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KNX Los Angeles and KCBS San Francisco to Simulcast Overnight Programming

On one hand, it's disappointing the Bay Area now lacks live overnight programming (other than whichever stations have Coast to Coast and Red Eye Radio, and some college stations.
It’s a KNX/KCBS simulcast but it’s still live. Some other all news stations run prerecorded news (yes, reruns of news that aired live a few hours ago) so at least you still have totally live overnight news.
 
Actually KCBS is originating the programming that is carried in LA. Those are live bodies in San Francisco.
Correct, but only on weeknights. Monday to Friday nights (technically Tuesday-Saturday, 12:03 am - 5:00 am), the simulcast originates at KCBS. On the weekends (Sunday & Monday 12-5 AM), it originates at KNX. I'm not sure where the traffic reports actually originate.
 
Correct, but only on weeknights. Monday to Friday nights (technically Tuesday-Saturday, 12:03 am - 5:00 am), the simulcast originates at KCBS. On the weekends (Sunday & Monday 12-5 AM), it originates at KNX. I'm not sure where the traffic reports actually originate.

How much live overnight TV is there in San Francisco?
 
KGO-AM Signoff circa 1980's



This is the one for KGO-AM at sign off when they promoted 790 KABC-AM back in the 1980's. Never knew KGO-TV ever mentioned KABC-AM at some point in its history. But then again if KGO-TV mentions about KABC-TV it has to be during breaking news from Los Angeles when that takes place.
That's probably the video I was looking for. Thanks!

I've sometimes been able to pick up 790 KABC up in the Bay Area at night, albeit with some interference from 780 KKOH out of Reno (especially with a dial radio). But this was in the 2010s (with much more surface noise such as Wi-Fi), not the '80s.
 
But then again if KGO-TV mentions about KABC-TV it has to be during breaking news from Los Angeles when that takes place.

Related, but slightly off-topic: For reasons no one gave on the air -- the only reference was at the top of the newscast, when Jory Rand acknowledged "our viewers in Fresno" -- last weekend some of KFSN/30's newscasts were simulcasts of KABC-TV. I didn't see any difference in the on-screen branding; perhaps in Fresno they overlaid the "ABC 30 Action News" graphics.
 
How much live overnight TV is there in San Francisco?

AFAIK, none. How much live TV is there in Market #1? Or #2, or for that matter, anywhere?

With TV morning shows starting as early as 4:30 or even 4 am, there has to be staffing in the newsroom at least a couple of hours ahead, if not more, to produce content. So if something urgent enough to interrupt programming occurs, there's going to be someone around who can do that. They may not be exactly camera-ready, but in an emergency, you go with what you have.


It's overnights. It's adequate. It helps KCBS and KNX (mostly KNX) with a budget allocation issue.

That's literally all there is to this.
From post #227...I wanted to see that again.
 
With TV morning shows starting as early as 4:30 or even 4 am, there has to be staffing in the newsroom at least a couple of hours ahead, if not more, to produce content. So if something urgent enough to interrupt programming occurs, there's going to be someone around who can do that. They may not be exactly camera-ready, but in an emergency, you go with what you have.



From post #227...I wanted to see that again.
Wow. 252 posts and this thread is still going strong.

I think this thread has a better rating than the AM overnight news on AM radio that is it's subject.
 
Wow. 252 posts and this thread is still going strong.

I think this thread has a better rating than the AM overnight news that is it's subject.
The amount of discussion something gets on RD is inversely proportional to the size of the audience affected. Look at the KZAC ("560") thread in the San Francisco board if you dare. That's practically dividing by zero.
 
With TV morning shows starting as early as 4:30 or even 4 am, there has to be staffing in the newsroom at least a couple of hours ahead,

That's also the case with KCBS and KNX. There are still people in the building. They're just not on the air.

When I was in AFTRA, it was in the contract that anchors got paid for an hour of prep time before going on air.
 
At my last TV station (ABC15 in Phoenix, 2009-2012), the 4:30 a.m. producer and assistant producer arrived at 11:30 pm the night before.
In small/medium sized markets, the talent also arrives around that time.

 
In real catastrophic emergencies, the cell phones don't work either.
The Tubbs fire in 2017 destroyed a lot of comms infrastructure throughout Sonoma County California. Landlines started to fail early on as poles became ash. Cell service remained available for a couple of days until PG&E electric service was interrupted and cell site backup batteries failed. Most people were in "radio silence" for days.
 
The Tubbs fire in 2017 destroyed a lot of comms infrastructure throughout Sonoma County California. Landlines started to fail early on as poles became ash. Cell service remained available for a couple of days until PG&E electric service was interrupted and cell site backup batteries failed. Most people were in "radio silence" for days.
I think either earlier that year or the year before, a fire somewhere in Mendocino county (Willits, I think) knocked out almost all cell service in the surrounding area, including most of Lake county.

All the major carriers at the time were affected, except T-Mobile, whose coverage back then was fairly sparse, so by luck, that lack of coverage actually spared it form being affected by the outage.

There was another time when the main fiber optic line was vandalized, and both Lake and Mendocino counties were effectively cut off from the outside world for about a day. No internet service and severely limited cell service (could only make and receive local calls). I don't remember if copper landlines were affected.

In the latter case, the only way we knew anything about it was the radio. In the former, we still had internet, at least, but we couldn't easily call any friends to see if they were OK, because I didn't know what was going on (that is, until I realized that I happened to have an active burner phone with a T-Mobile SIM in it, which is how I learned that T-Mo wasn't affected).

c
 
I remember Susanne Whatley as a KFWB anchor. Don’t recall if she jumped to KNX right after KFWB’s flip or went to KPCC directly. It’s nice to hear some KFWB veterans, even if only a few are left, still on KNX.
Way back when Suzanne was a reporter for KCOP Channel 13's miniscule news department. I also worked at Channel 13 and I remember talking to her shortly before she made the jump to the then-new Entertainment Tonight and she was extremely nervous about making the change.
 
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I think either earlier that year or the year before, a fire somewhere in Mendocino county (Willits, I think) knocked out almost all cell service in the surrounding area, including most of Lake county.

All the major carriers at the time were affected, except T-Mobile, whose coverage back then was fairly sparse, so by luck, that lack of coverage actually spared it form being affected by the outage.

There was another time when the main fiber optic line was vandalized, and both Lake and Mendocino counties were effectively cut off from the outside world for about a day. No internet service and severely limited cell service (could only make and receive local calls). I don't remember if copper landlines were affected.

In the latter case, the only way we knew anything about it was the radio. In the former, we still had internet, at least, but we couldn't easily call any friends to see if they were OK, because I didn't know what was going on (that is, until I realized that I happened to have an active burner phone with a T-Mobile SIM in it, which is how I learned that T-Mo wasn't affected).

c
I had a friend who driving south from Eureka during the outage. He wound up having to pay cash to get enough gas to get back to SF. All of the charge card terminals were cell-dependent, an often overlooked problem when cell service goes down.
 
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