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News 96.5

M

MBirmingham

After a fun filled, sunburnt day at one of the major water parks, I was driving back to my accommodations via the 192 when I came upon what I thought to be a typical tourist type traffic jam, similar to ones I'd seen on my two previous days here this week.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, I glanced upon the large billboard above me screaming "NEWS 96.5. 24 Hr Traffic, News..."

Well, its 5 pm, certainly I'll not only find out what happened, but get an alternate route round the problem.

I have never made such an incorrect assumption about a radio station since my birth.

I heard a story about a recent local shootout, in which the alleged perp did not make bail, and that scenario appeared a little odd to the newsreader. I got an update on one of the Terrorists in Boston and that Iron Man 3 had a big weekend. Traffic? Several incidents in the region, but not in mine.

I got the very same newscast at the bottom of the hour, and by that I mean, yes, the exact same one from the top of the hour. The traffic may have been different, but still no mention of what was now a backup of several miles out almost to Old Town. By that time, our crawl had brought us to a shopping center in which several policemen were busy directing us through the parking lot, down a back country road, past bewildered neighbors who obviously weren't used to seeing several hundred cars slowly making their way through their otherwise out of the way neighborhood.

We snaked our way back to 192 where the Aldi Market was closed, and so was the Wal Mart. This obviously was no fender bender, but you wouldn't know this at NEWS 96.5 which gave me another dose of shooter didn't make bail--dead Chechnyan terrorist--Iron Man 3....and still no mention of anything unusual in traffic. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that local authorities have designated NEWS 965 as the OFFICIAL station for emergency weather alerts.

Sadly, I found myself depending on....television... to find out what happened....via the Rolling Scroll on Bright House Networks local news channel. No details, mind you...just that a suspicious package was found at the Wal Mart. I left for dinner about an hour later, with traffic still being detoured off 192 and NEWS 965 running up the flag and giving me the top of the hour news cast from whomever had the deepest pockets to buy the rights to ABC Radio News, followed by a local tv weather guy.

Now, look, it's been 16 years since I worked a newsroom, and the business has changed, with either no help or inexperienced help in the newsrooms. Slashed budgets, lowering the bar on talent, whatever. As of 10 pm I haven't seen what this story is about yet, but when I'm on the road and something breaks, whether it be on the scanner...I'm assuming police scanners are still in newsrooms?I have online access where the Boston PD was better than CNN...or on the highway, is it too much to ask that someone flip a mic and tell us something?

My dinner companions were wondering why I was sweating a bit during this and might it be from the days hot sun?

No. It was from thinking about the hard core chewing out I would have gotten from any News Director I would have worked under, followed by a firing which might have rivaled one from Donald Trump or Vince McMahon.

If this comes off as a bit rough, I'm sorry, but if you can't even refer to ,much less cover a incident involving police presence of about fifty officers and a huge traffic rerouting, I wonder what you'll serve up when a real disaster happens.
 
I was listening to WDBO FM this morning from 4 minutes past 5 AM to 5:22, if this had been their first day or even first week with this talk/"news" format, I could understand ........ but I would think by now, they would be over sounding like a trainwreck.

Not one mention of the suspicious package left at WalMart or the ensuing traffic snarl, but during that same period, they covered the California limo fire twice. On one attempt to go to traffic, things got cut off mid sentence and the prerecorded weather forecast from Channel 9 came on.

If I were up in the area all the time; I would be looking for another alternative for local news and traffic; the WDBO brand is not what it used to be.

btw- the St. Pete/Tampa/Sarasota/Bradenton area is just as bad; unless an emergency or breaking news story happens during morning or afternoon drive time Monday through Friday; it's not going to be covered timely; unless it shows up on the national newscast.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl
 
You will no doubt hear all about the Kissimmee today, after the fact! Maybe it will be one of "The Three Things You Should Have Known Yesterday"! Its kind of like a buffet...its not quality that counts, its quantity.
 
I listened regularly last year because I was on the road a lot. There was certainly a lot of room for improvement then. I thought that with the recent emphasis on news the situation would have changed.

One thing that used to grate on me was their propensity to self-congratulate ("We first brought this to you as 'breaking news' yesterday.") and to drag the more sensational stories out for days even when there was nothing new to report ("I'm standing in front of the house where two days ago...").
 
Old Guy said:
One thing that used to grate on me was their propensity to self-congratulate ("We first brought this to you as 'breaking news' yesterday.") and to drag the more sensational stories out for days even when there was nothing new to report ("I'm standing in front of the house where two days ago...").
Click to expand...

Typical Cox boilerplate.

G
 
As of this noon they were STILL making a big deal out of the limo fire. Then the highly educated female news reader referred to the injured people as "wounded".
 
Earlyriser said:
I watched as Cox ruined their cluster ( I was there). Penny wise and pound foolish!
Click to expand...
Cox likes blowing up good rock stations to turn 'em into useless garbage...they just did it again in Jacksonville. :mad:
 
I listened for about 45 minutes this afternoon, and for that entire time the biggest of the "three big things you need to know" was that the second of the Cleveland hostages had just arrived home. And near the bottom of the hour, that was introduced as the "top local story". It beat out John Morgan urging the Jags to sign Tim Tebow. Yawn...

By the way, is it asking too much for news people to show some interest and talk the stories instead of sounding like they're reading an essay aloud to their high school class (complete with stumbles)? One was so oblivious today that she never mentioned the prerecorded drop that had failed to play and plowed right ahead into copy that referred back to it.
 
Way to go Cox radio-Orlando. A joke, bring back 96 Rock if you can't even get the news properly and timely reported. :mad:
 
With all the talented and experienced radio people out of work, many of whom might be grateful to have any income right now just to stay connected to the business, why bring in voices that sound like they're eighteen and read like they're even younger?

If you want to be taken seriously as a news station, shouldn't your on-air talent at least sound authoritative?

If, expecting to be informed, I find myself focused instead upon the bumbling of the messenger and your incessant self-promotion, I think there's room for improvement.
 
Lets see...when you consider the collective years of experience the various commenters here have, that figure would probably be three to five times the experience of Susan Larkin. Do you actually think she has the guts to even remotely consider the wisdom expressed here??? Isn't she the one who got rid of Jim Bishop for NO REASON other than a cheaper replacement was waiting in the wings? Then afterward, what did she do? Run and hide. They aren't going to hire experienced people who don't sound like kids because they cost money. The kids can be hired for $10 per hour. They are digging their own grave. As I have said many, many times, radio is circling the drain because of stupid management/ownership and their ONLY desire to do it on the cheap. When stations fail, the same stupid management/ownership blames talent and listeners.
 
I remember 96.5 thirty years ago when it was WHOO-FM. Just think---we've gone from beautiful music to "the three things you need to know." How far we have drifted.
 
havasalad said:
I remember 96.5 thirty years ago when it was WHOO-FM. Just think---we've gone from beautiful music to "the three things you need to know." How far we have drifted.
Click to expand...
I was afraid that my post from page 1 of this thread may have been too critical, but now I see that not one person has come to "defend the honor" of "news" (sic) 96.5; at least here in St. Pete, I have a translator out of Palmetto coming in and it's programming is not what I would normally listen to, but at least it blocks out WDBO!

The three things "you need to know today" goes well beyond a joke, it's bizarre!

drt,
st. petersburg,fl
 
drt said:
I see that not one person has come to "defend the honor" of "news" (sic) 96.5
Click to expand...

Maybe their goal is just to produce a mediocre product at the lowest possible cost. If so, they've certainly achieved it.

I have nothing against the station or Cox. I like the news/talk format and wish they would make a real effort to do it well.
 
Old Guy said:
drt said:
I see that not one person has come to "defend the honor" of "news" (sic) 96.5
Click to expand...

Maybe their goal is just to produce a mediocre product at the lowest possible cost. If so, they've certainly achieved it.

I have nothing against the station or Cox. I like the news/talk format and wish they would make a real effort to do it well.
Click to expand...
You're a good man...........kind and charitable! I had told someone in an email, that if WDBO would work on their product, they could work their way up to the mediocre level!

I will be in the n.e. Henando/Webster area Saturday and Sunday and early Monday; I will listen from time to time in the future, in hopes that eventaully there will be some much needed improvements.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl
 
Old Guy said:
drt said:
I see that not one person has come to "defend the honor" of "news" (sic) 96.5
Click to expand...

Maybe their goal is just to produce a mediocre product at the lowest possible cost. If so, they've certainly achieved it.

I have nothing against the station or Cox. I like the news/talk format and wish they would make a real effort to do it well.
Click to expand...

You got the "lowest cost" part right.
 
Here's what I heard the news kids do today. Some kid read a story then a girl read a story. Then the kid starts reading the SAME story he just did and then says he was sorry because he just read it! Then a guy does a story on the Boston bombers and describes the one who died as "the deader one"! This afternoon a guy starts a story then comes to a complete stop. You hear some noise in the background and he starts the same story over.
 
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