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ktrh is not a news station

O

OldChicago

The biggest news story in years broke Sunday night when Osama Bin Laden
was killed finally by U.S. military action. The breaking news was
carried by all TV networks and many radio stations nationwide. However
there was no carriage of this at all on KRTH or KPRC. The only
local radio coverage I could find was KUHF. It is really a shame
what they have done to KTRH. This is why I am looking forward to an
all-news KUHF


Old Chicago
 
I share your feelings about KTRH, but I also celebrate the rise of KUHF as the city's only legitimate radio news station. And it will rise to greater heights when KUHF goes "all news and information" and puts the classical programing on KTRU's old frequency.

I can remember when KTRH was the most respected radio news/talk station in this part of the country. I am proud that I worked at KTRH - in the mid and late 60s, and again in the late 80s and early 90s. It was a great place to work -- then.

Its slow death began when Rusk Corp owner John T. Jones Jr. died. He resisted and refused any number of big offers for the stations over the years, but his body wasn't even cold when his son Jay Jones III sold KTRH/KLOL to JACOR Communications, which was later "assimilated" by Clear Channel.

Changing the subject, but only a little, did you see where Clear Channel bought Metro Traffic from Westwood One?
 
KRLD in Dallas had great coverage, but they are owned by CBS. Wish CBS would do news in Houston. No offense to UH, but they would never compete with a decently run news station run by the likes of CBS.
 
***No offense to UH, but they would never compete with a decently run news station run by the likes of CBS.***

They wouldn't be "competing" because they don't approach news the same way. KUHF does NPR style "long form" reporting. Reporters are taught to think long form when they're covering a story and writing it. They also gather natural sound out on their scenes to dress the story up when they produce it for air -- NPR style.

CBS does standard commercial hourly news "short form" reporting. Two entirely different ways of doing news.

Also, by and large, KUHF and a commercial CBS station wouldn't be covering the same kinds of stories. KUHF would of course cover city and county government and the court housese, as commercial stations also do. They would cover the cops, but not the way the commercials do it.

KUHF doesn't waste time and resources chasing ambulances and police cars.They don't even have police and fire scanners in the newsroom. You have no idea how big a blessing that is, for the former commercial newsies who work there.

KUHF's news philosophy is that crime is a social problem that can be covered from the viewpoint of what it's doing to society and what's being done about it. They don't think it's necessary to cover every crime that's committed.
 
When did KUHF break in with NPR coverage? I first learned about it when my TV happened to be tuned to NBC. While the President was making his announcement on TV, I heard classical music. When I checked again during the rallies in Lafayette Square and Ground Zero, I finally heard Guy Raz anchoring. It's as if he was the only one on duty and he was trying to get to NPR as fast as he could from the Northern Virgina or Maryland suburbs; NPR (or KUHF) was late to break in.
 
You're right. NPR has just two speeds. Slow and slower, and that's a problem they're the first to admit. NPR has never been good at rapid responses to breaking stories.

One reason for that is NPR's reluctance to just "go live" with people filling time with nothing of any substance to report. They don't like to do that, unlike our TV networks, who fill hours of live air-time with mindless chatter while they wait for fresh information. NPR prefers to wait till real information starts flowing.

They also have a policy of not putting anything on the air until it can be verified by at least two reliable sources. That's why it's common for the TV networks to be reporting something that won't be heard on NPR until some time later. That's just how NPR does things, and it's not going to change. As one of their editors told me once, "We don't care about getting it first. We care about getting it right."

Aside from that, NPR brass has been struggling to improve their ability to react ever since the Oklahoma City bombing in the mid 90s, and the events of 9/11 in 2001. NPR's "performance" in the first hours after those events was pathetic and they admit it. This desire to be "quicker on their feet" is one of the factors that led to Morning Edition becoming a two-person show, which, unfortunately, did not include longtime host Bob Edwards. But that's another story.

Another unfortunate fact of life for NPR is the lack of dependable news resources at the local level. The vast majority of NPR affiliates are on college campuses, and are run by students and volunteers who don't know the first thing about covering hard news. Only a handful of affiliates have full time professional news departments.

Big breaking stories of national interest often happen and change so fast that accurate information is outdated by the time it makes air. Sometimes it just takes longer than anyone likes to get an NPR reporter, or a local professional, into position to keep up with the flow of info and provide accurate reporting. That's one of the reasons NPR depends so heavily on live telephone interviews.

So what you heard the night of bin Laden's death was what NPR was able to provide on short notice. But rest assured it's a problem they're determined to change.
 
FilioScotia said:
You're right. NPR has just two speeds. Slow and slower, and that's a problem they're the first to admit. NPR has never been good at rapid responses to breaking stories.

One reason for that is NPR's reluctance to just "go live" with people filling time with nothing of any substance to report. They don't like to do that, unlike our TV networks, who fill hours of live air-time with mindless chatter while they wait for fresh information. NPR prefers to wait till real information starts flowing.
Click to expand...

From what I've gathered over the last couple of days, NPR did carry the president's speech live, but they did not go to air until shortly before it began. There's considerable conversation going on at pubtech as to how better to let the member stations know that they have breaking news coverage and where to find it.

Of course, the timing left everybody scrambling (David Gregory having to vamp for a long time while waiting on Brian Williams to come in at NBC, as an example, and John King at CNN looked downright terrible) as very few networks by they radio or TV has a full compliment of staff at 11:00 Eastern on a Sunday night.

On the other side of the pond, it was morning drive in London, so a lot of NPR stations ran with BBC coverage during the overnight as they were fully staffed and only talking about Bin Laden and not cricket scores. I don't know what KUHF did... after the president finished, I turned out the light and went to bed. I had heard everything I wanted to hear.
 
KUHF and BBC

KUHF already carries the BBC World News on its HD2 channel all night from 11pm till 4am, when it picks up the first hour of NPR Morning Edition. Those who don't have an HD radio can listen to it on the KUHF website.

I expect this all night BBC to move over to KUHF 88.7 when it goes all news, and all the classical music is moved to the new station when it goes on line.
 
In the last few years, NPR has invested in more staff and worked to develop more online coverage. Interesting because most national news orgs are cutting back right now.
 
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