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News On Radio

W

Wes

Guest
For all the complaining about Barnstable on this board, they and WALK are the only ones who at least try to do a serious job of reporting the news. Granted, a lot of this "coverage" is rewriting Newsday or News12 or the Associated Press. But at least it's something.

It's economically unreasonable these days to maintain the large news departments that WGBB/WGSM and WHLI once had. And today's listeners don't miss what they never had.

But in this season of license renewal, it's something to think about.
 
> For all the complaining about Barnstable on this board, they
> and WALK are the only ones who at least try to do a
> serious job of reporting the news. Granted, a lot of this
> "coverage" is rewriting Newsday or News12 or the Associated
> Press. But at least it's something.
>
> It's economically unreasonable these days to maintain the
> large news departments that WGBB/WGSM and WHLI once had.
> And today's listeners don't miss what they never had.
>
> But in this season of license renewal, it's something to
> think about.
>
Agreed. I most recently served as the News Director for a small cluster on Eastern Long Island. They had been running CNN newsbreaks during morning & afternoon drive, (2 minutes in the AM, 1 minute in the PM), when they brought me on board to add 1 minute of local news headlines to the AM and 30 seconds the PM, leading into the national feed. Local weather and sports reports were given by the air staff during their shifts. The local news was very well received, not only by listeners, but local advertisers and the local law enforcement community. It's an excellent way to provide a public service and presence to your listening community. For example, during the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, we not only did stories on local relief efforts and fundraising (which also count as live mention PSA's), but how our listening area could be affected by such a natural disaster, being that we are a coastal community (surrounded by water on three sides!). It helped make thosee national stories more personal to our audience. I think that stations that don't provide local news are doing a great disservice to their listeners.
 
> > For all the complaining about Barnstable on this board,
> they
> > and WALK are the only ones who at least try to do a
> > serious job of reporting the news. Granted, a lot of this
>
> > "coverage" is rewriting Newsday or News12 or the
> Associated
> > Press. But at least it's something.
> >
> > It's economically unreasonable these days to maintain the
> > large news departments that WGBB/WGSM and WHLI once had.
> > And today's listeners don't miss what they never had.
> >
> > But in this season of license renewal, it's something to
> > think about.
> >

Most radio stations on Long Island devote virtually no resources to local news and information and it shows. Local news done well requires resources and while it can be profitable, most operators would rather not have the expense.

I would beg to differ that the Barnstable stations and WALK are the only stations doing news. We at WRIV 1390AM have been doing it. . .and doing it better than most. . .since 1955. Besides being the only Long Island station with a local news/talk morning show, we do hourly five minute hourly newscasts and five minutes on the half hour in the morning. And I would hasten to add that our newscasts are not newspaper rewrites. We break news. Every day. More than that, we are the only Long Island station with an outside reporter.

You should also know that WLNG also does a good job with local news.
 
Okay, so maybe I underestimated the number of stations doing "real" news. If you add your operation and WLNG to my roster, you still come up with a short list compared with the number of stations broadcasting within the two counties.

You have the only outside reporter? One outside reporter? Nice going, also relatively speaking.
 
> Okay, so maybe I underestimated the number of stations doing
> "real" news. If you add your operation and WLNG to my
> roster, you still come up with a short list compared with
> the number of stations broadcasting within the two counties.
>
>
> You have the only outside reporter? One outside reporter?
> Nice going, also relatively speaking.
>
It's the East End. One outside reporter is sufficient. Still, I agree with you that the state of news on Long Island radio, for the most part, is dismal.

I remember the days when you monitored the other stations to make sure they didn't have anything you missed and when you read Newsday to make sure you had everything they had in the paper the day before.
 
> It's the East End. One outside reporter is sufficient.
> Still, I agree with you that the state of news on Long
> Island radio, for the most part, is dismal.
>
> I remember the days when you monitored the other stations to
> make sure they didn't have anything you missed and when you
> read Newsday to make sure you had everything they had in the
> paper the day before.
>

I can remember even WLIM having a great news department into the late 1980's. They had, I believe at least 3 full time newsmen as well as a half dozen field reporters. The news department was staffed 7 days a week.

Economics forced cutbacks and now most of these stations are not even shadows of their former selves.

Just listen to the posted aircheck on LI Airchecks to remember what WBLI used to do for news. Compare that to what happens today.
 
> > It's the East End. One outside reporter is sufficient.
> > Still, I agree with you that the state of news on Long
> > Island radio, for the most part, is dismal.
> >
> > I remember the days when you monitored the other stations
> to
> > make sure they didn't have anything you missed and when
> you
> > read Newsday to make sure you had everything they had in
> the
> > paper the day before.
> >
>
> I can remember even WLIM having a great news department into
> the late 1980's. They had, I believe at least 3 full time
> newsmen as well as a half dozen field reporters. The news
> department was staffed 7 days a week.
>
> Economics forced cutbacks and now most of these stations are
> not even shadows of their former selves.
>
> Just listen to the posted aircheck on LI Airchecks to
> remember what WBLI used to do for news. Compare that to
> what happens today.
>

WBLI did very credible newscasts every hour. In the beginning they were fed out of their then sister station, WGLI. After that, they originated them themselves and still did a good job. A lot of those field reporters were from other stations who had 'tape swapping' agreements. Back when WALK and WRIV were owned by Island Broadcasting, both stations swapped with WGBB. WGBB fed Long Island stories to WNEW and it wasn't uncommon to have two or three wraps in each newscast.

Wraps. Now there's a word that brings back memories. As defined by the Dean of Long Island Radio News, Frank Brinka, the wrap is an actuality introduced and completed by a reporter. . .hence, wrap.

And I don't know about you. . .but the one minute update just doesn't qualify as a newscast. Think about it: three items, one of which is usually a kicker. And that's news on Long Island radio ?
 
> And I don't know about you. . .but the one minute update
> just doesn't qualify as a newscast. Think about it: three
> items, one of which is usually a kicker. And that's news on
> Long Island radio ?

Agreed. I would love to have been around back when stations were serious about putting a quality newscast on the air. Unfortunately, one minute's the best you're going to get when you're not given a budget or resources with which to gather news. Though, at the very least, it helps your station give the impression that they are local to their listening audience. Still, the local stations would be best served by a central radio news bureau to make local stories/actualities available on a timely basis. The State's News Bureau in Albany is finally sending audio via mp3 on the web (they were still sending them via tape reel until the beginning of this year...what a waste of tax dollars!), but rarely anything that Long Island listeners would care about.
 
> WBLI did very credible newscasts every hour. In the
> beginning they were fed out of their then sister station,
> WGLI.

Funny you should mention this, an upcoming exhibit on my site is a newscast on WGLI with Don Warren in 1974... followed by almost the EXACT same newscast as airchecked off WBLI.
 
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