J
jhguthlac
Guest
When does Morning Drive really begin in the 21st century?
From the late 40’s through the 50’s and 60’s, Morning Drive was basically 6am to 10am. Radio stations treated it seriously from 6-9, then generally slowed down the pace and ran odds and ends from 9 until 10. In Wilmington, WTUX ran “Newark Coffee Time” with Don Mattewson, an attempt to please Newark advertisers. WDEL ran the 10 minute “Do You Remember Show” and then “Mr. Goodwill” along with other fillers. WNRK had a two-way talk show called “Comment” in that time slot.
The reason for this was quite simple. In most households, you got up to get ready for work/school between 6&7. Between 7 & 8 you went to work/school. For some places where work started at 9, you had that commute to broadcast to. From post-war 1948 to around 1970, the pace was mostly the same.
The school busing situation changed that. Now it was normal for people to be up before 6am. Commute times were different. How did radio stations react. WDEL’s morning drive basically starts at 5:30 as does WSTW. WNRK and WTUX, of course, are deceased. But in the early 90’s when I was OM at WNRK, I noticed changes as I would drive to the station between 3 and 4am to prep my morning show and get everything set-up. There were a fair number of cars on the road. We added the NBC news mag “First Light” to our sked, first from 5:30am to 6, then we picked up the entire hour from 5-6. There were people out there with their clock radios set to 1260, listening to this. So I made sure we had local fills of weather, local headlines, etc. to drop in the program.
News blocks on stations between 5&6 are common today. If you have a big name morning show, like Imus in the Morning at WABC, you fill 5-6 with news. KYW starts their morning drive at 4:30am. Morning drive at WILM/WDOV starts at 5 with a combo of Elliott in the Morning and the Wall Street Journal This Morning. For music stations, WSTW sticks to a 5:30 start, while WJBR pretends it starts at 5am (its V/T-Michael Waite used to V/T 6-7 even!). Only WDEL clings to the past by not starting serious morning programming until 5:30. From 5-5:30 it’s a replay of the first half hour of ufo’s, space aliens and shadow people known as Coast to Coast AM.
Given the number of cars I am sharing the roads with from 4:30am til 5am, I am inclined to believe stations need to rethink morning drive, at least in spirit. During the 50s and 60s, the morning work commute was 10 to 20 minutes to the local office/factory. Today it can be 30 to 45 minutes at least. Turn off the voice track. Admit there are people out there starting their day who want to hear news, weather and the late night scores. Admit morning drive now starts at 5am, not 6. Regardless of what Arbitron says. Give your audience what it needs.
From the late 40’s through the 50’s and 60’s, Morning Drive was basically 6am to 10am. Radio stations treated it seriously from 6-9, then generally slowed down the pace and ran odds and ends from 9 until 10. In Wilmington, WTUX ran “Newark Coffee Time” with Don Mattewson, an attempt to please Newark advertisers. WDEL ran the 10 minute “Do You Remember Show” and then “Mr. Goodwill” along with other fillers. WNRK had a two-way talk show called “Comment” in that time slot.
The reason for this was quite simple. In most households, you got up to get ready for work/school between 6&7. Between 7 & 8 you went to work/school. For some places where work started at 9, you had that commute to broadcast to. From post-war 1948 to around 1970, the pace was mostly the same.
The school busing situation changed that. Now it was normal for people to be up before 6am. Commute times were different. How did radio stations react. WDEL’s morning drive basically starts at 5:30 as does WSTW. WNRK and WTUX, of course, are deceased. But in the early 90’s when I was OM at WNRK, I noticed changes as I would drive to the station between 3 and 4am to prep my morning show and get everything set-up. There were a fair number of cars on the road. We added the NBC news mag “First Light” to our sked, first from 5:30am to 6, then we picked up the entire hour from 5-6. There were people out there with their clock radios set to 1260, listening to this. So I made sure we had local fills of weather, local headlines, etc. to drop in the program.
News blocks on stations between 5&6 are common today. If you have a big name morning show, like Imus in the Morning at WABC, you fill 5-6 with news. KYW starts their morning drive at 4:30am. Morning drive at WILM/WDOV starts at 5 with a combo of Elliott in the Morning and the Wall Street Journal This Morning. For music stations, WSTW sticks to a 5:30 start, while WJBR pretends it starts at 5am (its V/T-Michael Waite used to V/T 6-7 even!). Only WDEL clings to the past by not starting serious morning programming until 5:30. From 5-5:30 it’s a replay of the first half hour of ufo’s, space aliens and shadow people known as Coast to Coast AM.
Given the number of cars I am sharing the roads with from 4:30am til 5am, I am inclined to believe stations need to rethink morning drive, at least in spirit. During the 50s and 60s, the morning work commute was 10 to 20 minutes to the local office/factory. Today it can be 30 to 45 minutes at least. Turn off the voice track. Admit there are people out there starting their day who want to hear news, weather and the late night scores. Admit morning drive now starts at 5am, not 6. Regardless of what Arbitron says. Give your audience what it needs.
