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This explains a lot about KTRH "News".

"Our marketing manager has frequently said that he is a format-agnostic. He doesn't care what the product is as long as we're providing what listeners want.”
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Um... their "marketing manager"??

They don't have one.

That's not meant to be a joke. They really don't have one.

Miller's quote summed it up best:
“I don't hear as much news as I used to,” Miller said, “and that breaks my heart.”
Click to expand...
 
In the old days (the 70s) KTRH, KPRC, KULF, KENR, KXYZ, KILT, KODA and maybe others all had a full-time newsstaff, many of them a 24-hour staff. I was on on the staff at KENR and KULF. We all covered City Hall meetings, hung out at the police station on Reisner (even had our own assigned parking at the station), covered County Commissioners meetings, and generally went to the scenes of major news events, hurricanes included.

And we all made money. Why can't some station or stations do that again?
 
At the risk of turning this into a nostalgia bender, you just sent me into a spasm of flashbacks Henry.

I was also there in the late 60s and 70s chasing police cars and ambulances out of that old press room at 61 Reisner. I was there for KIKK and Richard Dobbyn, and very often I would ride out to a story with Jack Cato of KPRC or Gary DeLaune from KNUZ. Cato introduced me to the late Ray Miller, who hired me to come to KPRC in 1969.

It was a very different world. I can remember any number of scenes where there would be half a dozen or more radio reporters covering the story and often sharing tape and actualities with the late arrivers. Almost every station in town had a newsroom with newscasters who doubled as reporters.

To answer your question: why can't it be that way again? It's the cost. It costs a lot of money to maintain a news department, and most station owners have decided it's not worth it. That's certainly how it is now in Houston. Commercial radio journalism doesn't exist in Houston anymore. Michael Berry may call what they do "journalism", but I don't.

The only real radio journalism in Houston now is at the public station, KUHF. Seriously. Has anybody here listened to them lately? Check them out. They are doing some seriously good NPR style long form local reporting. It's because most of their reporters are former commercial radio reporters who've found a new home in public radio.
 
FilioScotia said:
Commercial radio journalism doesn't exist in Houston anymore.
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Why limit it to radio? I've read the Chronicle. A day will come when you can find out more about your neighborhood from a blog than you can from the local paper. I think TV journalism is restricted to a few major local stories a day. They don't have the staffing or crews to cover more than that.

The real story here is that the time it takes to factually cover a story is longer than the patience of the audience. They want to know everything immediately. There are ways for them to get it. So getting it right has limited value. Especially since, in most cases, they've already made their mind up about an issue before they know the facts.

So while it could be possible to do serious reporting, there's no guarantee anyone will care. There's a small dedicated audience that, for the time being, is willing to pay for it. Just as they're willing to continue to subscribe to newspapers. But their numbers will dwindle.
 
FilioScotia, I'm an "old radio (and TV) guy" too, and while I too miss the way reporting was, we have to recognize that besides cost, there are a couple of other reasons why it can't be that way again: the old media are becoming obsolete, and broadcast journalism has become an ooxymoron.
When we all made money in broadcasting a few decades ago, it was the only game in town, and news was appointment viewing. Now, my 26 year-old who works in radio gets all his info online.
Back when we worked for Ray Miller, he demanded honesty, sourcing and balance in every story (not to mention NEVER getting beaten by the guys across the street.) But today, it's okay to report rumor, and select the facts that suit the template you want the story to be. That's why nobody trusts journalists.
As for KTRH, it became great when it was owned by journalists (the Jones family.) Now it's owned by the bean counters at Clear Channel.
 
I guess that explains the Gallery fire coverage.
 
Not to pile on KTRH, because I think they do a good job with a limited reporting staff, but I heard through the grapevine that they didn't send a reporter to the new police chief announcement. To me, that's news that can't be covered from behind a computer screen. Do the listeners care? I don't know. I would guess the folks at 740 would argue that listeners get that sort of news elsewhere these days. I guess I'll choose to believe there still is a place for solid, local radio news coverage.
 
I'm beginning to think that they don't cover ANY stories with a real reporter. They just get the USA Today out and read stories out of it util people get sick of hearing the same story over and over and over. All day long, they've been running the same story about a church that is giving away a big screen TV for Easter. While it might have been news, for a little while, this morning; it's run it's course and needs to go in the trash can. I'm sure there has been plenty of real news happening all day; but they just keep running the same stories. You would think they would check their newswires for fresh content every few hours, anyway.

As far as I'm concerned, they have ceased to be a news radio station. Even the morning crew now does a few news stories, then fills with fluff for the rest of the hour. It's more like listening to the Today Show.
 
I love how they implore me to look on KTRH.com for more information on news stories - like I'm going to pop open my laptop while I'm attempting to navigate the freeway while doing so. Morons.
 
Nothing suprising here, I still think its b/s that they get away with calling themselves a news station. They are a talk station with sprinkles of news throughout the day. To me, news stations are ones like WBZ Boston, WINS WCBS New York, KYW, Philadelphia, KDKA, Pittsburgh, WBAL Baltimore, WTOP, Washington, WBBM Chicago, KNX, Los Angeles, KXNT Las Vegas. These are stations that actually cover stories all day long, constant weather and traffic updates. Not just plug in the satellite for 1/3 of the day. Do they cost more to operate? Yes, but in most of those cases they are reaping some of the best profits in the industry (Just look at the billing of WINS AND WCBS in 2009) There is that old saying "It takes money to make money." As cliche as it is, there is a reason that saying has been around for so long. Houston is a major city, just like the ones I listed above (in some of those cases even more so). There is NO reason it shouldn't have a news station to match!
 
Having worked in a real news operation (News 24 Houston) and in real radio news operations years before, it is very painful to experience bad weather, hear police and fire sirens reverberating around the city or witness newsworthy events, and to instinctively turn on the radio and come to the realization that there is not a single radio outlet in the nation's fourth largest city covering the news...frankly, Mr. Berry, I don't need KTRH to read to me what I can read for myself on the internet...and besides, your San Antonio intern in charge of the news department probably would mispronounce the names of Houston streets anyhow...
 
onemarketbore said:
Houston is a major city, just like the ones I listed above (in some of those cases even more so). There is NO reason it shouldn't have a news station to match!
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Geographical chauvinism aside, there's one very good reason why Houston shouldn't have a news station: They get great ratings doing what they're doing. And there's no reason to assume that any major city will get great ratings with news. A lot of the stations you list above get worse ratings, like LA for example. New York and Washington DC are very different from Houston. If KTRH is doing well with what they're doing, there's no reason to blow the place up just to keep up with the Joneses.
 
On another note, do you ever see KTRH having an FM simulcast? WBAP-AM in Dallas added WBAP-FM 96-7, WWL-AM in New Orleans added WWL-FM 105-3 a few years ago, and I think KTRH-FM 99-1 would be a good idea. It would be nice to see the Flagship Station of the Astros on the FM band in addition to being on 740AM.

"Get the latest news, weather, and traffic on KTRH AM, FM, and dot com."
 
KTRH was on one of CC's FM HD stations, but given that only 3 of the people on here are capable of receiving it, a regular FM could be the answer. Take the lowest performing or most useless station and make it KTRH-FM. Et tu, KKRW?
 
stan said:
KTRH was on one of CC's FM HD stations, but given that only 3 of the people on here are capable of receiving it, a regular FM could be the answer. Take the lowest performing or most useless station and make it KTRH-FM. Et tu, KKRW?
Click to expand...

CBS could buy the intellectual property of KTRH Newsradio division from CC and change the calls on KLOL back to KTRH-FM. This could be the first successful all news FM station especially with their experience in the format!

I hate having to listen to the AM with every other word drowned out by lightning during storm coverage.
 
Yes we need a real news station. I want to come to work for them if it ever happens. (I was, afterall. a hundred years ago, the top-rated afternoon drive newscaster in Houston, if I say so myself.)

Oh, and we need a good old-fashioned rock 'n roll station too.

But you guys know that. We just have to convince the bigwigs.
 
All things old are new again

"We'd love to have more reporters to send into the field, but news gathering has changed. We can get so much from the Internet. And the need for various bureaus is not there. We can do so much more sitting at the computer.”

This is the direct quote from Michael Berry that started this thread some days back. It's taken me that long to realize what it really means.

People: Michael Berry has resurrected "Rip and Read News". If you recall, Rip and Read is where most of us started our news careers a few decades ago. Berry doesn't care how they get it, as long as it gets on the air.

Only the tools have changed. We did it with that noisy old 60 words a minute teletype in the corner. These days they do it with a computer.
 
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