Jan 2020 Ratings

[secondchoice]

The point is Cumulus spent a lot of money to hire top notch experienced news professionals.

The problem was they were National and International reporters. They had to accept what Fox 5 had locally until they could build up local contacts. WSB at that time had access to the AJC newsroom, and Channel 2 also WSB had (has) better (ratings wise) talkers when 106.7 tried talk.

IMHO it would take at least 2 years to build the local "trust" for a really good local news gathering effort from scratch. 106.7 never got the time because Cumulus didn't have the capital to be successful.

 

[TheBigA]

106.7 never got the time because Cumulus didn't have the capital to be successful.

There was never going to be enough capital to duplicate WSB in the modern era. That's why I say no one will ever attempt to start an all-news station again. I keep reading various excuses about CBS in Washington or Merlin in NYC or Radio One in Houston. But the bottom line is four different companies spent millions of dollars trying to launch all-news in lots of different places, and all of them failed. After all those failure, you have to accept that perhaps there isn't a big enough audience for the format. Also that the audience is satisfied with what they currently have. If you're building anything in media, and the only revenue stream is :30 spots on air, it will never make enough money to cover the costs. That's the new reality we live in. If you build it, sometimes they don't come.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

The problem was they were National and International reporters. They had to accept what Fox 5 had locally until they could build up local contacts. WSB at that time had access to the AJC newsroom, and Channel 2 also WSB had (has) better (ratings wise) talkers when 106.7 tried talk.

IMHO it would take at least 2 years to build the local "trust" for a really good local news gathering effort from scratch. 106.7 never got the time because Cumulus didn't have the capital to be successful.

Going All-News on 106.7 was an ill-conceived decision on the part of Cumulus. CNN Radio had just shut down, and Cumulus thought they saw an opportunity to program what is an expensive format cheaply.

WSB of course was not All News, but they had the reputation and heritage for being the market's radio source for news. There was no way 106.7 was going to make a serious run at them no matter the time they had. And it didn't help that 106.7 was a move-in signal that had trouble in steel buildings.

I agree with Big A that there will never be another attempt at All News. CBS's decision to go All News on 99.1 seemed to make a little more sense than Cumulus' decision regarding 106.7. WTOP was scoring shares in the double digits, and CBS would have been happy taking away a third of that audience. But WTOP was a great product, and the 99.1 signal had trouble getting into buildings in the District and just plain trouble in the northern Virginia suburbs. All-News on 99.1 turned out to be a non-starter.

 

[On the Dial]

There is some truth to this. CNN Radio was much more of a news delivery operation than a news-gathering operation (the news-gathering being handled by the TV side). 1067 got some very good anchors from CNN Radio, but with a handful of exceptions like Connie Cummings, the support staff had relatively little major market news-gathering experience or all-news radio experience. Despite this, ratings were growing (slowly) until 1067 converted to a news-talk operation, when they more or less stagnated.

 

[TheBigA]

the support staff had relatively little major market news-gathering experience or all-news radio experience.

Where would they have gotten it? Would you suggest hiring experienced staff from another all-news station? None in Atlanta, so it means moving someone from the northeast.

Here's the wake-up call: We live in a time when people report on stuff all the time. I'm doing it right now. It's been going on for a long time. Back in the 90s, a friend of mine worked for Metro Traffic in a very large city. He did both news and traffic for several major radio stations. I asked him how he got the local news he read on the air. Did they have a staff of reporters going out in the streets? No. He got the local news from the newspaper (this was before online newspapers) and from the local AP wire service. No actual original reporting. After working at Metro for a while, he got a job at another news operation. So his experience to get that job was doing rip & read news for Metro Traffic. This was 30 years ago! So when we romanticize about how radio needs to hire experienced news gathering reporters to cover Atlanta, we need to ask ourselves how would that practically happen?

 

[secondchoice]

Where would they have gotten it? Would you suggest hiring experienced staff from another all-news station? None in Atlanta, so it means moving someone from the northeast.

Here's the wake-up call: We live in a time when people report on stuff all the time. I'm doing it right now. It's been going on for a long time. Back in the 90s, a friend of mine worked for Metro Traffic in a very large city. He did both news and traffic for several major radio stations. I asked him how he got the local news he read on the air. Did they have a staff of reporters going out in the streets? No. He got the local news from the newspaper (this was before online newspapers) and from the local AP wire service. No actual original reporting. After working at Metro for a while, he got a job at another news operation. So his experience to get that job was doing rip & read news for Metro Traffic. This was 30 years ago! So when we romanticize about how radio needs to hire experienced news gathering reporters to cover Atlanta, we need to ask ourselves how would that practically happen?

IIRC (decades ago) I heard a station saying “if you give us 15 minutes we’ll give you the world”. If you did run a 15 minute format clock there is most likely less than 10 minutes of actual news in the block. I personally like the traffic and weather every ten minutes. I remember a few stations I worked at had a police and fire radio scanner going and we supposed to “listen” while one the air and if there was a fire call we would say the fire department has been dispatched to a house fire at (whatever location) then you would play a commercial for a local insurance agency selling home insurance. I understand there use to be a person just listening to police and fire radio traffic at the AJC.

If you are understaffed with news gathers, I suggest a reporter who works the local social media sites could offset some of the advantage a strong local newspaper has. Our Sheriff’s department posts on its Facebook page anytime anything happens. If you wait for the PIO it could be 8 to 12 hours before he comes in. Of course ANY story from social media would have to be fact checked with at least two independent sources or quoted from a very reliable site and credited as coming from that site. There is much more to fact checking but that is why they teach journalism in college.

BTW the old AP and UPI teletype news was pretty good back in the day. Most of the daily newspapers contributed their "best" stories. Radio had an advantage back then because most of the local TV news operations were only on a half hour or hour at noon and 6 pm and the breaks during the Today Show. I believe CBS ran Captain Kangaroo and other kids program during the mornings.

 

[TheBigA]

IIRC (decades ago) I heard a station saying “if you give us 15 minutes we’ll give you the world”.

It was 22 minutes. Westinghouse all-newsers such as WINS and KYW used that line. The purpose was mainly to hold listeners through a second quarter hour.

 

[jabba17]

If you are understaffed with news gathers, I suggest a reporter who works the local social media sites could offset some of the advantage a strong local newspaper has.

Wasn't that the Patch business model (patch.com)? Patch is now part of AOL, which should tell you something.

In one sense, Patch suffers from the same problem that local community newspapers have--if you deliver hard-hitting local news that isn't flattering to the local movers and shakers, then your ad dollars dry up. If you deliver hard-hitting news against the local government, then the local constabulary goes dark on you and then you can forget about scooping the big city paper.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

It was 22 minutes. Westinghouse all-newsers such as WINS and KYW used that line. The purpose was mainly to hold listeners through a second quarter hour.

You could pull people through quarter hours in the diary days. That won't work with the PPM.

 

[On the Dial]

Where would they have gotten it? Would you suggest hiring experienced staff from another all-news station? None in Atlanta, so it means moving someone from the northeast.

Back in the 90s, a friend of mine worked for Metro Traffic in a very large city. He did both news and traffic for several major radio stations. I asked him how he got the local news he read on the air. Did they have a staff of reporters going out in the streets? No. He got the local news from the newspaper (this was before online newspapers) and from the local AP wire service.

I wasn't advising anybody about whom they should hire or from where. I was merely noting that relatively few staff members at 106.7 had local street reporting experience, or experience with all-news radio. But since you raise the issue, yes, an all-news radio station really does need to have news-gathering capabilities. This has nothing to do with romanticizing anything. In the first place, the AP no longer offers the kind of local wire service you mention. And in the second place, an all-news station that simply regurgitates the local newspaper cannot hope to succeed commercially. Every successful all-news station has reporters.

 

[LegalTender]

I wasn't advising anybody about whom they should hire or from where. I was merely noting that relatively few staff members at 106.7 had local street reporting experience, or experience with all-news radio.

There were at least 3 with local street reporting experience: Carolyn Ryan, Scott Kimbler and Connie Cummings. CNN Radio alums were not imports to the Atlanta market; most had been here for decades. And Fox5 street reporters did wraps/live shots for 106.7.

Corporate timidity was evident from the outset.

 

[TheBigA]

And in the second place, an all-news station that simply regurgitates the local newspaper cannot hope to succeed commercially.

Which is once again why I say we will not see any other company attempt to launch an all-news radio station. It's simply impractical.

Corporate timidity was evident from the outset.

If throwing away money is a sign of timidity, yes. Once again why this is not a viable commercial format. No current radio company has the kind of investment money it takes to start one.

 

[davideduardo]

You could pull people through quarter hours in the diary days. That won't work with the PPM.

Yes, very true. The average uninterrupted listening span is around a quarter hour at a time.

While listeners may "continue" to listen for long periods, there are interruptions for everything from a phone call to a bathroom break. The Diary did not show this; the PPM does.

Today's promotion has to be aimed at "keep coming back" instead of "keep listening".

High cume and low TSL worked for news stations in the diary when all-news was a 35+ format. It is now a 45+ and ageing.

 

[TheBigA]

High cume and low TSL worked for news stations in the diary when all-news was a 35+ format. It is now a 45+ and ageing.

The WTOP anchors say: "Check back two, three, maybe four times a day." But they don't expect you to listen for hours on end. I tried that once and got lots of repetition. Their news cycle repeats stories every other hour. That's bad for TSL. When you mix in talk shows, as WSB does in Atlanta, people listen for longer periods uninterrupted. Of course that also tends to increase the median age.

 

[On the Dial]

There were at least 3 with local street reporting experience: Carolyn Ryan, Scott Kimbler and Connie Cummings. CNN Radio alums were not imports to the Atlanta market; most had been here for decades. And Fox5 street reporters did wraps/live shots for 106.7.

Yes, that is true. That's why I said "relatively few." Scott Kimbler and Connie Cummings did have local street reporting experience, and Connie had many local contacts, which are very important. Although Carolyn Ryan was identified as a 106.7 reporter, she was assigned by Fox 5, and could more accurately be described as Fox 5 reporter whose salary was paid by 106.7. The wraps and live shots provided by Fox 5 certainly helped, but on many occasions, TV and radio news operations have very different needs.

 

[LegalTender]

Yes, that is true. That's why I said "relatively few." Scott Kimbler and Connie Cummings did have local street reporting experience, and Connie had many local contacts, which are very important. Although Carolyn Ryan was identified as a 106.7 reporter, she was assigned by Fox 5, and could more accurately be described as Fox 5 reporter whose salary was paid by 106.7. The wraps and live shots provided by Fox 5 certainly helped, but on many occasions, TV and radio news operations have very different needs.

The "needs" of Fox5 and 106.7 intersected often enough for WYAY to manage a credible local presence. Cumulus staked AllNews for 15 months before rolling a hybrid.

 

[On the Dial]

The "needs" of Fox5 and 106.7 intersected often enough for WYAY to manage a credible local presence. Cumulus staked AllNews for 15 months before rolling a hybrid.

And even beyond, after it switched formats to news/talk.

 

[LegalTender]

And even beyond, after it switched formats to news/talk.

Only for the months it took to audition and sign talkers, shed payroll and drop ABC.

 

[On the Dial]

Only for the months it took to audition and sign talkers, shed payroll and drop ABC.

The Fox 5 connection lasted for at least two years after 106.7 went news/talk.
Dropping ABC had nothing to do with 106.7's format change. All Cumulus stations taking ABC dropped it when Cumulus created its own network news service.

 

[LegalTender]

The Fox 5 connection lasted for at least two years after 106.7 went news/talk.
Dropping ABC had nothing to do with 106.7's format change. All Cumulus stations taking ABC dropped it when Cumulus created its own network news service.

There was a "Cumulus Network News Service?" I thought they re-purposed CNN content. Having Martha Raddatz, Vic Ratner, Aaron Katersky and ABC stars do live shots on WYAY in both drives was an indispensable asset. "Fox5 connection" became incidental as the contract lapsed. The news/talk format was a decomposing corpse.