KFYI, the Valley's Talk Station...and nothing else

[TAWT]

....how else do you explain them running Rush while the President speaks.

Enough with the "News Traffic, Weather" stuff, KFYI. You're a talk station. A very good one, to be sure. But when you don't run network news during the day, you don't have airborne traffic, and you rarely if ever have your staff meterologist on the air live, you really can't call yourself a news station.

Personally, I can't understand why you're so worried about KTAR. The only similarity between the two of you is you don't play music.

Oh, and you guys do comedy. Every time you call yourself News Traffic and Weather, I laugh.

 

[PHOENIX]

OVER THE WEEKEND, THE 550 NEWS ANCHORS WOULD SAY "DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE GAME IS OVER TO GET YOUR NEWS..".

I WANT TO THANK THEM FOR REMINDING ME THAT THERE WAS BALLGAME ON 620.

GO D-BACKS !!

 

[buster2]

> ....how else do you explain them running Rush while the
> President speaks.
>
> Enough with the "News Traffic, Weather" stuff, KFYI. You're
> a talk station. A very good one, to be sure. But when you
> don't run network news during the day, you don't have
> airborne traffic, and you rarely if ever have your staff
> meterologist on the air live, you really can't call yourself
> a news station.
>
> Personally, I can't understand why you're so worried about
> KTAR. The only similarity between the two of you is you
> don't play music.
>
> Oh, and you guys do comedy. Every time you call yourself
> News Traffic and Weather, I laugh.
>

I have to disagree on some points, though they should have carried the president's remarks instead of Rush.

Having airborne traffic is not a big selling point any more - or at least it shouldn't be.

In the late 1980's early 1990s I flew airborne traffic as an occasional fill-in.

When you're in a plane, you can see maybe ten percent of the major traffic arteries at any one time. It's not like you can be at some elevation over the Valley and see US 60, I-17, Loop 101, 202, etc., and the major surface streets all at once. The best you can do is give a detailed report about where you are at the moment and listen to the police and fire frequencies to get a handle on where accidents are. It's actually very inefficient, though it sounds impressive. And when I did it, the urban sprawl was much less than it is now. I can't recall ever caring about traffic on the Carefree Highway, Queen Creek area, or any number of other places that have a lot of traffic now. So it's even more spread out today.

Ground-based services like Total and Metro (and no, I don't work for either one; I'm not in radio anymore), use cameras, radio monitoring and the services of a pretty large staff to deliver the traffic reports. It's probably the only way to cover such a large metro area.

As for the weather, KFYI probably could use Royal live more often. But the fact of the matter is, with some exceptions, Ed Phillips on KTAR is heard on tape (or hard drive) more often than not. At least Royal and Ed are local. It beats KFYI's Weather Channel days.

 

[ajhenderson]

> Having airborne traffic is not a big selling point any more
> - or at least it shouldn't be.

True, but the TV stations which outbill and "outexcite" all of us still use their own helicopters in conjunction with Metro for traffic data. I guess just imaging.

 

[MarkAndrews]

> > Having airborne traffic is not a big selling point any
> more
> > - or at least it shouldn't be.
>
> True, but the TV stations which outbill and "outexcite" all
> of us still use their own helicopters in conjunction with
> Metro for traffic data. I guess just imaging.
>

I beg to differ...

Airborne traffic reports are the only accurate means of getting timely traffic info on routes without traffic cams. There can be significant holes between cams...And the 101 Pima Fwy has *none* installed north of the 202 interchange through the SRPMIC to the Scottsdale Airpark.

(The imaging is a nice plus...)

 

[brian4]

I will add at least KT'R (I love that!) will have local news after ABC news at night. Usually after 10:00 p.m. KFYI sends their reporters/newsreaders home.