was, indeed, doing a voice-tracked shift on station A, a live shift on station B, imaging/production for station C, and a FOURTH duty for station D. He wasn't making a lot of money (certainly not for the amount of work he was doing), and he still got canned, so that they could also voice-track the shift on station B. Welcome to radio in the new millennium.
 
"I don't know when you got out, but nowadays, all of radio is Renda Broadcasting."

I'm not referring to whether or not the guy who is responsible for everything else, including sweeping the floors, couldn't be tasked with reporting late breaking news. I'm talking about entrusting the job of reporting a late-breaking evening news story to someone whose skills don't include writing a coherent news script.

I'm sure that as much as a handful of people are upset that there was no breaking bulletin coverage of Mayor O'Connor's passing, they'd be even more upset if the station's engineer and janitor broke in to say, "Um, er, ah, Mayor O'Connor just died. Ain't that a shame."

Besides, as kenhawk1160 pointed out, KQV is a union shop.

Understand, I'm not saying that the transformation of broadcast radio into automation repeaters is a good thing. But good or bad, it's a real thing. Like it or not, there's just no business justification for keeping large numbers of live announcers saying pretty much the same things in mics all across the country.

For the life of me, I can't understand why companies like Clear Channel even bother with the pretext of pretending to be local most of the time. News/Talk format stations seem to do fine with pseudo network simulcasting. Instead of voice-tracking stations one by one, why not just do a national network program and be done with it?

They could run one live Oldies (or whatever the new term is for what they play on 3WS) show on every single oldies station they own across the entire nation. They'd have one single CHR program coast-to-coast, one country program, etc. Leave Mornings and Afternoon Drive Time local (for the time being).

They might lose a little bit of revenue at first, but the savings in expenses would more than offset that. And, they could then groom a selection of national DJ's into media stars using other national media. Get the Clear Channel CHR DJ a gig as guest judge on American Idol, or get the Clear Channel country DJ dude a spot on "Bass Fisherman" on the Outdoor Network.

If they did that, then maybe they could justify the cost of a live, one-man newsroom in each city.
 
This isn't anything new! Its been going on for years. I remember being live in the early evening on 620 when tornadoes were hitting Pittsburgh. WHJB was the only station covering it, and we did it live. During our coverage, we turned to KDKA and others and heard nothing. The mayor and the county commissioners thanked us for our coverage. We took calls live from Pittsburghers who thanked us, while helping us provide coverage.

In Pittsburgh its nothing more then laziness, and lack of leadership and creativity. There are stations, in much smaller markets that would never miss a story. Ken's stations in Butler, those in Indiana etc. Why? People who are willing to put in the extra effort when its needed. On September 11th, I remember doing 18 straight hours of local coverage in Indiana, PA. How do these small markets maintain their news image? They make it a priority!

While on this subject, I've been thinking alot about KQV lately. We all know why this station stays in its news format. We all know who owns it. But I'd dump the expensive format that has never had much more than a 2 share.

Take it oldies, and bring back an original Pittsburgh jock or two. Then voice track the rest. The heritage, the jingles, and the music alone would garner a 2 share, and be a heck of a lot cheaper to run. Give WJAS a run for its money! Listen to what Clarke has done with 620/770 when they are in music mode, and add to it. And find and hire some honest to goodness salespeople.

I know, it didn't work in Buffalo and Cincy! But then again look at the companies who owned those stations? They did little or nothing to promote them. We've forgotten how to run, program and promote radio. Small markets or large, it remains the same as it used too, if you try!!
 
On September 11th, I remember doing 18 straight hours of local coverage in Indiana, PA. How do these small markets maintain their news image? They make it a priority!

Chris, right here is an example of how far away we've gotten from reporting serious breaking news. You remember when you and I were both in Indiana as head-to-head competitors. You had CBS plus what you added with the local angles and such. We were ABC/SMN affiliates, and our GM had to call our network to find out why they, owned by ABC, did not have anything on the air. Their excuse..."we don't have ABC news wired into the board. We have an engineer working on that now." Now I think it's a VERY sad day when a satellite programming network owned by a major broadcast network doesn't have Big Brother wired into the board just in case of a possible national emergency.

I too worked about 18 hours that day...both on the mic and off. This is what can make or break small market radio. If your community can't count on you, then who can they count on? The Pittsburgh stations should be no different. With an aging and very conservative demographic, the last thing Pittsbugh radio should be doing is turning their backs on those who depended on radio for breaking news...before the days of the internet, cable, and what have you.

Great line in the movie "Lovin' You" when Elvis is talking to his friend in the bar where he fights the guy: "City's like a small town...only taller."
 
"the last thing Pittsbugh radio should be doing is turning their backs on those who depended on radio for breaking news"

If they're going to change that, they better hurry. Those who depend on radio for breaking news is a constantly shrinking market. It's small now, and it gets smaller every day.
 
Those who depend on radio for breaking news is a constantly shrinking market. It's small now, and it gets smaller every day.

We're digging our own graves, Realist. Just like Lash said when he faced the commission in response to high-powered station owners stating that LPFM's were going to hurt the industry: "You've already destroyed yourselves." We wouldn't need LPFM's if it wasn't for move-ins and other attempts to take stations from their licensed communities and leave them with no local radio service.
 
Amen Brother Hawk! My infamous words in front of the FCC Commissioners shook the trees, and got me on NPR. But no one listened!

Ah, but I've left the world of LPFM, and returned to full power ownership in Tennessee.

Now this is a local station! And if news breaks, I cut in live myself.

www.am930.net

How can we do it, but KQV can't?
 
Well given that KDKA & KQV are both union stations, chances are that any talent brought in to cover the mayor's passing on a Friday night other than whoever's on call at the time would have to be paid union scale for work above & beyond their "normal" hours. So, given that, who bears the responsibility of the coverage, or lack thereof?
 
It still comes down to supply and demand. If there's not enough demand for something, then there aren't many folks who'll make much effort to supply it.

It's too bad that Mayor O'Connor died. It's a shame. And there were plenty of people who were keeping a death-watch vigil to find out the exact moment when he passed over. But in the overall scheme of things, I've only seen complaints about a lack of radio coverage of the exact moment that he breathed his last from radio people in this forum. I haven't seen or heard much in the way of complaints from actual radio listeners.

If there was a major demand from radio listeners for up-to-the-minute news breaks 24/7, then some capitalist entrepreneur would fill that void. The sad truth is that mass audience just doesn't care about being able to turn on the radio to get up-to-the-minute breaking news.

In any business school, one of the first things that they teach you is to not waste your time and effort trying to satisfy a need that doesn't exist.
 
Jeff,

I agree and didn't mean to not include WDJO. What Dusty and the guys have done is tremendous. Its the best sounding oldies station in the country in my opinion. Now imagine KQV doing the same, at 1/2 the cost of their all news format.
 
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