Some thoughts on News 92 FM

[streetbeat]

Was in my car more than usual today and sampled News 92 randomly throughout the day. Here's my problem: every time I tuned in, I heard something go wrong. In one newscast, Pattie Shieh had a story about a bus accident and never identified the person she used in her sound bites. The story right after that was a direct rewrite from the Chronicle, complete with some of the same phrases and direct points the Chron made (about a city council issue concerning auto repair shops). Later, heard Mike Barajas read a story about a conviction being "overthrown" instead of overturned. Jorge Vargas had a story about the aftermath of a fire and used a sound bite that for the life of me I couldn't understand in the car (basically an older guy mumbling for 15 seconds).

I would like to see the station succeed, but so far it seems very sloppy and poorly executed a lot of the time. There are parts of the day that sound pretty good, but too often, it turns into amateur hour. Content is king and if the content is inferior, customers won't come back for more. The thing that would concern me if I were a manager there is that these problems seem to be more the norm so far than the exception. To make it clear again, I want the station to do well. Sometimes tough love is a good thing.

 

[sdh483]

The station sounds fine to me.

 

[poops]

The station sounds fine to me.

ditto...

poops

 

[stan]

I agree that News 92 is a work in progress. With all it's faults, it is much better than what's left of KTRH. I had the opportunity to listen as I drove around Houston this week and appreciated the traffic and weather during the rainstorms.

 

[TheSpinMan]

I have thoroughly enjoyed it, it's like having an old friend back.

 

[careful705]

I heard a commercial for Xfinity cable or whatever it is, and the guy recording the commercial actually said "LIBARY" on the radio when boasting about this service's online "library" of streaming movies... Maybe I heard it wrong but I don't thing so! My 12 year old has better grammar than that! It was Wed or Thurs morning... Maybe someone else heard it??

I mean I love this station with JP, Lana and Traffic Master Lanny Griiffith (what the hell has he been doing since getting canned from Fox26?), but that kind of amateurish work is embarrassing to say the least. Also, the afternoon traffic guy keeps telling me about the backup on the SOUFF Loop... That just irks me to no end!!!!

Otherwise great job!! Just turn up the pots when rolling a clip please! The reporters come through nice and clear, but when they roll the clip it is muffled, distant and at a terribly low volume... (Not always, but mostly.)

Mark Moss would've never let that slide at KACC!!

 

[FilioScotia]

In defense of News92, I haven't heard that commercial for XFinity cable but I'm guessing it's an agency spot that was recorded somewhere else -- not at KROI.

The previous poster didn't indicate which voice made the atrocious mispronunciation of the word "Library", but I guessing it wasn't the professional announcer who voiced it. It was probably one of XFinity's "happy" customers they inserted into the spot. Clearly the agency should have used a more intelligent sounding customer for that spot, but radio stations pretty much have to take what they get from the ad agencies -- the good with the bad and everything in between.

Back in the 80s I worked for a station in Nacogdoches -- KJCS 103 -- and one of our big advertisers was a small chain of furniture stores. The owner did his own commercials, and he had the thickest down home east Texas accent you ever heard.

I'm from East Texas, but this guy was painful to listen to. At times he made me cringe and grind my teeth. So -- I just kept reminding myself that his commercials were helping to pay my salary and put food on my family's table. Every night at dinner we prayed for that man's continued good health and prosperity.

 

[OldChicago]

Otherwise great job!! Just turn up the pots when rolling a clip please! The reporters come through nice and clear, but when they roll the clip it is muffled, distant and at a terribly low volume... (Not always, but mostly.)

Mark Moss would've never let that slide at KACC!!

THANK YOU !!!! I am so glad someone else has noticed this. The station has been on now for several weeks. They should address this by now.


Old Chicago

 

[edriskill]

Back in the 80s I worked for a station in Nacogdoches -- KJCS 103 -- and one of our big advertisers was a small chain of furniture stores. The owner did his own commercials, and he had the thickest down home east Texas accent you ever heard.

When at KEEE/KJCS in the late 70's, I can remember coaching a few rookie newspersons through pronunciations in the newscasts. Some of them were pretty brutal with relatively well-known names. I'm grateful I never had to wade through some of the middle-eastern names that are commonly reported today.
...and about owner-pitchmen, who can forget Mattress Mac's first few years of commercials (on Houston Wrestling)?

 

[DToTheJ]

In defense of News92, I haven't heard that commercial for XFinity cable but I'm guessing it's an agency spot that was recorded somewhere else... It was probably one of XFinity's "happy" customers they inserted into the spot. Clearly the agency should have used a more intelligent sounding customer for that spot...

Comcast/Xfinity had a full-fledged advertising campaign around this time last year with Shaquille O'Neal doing a "Twas The Night Before Christmas" routine - something tells me he might have pronounced the word "library" the same way... :-[

 

[richllewis]

I notice that the News 92 jingle is the same one that KRLD uses. If it wasn't on FM and have ABC during the day it could be confused with KRLD. I listen to stations streaming with the newsradio format all over the country. One day if this station suceeds you need to get someone to make you something a little more original as a jingle.

 

[gitch]

In defense of News92, I haven't heard that commercial for XFinity cable but I'm guessing it's an agency spot that was recorded somewhere else... It was probably one of XFinity's "happy" customers they inserted into the spot. Clearly the agency should have used a more intelligent sounding customer for that spot...

Comcast/Xfinity had a full-fledged advertising campaign around this time last year with Shaquille O'Neal doing a "Twas The Night Before Christmas" routine - something tells me he might have pronounced the word "library" the same way... :-[

Anyone who uses Shaquille O'Neal as a spokesman should have their head examined. I mean, I get the fact that he's very popular and a world class basketball player, but the guy sounds like he has a mouth full of peanut butter when he talks.

 

[FilioScotia]

Living in busy retirement here in east Texas, I rarely have time to listen to News 92 Online for more than a few minutes, so I haven't been able to form an opinion. However, I just got back from a quick one day trip to Houston for a Doc's appointment, and I listened to them all the way down and for much of the way back home.

Folks I have to tell you I think News 92 sounds fantastic. I have worked with most of the people you hear on 92.1 FM, and I know how talented they all were when I was there in the trenches with them. They've lost NONE of their talent and creativity. If anything, they are BETTER than they were then.

The current News 92 FM sounds a great deal like KTRH did back in the 80s when it was the best all news Op in the southwest, and one of the best in the country. They appear to be following the same news wheel KTRH used, because it's the most workable news wheel ever devised.

I loved what I was hearing, because I know almost all of those people. They've all been treated horribly by stupid radio conglom managers, and God knows they all deserve to have something as good as this at this point in their lives and careers. Hearing them today made me wish I hadn't been so eager to retire last year. I would love to be there working with them again.

 

[AirUpThere]

I drove into the market for New Year's weekend and was pleasantly surprised to hear an all-out radio war between 740 and 92.1. The promos were catty and snipey, just the way it should be. 740 was backed into a corner and had to either put on the best A-game they can or die. 740 is fighting for its life and they're depending on their heritage and the competition has forced Clear Corridors to hire people when their game plan is to cut, cut, cut. It's obvious KTRH is having to do it on the cheap, though, because the weekend night anchor's diction is terrible. But I didn't hear a local weekend night anchor on KROI, so KTRH gets that one. KTRH is at a huge disadvantage because of the signal of KROI; it covers the market in all the right places, and KTRH has no FM translator. (Don't give me this "we're on HD". Nobody cares yet.) KROI needs :60 of top headlines on or near the quarter hour, 24/7. I get lost in their story stacking after a while. Refresh my memory after 10 or 15 minutes, please. Those little updates can be produced from home and e-mailed in for weekends, that's a piece of cake. Do 3 of them. 90 minutes for audience changeover. To both KTRH and KROI: don't make us think you're trying to do it on the cheap. Give it all, or just don't. But above all, it's good to hear efforts being made on both sides. And thanks, KROI, for backing the cheap-a$$ Cheap Channel into a corner and making them rethink their genius plans.

 

[FilioScotia]

***740 was backed into a corner and had to either put on the best A-game they can or die.***

I agree with the spirit of what you say, but KTRH has no "A-Game" left to put on. Their A-Game vanished in the mists a long time ago. They don't have the people to do anything more than run promos bragging about their history as Houston's radio news source.

They can run all the self serving promos they want but they don't have the product to back it up. They're bringing a knife to a gun fight. They're outmanned and outgunned.

I also don't think they've backed Cheap Channel into a corner, nor is CC rethinking their genius plans. CC couldn't care less about the quality of their on air product, as long as they keep making money doing what they've been doing. They're not in the "quality" business. Money is their thing.

They also couldn't care less what News92 does, so they ain't gonna change a thing. Michael Berry can huff, puff and posture all he wants, but his corporate bosses are the decision makers there. Not him.

 

[Scout]

The problem with KTRH's new commitment to local news ( ) is I don't really think it's local. The anchors mispronounce words like Bissonnet and Conroe and I heard one aanchor say that Houston is in Harrison County. ??? I've heard John Wesley Downey do overnight traffic on WOAI in San Antonio, so I assume KTRH's new overnight news anchors are from somewhere else other than Houston.

 

[stan]

The problem with KTRH's new commitment to local news ( ) is I don't really think it's local. The anchors mispronounce words like Bissonnet and Conroe and I heard one aanchor say that Houston is in Harrison County. ??? I've heard John Wesley Downey do overnight traffic on WOAI in San Antonio, so I assume KTRH's new overnight news anchors are from somewhere else other than Houston.

With CC you never know where anyone is actually located. For example, KLVI in Beaumont utilizes other CC people from Houston and who knows where for some of their daytime 'local' news reading. For the most part they do well, but the local names always throw them.

 

[jd]

The problem with KTRH's new commitment to local news ( ) is I don't really think it's local. The anchors mispronounce words like Bissonnet and Conroe and I heard one aanchor say that Houston is in Harrison County. ???

San Felipe is another dead giveaway as to whether somebody is local. Hopefully they won't mispronounce Fuqua.

 

[Mediafrog+]

San Felipe is another dead giveaway as to whether somebody is local. Hopefully they won't mispronounce Fuqua.

Except even the locals aren't consistent on San Felipe. Some have "fay-LEE-pay" while others say "FILL-uh-pee."

I still hear debate over Tuam. And are we the "Buy-you" city or the "buy-oh" city?

Ultimate sin: DO NOT say "Sahn Ha-SEEN-toe." Political minefield.

 

[AirUpThere]

I had *completely* forgotten about CC's out of market voice tracking. I bet that's what's happening. Out of market tracking is OK when you need more production voices for wraps and stuff, where the writer can be religious about pronouncers or even if the "reporter" spent time in the market at one time or another. But out of market tracking stinks for anchoring. I bet dollars to donuts that's what's happening.

For local pronunciations, I don't think that's as big a deal as it seems. I've heard off-hour anchors on KROI mispronounce local names, too. Kuykendahl, for example, could throw anybody. If they screw it up, just say "i just moved here. sorry." and all's forgiven.

But I do think KTRH is being forced to make changes to make people think they're competing. They start out with local news and delay Fox by 2 or 3 minutes. That is not the CC template for their news talkers. It just isn't. KROI sprinkled some BBs in their gear box over there.