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WBEN new readers are pretty bad

C

Cygnamaj

I have been listening to WBEN for years. I pretty much have it on at work most of the day. I've been noticing that their news readers have been making a lot of mistakes on air while they read the news. Tom Puckett seems to be the worse. He also seems to hurry up through the news so fast that when he's done I didn't really retain anything he said. There's others that fill in some days, and they're just as bad.
Does the news department at WBEN just let their readers pick and choose what they read on air for news, or is it typed up and ready for them to read?

I would really like a news station to listen to that doesn't sound like amateur hour on the radio
 
Cygnamaj said:
I have been listening to WBEN for years. I pretty much have it on at work most of the day. I've been noticing that their news readers have been making a lot of mistakes on air while they read the news. Tom Puckett seems to be the worse. He also seems to hurry up through the news so fast that when he's done I didn't really retain anything he said. There's others that fill in some days, and they're just as bad.
Does the news department at WBEN just let their readers pick and choose what they read on air for news, or is it typed up and ready for them to read?

I would really like a news station to listen to that doesn't sound like amateur hour on the radio
Click to expand...

Tom Puckett has been on for years. So something doesn't add up. As I have said in another thread, though...the newscasts between 12 and 3 are, in fact, the shortest newscasts on this station. Is it because there are so many people wanting to advertise during Rush? I don't know.

Neil McManus has been on for years. Allan Harris has been on for years. Dave Debo has been on for years. Are they making more mistakes now than years ago?

The new ones are Sloane Martin on Saturday who is excellent and well spoken, and someone who is on weeknights after 8pm, who is also good. The two of them remind me of WHAM 1180's Sheri Smith.

It's been a few months since someone has filled in for Tom Puckett, and I'm calling you out on it. I listen every day. The usual fill ins are Sloane Martin or Brian Mazurowski.

So if you listen all day at work, who do you like? Sandy, Rush, or Tom? Usually they talk about the important news story of the day during all of their shows.
 
Criticism of his precious WBEN riles The Lackey.
WBEN has a news department? They most likely are badly reading
Buffalo News stories on the fly.

Fortunately, NPR is available for people who don't
exist in a vacuum...
 
tbolt909 said:
Criticism of his precious WBEN riles The Lackey.
WBEN has a news department? They most likely are badly reading
Buffalo News stories on the fly.

Fortunately, NPR is available for people who don't
exist in a vacuum...
Click to expand...

I state the facts. I stated the criticism. The news between 12 and 3 is short, fast, and may have mistakes.

I also called someone out who registered specifically to post their criticism, and asked if it just started after however many years on the air.

NPR has a news department? I thought it was a telethon.
 
According to the websites involved, WBFO has a larger new department than "The News Leader" - which can't even accurately report on itself.
 
dand5780 said:
Tom Puckett has been on for years. So something doesn't add up. As I have said in another thread, though...the newscasts between 12 and 3 are, in fact, the shortest newscasts on this station. Is it because there are so many people wanting to advertise during Rush? I don't know.

Neil McManus has been on for years. Allan Harris has been on for years. Dave Debo has been on for years. Are they making more mistakes now than years ago?

The new ones are Sloane Martin on Saturday who is excellent and well spoken, and someone who is on weeknights after 8pm, who is also good. The two of them remind me of WHAM 1180's Sheri Smith.

It's been a few months since someone has filled in for Tom Puckett, and I'm calling you out on it. I listen every day. The usual fill ins are Sloane Martin or Brian Mazurowski.

So if you listen all day at work, who do you like? Sandy, Rush, or Tom? Usually they talk about the important news story of the day during all of their shows.
Click to expand...

I have no choice but to listen to WBEN if I want anything resembling local news on the radio. And I have been listening for years also. But in the past year or so almost every news reading every half hour contains a stutter, mixed up word, a complete incoherent sentence, or simple mistake. It's really unprofessional. And it's Tom Puckett. His delivery is just bad. I don't know the guy. I have nothing against him. I just don't understand why in the world WBEN still has him as their main news reader.

And i remember Sloane martin filling in one week for Tom Puckett. She was worst.
 
Most of the WBEN news anchors I've heard, although I listen only four or five times a week, seem to do reasonably well. Everybody has an off day from time to time. There was a WBEN reader who seemed to ad lib the 9 a.m. news and muff it more often than not, but I've not heard him in years. Local news on WBFO is delivered with error free consistency in the morning, and CFRB Toronto offers consistently error free local newscasts, too, should you be interested in Toronto metro events.
 
dand5780 said:
Tom Puckett has been on for years. So something doesn't add up. As I have said in another thread, though...the newscasts between 12 and 3 are, in fact, the shortest newscasts on this station. Is it because there are so many people wanting to advertise during Rush? I don't know.

Neil McManus has been on for years. Allan Harris has been on for years. Dave Debo has been on for years. Are they making more mistakes now than years ago?

The new ones are Sloane Martin on Saturday who is excellent and well spoken, and someone who is on weeknights after 8pm, who is also good. The two of them remind me of WHAM 1180's Sheri Smith.
Click to expand...
.

The only ones worth their paycheck are the morning team, Debo and Mazurowski. Allan Harris is a talk show host - his talents are being wasted doing traffic. He sounds bored.
 
Rob Piotrowski said:
.

Allan Harris is a talk show host - his talents are being wasted doing traffic. He sounds bored.
Click to expand...

Right, but I was referring to when he does newscasts. Every Sunday mornings until 11am. Whether he's a talk show host, traffic reporter, or anything else...his newscasts never have mistakes.

I still think people are underestimating Sloane Martin.
 
Rusty Bridges said:
Most of the WBEN news anchors I've heard, although I listen only four or five times a week, seem to do reasonably well. Everybody has an off day from time to time. There was a WBEN reader who seemed to ad lib the 9 a.m. news and muff it more often than not, but I've not heard him in years. Local news on WBFO is delivered with error free consistency in the morning, and CFRB Toronto offers consistently error free local newscasts, too, should you be interested in Toronto metro events.
Click to expand...

680 News in Toronto also does a pretty good job; that, along with WBFO and the CBC, are my go-to stations in this area for news. Notice who I DIDN'T include in that mix...;)
 
Rusty Bridges said:
Most of the WBEN news anchors I've heard, although I listen only four or five times a week, seem to do reasonably well. Everybody has an off day from time to time.
Click to expand...

I'm listening today and Tom Puckett is messing up bad. I don't know why it gets to me but it does.
In one top of the hour news break he started off with "It's Wednesday, uh I mean Thursday..." . Then he proceeded to stutter and stumble through the rest of his read. Mispronouncing many words, and mixing up plenty of sentences. Trying to get through the story of the Lockport fire was painful. I don't know what the hell he said.

Why does WBEN keep him on air? He might have a medical condition or something, but he should't be reading the news on WNY's #1 news station. Oh how I wish we had an alternative.
 
Cygnamaj said:
I'm listening today and Tom Puckett is messing up bad. I don't know why it gets to me but it does.
In one top of the hour news break he started off with "It's Wednesday, uh I mean Thursday..." . Then he proceeded to stutter and stumble through the rest of his read. Mispronouncing many words, and mixing up plenty of sentences. Trying to get through the story of the Lockport fire was painful. I don't know what the hell he said.

Why does WBEN keep him on air? He might have a medical condition or something, but he should't be reading the news on WNY's #1 news station. Oh how I wish we had an alternative.
Click to expand...

Have to agree. Yesterday he sounded nervous and unprepared - which is surprising because all the post-AM drive newsbreaks are just rehashed versions of those earlier stories.
 
And Sloane Martin is doing an excellent job filling in for traffic this week.
 
Cygnamaj said:
I'm listening today and Tom Puckett is messing up bad. I don't know why it gets to me but it does.
In one top of the hour news break he started off with "It's Wednesday, uh I mean Thursday..." . Then he proceeded to stutter and stumble through the rest of his read. Mispronouncing many words, and mixing up plenty of sentences. Trying to get through the story of the Lockport fire was painful. I don't know what the hell he said.

Why does WBEN keep him on air? He might have a medical condition or something, but he should't be reading the news on WNY's #1 news station. Oh how I wish we had an alternative.
Click to expand...

You HAVE an alternative. It's called WBFO. Quite a few Buffalo radio news veterans are there(Brian Meyer's the news director...also on staff are Michael Mroziak and Chris Kaya, as well as Eileen Buckley(who, if memory serves, was at WGR when it was a news/talk outlet; she's been with MANY stations in the Buffalo market). Though its ratings aren't published officially, UNofficially it does very well in the market-not just 12+, but likely in the 25-54 demo.
 
ckg279 said:
You HAVE an alternative. It's called WBFO. Quite a few Buffalo radio news veterans are there(Brian Meyer's the news director...also on staff are Michael Mroziak and Chris Kaya, as well as Eileen Buckley(who, if memory serves, was at WGR when it was a news/talk outlet; she's been with MANY stations in the Buffalo market). Though its ratings aren't published officially, UNofficially it does very well in the market-not just 12+, but likely in the 25-54 demo.
Click to expand...

Mroziak sounds like he's about to fall asleep.

WBFO s'News....
 
dand5780 said:
Mroziak sounds like he's about to fall asleep. WBFO s'News....
Click to expand...
Horse puckey! Mroziak always sounds well prepared, and his feature reports are some of the best heard on radio, AM or FM, commercial or non. Have another hit of that neo con cool aid Dandy.
 
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