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News Radio 740

J

jerrbud

I have been biting my tongue in hopes there would be improvement with the station. Now I wonder if anyone cares about the quality of the product. The worst offender is Roger Hudson, who thinks we live in "Harrison County", thinks his sister station is either "709 The Sports Animal" or after catching that mistake, on his next newscast he spouts out "7090 The Sports Animal". On more than one occasion, he will introduce his cast with "Good Afternoon, it's 11:30 this Friday morning".

Most of their reporters seem tired and rundown. The quality of the product seems to have come crashing down in the past three or four months. I fail to see how they can call themselves a credible news source.
 
What you're hearing is the carcass of a once great radio station, stripped of all its quality reporters, anchors, and most of its integrity. There are still some good people in the newsroom there, but they're outnumbered by the hacks.

CC is working them all to death with double and triple duty newscasts for CC stations in other markets. One good friend there told me it's a sweat shop atmosphere. He would walk out in a minute, but the Houston job market is so tight he'd have to pack up his family and move to another city. He says he just works at trying to get through each day.

So sad. This is the station that pioneered news-talk radio and news blocks in this part of the country.
 
FilioScotia said:
What you're hearing is the carcass of a once great radio station, stripped of all its quality reporters, anchors, and most of its integrity. There are still some good people in the newsroom there, but they're outnumbered by the hacks.

CC is working them all to death with double and triple duty newscasts for CC stations in other markets. One good friend there told me it's a sweat shop atmosphere. He would walk out in a minute, but the Houston job market is so tight he'd have to pack up his family and move to another city. He says he just works at trying to get through each day.

So sad. This is the station that pioneered news-talk radio and news blocks in this part of the country.
Click to expand...

First off, Roger just moved to Houston.... and to Texas as a matter of fact. Everyone messes up our street names and city names becuase we pronounce them differently then anyone else would. For example, I was listening to a spot for a resturant in San Jacinto City but it was pronounced "Hacento" or San Felipe.... We all mess up on the air, and Roger is overworked as KTRH's assist. news director. I'll see him early one morning and he will still be there till late at night. So c'mon give him a break. Everyone on the KTRH newsteam is overworked and tired so eventually they're going to make mistakes... we're human!
 
Roger was the KOA News Director before coming down to Houston. He actually gets the short anchor shift of 12p-3p, Weekdays.

Question: During today's immigrant shootout and the office building fire from a few weeks ago, was KTRH able to go wall-to-wall news coverage? Or were they only doing Top & Bottom updates (like normal) during their talkshows?
 
KTRH for alost as long as I've been on earth has been the Walter Cronkite of ratio stations. Then out of the clear blue, the ownership decides to strip it of what made its reputation, and to assume that the public wouldn't notice. And worse, if they did notice, they would buy into the new concept.

I lived almost my entire life in Galveston. We all knew that the only voice of reason and one that could be believed when hurricanes were on their way was Dr. Joe Stobol (sp) of Accuweather. Forget Neil Frank and his scare tatics and sarcastic little grin, forget Billingsly and the rest. They were rarely correct. It was Dr. Joe who helped us keep our composure and told us when we needed to leave and when. Or if you decided to ride it out, his voice was there to tell you what was going on outside of the storm blinds.

So KTRH gets rid of him. Real smart. That seemed to me to be the start of the downhill slide.

I wish they would re-evaluate the whole matter. Next thing you know they'll find Don LeBlanc and put him back on via reel to reel tapes of his old Music 'til Midnight program. And that won't cost them anything. (Old Don hasn't been there for at least 40 years, but he sure had some great pipes. Maybe that would be a good idea afterall.)
 
The last few months they almost always refer to the website for more in depth coverage. They skin the news to a headline and not much more. Roger sounds like he is worn out and very dry. I heard him on 950 one night and the news sounder was fast and well done followed up by the voice that sounded like he could hardly get thru the newscast. The content was strange and not really Houston news. It was 8 oclock at night or so,he kept saying today for the weather. Either it was pre recorded or he is lost! Maybe both.

Ktrh sounds lost! They keep sending customers to the web. They need people to listen to the radio and not send them away! I find myself enjoying 950 they have content!
 
When I still lived in my native Puerto Rico I used to listen all the time to all-news (in spanish) WKAQ in San Juan.

When I moved to Houston in '95 I'd listen to the local spanish stations, but I didn't find them too appealing as they were (and still are) geared towards a mostly Mexican listener public. Then I found KTRH with their all-news format and CBS TOH newscast and I was in news-junkie-heaven again.

I remember the schedule was somewhat like this:

5 AM - 7 PM: news , news and more news
7 PM - 10 PM: that sports show that is now at 790
10 PM - 1 AM: Jim Bohannon
1 AM - 5 AM: Art Bell, back when he was at the "American CBC Radio Network".

Then in 1998 they switched to ABC News and by 1999 or 2000 the TOH national newscast was gone.
They also added a local talk show on Thursday mornings and, thus, began the slippery slope.

Now, the only excuse they have for calling themselves "Newsradio" is the 5-9 AM newsblock and the TOH/BOH updates.
They might as well ditch the Newsradio name and just call it "KTRH Seven-Forty". :p

Sadly, WKAQ back in San Juan has also mutated to nearly all talk with 5 - 9 AM and 3 - 4 PM newsblocks. :'(
 
I don't listen to them anymore. I listen to NPR now. Even former KTRH anchor Rod Rice anchors the afternoon shift. During the pledge drive, he mentioned that working in public radio is so different from working in commercial. But KUHF has some defects. (see other topic)
 
RadioGuy141: Where is San Jacinto City? You mean Jacinto City?

About weathercasters (I worked with Dr. Joe Sobel at KTRH and all through Katrina and Rita and he has probably the quickest wit of any weather guy anywhere): I once worked at a station where the :10 TV commercial copy said read something like: "YOUR EXCLUSIVE CHANNEL 10 FORECAST FROM DR. RAY PETERSON... (then read National Weather Service forecast)."
 
KTRH's weather coverage began its downhill slide when Cheap Channel signed the contract to go with The Weather "Global Warming" Channel nationwide for their major markets. At least KFNC brought back Accuweather and Dr. Joe briefly during its "news" incarnation.
 
KILT was airing Accuweather with Dr Joe Soebel, between the time that KTRH was carrying it and KFNC's contract.
 
The truth of the matter is, news radio is a dead concept...with the internet and continuous cable news, the only people who don't hear breaking news are drivers without satellite and folks attached to ipods. To hear the same news over and over again is just not part of today's lifestyle...afternoon dailies have no reason for being and newspapers/magazines are being forced to reinvent themselves online.

I listen to talk shows on XM in the car and they consistently discuss breaking news on both the left and right wing channels.

Public radio works because most of the programming relates to human interest beyond the five minutes of headlines. I consider the NPR drivetime programs the best thing out there because I genuinely learn something interesting I didn't know before virtually every time I listen.

Remember when you would hear an ambulance or police siren and could tune into the radio to find out what's going on? Those days are long gone!!! In the evening, it's weird that during inclement weather or in the event of a newsworthy happening, there's no one on duty at KTRH or any other local station to cover it...in times gone by, the public service commitment of most local stations was measured by the success of their news departments in scooping other stations.
 
I agree with much of what you said Radiobop, but the truth is news radio is very much still alive as was proven in this area during Hurricane Rita. We had people stuck in their vehicles who could get no information except from those of us covering news on radio, which is why I was surprised that more stations didn't try to serve the public better during that crisis. The problem is: TV has taken over news so you seldom hear exclusive stories on radio in places like Houston where there's no radio competition. You get the same stories on radio that you get on TV. Clear Channel bought both Houston stations that traditionally covered news, then removed most of the news from one and decimated the other. But Satellite radio isn't covering local news, even during a disaster like Rita. You can't cover breaking news on a talk show. And there were jokes during the hurricane about people who only listened to IPods until they saw the freeways jammed during the evac.

Houston is a very unique market. What works in other cities doesn't work here. You could get the idea if you live in Houston that news radio is dead. But that's not the way it is in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh and Atlanta.
 
KTRH did a fairly good job of covering Friday's NASA gunman. It was almost like the old days... except the part where they worked the afternoon talk hosts into the "news" about the shootings.....
 
The rumor's been around for years that CBS wanted to buy KTRH but would Clear Channel sell? KTRH is a big biller. Former CBS Radio chief Dan Mason said in the late '90s that he wanted a news station in every major market for CBS, including Houston. Now that he's back in that position, though, things may be different. Rumor is CBS wants to sell its radio stations, as the Wall Street Journal mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
 
Actually, CBS wanted to buy KTRH long before CC came along, even in the 60s and 70s. The network wanted a 50kw AM powerhouse station on the Gulf Coast so bad they could taste it, and KTRH could have been a real jewel in the CBS Radio crown.

When I worked there in the 70s, I heard stories of CBS execs coming down to personally offer owner John Jones of Rusk Corp a blank check for the stations. Name your price and write it on the check. Jones just couldn't bring himself to sell it, at any price, but his son Jay Jones had no problem selling it as soon as his father died in the 90s. By that time CBS Radio wasn't a big player anymore.
 
That's very interesting. I never heard that before. Thanks for sharing.

Bill
 
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