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The Voices behind the AAR News Psuedonyms?

T

tbetz

It's become fairly evident from its content and tenor that AAR has outsourced its weekend and overnight newsbreaks on the hour and half-hour to some other news organization (probably AP radio news) while retaining the AAR branding.

Can anyone here recognize the voices behind the psuedonyms they use?

I particularly like "Frisco Hills" and "Sam Weiser".

Also, while I know it's not uncommon for traffic reports, can anyone remember having heard this sort of news-outsourcing-while-retaining-house-branding done before?<P ID="signature">______________
also known as tombetz.</P>
 
Metro Networks provides "house branded" newscasts to stations in markets around the country (in addition to traffic reports).

"Fairly evident" that weekend and overnight news is outsourced based on what? Air America's own newscasts have little sound. What sound they do have comes from audio news releases or sound bites pulled from interviews in their own programs. If they were getting news from AP there would be more sound and better sound, the news copy would be re-written from one hour to the next and the talent would be a lot better. Also, during weekends and overnights, AAR does not have news on the half hour.

Keep in mind that Air America's own newscasts are heard online, on XM and on WLIB, New York. I understand maybe a handful of smaller stations take their newscasts, but most progressive talk stations which carry AAR programming get news from CNN, ABC, Clear Channel or local station cluster news operations.

I wish AAR did outsource their news. It would be a big improvement. Especially over their morning newscaster who sounds like a cross between Lurch on the Addams Family TV series ("You rang?") and the talking belly button on Seinfeld ("Helllo").



> It's become fairly evident from its content and tenor that
> AAR has outsourced its weekend and overnight newsbreaks on
> the hour and half-hour to some other news organization
> (probably AP radio news) while retaining the AAR branding.
>
> Can anyone here recognize the voices behind the psuedonyms
> they use?
>
> I particularly like "Frisco Hills" and "Sam Weiser".
>
> Also, while I know it's not uncommon for traffic reports,
> can anyone remember having heard this sort of
> news-outsourcing-while-retaining-house-branding done before?
>
 
> I wish AAR did outsource their news. It would be a big
> improvement.

We get AAR news on XM except when they are running The Tool at 10 or Fargo Man dontcha know. Then they'll run USA or something. AAR News is terrible. I don't like any news being biased, and AAR's is the gold standard for "liberal agenda news" and I am a liberal. I grew up listening to shortwave and AAR's newscasts might as well be coming out of the bad ole days of Radio Tirana, Radio Moscow, or even today's Radio Havana. I don't want slanted attention paid to the topic points of the day on AAR talk shows or on obscure Bush bashing stories. I want NEWS.

What I have started doing is dumping AAR at the top of the hour for the BBC World Service. Their hourly newscast ends at precisely the moment the talk shows start on AAR, so I just flip the switch back when the news is over. This also escapes the obnoxious commercial load and XM's own WAY TOO FREAKIN LOUD ads for themselves, and the evil demon Laaaazzzzlo and his tech fluff reports.
 
AAR Newscasts

> "Air America's own newscasts have
> little sound. What sound they do have comes from audio news
> releases or sound bites pulled from interviews in their own
> programs. If they were getting news from AP there would be
> more sound and better sound, the news copy would be
> re-written from one hour to the next and the talent would be
> a lot better.

Wrong. I've heard voicers and q and a from AP people and AAR does use actualities that don't come from "audio news releases" or their own interviews, although I've wondered why they don't use MORE sound.
>
> Keep in mind that Air America's own newscasts are heard
> online, on XM and on WLIB, New York. I understand maybe a
> handful of smaller stations take their newscasts,

I listen to the stream from Clear Channel's KPOJ in Portland, OR and it carries Air America's own newscasts, Monday through Friday, although not on the weekends. Portland is a top-25 market and KPOJ is AAR's most successful affiliate (it bills itself as "The World's First Air America affiliate).
 
Wayne Gilman

I wish Wayne Gilman listened to (or even better got trained by) the BBC. He'd then know _how_ to do a newscast. The thing I highly dislike is when he goes at the end (when there's obviously not enough material prepared for the newscast) "This... Is... Air... America... Radio... Network... News... I'm.......... Wayne... Gilman." Mr. Gilman doesn't have to sign off with his name, he only needs to sign off with "Air America Radio News", as most professional newscasters do.

I think I need to do what Dampier does. I trust the BBC for real news, and Air America I take with a pinch of salt. However, laying in bed at night means that I am reluctant just to switch over for BBC news - if I get up in the night and switch it, it generally stays on BBC.

Mark.
 
Re: Wayne Gilman

How expensive is it to license AP news or have AP completely take over the operation....id love to hear the news sounders of the AP hour on the hour...plus the news will be a little more accurate and less biased than the internal effort....plus it wont be abc, cbs, cnn, or fox news....hour on the hour....i vote for the "NewsStation" from AP.I respect the BBC but NPR has BBC broadcasts pretty covered.....does Reuters do a professional news cast?
 
> "Fairly evident" that weekend and overnight news is
> outsourced based on what? Air America's own newscasts have
> little sound.

Exactly. But weekends and overnights now HAVE sound. And the weekend and overnight newsreaders lately sound like your standard-issue, AP Radio News-style newsreaders, unlike Wayne Gilman etc. during weekdays; and weekends and overnights lack that beloved AAR slant in the copy and choice of content.

Which leads me to believe that AAR has outsourced weekends and overnights, but using AAR branding and the AAR news sounder.
<P ID="signature">______________
also known as tombetz.</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Tom Betz on 07/01/05 09:06 AM.</FONT></P>
 
> Keep in mind that Air America's own newscasts are heard
> online, on XM and on WLIB, New York. I understand maybe a
> handful of smaller stations take their newscasts, but most
> progressive talk stations which carry AAR programming get
> news from CNN, ABC, Clear Channel or local station cluster
> news operations.

I listened to Thom Hartman's KPOJ local show Thursday, and noticed that KPOJ uses the AAR sounder for its own local newscasts (read by his local show partner, Heidi Tauber).

And I must say, even though the last and only time I visited Portland was 1991 (and then, only for a few days) the show was very entertaining; even more entertaining than his syndicated show!

<P ID="signature">______________
also known as tombetz.</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Tom Betz on 07/01/05 10:32 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: AP news on AAR/1090/Seattle-Tacoma

> How expensive is it to license AP news or have AP completely
> take over the operation....id love to hear the news sounders
> of the AP hour on the hour...plus the news will be a little
> more accurate and less biased than the internal
> effort....plus it wont be abc, cbs, cnn, or fox news....hour
> on the hour....i vote for the "NewsStation" from AP.I
> respect the BBC but NPR has BBC broadcasts pretty
> covered.....does Reuters do a professional news cast?





FYI, "seattle's progressive talk...AM 1090" (KPTK-AM Seattle) has AP network newscasts at the top and bottom of the hour, *probably* 24/7, at least as far as I can tell. When the station began in Oct last year they had CNN network news. I don't recall when AP began. I prefer AP news to CNN news...
 
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