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KXL

B

bobdavcav

Ok, I'm really not liking KXL.
First, weekdays. At the top of the hour they're fine, though I'd prefer another headline or two before traffic and weather rather than a couple of adds. The big problem I have with them is at the bottom of the hour. A CBS new brief and a look at the markets before traffic and weather imo isn't an adequate update, give me a few local headlines. Then there's weekends. In general, I'm against a news station running completely automated on weekends in the event a major story breaks, but what KXL did on Saturday is just as bad if not worse. Just before 9 on Saturday morning, right in the middle of the last commercial break of the CBS News Weekend Roundup, the audio faded out and without any explanation, we were taken to a briefing by Trump's doctors about his condition. I'm guessing someone had to push the button switching the automation to the CBS live feed, then get control of the automation back once the briefing was over, kind of messy transition as it was. If there was really someone there, they should do two things:
1. In a situation like that,they should actually announce what's going on, rather than just drop us into the feed with no warning.
2. That person should also be giving ocal headlines at the top and bottom of the hour as happens during the week.
 
Okay, more annoyances with KXL. Can they really not make up their mind about what to do with the 8-10 A.M. slot on Sundays? I actually got to like Chad Benson when he was in that slot with a replay of the Friday show, but now they seem to be running a replay of the local investing show they ran a year ago in the 8:00 hour and another replay of the CBS News Weekend Roundup at 9. I've only been in the market four months, and this is the third lineup they've had in that slot.
 
It looks like weekends are primarily built around sponsored programs or infomercials. If they don't have a new show, they run a repeat because the time has been paid for.
 
Hmm, not what I would have thought. There's certainly some of that going on, but since they've got MVCR on in their usual time slot on Saturdays and other shows like Leo Laport, I would have thought they'd have some kind of schedule.
 
Hey Bob, what do you think of the presentation on KEX 1190? They brand themselves as a 24 hour news station, and I am curious if they actually live up to that standard.
 
Technically, that's true, but I expect a news station to run some form of local updates as well. I would think at least the possibility exists that something major could break locally that the national networks won't care at all about. As for KEX, you can't call yourself the go to news station in town if you don't have at least one news block. I could check in the mornings, but I just checked at the top of the hour and it was the standard ABC news, local headlines, traffic and weather, then into the Buck Sexton show. In the evenings, last time I spent any length of time down here their updates simply consisted of ABC news, the prerecorded weather from KATU, and maybe a couple of promos for sister stations.
 
bobdavcav said:
I would think at least the possibility exists that something major could break locally that the national networks won't care at all about.
Click to expand...

When something major breaks locally, there is someone on call who can come in on notice and start doing local coverage. Yes that means it may be a half hour delay. But that's how it works. You don't staff for emergencies. Radio stations aren't the police or the army.
 
Thanks for your update on KEX! As for KXL, it does seem like they have live staff around the clock, but I am not entirely sure how much they interject into the broadcast. This guy is definitely one of the live news personalities that keep KXL functioning. That particular video is a little old, but it sounds like he's still a mainstay of their overnight operations.
 
They are live around the clock during the week with half hour updates, though as I said in my original post, a check of the markets isn't a sufficient update at the bottom of the hour during the day, and it doesn't seem like it would be anymore expensive to read a few more headlines to make that update more complete, especially since they do during Lars Larson anyway. During that show though they do kill the CBS news brief, something I'm not sure is a good idea itself, but if I could only choose one I'd choose local headlines. On weekends though, there doesn't seem to be anyone there except for maybe some of the hosts of their paid programs, not sure if those are live or recorded. As I said in my original post, they just broke into regular programming with an update on Trump's condition when he had Covid, no explanation or indication they were standing by and going to take that. I am not sure if there was someone in the building that day or if that was controlled remotely.
 
In the weekend scenario, I would be very surprised if anyone was there at nighttime. A lot of the weekend programming in general is prerecorded to save money. It seems like news/talk stations run into issues with their national news feed, as the feed is designed to start playing at the top of the hour (there have been many instances on KIRO in Seattle where the CBS feed cut off another element playing). Cutting off the CBS feed for an update on an entirely different topic seems like something went wrong with the CBS feed, or a live person made a mistake. I think the issue was with the CBS feed.
 
TheBigA said:
Not very likely, or that same problem would happen at hundreds of other stations across the country.
Click to expand...
Doesn't CBS national news use a NewsBoss software system where elements are triggered at HQ, and then local programming is triggered at the end of the newscast? To me, it seems like something was accidentally triggered in the CBS newscast to erroneously signal a transition back to local news programming. In the scenario Bob described, a soundbite that started to air without a local news host present. As we might have gone off topic a bit here, it seems like the issue described is the result of overnight automation.
 
I thought stations had to elect to carry special live coverage? Certainly, something got triggered without an explanation, whether that was from CBS or someone remotely controlling Wide Orbit locally I don't know.
 
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