KYW: Sad State of Local Radio

[TheBigA]

Once again, you don't know what you are talking about. It doesn't matter what the slice is when the pie keeps shrinking. Revenue has declined. Cume has declined. Demographics have aged.

And staffing a station at 3 AM won't change any of that. That train is out of the station and you can't put it back in. Don't make connections that don't exist. They covered the story when it mattered most, and that's what the listeners will remember. Regardless of what you say, this station was fully staffed and on the air live before the city had dispatched plows to clear the snow. No one came to help people stuck on a stranded bus until 6AM. You want to blame someone? Blame the mayor.

 

[MattParker]

And staffing a station at 3 AM won't change any of that. That train is out of the station and you can't put it back in. Don't make connections that don't exist. They covered the story when it mattered most, and that's what the listeners will remember. Regardless of what you say, this station was fully staffed and on the air live before the city had dispatched plows to clear the snow. No one came to help people stuck on a stranded bus until 6AM. You want to blame someone? Blame the mayor.

Oh, gee. Did this suddenly become the mass transit board? Talk about connections that don't exist. This is typical of the logic that is destroying radio and much of American business: It's OK if we screw up because we're not the only ones.

Besides, I don't care about what plows do in the city. I finally found something about which I can agree with Glenn Beck. One big reason for KYW's decline is it is so Phila-centric. The audience for news does not live in the city and neither do demographic groups most advertisers want to target.

This storm affected the entire Northeast.

 

[imhomerjay]

Somethings are more important that a quarterly balance sheet. Like the future.

And if that balance sheet doesn't show black ink, there is no future. Wasting money where it doesn't get you a good return is a sound business strategy, how? You have yet to demonstrate that.

The major impact on listeners came when they woke up. When they needed to know about the schools, and about the roads when most of them would be venturing out. And KYW was running at full force when it actually mattered to enough people to be worth the allocation of resources.

All of the "back in the good old days" stories are irrelevant. We live in the world of today, and putting on rose colored glasses and pining for the past isn't going to change that.

 

[TheBigA]

This is typical of the logic that is destroying radio and much of American business: It's OK if we screw up because we're not the only ones.
Besides, I don't care about what plows do in the city. I finally found something about which I can agree with Glenn Beck. One big reason for KYW's decline is it is so Phila-centric. The audience for news does not live in the city and neither do demographic groups most advertisers want to target.

Huh?

KYW's decline?

What I mean by fake connections is you're, in one breath, talking about the decline of radio, and then in the other about KYW. And it's simply a false connection, because KYW is one of the most popular stations in the region, and they do a format that doesn't exist in most other cities in the country. You're trying to extrapolate your personal anger and frustration to another canvas, but it simply doesn't work. In the end, it's still your own personal anger and frustration, and you're just using KYW as a temporary vehicle. But very little of what you say applies to KYW, and there's really absolutely nothing they can do that will change your view, because it's not about them.

 

[MattParker]

Huh?

KYW's decline?

What I mean by fake connections is you're, in one breath, talking about the decline of radio, and then in the other about KYW. And it's simply a false connection, because KYW is one of the most popular stations in the region, and they do a format that doesn't exist in most other cities in the country. You're trying to extrapolate your personal anger and frustration to another canvas, but it simply doesn't work. In the end, it's still your own personal anger and frustration, and you're just using KYW as a temporary vehicle. But very little of what you say applies to KYW, and there's really absolutely nothing they can do that will change your view, because it's not about them.

In addition to broadcasting and business, we can add psychiatry to the list of topics on which you expound and about which you know nothing. Thank you for your psychoanalysis. It is worth what I paid for it.

 

[TheBigA]

Anytime. Surprised you didn't tie it in with the decline of the western civilization.

 

[TheBigA]

We live in the world of today, and putting on rose colored glasses and pining for the past isn't going to change that.

Reading your post and several others leads me to see a theme here that people seem to want someone or some thing to watch over them. Perhaps they think that's radio's job, but it really isn't. Perhaps it should be the role of government, but they often disappoint. Who's awake at night while we sleep? Who provides the safety net when circumstances require a little help? It sounds like people are looking for an answer.

 

[Starbucks]

Somethings are more important that a quarterly balance sheet. Like the future.

And if that balance sheet doesn't show black ink, there is no future. Wasting money where it doesn't get you a good return is a sound business strategy, how? You have yet to demonstrate that.

The major impact on listeners came when they woke up. When they needed to know about the schools, and about the roads when most of them would be venturing out. And KYW was running at full force when it actually mattered to enough people to be worth the allocation of resources.

All of the "back in the good old days" stories are irrelevant. We live in the world of today, and putting on rose colored glasses and pining for the past isn't going to change that.

Gomer Gomer Gomer...since your "Support TV daytime soap opera days", you are finally making sense. As a professional anaylsis of your post....I have to agree with all three of them. Good job Gomer G

 

[BarkingDog]

The KYW anchor overnight is live for the first block at the top and bottom of every hour, and the traffic reports are always live. That's why there's that weird music at the end of the traffic reports (except for :02 and :32 when the anchor is live). The automated system gives the traffic guys one minute, and the music covers if they go out early. But traffic is always live. They may read the same script several times, but they're always live. And the automation probably has as much to do with technology as it does with money. Digital system, instead of needing two people overnight, you can record, plug it into a program, use one person and put the other on a shift where he'll/she'll be more productive.

 

[mcradiofree]

Just for the record, the traffic reports were no taped then, nor are they ever taped on KYW. Whie the rest of the reports overnight are usually taped with the exception of weekend, there is a 60 second slot at the 2's for traffic which is done live during the overnites.

 

[KevinFodor]

I work for a very successful news/talk station...so here's my two cents, for what it's worth.

If you're going to do news, you need to commit to make it 24/7/365 live. Period. News happens at any time...even at 3 am. And, when the big snowstorm hits, there's plenty of people getting up early at 3 and 4 am to try and beat the traffic.

That, however, doesn't mean you need a $60,000 a year, 20 year veteran anchor on overnights.

OK...OK...I know, Philly's a union town...but surely you could find an aspiring part-time college aged reporter or two to anchor overnights. Or at the very least, you need a valid plan for emergency coverage, filling shifts as needed for "emergency weather" coverage.

In our station, we staff overnights with younger folks, but...they all have to prove themselves to be capable of doing the job. No rip and read on overnights...all news is written and reported by the producer/anchor...who covers the newsroom till the morning folks start coming in around 2 am.
This, after the evening anchor leaves about 12:30 am.

It's always tempting to save a buck or two by recording a cast or two...then it bites you in the rear end when something actually happens at that time of day.

Don't tell me it can't be afforded anymore. You just have to commit to doing it. And, if the station truly can't afford it...maybe they should just put an infomercial for "Colon-Blow" on, and cede the daypart to someone who could...

 

[imhomerjay]

Cede the daypart? Anyone is free to try to do something better. If they're afraid of the competition, so be it, but it's no one's responsibility to cede anything to the competition.

 

[TheBigA]

The fact of the matter is: Cede it to who? Who is the competition for KYW? WHYY? They're not really live at that time either.

And what are they really ceding? "Here, take our lowest rated daypart, the one that advertisers won't buy." Wow. This is an expensive format, and for that reason, not a lot of stations are lining up to do it. And while it's ethical to say "Do it right, or don't do it at all," it's not very practical. The live traffic reports alone are enough to justify it.

 

[mcradiofree]

When KYW is unable to bill the current 20 million a year, they will do something else. It's a very profitable station. Between them and B101 they bill about 40 percent of the available revenue in the ADI. Like it or not people do listen 2..3..

 

[MattParker]

Excellent points, Kevin. And looking at the billing numbers released recently for WTOP and KNX it appears all news radio still is (or can be) a money machine. If KYW is running canned newscasts overnight it's not a forced choice between profit and loss. It's a choice between profit and bigger profit - at least in the short-term. In the long-term, listeners notice and the station becomes dispensable. The station's credibility often rests on some incident that affects the listener personally like getting up at 3am to beat the snow and hearing obviously old (and inaccurate) info. It doesn't happen right away but the audience starts to drift away - not to another station. But to not needing radio or depending on radio any more.

 

[imhomerjay]

Profit or bigger profit...I think they call that capitalism.

 

[MattParker]

Profit or bigger profit...I think they call that capitalism.

No, greed.

 

[imhomerjay]

Bwah, ha, ha. Got it now. Not into the whole free market thing. Makes total sense.

 

[MattParker]

Bwah, ha, ha. Got it now. Not into the whole free market thing. Makes total sense.

I don't think you get the whole "free market thing." Cutting quality is the surest way to failure in a free market. Radio is a prime example of that. Free market means consumers/listeners are free to go elsewhere. Free market means badly managed enterprises are free to fail.

 

[imhomerjay]

They are. And you've shown zero evidence of that happening, just a personal desire for am enterprise to lose money 364 days a year because on one of them a supposed major news event is happening for the six people still awake and listening to the radio.

Let me guess, next we'll be told that if only radio had done whatever money-losing thing you personally want, iPods would have never caught on.

The free market lets people decide what they consider quality, based on their needs. Sorry that the rest of the modern world doesn't share your view, but so it goes. In a far more diverse media landscape, KYW remains near the top of the heap within its category. Yeah...first step to failure, indeed.