Station produced and aired a three minute report on Saturday about the recent decision by CBS execs. to exit radio altogether after 100 years. It occurred to me that this report was as much damage control (understandable reaction) as it was an interesting news item. Much emphasis was placed on KNX’s plans to remain fully operative after the CBS cessation. The report also mentioned that any possible TOH news service replacement is “still unclear” (3/21/26).
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KNX-(Specific) TOH News - eventual changes .
- Thread starter BLA
- Start date
Primarily because CBS News Radio has absolutely nothing to do with KNX. They haven't for ten years. The other 57 minutes of programming every hour is created by KNX, not CBS Radio. The fact is that CBS Radio ceased to exist ten years ago when it sold its radio stations to Audacy. They have remained "fully operative" after that.
So this is a small change. KNX is a member of other national news networks, including AP. They could easily replace CBS news at the top of the hour with local headlines, the way KFWB once did. They could carry AP network news. There is cooperation among the Audacy news stations. There are lots of options. But the other 57 minutes an hour stay the same.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I think listeners to all-News stations are going to pay more attention to the closure of CBS Radio News than the average listener. And that motivates KNX to produce that announcement ... to reassure their audience, which is largely comprised of that type of listener.
Smart move on their part, IMO.
Smart move on their part, IMO.
Yes! The average listener is unaware of the CBS Audacy split of years ago. There is no Audacy branding at all, but See Bee Ess Neues is well touted. There may be a residual public memory of CBS/KNX.
Also, I think KFI snapped up ABC which would seem quite the odd fit for KNX anyway. KABC is said to still exist, too!
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KNX Explains: CBS News Radio to shut down after nearly 100 years. What does this mean for listeners? | KNX News 1070 AM
| KNX News 1070 AM
www.audacy.com
CBS News Radio service leaving, but WBBM is here to stay | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
CBS News on Friday announced a new round of layoffs and that includes the shutdown of CBS News Radio. So what does that mean for WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 AM? Most importantly, WBBM Newsradio 780 AM and 105.9 FM are NOT going anywhere. | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
www.audacy.com
CBS Radio News is shutting down, ending a national news service for nearly 700 radio stations
In a shocking memo on Friday, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president/executive editor Tom Cibrowski announced a number of layoffs and that includes the entire CBS Radio News division.
www.audacy.com
Here is a statement from Audacy posted to their local all news or News/Talk stations what to expect when CBS News Radio Shuts down. Note this is mainly local management that issued that statement so far for their specific stations like KNX, WBBM, WCCO, KYW.
As much of a bummer as it is for CBSRN to be closing, I don’t envision there being much of an overall impact to the radio landscape. The syndicated talk outlets and stray full-service takers will likely just switch over to another news service, and stations/clusters with some semblance of a news department can supplant the previous reports with their own. Moving from KYW territory, I personally found it odd for KNX to lead the hour with a national report instead of local weather, traffic and news.
I think all you have to do is look at social media comments immediately following the CBS Radio announcement to understand why KNX and many of the other former CBS O&O news stations are running “Don’t Worry, We’re Still Here” stories. Those stations, along with many major market affiliate stations, were surprisingly effective in promoting the value of CBS News to their listeners. That branding linked the stations to CBS so well that, at least some casual listeners, upon seeing the news on social media, assumed KNX or KCBS or WBBM were going away too in May. I agree that major market stations like KNX have many options. WINS in New York, and KFWB here in Los Angeles, had no network news at the top of the hour. With network-quality anchors and writers you can produce a newscast perfectly crafted for your market. Ask any west coast news director (if you can still find one) about how frustrating it can be when your New York-centric network leads the hourly with an east coast weather story when there is a big story here (“out west” as they’d say in New York.) Or if the big west coast story happened after 6 p.m. eastern. Unfortunately, our stations are “making do” with less and I’m not confident the CBS hourly will be replaced with something exceptional. I worked for CBS for 16 years and most of the rest of my 40 years in the business were spent as a CBS affiliate. I’m sorry for the people losing jobs that will be hard to replace. Sadly, their work became seen as an expendable in a 3rd place television news division with no love or loyalty to what was perceived as a dying radio medium.
Would KFI claim exclusivity if KNX wanted to carry ABC News on the hour? After all, KFI never airs the ABC newscasts, it just uses occasional ABC clips. Bill Handel (6 to 9am) and Amy King (5 to 6am) sometimes talk to ABC correspondents during their programs.
ABC Radio News is much like CBS Radio News. Good anchors, a brand everyone recognizes, an option to take a one minute update at the bottom of the hour if you want. And both services are backed by large worldwide news gathering organizations that have a TV network and streaming channel as well.
But of course, ABC is not exactly like CBS. ABC management actually knows what it's doing and doesn't have a built-in agenda.
ABC Radio News is much like CBS Radio News. Good anchors, a brand everyone recognizes, an option to take a one minute update at the bottom of the hour if you want. And both services are backed by large worldwide news gathering organizations that have a TV network and streaming channel as well.
But of course, ABC is not exactly like CBS. ABC management actually knows what it's doing and doesn't have a built-in agenda.
It's an interesting conversation, though the details may be noted only to those of us who listen to radio news more closely than the general public. KFI is using ABC News Radio, kinda surprising given that iHeart owns the 24 / 7 News Service which includes NBC News Radio. I also wonder if a decision will be made for all of the Audacy all-news outlets (WINS-New York, WBBM-Chicago, KRLD-Dallas, KYW-Philadelphia, KCBS-San Francisco, WWJ-Detroit, WWL-New Orleans, KDKA-Pittsburgh, plus KNX) or it will vary from market-to-market. It's possible they drop the TOH newscast like WINS, but having a network resource is helpful for breaking news. That could be provided by using TV audio from CNN, MS NOW, or FOX News, come to think of it.
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Keep in mind that a radio station would need permission to air audio from any of those stations.
ABC TOH news is heard in LA on 790 KABC.
The word "heard" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
If a tree falls in a remote forest, is it "heard"? Well, I guess this answers my question about exclusivity. Both KFI owned by iHeart and KABC owned by Cumulus (at least for now) have an affiliation with ABC in the same #2 market. KFI doesn't air the newscasts and KABC might only use the newscasts.
So could Audacy make a deal with ABC to air the network's top-of-the-hour (and sometimes bottom) newscasts for its All-News and News-Talk stations in all markets? Maybe as I discussed above, the network would have to offer an ABC News sounder newscast to its current affiliates and a "white label" opening to its Audacy affiliates to avoid cries of "hey, what about my exclusive deal"?
CBS News Radio currently has two opens, one with the sponsor mention and one that's cold. Both use the CBS Radio news sounder. The anchor doesn't start speaking until a few seconds have elapsed so the sponsor mention can go out over that feed.
Audacy made that kind of deal with CBS News Radio, and several of its stations didn't air the TOH news at all. As a company, they don't seem to impose those kinds of things on their stations. If WINS doesn't want to run national TOH news, then they don't do it. The main thing these stations need is resources, not a TOH newscast. They know how to do those kinds of things.
The brand for these stations is local. So no matter what they decide to do at the top of the hour, the jingle will be part of their local imaging package. Not some different jingle. That's why I believe KCBS will replace the national news with its own local headlines. How they do it may differ. The way my local sports station handles it is the producer takes over, does headlines, and gives the host a break. But I see no reason why they should feel that they must carry somebody's outside national news.
790 KABC even has a connection to KABC-TV. They air the audio of ABC7 Eyewitness News from 4 -6 am weekdays. Although the ABC connection doesn't do diddly to help the ratings, the cross promotion with KABC-TV should have some benefit.
To whom?
I'm thinking those that were watching ABC7 while getting ready for work, and then continuing to listen in the car on the way to work.
Confirmed, heard its debut an hour ago.
The current ABC TOH is reporting an Ebola treatment center being set on fire in Congo by people angry they couldn't retrieve a body.
*turns the news back off*
The current ABC TOH is reporting an Ebola treatment center being set on fire in Congo by people angry they couldn't retrieve a body.
*turns the news back off*