RATINGS

[secondchoice]

There are three groups of people who will listen to WSB.


3. There are those who refuse to tune in on AM, but who'll listen on FM.

I wonder, will if WSB “take” some of WABE news listeners from group #3? If so this could kill any chance of an “all news” station in Atlanta. IMHO an “all news” station would be a plus for the market. I know it would be very expensive and local news gathering takes time to build up contacts. The challenge would make WSB’s news better unless Cox does a CC and kills the local news dept. But the one and half minutes of news and four minutes of commercials twice an hour after the morning news is frustrating.

 

[jabba17]

There are three groups of people who will listen to WSB.


3. There are those who refuse to tune in on AM, but who'll listen on FM.

I wonder, will if WSB “take” some of WABE news listeners from group #3? If so this could kill any chance of an “all news” station in Atlanta. IMHO an “all news” station would be a plus for the market. I know it would be very expensive and local news gathering takes time to build up contacts. The challenge would make WSB’s news better unless Cox does a CC and kills the local news dept. But the one and half minutes of news and four minutes of commercials twice an hour after the morning news is frustrating.

I'm not sure if any kind of "Chinese wall" regulations come in to play, but Cox has the resources of WSB-TV and the AJC. It wouldn't be hard for a competitor to talk to the newsroom folks at 5, 11, or 46 to do something similar.

Didn't WSB AM simulcast the audio from WSB-TV Action News not so long ago? Or am I thinking of WDUN?

 

[Talk_Dude]

I wonder, will if WSB “take” some of WABE news listeners from group #3? If so this could kill any chance of an “all news” station in Atlanta. IMHO an “all news” station would be a plus for the market. I know it would be very expensive and local news gathering takes time to build up contacts. The challenge would make WSB’s news better unless Cox does a CC and kills the local news dept. But the one and half minutes of news and four minutes of commercials twice an hour after the morning news is frustrating.

How would an all-news radio station benefit Atlanta? Anyone who wants news 24/7 can get if from the internet. I realize Atlanta is a big city, but there's just not enough that is newsworthty to fill 24 hours a day, unless the station works on the principle of the 20 minute continuous news-loop. After 20 minutes, you've heard everything and come back to the start of the loop. Stories in the loop are updated, otherwise they just keep looping. It sounds like a good idea, but I doubt if enough people would tune in to make it worthwhile to advertisers.

 

[secondchoice]

How would an all-news radio station benefit Atlanta? Anyone who wants news 24/7 can get if from the internet. I realize Atlanta is a big city, but there's just not enough that is newsworthty to fill 24 hours a day,

Sorry small oversight, I was just thinking driving. When you are driving is checking out you Black Berry considered texting? I am not sure about all the legalities but it dangerous to read stuff when you are in traffic. As for content Philly and Detroit both smaller markets have high rated all news stations.

 

[jabba17]

I wonder, will if WSB “take” some of WABE news listeners from group #3? If so this could kill any chance of an “all news” station in Atlanta. IMHO an “all news” station would be a plus for the market. I know it would be very expensive and local news gathering takes time to build up contacts. The challenge would make WSB’s news better unless Cox does a CC and kills the local news dept. But the one and half minutes of news and four minutes of commercials twice an hour after the morning news is frustrating.

How would an all-news radio station benefit Atlanta? Anyone who wants news 24/7 can get if from the internet. I realize Atlanta is a big city, but there's just not enough that is newsworthty to fill 24 hours a day, unless the station works on the principle of the 20 minute continuous news-loop. After 20 minutes, you've heard everything and come back to the start of the loop. Stories in the loop are updated, otherwise they just keep looping. It sounds like a good idea, but I doubt if enough people would tune in to make it worthwhile to advertisers.

That concept works for Headline News...TSL probably wouldn't be great but could you make it up on cume? Definitely not a winning format for a big station, but what about a smaller one?

 

[Talk_Dude]

How would an all-news radio station benefit Atlanta? Anyone who wants news 24/7 can get if from the internet. I realize Atlanta is a big city, but there's just not enough that is newsworthty to fill 24 hours a day,

Sorry small oversight, I was just thinking driving. When you are driving is checking out you Black Berry considered texting? I am not sure about all the legalities but it dangerous to read stuff when you are in traffic. As for content Philly and Detroit both smaller markets have high rated all news stations.

Even during driving, how big a market is there for hard radio news, especially in a continuous loop format? How many people need a news "fix" that they can't get in drive time from NPR on WABE? Outside of drive time, an all news station would have to compete with news/talk and sports/talk stations.

I realize that in cities that have had all news stations for a long, long time, there are listeners with the news radio habit. If you have such an audience at your disposal, great. But if you don't, do you realize what an uphill struggle it would be to start one, and how long you'd have to lose money before ultimately building an audience? Even the promotional costs to get the word out about such a station being started would be prohibitive. And forget trying to launch a new programming venture like that on AM. That's a quick way to make yourself a small fortune, assuming you started with a large fortune.

And, say that you did get such a station started. If it started showing signs of success, it would be very easy for other stations to counter-program just by adding a few extra minutes of news each hour.

 

[Talk_Dude]

That concept works for Headline News...TSL probably wouldn't be great but could you make it up on cume? Definitely not a winning format for a big station, but what about a smaller one?

You'd pretty much have to be able to sell a select demographic audience. KQV in Pittsburgh survives with that model. Then again, Richard Scaife runs it pretty much along the model of Charles Foster Kane.