-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KNX Top of Hour
- Thread starter imlayguy
- Start date
Most likely they record an hour then play it back next hour. Of course the newsreader is there in case something major happens and they go back to "live". Since most stories don't get a rewriting every hour he or she would read the same thing word for word.
I just listened to the noon break. The anchor before the TOH was Susanne Whatley, and she returned after ABC News.
However, anchors have scheduled breaks during their shift. During the week, they alternate hours. It's possible you heard one of those. I need more information about what you heard.
Last edited:
I just noticed on the KNX website that you can listen to an hourly replay of any hour of programming (located on the Schedule page). You can go as far back as 3 days. So, if the OP can provide the specific hour, then we can compare.
No, it's not staff cutbacks as far as I can tell. On weekday afternoons, the two anchors alternate hours. News Director Alex Silverman is on at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. Brian Douglas is on at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. I think they sometimes say they'll be back in an hour when wrapping up, going into the top of the hour. It is not about prerecorded hours because KNX doesn't prerecord any of its hours.
This is similar to WINS in NYC. But WINS has its anchors do a half hour on and a half hour off. So in morning drive time, Susan Richard is heard at 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 for 30 minutes. Scott Stanford is heard at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 for 30 minutes. It may be a union-agreed schedule. WINS uses that system all day and evening, including weekends. The only exception is overnight, where one anchor does a full four hours, 1 to 5 a.m.
But WINS and KNX are the exceptions. Most All-News stations have the anchors do four or five hour shifts, sometimes co-anchored and sometimes solo. And overnight, most All-News stations offer some hours prerecorded.
KYW in Philly has co-anchors for most of the morning show but has anchors alternating hours the rest of the day and weekends (except for the 4 hours of overnight pre-recorded news, which still includes live traffic reports).
Previously (until 2010) was 20 minutes per anchor during the morning, midday/afternoon and evening drive on WINS, in KFWB when it was an all-news station, did it have the same schedule as WINS?
I thought the 20 minute schedule with three anchors each doing a third of an hour was only in morning drive time. Twice a year in its Ratings Reports, Radio & Records magazine honored the most popular morning shows in the country, so we'd see the photos of the three anchors: Paul Smith, Michael O'Neil and Jim McGifford. The odd thing was they were never on mic at the same time. They were co-anchors but never talked to each other. And that continues on WINS to this day. No anchor ever interacts with the other on the air. At the :00 mark and the :30 mark, one anchor signs off and the other begins, separated by a tone.
But I didn't think there were three anchors on duty all day, just morning drive time. And I didn't think the three-anchor morning show lasted until 2010. But I don't remember exactly so you may be right.
KCBS has virtually done away with scheduled two-anchor setups and doesn’t alternate anchors by the hours. After retirements and departures last year of one or both anchors during weekday AM and PM drives, the anchors that anchor them now — @Steve Scott in AM and a rotating band during PM — do five-hour shifts solo.