Re: I hear about KTAR is becoming a first station in Phoenix to do Traffic/Weather from Morning to Midnight
> It can't hurt, but it won't help long-term. I bet KFYI
> joins this trend before too long. KTAR was the first to do
> midday traffic reports back around 1990 or so but that
> hardly matters now because KFYI had to follow suit to stay
> competitive. That's the trouble with trying to boost ratings
> this way. Anyone can add more traffic and weather if they
> want to. But only one station can have Rush, or Paul
> Harvey, or Joe Crummey, or the Suns, etc... Your ratings are
> determined by what you offer that no other station is able
> to.
>
> Meanwhile, the Los Angeles-ation of Phoenix continues.
Maybe the 9-mid traffic reporter should do a show and replace the godawful Clark Howard. Ugh. Seriously though, in the aforementioned LA, KFI does "the most frequent traffic reports" as far as talk goes, with, IIRC, 4 hourly except overnights. KFWB and KNX do them six times hourly when they're not running their talk or PBP. The other way KTAR has an advantage is by having a local show at all times and running traffic more frequently than KFYI can with breaks every 15 minutes. And Phoenix would be one of the smallest markets with an all-news station, so it'd be a waste anyway.
Eventually, KFYI will pick this up, but for now, it's more window dressing that actual content. 50kW WTAM/Cleveland was the most recent in a string of mid-market CC talk station to do 24/7 traffic and while it sounds nice, it's a joke. When Salem does it like they do in LA, you'll really know the LAization has flourished.