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New Slogans for WBZ

TheBigA said:
Exactly. The cable news channels are pre-recorded all night too.

WBZ wasn't 24/7 news under CBS either.
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No, but at least it was truly live, local talk between midnight and 5:00 AM (except, perhaps, for Sunday mornings). If a blockbuster story breaks during those hours, which station is going to cover it live? I'm thinking here of that explosion several years ago in Danversport, MA, when callers on the then overnight live, local talk program were providing the audience with live updates. Well, with pre-recorded newscasts AND no live, local overnight talk, WBZ's stature is now considerably reduced.

I don't think either WBUR or WGBH are live overnight, so that leaves us with, maybe, one or more of the TV stations. Swell. True, overnight blockbuster breaking news is not all that common, but for a station to blast its signal into 38 states and several Canadian provinces with pre-recorded news is not serving anyone's interest except those who control the purse strings of iHeart Media.

But, hey, maybe all that new-fangled AI technology so highly vaunted just last week will make everything alright again. :rolleyes:
 
nowradioguy said:
No, but at least it was truly live, local talk between midnight and 5:00 AM (except, perhaps, for Sunday mornings). If a blockbuster story breaks during those hours, which station is going to cover it live?
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They have access to lots of different things, starting with the Total Traffic staff. If it's a big enough story, they have NBC Radio News. You don't staff for the potential disaster. Even the Army doesn't work that way. If they need people, they call them up. Everybody's on call, and can be back in the studio in a half hour. When an unexpected overnight snow storm hit Philadelphia a few years ago, KYW called someone in within walking distance, and he was on the air pretty quickly.

As I said, the cable channels go into repeat mode at midnight. If a disaster happens, they switch to the west coast. CBS New York did that during the California earthquake. They have lots of resources. It's not the 60s any more.
 
TheBigA said:
They have access to lots of different things, starting with the Total Traffic staff. If it's a big enough story, they have NBC Radio News. You don't staff for the potential disaster. Even the Army doesn't work that way. If they need people, they call them up. Everybody's on call, and can be back in the studio in a half hour. When an unexpected overnight snow storm hit Philadelphia a few years ago, KYW called someone in within walking distance, and he was on the air pretty quickly.

As I said, the cable channels go into repeat mode at midnight. If a disaster happens, they switch to the west coast. CBS New York did that during the California earthquake. They have lots of resources. It's not the 60s any more.
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Yes and since it seems traffic is still live they have someone in the room for big overnight breaking news. It's not like there's no one there to hold it down while someone wakes up a real news anchor.
 
nowradioguy said:
I don't think either WBUR or WGBH are live overnight, so that leaves us with, maybe, one or more of the TV stations. Swell. True, overnight blockbuster breaking news is not all that common, but for a station to blast its signal into 38 states and several Canadian provinces with pre-recorded news is not serving anyone's interest except those who control the purse strings of iHeart Media.
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That 38 states and a bunch of provinces thing was gone and forgotten many decades ago.

After the clear channels were broken down, additional signals put on 1030 at night as close as 600 miles away, and stations in other countries in the hemisphere boosted power, that fabled coverage went away.

Few people listen to those old 1-A clears outside their regular coverage area due to increasing noise, far more local clear FM signals, and lack of usage of radio at night. The only purpose of having a 50 kw AM station today is to overcome high local noise levels within the metro area.
 
TheBigA said:
They have access to lots of different things, starting with the Total Traffic staff. If it's a big enough story, they have NBC Radio News. You don't staff for the potential disaster. Even the Army doesn't work that way. If they need people, they call them up. Everybody's on call, and can be back in the studio in a half hour. When an unexpected overnight snow storm hit Philadelphia a few years ago, KYW called someone in within walking distance, and he was on the air pretty quickly.

As I said, the cable channels go into repeat mode at midnight. If a disaster happens, they switch to the west coast. CBS New York did that during the California earthquake. They have lots of resources. It's not the 60s any more.
Click to expand...

I usually learn some hard realities when you or DavidEduardo post a reply, even if I may not like what it is you're telling me. And in this case, I don't like it, since it continues to point out just how much radio is on life support.
 
DavidEduardo said:
That 38 states and a bunch of provinces thing was gone and forgotten many decades ago.

After the clear channels were broken down, additional signals put on 1030 at night as close as 600 miles away, and stations in other countries in the hemisphere boosted power, that fabled coverage went away.

Few people listen to those old 1-A clears outside their regular coverage area due to increasing noise, far more local clear FM signals, and lack of usage of radio at night. The only purpose of having a 50 kw AM station today is to overcome high local noise levels within the metro area.
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600 miles??? Are you referring to daytimer WWGB in Maryland???? I'm not aware of any stations that broadcast on 1030 at night for at least a thousand miles or so which are generally located south of Boston...And for the most part they are on low power and nulled toward Boston as well...
 
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