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KYW....How the mighty have fallen!!!

S

Stuart

I was visiting my Father last week in Philadelphia. His favorite station is still KYW. To be honest, I have not heard the station in about 10 years. I was really shocked at some of the things I heard. The main disgrace was the "Farmer's Almanac Report". They actually had a reporter talking to one of the people who publish said Almanac. This is the kind of report I would expect in a smaller town market, not a major market such as Philadelphia.

I was listening wondering when the "The Trader's Post" would come on where Bill would like to sell his lawnmower for......

How the mighty have fallen!!! ( I remembered this after reading Julius's entry about KYW)

Stuart
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
 
Sam,

You are probably correct. The gentleman did discuss the entire winter based on the Almanac. I just did not think that kind of report should have been on such a professional station.

I say this with respect. You are a radio professional, I am not. So I am going to go with your answer.

Stuart
 
Stuart Greenberg said:
Sam,

You are probably correct. The gentleman did discuss the entire winter based on the Almanac. I just did not think that kind of report should have been on such a professional station.

I say this with respect. You are a radio professional, I am not. So I am going to go with your answer.

Stuart
Click to expand...

They do it every year. Most news organizations do it too. General interest stories are part of news programming. Everything doesn't have to be death in the streets in North Philadelphia or terrorist stories loom and doom or the Schuylkill has been closed, get out of your car and run for you life.
 
Stuart, with all due respect to Sam Lit, I think you may have touched on a valid issue here. This issue applies not just to this one station but to other all news stations, a handful of heritage news-talk stations and to public radio (hardly anybody else in radio is doing news at all). Maybe there are better examples than the Farmers' Almanac story. Yes, there is room for the occasional light feature. But to my ears there is a lot less serious and original reporting and a lot more dumbing down (apparently an effort to attract younger listeners). I know it has been said here (and elsewhere) before but "news" in all news radio is too often a sound bite from staged event, a press release plus telephone sound bite, person on the street sound bites or a "reporter" with a cell phone reading copy from location where nothing is currently happening. And this was a station that once uncovered scandals and frightened politicians.

I just checked Reelradio to see if they had any air checks of KYW or any other all news station from the 60s and 70s. No luck (they do have airchecks from KYW the top 40 station in Cleveland). I'd love to hear one to see how good my memory is and what's different about all news radio today. Truth is I listen to 1010 WINS more than KYW but I don't listen to either much any more. Group W used to have a slogan something like "If you miss a little, you'll miss a lot." I don't think I'm missing anything any more.
 
MattParker said:
Stuart, with all due respect to Sam Lit, I think you may have touched on a valid issue here. This issue applies not just to this one station but to other all news stations, a handful of heritage news-talk stations and to public radio (hardly anybody else in radio is doing news at all). Maybe there are better examples than the Farmers' Almanac story. Yes, there is room for the occasional light feature. But to my ears there is a lot less serious and original reporting and a lot more dumbing down (apparently an effort to attract younger listeners). I know it has been said here (and elsewhere) before but "news" in all news radio is too often a sound bite from staged event, a press release plus telephone sound bite, person on the street sound bites or a "reporter" with a cell phone reading copy from location where nothing is currently happening. And this was a station that once uncovered scandals and frightened politicians.

I just checked Reelradio to see if they had any air checks of KYW or any other all news station from the 60s and 70s. No luck (they do have airchecks from KYW the top 40 station in Cleveland). I'd love to hear one to see how good my memory is and what's different about all news radio today. Truth is I listen to 1010 WINS more than KYW but I don't listen to either much any more. Group W used to have a slogan something like "If you miss a little, you'll miss a lot." I don't think I'm missing anything any more.
Click to expand...

Early KYW News Radio in Philadelphia consisted of basically just copy readers. Most actualities in the early day's came from network feeds, and was much less comprised of on the street reporting. It wasn't until the 70's that KYW really began to have a reporter on every street corner waiting for a pileup.
 
The downward trend in quality and format of the market's news radio station is indeed a valid issue. The truth is terrestrial radio has fallen in general with cutbacks, and in this case, the news radio station is no exception. Yes, many people still listen, but they listen for less and less and that number will not increase. The PPM drive-by system of ratings is benefiting few companies save Arbitron, and doesn't help terrestrial radio either. In the digital age there's simply so many other ways to get a variety of local news, traffic and weather information on demand on one's own schedule in short bits and bites, and overall be entertained whether its news, sports, gardening, pets, whatever, NOT being dictated by someone else and for how long you should listen. This is especially the case with LOCAL news, down to the city, town, neighborhood level, information that would never be covered by terrestrial radio anymore because the industry shot itself in the foot and cut, cut, cut, and information that is of interest to folks that potentially directly effects their life. Eventually, for example, someone's going to figure out how to make money offering news digitally practically by zip code.

In Philadelphia, a market where, unfortunately, change and evolution are dirty words, people by habit listen to news radio because they've done it their entire life, most folks having never left the region. That thought process is further advanced by radio station management types that want you believe it's the only timely way to get information which is utter nonsense. The under 30 something generation is slowly but surely changing that, and companies like news radio's corporate owner have yet to figure out how to serve that audience. Many stations think putting a terrestrial signal or replaying snippets of terrestrial programming on the Internet is digital programming, without bothering to invest in a completely separate digital product. There's an exciting digital world out there growing by the day providing more timely options to stay informed in Philadelphia than only the news radio format.
 
MattParker said:
I just checked Reelradio to see if they had any air checks of KYW or any other all news station from the 60s and 70s. No luck (they do have airchecks from KYW the top 40 station in Cleveland). I'd love to hear one to see how good my memory is and what's different about all news radio today. Truth is I listen to 1010 WINS more than KYW but I don't listen to either much any more. Group W used to have a slogan something like "If you miss a little, you'll miss a lot." I don't think I'm missing anything any more.
Click to expand...
Broadcast Pioneers has various KYW audio from the 60's, 70's and 80's www.broadcastpioneers.com
 
Oh good, more tripe about people "wanting you to believe" whatever. Yawn. It's a business -- their job is to try to get people to listen, basic capitalism. Same as a store wanting you to shop there, a restaurant getting you to eat there and on and on. And since only one thing may occupy a stream at a time, yeah, certain things will happen at different times than others. Basic laws of science. Holding a grudge for whatever perceived slight doesn't mean the alleged evildoers somehow changed the properties of the technology to suit their nefarious plans.

The profitability of the hyperlocal models has yet to be proven on any wide scale. It may or may never come to pass.
 
Is KYW voice tracking a lot of the overnight stuff? I heard that rumor last year and wondered if it was true.
 
Yes, they are actually, it isn't rumor. They are on tape from Sunday overnights through Friday overnights. The top and bottom of the hour is live--then everything after that first traffic report at :02 and :32 is tape.
 
WBZ is running talk in the off hours. KFWB has dropped all news for talk.

Any bets on KYW doing talk during the overnight period, and maybe weekends, too? They've got to do something. Maybe they haven't fall but their PPM numbers are slip, sliddin' away.
 
MattParker said:
WBZ is running talk in the off hours. KFWB has dropped all news for talk.

Any bets on KYW doing talk during the overnight period, and maybe weekends, too? They've got to do something. Maybe they haven't fall but their PPM numbers are slip, sliddin' away.
Click to expand...

KYW isn't going to run talk for as long as their sister station is a news talker.
 
makemeamatch said:
Yes, they are actually, it isn't rumor. They are on tape from Sunday overnights through Friday overnights. The top and bottom of the hour is live--then everything after that first traffic report at :02 and :32 is tape.
Click to expand...


Tape? Now that really would be something. ....It's voice tracked in generic components. The traffic is live over a bed (donut). The top of the hour may be somehwhat live/custom live track and periodically updated along with selected story items. So although most of the components are recorded early in the night, updates can occur. That may not be noticeable on most slow news nights. 
 
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