Not So Super Tuesday

[thenewz]

I turned on KFYI last night to find out about the election and heard Mike Savage who sounded like he had been recorded earlier to be played on the radio later. There was nobody on talking about the election. Why would KFYI not use JD Hayworth late or their news people on the air? I was surprised they did not cover the voting.

 

[DrAkbar]

KFWhyEye wisely stayed away knowing two things: 99% of those who want that info, get it from TV; and KT'R is the 900lb gorilla when it comes to wall to wall news. Not only a smart move, but the right one by the Dudeboss.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I turned on KFYI last night to find out about the election and......there was nobody on talking about the election.
Why would KFYI not use...their news people on the air? I was surprised they did not cover the voting.

What news people? Do they have more than two weekday anchors plus the ND?
That's what their website seems to infer, plus two reporters.

Tonight I heard the 9:30pm 'cast--it was done by the afternoon anchor
(not a good sign), toward the end she tossed to Royal Norman's canned
weather (never a good sign) then followed that with "recapping our top
story" (uh oh, a bad sign).

What's missing here? Oh yeah, the current temperature!

Guess Kim has to load up the Audio Vault with recorded newscasts for
the evening before she leaves.

Apparently 55/FYI only cares about local news between 5am and 7pm.

I could mention something here about what if we had a "Minot" here late
in the evening--what would KFYI be airing? Um...how about simultaneous
audio from two feeds followed by dead air for five minutes followed by
ten minutes of PSAs followed by the rest of the final hour of last night's
Coast To Coast UFOs. ;D

 

[KMGX]

I turned on KFYI last night to find out about the election and......there was nobody on talking about the election.
Why would KFYI not use...their news people on the air? I was surprised they did not cover the voting.

What news people? Do they have more than two weekday anchors plus the ND?
That's what their website seems to infer, plus two reporters.

Tonight I heard the 9:30pm 'cast--it was done by the afternoon anchor
(not a good sign), toward the end she tossed to Royal Norman's canned
weather (never a good sign) then followed that with "recapping our top
story" (uh oh, a bad sign).

What's missing here? Oh yeah, the current temperature!

Guess Kim has to load up the Audio Vault with recorded newscasts for
the evening before she leaves.

Apparently 55/FYI only cares about local news between 5am and 7pm.

I could mention something here about what if we had a "Minot" here late
in the evening--what would KFYI be airing? Um...how about simultaneous
audio from two feeds followed by dead air for five minutes followed by
ten minutes of PSAs followed by the rest of the final hour of last night's
Coast To Coast UFOs. ;D

The current temperature is absolutely imperative to my very existence, I'm not so sure what I'd do without it. Maybe KFYI should also have traffic updates all through the overnight hours, because hearing "there's -A CAR- headed north on the 51" at 11pm is going to make or break that station.

By the way, since it's so frequently brought up, if a major event were to occur--an emergency situation most notably--it is handled by the EAS, which is initiated without the need of an entire staff of news people, which may come as a surprise to many of you.

KFYI gave updates on Tuesday during the top/bottom of the hour, interrupted coverage for McLame's speech and whatnot.

 

[thenewz]

You're right, why would a talk station run live programming on the night of Super Tuesday? What a stupid idea. Only some lame station like KTAR would do that. Idiots.

 

[KCIR]

By the way, props to KFYI to carry McCain live today from the CPAC! Good move pre-empting that tape delayed Hannity.

Turned over to 92-3 and found Glenn Beck!

And, has the masterblogger quit the bloggen'??? Haven't seen it lately!

 

[ajhenderson]

The current temperature is absolutely imperative to my very existence, I'm not so sure what I'd do without it. Maybe KFYI should also have traffic updates all through the overnight hours, because hearing "there's -A CAR- headed north on the 51" at 11pm is going to make or break that station.

LOL

I tuned into 550 after I left the hockey game around 9:40 (I didn't make the move to 1310 to see if anyone called the "post game show") and heard horribly processed coverage from McCain's speech at the Biltmore. They then "returned to scheduled programming", and simply dumped out of the remote feed and into the middle of a Savage network promo. Don't know if they had other drop-in coverage or how long it lasted.

BTW, I was heading north on the 51 then, and there were actually closer to ten cars.

 

[KMGX]

You're right, why would a talk station run live programming on the night of Super Tuesday? What a stupid idea. Only some lame station like KTAR would do that. Idiots.

Look at the ratings chief, I think you'll find that KFYI appears to be making the right decisions--or is it simply KTAR consistently makes the wrong ones.

By the way, props to KFYI to carry McCain live today from the CPAC! Good move pre-empting that tape delayed Hannity.

Turned over to 92-3 and found Glenn Beck!

A small, but important correction: Hannity is live on KFYI during standard time months, but your point is noteworthy nonetheless.

LOL

I tuned into 550 after I left the hockey game around 9:40 (I didn't make the move to 1310 to see if anyone called the "post game show") and heard horribly processed coverage from McCain's speech at the Biltmore. They then "returned to scheduled programming", and simply dumped out of the remote feed and into the middle of a Savage network promo. Don't know if they had other drop-in coverage or how long it lasted.

BTW, I was heading north on the 51 then, and there were actually closer to ten cars. Smiley

Hey, I didn't say their coverage had good audio quality I just said they did break in with coverage... uhh, sorta. KFYI is used to bad audio quality though, they do run the I-CRAP after all.

10 cars eh? Was there traffic where you were?

 

[DrAkbar]

By the way, props to KFYI to carry McCain live today from the CPAC! Good move pre-empting that tape delayed Hannity.

Turned over to 92-3 and found Glenn Beck!

And, has the masterblogger quit the bloggen'??? Haven't seen it lately!

In most instances, KFWhyEye is a daytimer when it comes to breaking news coverage. After sunset, it's ride the net. Years ago the Beer Baron opened his wallet and beefed up the news department. All it did was make him less of a very rich person. Unless KT'R folds up and leaves town, the news image belongs to them. As we constantly say, the radio audience for election results is about the size of KPHX's audience

Nurse Jeff and I've also noticed the Master Blogger has rested his Blackberry. Hopefully he'll spend more time listening to his station and giving listeners more of a reason NOT to listen to KFWhyEye!

 

[ajhenderson]

The question is, do all the people that have moved to the valley in the last 6 months, a year, etc., know or care about KTAR's news image? They were "Newsradio", then they were just "News", know they're doing what Laurie Cantillo would later found out was the wrong move: use the same imaging name as your bigger competitor.

 

[thenewz]

I forgot.

KFYI: the station that can do no wrong.

KTAR: the station that can do no right.

Same conclusion. Different thread. Got it.

Anyone want to talk about The Edge? Camel? Movin?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The current temperature is absolutely imperative to my very existence, I'm not so sure what I'd do without it.

Yeah, right. Hearing it on the radio is not (I got your sarcasm ) absolutely
imperative to my existence either--if I want the current temperature I can
call the ASOS and get it to the minute, regardless of whether KFYI is live or
Memorex.

It's the perception of when they don't give the current WX stats, they must be
airing a canned newscast. For a first-level N/T in a large market, that's sloppy.
But then again, it's Cheap Channel and their recent mega cuts. (Now CBS too,
with the bloodletting.)

 

[teelow]

You got it, Newz. I've been visiting this thing for years and the people on this board have never liked KTAR and always loved KFYI. Most of us got over that a long time ago. That's why none of the people who actually work in talk waste their time posting comments on this board because they've learned how it works. KFYI=Good. KTAR=Bad. Just count the number of threads critical of KFYI versus the number critical of KTAR. That's the Newz, newz.

 

[KCIR]

I for one would like to see KTAR succeed. No question the move to FM was gutsey, and heaven knows the amount of money they have spent!! I for one am not in the business, just an interested observer.

I believe a lot of people on this board are just scratching their heads about KTAR this past year or so. Different positioners, different personalities, focus on news, live & local, syndicated and national yada yada... what is it going to be? Focus on your strengths and capitalize on them!

I don't know if I agree that all said hear is positive toward KFYI, however they do do what they do well and do it on a shoe string budget!! ;D

 

[KMGX]

I think most people on this board are relatively objective about stations within this market, save for those who are actually employed by them directly--unless they use hidden monikers so as to disguise their loathing for their parent company. At any rate, I feel I'm very objective about every station in this market, KFYI and KTAR included. It's so strange how some people play the victim card and say absurdities like "Oh, I get it, KTAR=bad, KFYI=good", you've got to call them as you seem them.

You want criticism of KFYI, it's easy: I'm amazed they get the ratings they do with the incredibly poor audio quality of the AM signal, it is so deluded in static/noise thanks to their insistence on using the IBOC (for all 17 HD Radio listeners). By the way, the few times their IBOC is disabled their sound is even worse--it's overmodulated something ferocious--so the engineering at Clear Channel is obviously lackluster.

KFYI, like all stations in this standard time zone, is unable to be flexible enough with their talk schedule to be able to provide listeners with live syndicated shows during Daylight Saving Time months.

Their news coverage, while good enough to keep them top rated, is certainly underwhelming for a station of their stature in a major market such as this one.

It is hard to criticize any of their hosts really, how can one criticize a host that gets excellent ratings book-after-book, unless you just don't care for them. I'm not a Rush Limbaugh fan at all--can't really stand him, but he gets the massive numbers and if I were running a news/talk station I would love to have him on the air.

KTAR has good things going for them, Phil Hendrie being the biggest of those assets along with their ownership of the Suns, Diamondbacks and even Arizona Cardinals. Their news coverage has been very spotty as of late--and seems to over emphasize certain, trivial items while lacking in coverage to other areas, example: We don't really require traffic updates at 11:50pm, we don't need the weather every ten minutes during afternoon talk... it's just clutter; "Hey, it's still sunny!" Thanks for the update we can SEE THAT guys! All of that being said, I think they still do a slightly better job than KFYI--but not really because of their local emphasis, they run a lot of national reports (ABC fed news) and that gives them a higher news dominance perception.

Right now, and the ratings bare this out to be fact, KTAR is the inferior station in the market. Eventually, at least in all probability, KTAR will rebound and perhaps overtake KFYI for a time and the stations will see-saw in the ratings and in overall quality of broadcast--or at least that is my theory.

Ultimately, KTAR needs to sink or swim with their current lineup and programming model in order for better competition to really take shape in the market. If they continue this wheel-of-programming ideology than they will never see the results that they are looking for. Sure, they'll hold their own financially and probably never go under, but they will not have the market dominance that they once did.

 

[DrAkbar]

We agree with about 95% of KMGX's observations. The downfall of KT'R occurred long before TMISU purchased the station (Hearst-Argylesox & E-mess), and to their credit the station is finally getting some legs. Had the Master Blogger blown up Toaster Talk on day one and installed today's line-up, KT'R would be a lot further along. AM is AM, so any discussion on audio quality is moot. Nurse Jeff and I don't think most talk listeners give a rat's azz regarding FM's frequency response. They know KT'R is easier to receive than KFWHyEye, but as long as the content is better on 5~Fifty they'll endure the limitations of AM. As far as Hendrie goes, sorry this is where we part company. Not funny, not relevant, not even interesting. If the Master Blogger has to keep Hendrie, then run Nightside Project after Gaydos and then Hendrie. NP has a lot more in common with Gaydos and his peeps than PH.

 

[KOHS]

KTAR's current line-up is a vast improvement on toaster talk, to be sure. That said, Ann Karlo, Beck and Mac & Cheese leave a lot to be desired, at least in my opinion.

Ann Karlo is, well, underwhelming. Kudos to him for standing up to McCain on immigration and for having some (few and far between) interesting discussions on the issues. By comparison, though, the Nearly Bald One has him beat by a mile! When I have a choice between Ann Karlo and Barry Youn, I choose Barry.

Mac & Cheese, by his own admission, isn't really doing much for the station (I heard him mention it when discussing the ratings for KTAR after the last book). Like Dr. Akbar, I am too cheap to subscribe to "the book", so I can only guess as to how dismal the numbers are for Mac & Cheese. Mac frequently stumbles when he speaks, gets flustered when someone bests him in an argument and generally sounds like a 15-year old doing a radio show (I started in radio at 15 and recall some of the dumb things I did on the air, so I feel for Mac on this one).

Beck=BORING. I just don't get Beck. His co-host is annoying and then again, so is Beck.

Gaydos: I have to say that Gaydos is growing on me. I like his show--it's fun! He is entertaining and I would be willing to bet that he pulls decent numbers. Count me as a Gaydos peep. 8)

 

[ajhenderson]

Mac is pretty weak. Kudos to KTAR for actually looking at/for talk hosts from other markets, but when Mac did a segment today on "what should I get my fiance for V-Day", I felt like I could probably call in with a Leykis impression saying "dump that bitch" and Mac wouldn't know how to handle it. Besides, why do we care that he is new to the Valley? JD is bad, but Mac is badder. I've actually been more entertained by Jeff Farias' perpetual string of clueless "uh-huhs" to every caller. Although, speaking of prank callers, you might want to brush up on what one sounds like, Jeff.

 

[obi-one]

I'm reserving judgment on Gaydos for now,
but allow me to throw another log on the "Crummey" fire

A radio producer from the mid-west was sitting next to me at the Super Bowl, and he told me that his station spent the last year pushing more "local talk"... and less "syndicated" babble. He says they stay competitive in both talk and news as a result. If that means KTAR has to put "other" big name hosts back on the air, then so be it. KFYI won't have to because McCain is running for president. Insert Sean and Russ comments here ... ok, J.D. comments too

And just to be fair, so no one feels left out...
Every radio station in Phoenix is doing a horrible job, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Except for KBAQ!

Now I'm going back to television...