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The irony of WBEN slamming the Buffalo News

Y

yugoidar

Noticed while listening to WBEN last week, a strong anti-"Buffalo News" promo with the thrust being why read about the news tomorrow when you can get the news today from WBEN and save hundreds of dollars in this tough economy by not subscribing to the News.

Then I hear a newscast or two where the reporter/newsman sources a story as coming from the "Buffalo News".

Let's face it! If the News ever goes away, plenty of radio newsrooms will be without their primary source of stories. It's been that way for years in every radio newsroom I've ever been in.
 
WBEN does a radio job on news, which means, INSUFFICIENT.

If I want to find out more than two paragraphs about a story, I go to the newspaper. Period. WBEN's coverage is often shallow at best---not because of a lack of ability on the part of the reporter, but simply because radio doesn't demand depth on most stories, not to mention WBEN clearly DOES NOT have the news gathering resources that the Buffalo News has. WBEN's webste is typical of a radio news website: Spotty coverage at best.

I don't know why WBEN is taking shots at the paper like that. I think it's stupid. They better hope they don't steal "business" away from the paper, because if the paper covers less, then WBEN will have less resources from which to gather their own news....if you know what I mean.
 
This hurts to read, if it's true. At the risk of sounding nostalgic there was a time not so long ago when WBEN regarded not only the other radio stations but the TV stations and both newspapers, as rivals and competitors for breaking stories. And we scored our share of victories on breaking stories.

I don't know if WBEN has enough people in-house today to match what we used to do (staff live local newscasts 24-7 and have a fulltime downtown beat reporter as well). But it sounds like they have enough people in house to still do a credible job hitting the phones, attending major meetings and establishing independent relationships with major newsmakers. I'm now a casual occasional listener and it still sounds OK to my ears. There's no excuse for NOT doing everything they can, given the central role local and regional news coverage plays in their programming AND in their marketing.
 
I was reluctant to weigh in on this thread because this issue has been thoroughly discussed in the past. But again, I feel the need to reject the notion that radio and TV news outlets do nothing but steal stories from the Buffalo News and follow the News' lead. That may have been true in the past. But not any more.

Let's take a look at this week. The main story has been the Jamey Rodemeyer's suicide and the role bullying played in it. I first saw the story in the News on Tuesday morning. So, I thought it was an example of the News getting the story and everyone jumping on it. It turns out I was wrong about that. When I was watching a TV show later Tuesday that I recorded Monday evening on the DVR, I saw that Channel 4 had the story at 10 and 11pm Monday. WBEN did one of its theme mornings on Wednesday by bringing in a number of experts on bullying for live interviews. There was no copying from the News. All local media outlets did their own reporting on what has turned out to be a story of national prominence.

Here's another example. As I was tooling around in the car Friday, I tuned in a top of the hour newscast on WBEN and heard a light-hearted story about Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick screaming like a girl after last week's winning touchdown. Susan Rose produced a very nice package. I didn't read this in the News. I didn't see it on television. (That's not to say it wasn't run elsewhere. I just wasn't exposed to it.) I heard it on WBEN.

I've been doing radio news for 30 years in this market. I remember the days when we'd come in, open the paper and begin writing from there without attribution. Today, when I fill in, our news staff has already produced reports or provided me with tape (okay, computer audio files) on stories. I barely open the News, except to write a story to fill the remaining 30-seconds of a cast. And if the News has an exclusive, I, and all other responsible media in Buffalo (including WBEN), cite the News as the source.

Why this perception that the broadcast media steal from the News continues to perplex me. Perhaps you see the stories in the News and presume broadcasters simply stole it. News is news. We're all covering the same stories. So, just because you hear it on WBEN and read it in the News doesn't mean one took it from the other. I will acknowledge that the News will often break a story, like the resignation of the Grand Island track coach amid a police investigation. Does that mean no other media outlet should follow up on it? Of course not. That would be a disservice. And once you do your own reporting on a story, I don't think you have to acknowledge that another outlet had it first. There have been a few occasions where my newsroom was first on a story that later appeared in the News. They didn't give us credit for breaking it.

All this said, I agree 100 percent that WBEN's anti-Buffalo News promos are silly and make the station look small. The News' website is reliable source of breaking information in this day and age. WBEN's contention that you have to wait until the paper is delivered to read its content is just plain wrong, and they should stop airing these promos. But all of the broadcast outlets, WBEN included, do a stellar job in updating their websites. And I often catch a breaking news story on a TV station or on one of the radio station websites before I see it at the News' site. So again, I think criticism of WBEN's website is misplaced. It's one of the better radio sites out there and has been honored with state AP awards.

There's no denying the impact of the Buffalo News. Despite the loss of key employees, it is still the largest-staffed newsroom in town and is able to do things that no TV and radio station can. But that doesn't mean the rest of us are solely dependent on the News for our coverage, which this and other similar threads suggest. If the News disappeared tomorrow, you probably wouldn't see the type of in-depth investigative reporting you get in the Sunday edition. But the rest of us would do quite fine in keeping this community informed about what's happening in Buffalo.
 
Valid points (which would apply also to WNED-AM) throughout your post, but this...

Philip_Airtime said:
If the News disappeared tomorrow, you probably wouldn't see the type of in-depth investigative reporting you get in the Sunday edition. But the rest of us would do quite fine in keeping this community informed about what's happening in Buffalo.
Click to expand...
...is what distinguishes The News, on a day to day basis, from radio and television reporting. If there's a broadcast news-journalism source that rivals The News, it would be NPR. As to WBEN's promos, they're silly. Anybody with a smart phone can obtain information at a keystroke, often from The News' website, which as you have pointed out, is consistently updated to provide immediate, detailed information via text, pictures and very often, audio and video. Pictures and video, something Buffalo's commercial radio news-talk leader does not provide, on AM or FM. News services that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The promos in question might make some points with the core 55+ demographic which comprises the bulk of WBEN's impressive Persons 12+ rating, but appear foolish to anybody under 45... those "younger listeners" which WBEN hopes to attract by simulcasting on a strained 107.7 FM signal.
 
Is anyone old enough to remember back in the 1950s what WBNY called their newscasts? Believe it or don't: "The newspaper of the air".
 
Element9 said:
The promos in question might make some points with the core 55+ demographic which comprises the bulk of WBEN's impressive Persons 12+ rating, but appear foolish to anybody under 45... those "younger listeners" which WBEN hopes to attract by simulcasting on a strained 107.7 FM signal.
Click to expand...

As an outsider, let me ask this: Could the promos be inspired by the belief that the News is "the liberal media?" I note that BEN carries Limbaugh and Hannity--are their local hosts as conservative?
 
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