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KNX Los Angeles and KCBS San Francisco to Simulcast Overnight Programming

Felt the M4.9 quake in Los Gatos around 1:40 a.m. Fired up the Audacy app and tuned into KCBS, where the local anchors were already talking about it live on-air.

I’m curious to see if a quake of this magnitude or greater happens down in SoCal overnight, would there be anyone on deck at KNX to cover it locally or would KCBS try to report on it from a distance?
 
El Zilcho said:
Felt the M4.9 quake in Los Gatos around 1:40 a.m. Fired up the Audacy app and tuned into KCBS, where the local anchors were already talking about it live on-air.

I’m curious to see if a quake of this magnitude or greater happens down in SoCal overnight, would there be anyone on deck at KNX to cover it locally or would KCBS try to report on it from a distance?
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Most likely, KCBS would, at the beginning anyway, report on it from a distance using satellite imagery and such until someone on the ground in Los Angeles could cover. I think whoever was on traffic reporting duty when the incident happened (see below) might have a good shot at seeing any possible damage.

By the way, I was listening over-the-air from my Phoenix, AZ location a couple of nights ago (allowing the 740 kHz station in Phoenix to go 24 hours is *still* one of the dumbest decisions the FCC ever made), and I noted with interest that when it came time to give the traffic report, the same reporter gave reports for both Los Angeles and San Francisco with a note at the beginning of each segment indicating which city he was doing now. It sounded good, especially under the circumstances.
 
ted chittenden said:
(allowing the 740 kHz station in Phoenix to go 24 hours is *still* one of the dumbest decisions the FCC ever made),
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why? phoenix means nothing to KCBS s reception there is./was a bonus
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
why? phoenix means nothing to KCBS s reception there is./was a bonus
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It may have meant nothing to KCBS, but the Phoenix station that got it (KMEO then) never did have full coverage (or anywhere close to full coverage) of the Phoenix market after it began nighttime operations--KCBS' signal was/is too strong in the Phoenix area at night for that to have occurred!
 
El Zilcho said:
I’m curious to see if a quake of this magnitude or greater happens down in SoCal overnight, would there be anyone on deck at KNX to cover it locally or would KCBS try to report on it from a distance?
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Depends on what you mean by "cover it." As we've discussed, there are humans in the building at all hours of the day. Do you mean an anchor goes on the air and describes what he was experiencing? Do you mean a reporter hops in a car and travels to the epicenter of the quake? Do you mean accessing the USGS information, which is available online? A producer records a bunch of social media reports describing the quake where they are? Lots of options. Not all of it requires being close to where it happened.
 
It sounds like the simulcast may now be originating at KNX. I tuned in last night and as midnight approached KCBS hit their top of the hour ID a couple of seconds early followed by the LA anchor saying "it's 12 midnight" and the news sounder.

Coming out of the top of the hour news that same (male) anchor continued the simulcast. Coverage was mostly LA-centric with few Bay Area stories. Traffic led off with LA freeway information followed by a brief mention of the Bay Area roads at the end.

And the branding has gone completely generic. No mention of either station, nor the "California" brand they started with in lieu of the station branding. Just going directly into non-branded stories and traffic and weather cutaways.
 
Lou Schneider said:
It sounds like the simulcast may now be originating at KNX. I tuned in last night and as midnight approached KCBS hit their top of the hour ID a couple of seconds early followed by the LA anchor saying "it's 12 midnight" and the news sounder.

Coming out of the top of the hour news that same (male) anchor continued the simulcast. Coverage was mostly LA-centric with few Bay Area stories. Traffic led off with LA freeway information followed by a brief mention of the Bay Area roads at the end.

And the branding has gone completely generic. No mention of either station, nor the "California" brand they started with in lieu of the station branding. Just going directly into non-branded stories and traffic and weather cutaways.
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They have been calling it "Nightwatch" in lieu of either station's normal branding. And somewhere in the preceding 265 posts in this thread, I know I explained to someone that KCBS originates Nightwatch on Tuesday through Saturday mornings, midnight-5 am, and KNX does it on the weekends.
 
Weiserguy said:
They have been calling it "Nightwatch" in lieu of either station's normal branding. And somewhere in the preceding 265 posts in this thread, I know I explained to someone that KCBS originates Nightwatch on Tuesday through Saturday mornings, midnight-5 am, and KNX does it on the weekends.
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And if people would read threads before breathlessly posting "news" you wouldn't have to repeat yourself, Weiser.
 
If Lou is offended, by all means let him ask for an apology himself.

But I do not believe anyone should post without seeing what was already said. Not even me.
 
Gregg. said:
I was just thinking the other day that there were only four All-News stations with live and local programming 24/7: KNX, KCBS, WINS and WTOP. The other All-News stations do prerecorded news overnight with a live traffic reporter every ten minutes. Actually WBBM Chicago even prerecords its traffic, only using planned-ahead-of-time construction and only a few times each hour, not every ten minutes. If a tanker truck overturns on the Dan Ryan Expressway overnight, there's nobody at WBBM to report that.

The Canadian All-News stations are sort of doing what KNX and KCBS are doing, using one live anchor overnight for CFTR Toronto, CKWX Vancouver and a few Canadian stations that do All-News sometimes with talk shows at other times.

Among Sports stations, I think only WFAN and WSCR Chicago have live and local sports talk shows all night. And I don't think there are any live and local overnight Talk Radio shows now. WABC comes close. On weeknights, Lionel is syndicated to several other stations from 1 to 5 a.m. But WABC has a local show just for NYC on weekend overnights.

It is sad how overnight live radio programming is de-evolving.
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Why do we need traffic at 2 am when 99% of people are asleep?
 
XCountry285 said:
Why do we need traffic at 2 am when 99% of people are asleep?
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▶ For the 1% who are NOT asleep. And BTW, it is not 1%; it is 5% of the population who are awake during overnights. While such may be a small percentage in your mind, it represents millions of people nationally, including roughly 14% to 15% of U.S. workers who work overnight or non-traditional shifts (As Michael also noted just above).

In fact KFWB had collateral for traffic report sponsorship advertisers that stated that during overnights in the Los Angeles DMA, there are more cars on the road than there are during rush hour in Cleveland. So, you might feel the traffic reports have no utility for you, but there is a Cleveland sized population out there in SoCal who desire and use traffic information.

PS... overnights is typically when Caltrans enacts lane and road closures. As such, creating awareness of these unexpected impediments is an important component of overnight traffic reporting.
 
Weiserguy said:
To be fair, (a) Lou is a distinguished participant, who among other stops had his ticket punched at KCBS itself, and (b) 265 posts is an awful lot of reading for anyone to do if they're parachuting into a thread that's now on its 14th page.
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This entire thread about graveyard traffic is a train that just will not stop rolling. No inconsequential tidbit, trivia or passing thought will stop it. It has no conductor and no one can tell when or where its last stop will be. It cannot be contained, but it will keep a rollin'.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
This entire thread about graveyard traffic is a train that just will not stop rolling.
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The part I don't understand is we have this group that is losing its mind because two stations are simulcasting overnights. To them, it's the absolute end of the world. Totally irresponsible. What if? What if?

Meanwhile we have this other group that simply can't understand why someone is doing live traffic at this same time. Where are the "what if" people?

Am I the only one who's baffled by this?
 
ChannelFlipper said:
This entire thread about graveyard traffic is a train that just will not stop rolling. No inconsequential tidbit, trivia or passing thought will stop it. It has no conductor and no one can tell when or where its last stop will be. It cannot be contained, but it will keep a rollin'.
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Been listening to Love and Rockets?

 
TheBigA said:
The part I don't understand is we have this group that is losing its mind because two stations are simulcasting overnights. To them, it's the absolute end of the world. Totally irresponsible. What if? What if?

Meanwhile we have this other group that simply can't understand why someone is doing live traffic at this same time. Where are the "what if" people?

Am I the only one who's baffled by this?
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“Be live and local! No, not like that!”
 
XCountry285 said:
Why do we need traffic at 2 am when 99% of people are asleep?
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Really? In America's #3 city, you think everyone's asleep and there's no traffic? Maybe you've never driven in a large city at 2 a.m.

You've heard the phrase "The City That Never Sleeps." It refers to New York. But all large cities have people doing shift work, getting home late, leaving early. The Red and Blue subway lines in Chicago run every 15 minutes at all hours. Those trains aren't running empty.
 
michael hagerty said:
14.2% of Americans work the graveyard shift.
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I remember when Howard Kalmensen had me consulting KENO in Las Vegas in the early 70's... we scheduled jock shifts, newscasts and TRAFFIC REPORTS to take into account the 2 AM "drive time" that was based on casino shift changes.
 


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