So what if Jack or Warm or KIXI or whatever station didn't put in a live feed or break in to tell of what happened? Is what happened today bigger because one person died, or is it bigger when there's *GASP* a direct affect onto traffic? Guess what, that's what news radio is for.
Short of a plane going into the Columbia Center, if you're driving on Highway 18 listening to the radio for music, do you care about what's going on in downtown Seattle that very second?
There are several points on this:
1. If music radio were to break into programming for every shooting or murder that happens in every city, there would be no music on the radio. Can you imagine Z-100 or WLTW in New York breaking in every time there's a shooting in the New York area? How about KIIS-FM or K-Earth in LA? Fair comparison? Those stations, just as every station in Seattle, are bound by the same guidelines to serve the public.
2. Serving the public does not necessarily mean every radio station needs to be on top of every single event happening in the market. It's en vogue to complain about repetition on the radio. What if every radio station kept breaking into programming, whether it be a simple announcement or detailed coverage of the event? Then everybody would be in here saying that it's all the same thing on every radio station (the similar argument to music always made). We already have something like that, it's called the 11 o'clock news.
3. With no disrespect intended for anyone directly affected by today's shootings, this is not comparable to 9/11. That said, there ARE people out there who don't care about news events. Some of them, believe it or not, would actually like to hear music or some other programming.
I still find it odd to find someone running into a radio discussion board less than an hour after news of the event broke out, and turn it into an issue about live jocks.
