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I Think FM News 101.9 Sounds Good
- Thread starter ScottBurns
- Start date
The original poster asked:
Well, I flipped it on last night for the first time in months and within the first five minutes I heard a featurette (complete with pounding drum loop) about what to do if your toddler starts peeing on the floor." That was followed by another "lifestyles" feature.
No, the station doesn't sound pretty good ... it sounds horrible. It's not a NEWS station ... it's a mess.
Well, I flipped it on last night for the first time in months and within the first five minutes I heard a featurette (complete with pounding drum loop) about what to do if your toddler starts peeing on the floor." That was followed by another "lifestyles" feature.
No, the station doesn't sound pretty good ... it sounds horrible. It's not a NEWS station ... it's a mess.
Yesterday FM News 101.9 broadcast a speech by Newt Gingrich, which he made to formally announce his withdrawal from the race for the Republican nomination for President.
Apparently they were the only station on the dial that carried it. Personally I thought it was an interesting speech. But I wonder whether it was important enough to merit the time, and a break with a format that generally provides brief snippets of news, rather than in-depth reporting. It seemed more suitable for an NPR station such as WNYC, which did not broadcast it.
Apparently they were the only station on the dial that carried it. Personally I thought it was an interesting speech. But I wonder whether it was important enough to merit the time, and a break with a format that generally provides brief snippets of news, rather than in-depth reporting. It seemed more suitable for an NPR station such as WNYC, which did not broadcast it.
I subscribe to sat for one station, only, and that is POTUS. I have been listening to it since '08. They would have carried the speech. They carry anything they have audio for. It is possible that FM News may be borrowing part of the concept, since the CBS arrogance would not feel obliged to waste valuable airtime about something long expected.Barry said:
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
How does not carrying the Gingrich campaign withdrawal speech demonstrate any arrogance on the part of CBS?badjef said:
CBS Radio runs two profitable and successful news stations on AM which both boast brand recognition and a top-level news staff. Both stations successfully bill well and rate well. Merlin, on the other hand, runs a station on FM that brands itself a news station, yet still spends more time covering tabloid fodder and running pieces that would be more appropriately found in Good Housekeeping magazine than it does any hard news. A station whose audio chain sounds worse than a low-bitrate MP3, AM radio, and most radio pirates for that matter.
Furthermore, if Merlin is now invoking a conservative-bias - or any bias whatsoever - into the decisions of which news stories get coverage or quantity of coverage they get, they will have sacrificed any trust their audience would have placed in them, and they will forfeit their right to assert they are a "News" station to be compared with WCBS and WINS.
Carrying speeches is an easy way to fill airtime when you know you don't have anything better or more compelling to fill it with.
Furthermore, the speech was not a New York region specific story. This is another area the real news stations have Merlin beat.
CBS has news stations all over the country and a TV affiliate in every market. Merlin just has New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. They had a chance to get into Washington DC via 107.9 FM, but were outbid by CBS.
Now that I think of it, I think Merlin had a conservative bias all along. I remember tuning between the news stations on November 15 and 17 when Occupy Wall Street was raided, and when they had a big day of action respectively. FM News 101.9 aired some fluff segments, and only briefly mentioned Occupy (they had to, lower Manhattan was a mess both of those days), while both 880 and 1010 devoted about 33% of their coverage to Occupy, and had reporters in Zuccotti Park, since that was the biggest news story in New York those two days. I'd expect CBS to devote the same amount of airtime if the Tea Party had a major rally that would be the biggest news story in New York. Ironically, WBAI was airing recorded liberal talk shows reporting 12-hour old news about Occupy.
Yet, FM News 101.9 airs a nearly meaningless speech from an unpopular Republican candidate in its entirety, in a region that mostly votes Democrat.
Now that I think of it, I think Merlin had a conservative bias all along. I remember tuning between the news stations on November 15 and 17 when Occupy Wall Street was raided, and when they had a big day of action respectively. FM News 101.9 aired some fluff segments, and only briefly mentioned Occupy (they had to, lower Manhattan was a mess both of those days), while both 880 and 1010 devoted about 33% of their coverage to Occupy, and had reporters in Zuccotti Park, since that was the biggest news story in New York those two days. I'd expect CBS to devote the same amount of airtime if the Tea Party had a major rally that would be the biggest news story in New York. Ironically, WBAI was airing recorded liberal talk shows reporting 12-hour old news about Occupy.
Yet, FM News 101.9 airs a nearly meaningless speech from an unpopular Republican candidate in its entirety, in a region that mostly votes Democrat.
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