Lotus

[Mark Roberts]

It is extremely painful for me emotionally to write this but I have to express my opinion that radio news has been in decline since 1981's deregulation. All sorts of cross-currents emerged, with the biggest ones being news and programming being pitted against one another instead of collaborating and cooperating. Pervasive and blatant disrespect for news departments was evident by the mid-1980s. There was a weekly publication for radio news professionals called Earshot, published in San Francisco, where there were many articles about the discord between news departments and PDs in particular. This Radio & Records article from 1985 is another example of the attitudes that prevailed. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/h...DX/IDX/80s/85/RR-1985-10-18-OCR-Page-0066.pdf

Many PDs and their DJs just had an outright prejudice against news (I witnessed those attitudes so don't tell me they didn't exist) and they often were able to wield the knife because news was perceived as a cost center and subtractive from audiences rather than additive. "Full service" formats did not transition to the FM dial. As so-called "news/talk" stations developed in the late 1980s, with talk-show hosts who thumbed their noses at the ethics of actual news reporting, what remained of news either came from a network, some sort of local wire service, or all-news stations in the few markets where such stations were able to establish themselves and gain enough revenue to sustain the expense that's required. National Public Radio was becoming a factor, but grew very slowly. As a point of reference, San Francisco's KQED-FM, now a powerhouse, didn't even begin carrying NPR news programming until 1988.

So it's amazing that there are any commercial all-news stations remaining. Certainly one can get quality national radio news coverage from NPR member stations, which seem to be available almost anywhere any more. But many such stations just ride the network; others tend to focus on in-depth stories on a limited number of topics. Day-to-day coverage of local topics is hard to come by from radio. To be fair, it's also getting harder to get that kind of coverage from newspapers, which are being eviscerated in many communities.

It's sad to see KNWN's staffing to be slashed so much. News implies reporting and KNWN simply won't be able to do that. Instead, they'll resort to the kinds of tricks iHeart stations use, for example, having different voices read wire copy, often without even bothering to rewrite it. A lower-quality product will result, as will a death spiral - fewer people will listen, there will be more cuts, rinse and repeat. I fear that the best we have to hope for is that traffic and weather reports survive - everything else will have to come from websites or maybe NPR for certain types of coverage. It's a dismal picture.

 

[MarkW]

Then really what you're saying is that the format only has a chance for success if it's done by CBS. Which no longer owns radio. And even CBS failed when it launched an all-news in Washington DC. iHeart only has one all-news station, it's WBZ-AM in Boston, which it bought from CBS. The station is still in the Top 10, even after numerous staff layoffs.

To be fair, the companies you list didn't fail because they didn't invest in staff, but because the competition was better. That was certainly the case for Merlin. That may be the case in Seattle with KIRO-FM and KUOW. As I've pointed out KNWN had a huge drop in the ratings for 6 months before the staff change. People have cast their vote already. The station was already losing money. That's why they made the layoffs. Not because of lack of experience. If the people stop listening when you're fully staffed, and if the format is losing money when you're fully staffed, maybe you should listen to the people.

No one was doing all-news in Atlanta or Houston when Cumulus and Radio One tried, respectively. Granted, in the case of Atlanta, WSB Radio has a favorable reputation as a news source. My knowledge of 740 in Houston is much less so I cannot express any opinion on them.

I agree that the incumbent stations in NYC, Chicago and Washington were far superior products to the upstarts (FM News 101.9, FM News 101.1 and WNEW).

WBZ has all-news dayparts but is not a true all-newser.

Audacy acquired all the IP (or at least most of it) of the legacy CBS stations and has done a good job levering those well known legacy brands. In contrast, the first thing Lotus did was flush KOMO's brand down the toilet (since it was unable to reach a deal with Sinclair).

Out of curiosity, how long has it been since KOMO lost rights to Mariners baseball?

 

[TheBigA]

I am fearful the all-news format in Seattle will not survive much longer.

There's a reason why NPR has does so well with news. It doesn't operate as a for-profit. It's hard to make money today with news. The types of advertisers the format used to attract prefer NPR. NPR and their member stations have built a successful national brand.

In my previous post, I left out WTOP and Hubbard. Of course Hubbard owns stations in Seattle, and they could have tried to launch an all-news in Seattle based on what they know from DC. But they bought WTOP from Bonneville in 2011, and we all know Bonneville owns KIRO. Hubbard wasn't about to take on the company that sold them a cash cow. But even WTOP has gone through staff cuts and economizing, and they've weathered the storm.

 

[davideduardo]

This is what happens when a company with zero experience doing all-news radio tries, in the modern era, to do all-news radio. Merlin, Cumulus and Radio One all failed at the format and it now appears Lotus is on the verge of joining the list.

I went against a long (as in "decades") established all news station in market 14 some decades ago, and won. I went against several all-news stations in a market bigger than New York about 23 years ago and won very significantly. I've done several hybrids (news blocks with news commentary) in other larger markets and had similar success.

I don't see ownership as being the key. Look at BigA's post for a good analysis of the other factors involved.

 

[TheBigA]

Pervasive and blatant disrespect for news departments was evident by the mid-1980s.

As one could plainly see on WKRP In Cincinnati. The only way to get respect in commercial radio is to bring in money.

It's sad to see KNWN's staffing to be slashed so much. News implies reporting and KNWN simply won't be able to do that. Instead, they'll resort to the kinds of tricks iHeart stations use, for example, having different voices read wire copy, often without even bothering to rewrite it. A lower-quality product will result, as will a death spiral - fewer people will listen, there will be more cuts, rinse and repeat.

As I said earlier in this thread, there are other options for reporting other than in house staff, and as I also said, having in house staff didn't stop the station from losing more than a third of it's audience in the last six months.

I think some people want news without comment. It's definitely a declining and aging audience. If they want just the news, then they'll continue to get it on KNWN. There aren't a lot of format options available for Lotus. They might add a night talk show. That's what many news stations have done. Although the best ones are already taken. They might be better re-running earlier content. Even Audacy does that in some markets.

 

[Kelly A]

Then really what you're saying is that the format only has a chance for success if it's done by CBS. Which no longer owns radio. And even CBS failed when it launched an all-news in Washington DC. iHeart only has one all-news station, it's WBZ-AM in Boston, which it bought from CBS. The station is still in the Top 10, even after numerous staff layoffs.

To be fair, the companies you list didn't fail because they didn't invest in staff, but because the competition was better. That was certainly the case for Merlin. That may be the case in Seattle with KIRO-FM and KUOW.

Besides being news on AM, I'd say another differentiating factor is sports games. KIRO is the radio flagship for the Mariners and Seahawks. KNWS is AM full market only, and....news.
65+% of the KUOW programming is provided by the network, NPR or PRI.

 

[TheBigA]

No one was doing all-news in Atlanta or Houston when Cumulus and Radio One tried, respectively. Granted, in the case of Atlanta, WSB Radio has a favorable reputation as a news source. My knowledge of 740 in Houston is much less so I cannot express any opinion on them.

In both of those markets, the arrival of an all-news station did little to hurt the ratings of the heritage news/talker. In Atlanta, Cumulus hired a lot of seasoned journalists who had been a part of the CNN radio service that had just shut down. They had lots of people on the ground. No shortage of staff. In Houston, they dealt with a terrible signal that they have smartly sold. But in both cases, the companies stuck with the format longer than they should have. At some point, you have to realize the audience for what you're selling isn't there.

65+% of the KUOW programming is provided by the network, NPR or PRI.

However they do have a good-sized staff of local reporters, and their reporting is heard throughout the day.

 

[Mark Roberts]

No one was doing all-news in Atlanta or Houston when Cumulus and Radio One tried, respectively. Granted, in the case of Atlanta, WSB Radio has a favorable reputation as a news source. My knowledge of 740 in Houston is much less so I cannot express any opinion on them.

Many of the Radio One staffers in Houston were formerly with KTRH and the morning team was the same one that had been at KTRH (Pritchard and Hughes). If I recall correctly, Doug Harris was the KROI station manager; when I was KTRH, Doug was doing promotions and research for KLOL across the hall. KTRH's move to the iHeart cookie-cutter talk format with a morning news block was strictly based on cutting expenses, as I understand it. The KROI signal was effectively a rimshot; a better measure of likely success would have come if it had been on the Senior Road tower. But that was the path not taken.

KTRH went all-news in 1984; before that it was head-to-head competition with KPRC for news/talk listeners. Even when KTRH flipped to all-news, KPRC still put together a competitive news product. Rusk, the Jesse Jones family company, sold KTRH in 1993, though the all-news format survived for a few years after that. KTRH was a well-respected station in Houston. Now iHeart has both KTRH and KPRC.

 

[Mark Roberts]

As one could plainly see on WKRP In Cincinnati.

Never watched it.

As I said earlier in this thread, there are other options for reporting other than in house staff,

Then what you have is a wire service spoken out loud. What, then, is the point - especially if you can get the same thing from multiple websites?

and as I also said, having in house staff didn't stop the station from losing more than a third of it's audience in the last six months.

Of course not. Then you have to ask yourself what else was going on, both at KNWN and at its competition.

I think some people want news without comment. It's definitely a declining and aging audience. If they want just the news, then they'll continue to get it on KNWN. There aren't a lot of format options available for Lotus. They might add a night talk show. That's what many news stations have done. Although the best ones are already taken. They might be better re-running earlier content. Even Audacy does that in some markets.

The audience is aging and declining because listeners in younger demographics were, years ago, effectively trained not to expect news from radio. That's why I linked to an article from 1985. That's when the groundwork was laid for that perception. Aside from NPR, radio news is not coming back, at least in the United States. What you have now in radio is more akin to what 19th century newspaper writing was like before journalistic norms were established, except with a lot more yelling.

 

[TheBigA]

Then what you have is a wire service spoken out loud. What, then, is the point - especially if you can get the same thing from multiple websites?

I hear that all the time. How does having a local reporter covering a fire or a robbery change that story? It's all about branding and putting your station call letters at the end of the report. The only advantage radio provides is the curation of the content. We really don't know how KNWN will handle this moving forward. We'll know more this week.

Then you have to ask yourself what else was going on, both at KNWN and at its competition.

I think that's what Lotus did. They're not total idiots. They see the ratings we see, with even more detail. I think they recognized the return didn't justify the expense. Once again, these people have been laid off. Perhaps some will be offered part time work or other options. We really don't know.

What you have now in radio is more akin to what 19th century newspaper writing was like before journalistic norms were established, except with a lot more yelling.

I agree. The reason WTOP is making so much money is not because of what they do on the air. It's because they know how to monetize news online. Everyone else better learn that quickly. It's very instructive to see how NPR's online presentation has changed in the last few years. To them, there's no difference between their archived show pieces and their podcasts. It's all on the same platform.

 

[TheBigA]

What you have now in radio is more akin to what 19th century newspaper writing was like before journalistic norms were established, except with a lot more yelling.

The "yelling" thing is one of my pet peeves. I often tell talent they don't have to yell. That's what the microphone is for.

 

[MarkW]

All news radio is probably more dependent on vehicular listening than any other format.

I would be curious to know how the percentage of office employees who work from home in the greater Seattle area compares to other major cities.

I would also be curious how billing this year compares to recent prior years. Was the sales staff retained when Lotus assumed ownership?

 

[TheBigA]

Was the sales staff retained when Lotus assumed ownership?

That's a good question. Another would be how much cross-media sales was being done. There are fewer and fewer radio-TV combos in the commercial world anymore. Most of them are in public broadcasting. So it's hard to assess how this split affected sales.

But the other part of this is that ad sales are down everywhere this year, not just news radio. A lot of this has more to do with the economy facing advertisers, not the medium itself. All of that inflation stuff has a cascading effect on everything.

Don't you think KUOW is also dependent on people listening in cars? Or is this the only station affected?

 

[Mark Roberts]

I hear that all the time. How does having a local reporter covering a fire or a robbery change that story? It's all about branding and putting your station call letters at the end of the report.

Thereby gaining the reputation of being the place to go when something happens. And a reporter is not supposed to change the story.

Personally, I didn't mind running cop shops but hated chasing wrecks and other police incidents. But I had to do my share of that. I felt it was more important to cover other types of events, court cases, and meetings. A good reporter can make a meeting interesting. But it takes a lot of work and the ability to spend time. This is difficult for most these days. I honestly don't think that will change.

In the Bay Area, there was a reason that KCBS was the station people tuned to whenever there was an earthquake - judging by the number of calls from listeners that KCBS would put on the air after such a quake happened, even at 3:30 in the morning.

The reason WTOP is making so much money is not because of what they do on the air. It's because they know how to monetize news online. Everyone else better learn that quickly. It's very instructive to see how NPR's online presentation has changed in the last few years. To them, there's no difference between their archived show pieces and their podcasts. It's all on the same platform.

It has taken traditional journalism organizations a long time to learn how to do this.

 

[TheBigA]

And a reporter is not supposed to change the story.

I agree with that. Sort of a trick question. But the amount of money you spend covering a story shouldn't affect the way you cover that story. I won a stack of awards reporting a story that happened over a thousand miles away. I wasn't there. But I got the story. That's how you get the reputation of being THE place to go. It worked for me. I learned how to do my job virtually before it was a thing.

I say this all the time when people talk about staffing. It's not how many people you have, it's what they do. A lot of news stations have been replacing their veteran reporters with new multi-media journalists. Yes they're younger, so they're cheaper. But they also know how to edit video and use social media. That's where the digital money gets made. Radio needs to evolve from having boots on the ground to having content in the space. That's where the audience is, and that's where the money is. I'm not saying that's what Lotus is doing here. But in any case, it's not the end of the world.

 

[Kelly A]

That's a good question. Another would be how much cross-media sales was being done. There are fewer and fewer radio-TV combos in the commercial world anymore.

Back when Fisher owned the stations (radio and TV combos) Sales were independent. There was off-and-on talk about combining sales, but neither of the GM's wanted any part of that. And over those discussions I found myself agreeing that it didn't make sense. TV is always a much larger sale.
That said; some advertisers were on both radio and TV, but some advertisers who bought TV-only occasionally screamed bloody murder if they weren't given discounts for radio. There were a couple of occasions where one of the talk show hosts on KVI, or a caller, would say something negative on the air about an advertiser on KOMO-TV. Client relationships in a combo were a fluid situation.
I'm pretty sure most of the radio sales folks, certainly their GSM, stayed over on the change from Fisher to Sinclair, and Sinclair to Lotus.

But the other part of this is that ad sales are down everywhere this year, not just news radio. A lot of this has more to do with the economy facing advertisers, not the medium itself. All of that inflation stuff has a cascading effect on everything.

And as we've talked about here; digital and social media has changed the advertising game over what it was ten years ago. Now throw in all the ad-supported streaming, and radio plus TV get pushed that much further down the importance ladder.

Don't you think KUOW is also dependent on people listening in cars?

From what I've heard from insiders, even with impressive target demo numbers, KUOW, like most NPR-affiliated stations, finds itself walking a fine line when it comes to the increasing cost of operations and decreased income. Donation headwinds continue to increase, CPB money is a single-digit percentage, and underwriting credit/sponsorships are way down.

 

[TheBigA]

From what I've heard from insiders, even with impressive target demo numbers, KUOW, like most NPR-affiliated stations, finds itself walking a fine line when it comes to the increasing cost of operations and decreased income. Donation headwinds continue to increase, CPB money is a single-digit percentage, and underwriting credit/sponsorships are way down.

I did a quick search to find when it was that KUOW laid off some news staff. It may have been 2018, right after the staff unionized. But instead, I saw pages of stories from KUOW on various tech layoffs happening in Seattle, that affected the housing market, and even local schools. As I said, a cascading effect. Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and more. All the layoffs around Seattle has to affect the donations and sponsorships, as well as advertising at the commercial radio stations. So this isn't a unique problem that is only affecting KNWN.

 

[xmtrland]

Bonneville Seattle - KIRO FM monetizes it's news department on their website MyNorthwest - Seattle news, sports, weather, traffic, talk with Seattle Sports - KIRO AM providing the sports angle. From there they also link to the individual station websites. Both Seattle Sports and KIRO FM stream the studio's live during the weekdays.

Compare that to what KNWN has - NewsRadio AM 1000 | 97.7 FM

Now compare how much time you spent on each site and think about which one you will visit again.

Here is a good example of the live video stream on KIRO FM.
Video: Cringe or Based: Halloween Costumes at Work? - MyNorthwest.com

 

[Kelly A]

Bonneville Seattle - KIRO FM monetizes it's news department on their website MyNorthwest - Seattle news, sports, weather, traffic, talk with Seattle Sports - KIRO AM providing the sports angle. From there they also link to the individual station websites. Both Seattle Sports and KIRO FM stream the studio's live during the weekdays.

Compare that to what KNWN has - NewsRadio AM 1000 | 97.7 FM

Now compare how much time you spent on each site and think about which one you will visit again.

Here is a good example of the live video stream on KIRO FM.
Video: Cringe or Based: Halloween Costumes at Work? - MyNorthwest.com

But again, all that's a long term financial commitment to invest in on-air and digital plus buying the broadcast rights to two local pro sports teams on AM and a full-market FM. As my father used to say; 'It takes money to make money'. Trying to do the most expensive format (news) along with compelling digital content, costs a large investment and takes time to become established.
Seems to me that Lotus came to town under the impression that they could cover shootings and porch fires on an AM radio station on the cheap and be able to compete at the same level. So what do they do? Cut their reporting staff so they can get the shootings and porch fire audio from one of the local TV stations.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I agree with that. Sort of a trick question. But the amount of money you spend covering a story shouldn't affect the way you cover that story. I won a stack of awards reporting a story that happened over a thousand miles away. I wasn't there. But I got the story. That's how you get the reputation of being THE place to go. It worked for me. I learned how to do my job virtually before it was a thing.

Keep in mind that I'm a dinosaur. (Not literally.) We did lots of phones (beepers) and put up with the quality problems resulting from them. KTRH equipped every reporter's workstation with equalizers and compressors but most did not know how to use them. With Zoom/Teams/etc calls, the quality is simply better now. It still makes it hard to build personal relationships that can help in reporting, in my opinion.

I say this all the time when people talk about staffing. It's not how many people you have, it's what they do. A lot of news stations have been replacing their veteran reporters with new multi-media journalists. Yes they're younger, so they're cheaper. But they also know how to edit video and use social media. That's where the digital money gets made. Radio needs to evolve from having boots on the ground to having content in the space. That's where the audience is, and that's where the money is. I'm not saying that's what Lotus is doing here. But in any case, it's not the end of the world.

It may be interesting to compare my university journalism-school experience with what many students there now are doing. I have maintained contacts with the University of Missouri over the years, so I have some sense of what's going on. In the 1970s, we were siloed - you were either in the news-editorial sequence, or the advertising sequence, or the magazine sequence, or the broadcast sequence, but never more than one. Now the educational philosophy is called "convergence journalism" where content is shared among print, public radio, commercial television, and associated websites. This is a move necessitated by the job market grads will be facing.

Even so, when there's a big story, boots on the ground are essential for good coverage. Whether that's worth it for the 95% of the time there isn't a big story is a whole other question and, given current and prospective economic pressures, the answer likely is "no" except in a few circumstances.