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WBFO Has Imploded
- Thread starter Tower590
- Start date
R
Roch989
Guest
Some questions. Does anyone here know the real answers?
How many people does The Bridge employ? If it doesn’t have any dedicated employees, it’s not hurting anything. Of course, if no one’s listening and it’s on an HD Channel, why bother? What’s the point? Is it just reliving the WBNY Buff State College radio days from the 1980s? Maybe no one cares.
If NPR’s programming is what people are after, maybe WBFO doesn’t need a staff at all. Is doing a one hour-long local show even worth it?
It’s not really a “mix of local and NPR content,” it’s primarily the NPR feed 22-23 hours a day. If NPR is what people want, then just give that to them.
WBFO never announced they were dropping their local focus and not covering local news on-air or online to any real degree like they had been. One day, they just seemed to stop. When stories they used to cover just weren’t, it was more noticeable when a storm that killed 47 people and the Damar Hamlin story weren’t covered.
Maybe that’s why people on this board are upset.
Maybe the listeners just don’t care, however?
Maybe that’s why people on this board are furiously defending the station for some unknown reason?
Maybe their research says local programming makes no difference and is a waste of money?
Who knows. The ratings will tell the story.
Here's a positive post. WBFO is a quality radio station. They run NPR and a mix of local content. It far outclasses anything that WBEN serves up. They have also added The Bridge which you of course criticized in a previous post. You seem to think that 9th caller contests and putting Joe Blow on the air talking about snow drifts in his driveway is compelling content.
How many people does The Bridge employ? If it doesn’t have any dedicated employees, it’s not hurting anything. Of course, if no one’s listening and it’s on an HD Channel, why bother? What’s the point? Is it just reliving the WBNY Buff State College radio days from the 1980s? Maybe no one cares.
If NPR’s programming is what people are after, maybe WBFO doesn’t need a staff at all. Is doing a one hour-long local show even worth it?
It’s not really a “mix of local and NPR content,” it’s primarily the NPR feed 22-23 hours a day. If NPR is what people want, then just give that to them.
WBFO never announced they were dropping their local focus and not covering local news on-air or online to any real degree like they had been. One day, they just seemed to stop. When stories they used to cover just weren’t, it was more noticeable when a storm that killed 47 people and the Damar Hamlin story weren’t covered.
Maybe that’s why people on this board are upset.
Maybe the listeners just don’t care, however?
Maybe that’s why people on this board are furiously defending the station for some unknown reason?
Maybe their research says local programming makes no difference and is a waste of money?
Who knows. The ratings will tell the story.
Here's a positive post. WBFO is a quality radio station. They run NPR and a mix of local content. It far outclasses anything that WBEN serves up. They have also added The Bridge which you of course criticized in a previous post. You seem to think that 9th caller contests and putting Joe Blow on the air talking about snow drifts in his driveway is compelling content.
The Bridge has at least one full-time employee. Tiffany Bentley, formerly of WEDG and the alternative version of WLKK is the program director.
WBFO is not programming NPR 22-23 hours a day. They run NPR mornings and afternoons. They pay for programming from other public radio sources during the rest of the day. That programming has changed over the last few years. It's more opinionated and less factual.
Dropping local news means that the only source of local radio news is WBEN where it's wedged in between right-wing political diatribe. According to the website, the number of staff hasn't really changed, but the focus of the "news" department has. There has been considerable turnover in the news staff, including the news director. Whether the change in focus was suggested from the bottom up or from the top down is open to conjecture.
But are they actually "dropping local news?" They still have local hosts for both Morning Edition and All Things Considered who give local news and information during the week. They don't have local hosts on the weekends (when this latest storm hit). That's not uncommon in public radio. I posted a detailed story here a few weeks ago (prior to the storm) from the public radio magazine Current about the rationale behind establishing the new daily documentary show. According to the article, it came in the aftermath to the shooting last May. They feel it represents the kind of in-depth news coverage that people expect from public radio.
WBFO show takes a daily look at Western New York’s marginalized communities
WBFO's "Buffalo, What's Next?" opens up broader conversations about race, equity and discrimination in the region.
current.org
R
Roch989
Guest
“WBFO is not programming NPR 22-23 hours a day. They run NPR mornings and afternoons.”
I think the point may have been that WBFO runs national programming “22-23 hours a day,” versus just NPR), but the resulting local programming content doesn’t amount to much? Perhaps, the amount of time devoted to local content has never changed.
I wonder how their content differs during the brief local cut-ins in mornings and afternoons from previously?
Are the local cut-ins less focused on the WBEN-type newscasts and more about issues of social justice, etc., as the more common themes in their local cut-ins?
It would be interesting to have someone from the station talk about their apparent shifting focus.
I think I’m the closest you’re going to get on this board with information from “someone in the know.“ WBFO used to air approximately 25 local newscasts a day from 5am to 11pm. Most of these aired at the :04 mark of each hour, after the first segment of the hourly NPR newscast. The rest ran at the half-hour mark during the morning and afternoon drive news magazines. The evening newscasts were pre-recorded by the afternoon hosts. Today, the number of daily local newscasts has been cut to 12 per day. These air twice an hour from 6 to 10am and 4-6pm. Additionally, there were live local newscasts at four minutes past the hour on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For a time, the weekend hosts recorded additional hourly newscasts which were dropped in by the automation through 5:04pm on weekends. Now, there are NO live local hosts on weekends. Incidentally, I did hear a produced piece on fan reaction to the Bills-Miami playoff game that aired at 5:04pm on that Sunday two weeks ago. So, perhaps, they’re attempting to bring back more local content on weekends. But I’m no longer listening as much to WBFO, so I don’t know for sure if that’s happening.
In answer to the second part of your question, WBFO used to provide up to 18 minutes per hour of local content during the local availabilities of Morning Edition. This content included formal newscasts, a story with sound dropped in during a shorter break, weather/traffic updates, an in-depth produced feature and/or live/pre-recorded interviews. Today, WBFO is providing just six to eight minutes of local content per hour — 90 seconds of headlines that occasionally include a soundbite at six minutes after the hour and four-and-half minutes at the half-hour mark. The latter availability does include enterprise reporting by WBFO reporters on issues of social justice, state government, politics, etc. Plus, two weather breaks at :20 and :50 have returned. The amount of local content per hour during afternoon drive on All Things Considered remains relatively the same.
So, a simple reading of this post shows a demonstrable reduction in local content on WBFO. When I voiced my objection to this last May, I received what I interpreted as “a less is more” response that the station is now concentrating on issues important to its listeners. So be it! WBFO is no longer meeting my needs. And, anecdottally, I’ve heard of others who have complained and/or withdrawn their contributions. But you can’t draw conclusions from anecdotal evidence. So, will overall fundraising be affected? That remains to be seen. As I’ve stated previously, I think the average WBFO listener is probably happy in that they’re getting NPR and some local content.
Of course, WBFO added Buffalo What’s Next, a daily one-hour program, in response to the May 14th mass shooting In Buffalo. So, a counter argument could be made that WBFO made a trade-off by reducing hourly newscasts and local content during the news magazines so that it can concentrate on the daily one-hour show dedicated to a very important issue. Fair enough! I would argue, though, both can be done as evidenced by other public stations, including Rochester’s WXXI.
If assume because WBFO is a mess/information station yet provided no news or information for a few days about a big local story. Although it would be nice for them to provide coverage I don’t think listeners have similar expectations for a music station during a big news story.
The only people criticizing WBFO are former station employees and others in this forum. The storm landed on Friday December 23 and continued through the holiday weekend. It's inexplicable that residents did not know about the dire forecast early in the week(unless they completely ignore all media). The same people who are blasting station management find it acceptable that a local TV station aired a Bills football game instead of doing storm coverage. Talk about hypocrisy.
WBFO does not restore electricity to homes that lost power and cannot assist stranded motorists in a Blizzard. The folks that were hunkered down at home were likely watching Christmas movies and no desire to hear about the horrendous weather conditions. All they had to do was look out the window to see the obvious.
It's accurate to say that WBFO has decreased its local content somewhat, but they have not abandoned it. It should be noted they are covering the issue of systemic racism. That seems more important than a Blizzard. Unfortunately, it's a subject that many would rather ignore...
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False equivalency in your argument. No hypocrisy here. From 1 to 4pm on Saturdays (the time slot in which the Christmas Eve Bills game aired), WIVB does not provide live news coverage. But when their regularly scheduled casts aired at 6, 10 and 11pm, WIVB was all over the story. No one in this long thread is suggesting that WBFO should have offered 24 hour coverage like WBEN. But in its regularly scheduled news programs (Weekend Edition and All Things Considered), THERE WAS NOTHING! If you brand yourself a news station (and WBFO has said so especially during fundraising pitches), you should be covering the second biggest news story of the year in Buffalo AS IT‘S HAPPENING. Period! Even a news staff consisting of part-timers, student interns and volunteers covered the Blizzard of ‘85 for WBFO 38 years ago.
By arguing people knew in advance just how dangerous the storm would be, and that they could just look out the window to see how bad it was, are you arguing other news operations should have ignored the storm, too? Why give WBFO a pass when others were stepping up? Traditionally, one or two stations will air a pre-produced news program at 11pm on Christmas Eve, giving their staffs a brief holiday break. Not this year. They all covered the storm that night.
I give WBFO high marks for its daily one hour show. Racial issues need to be discussed. Good for them! But this blizzard killed 47 people. If you don’t think that’s important enough to cover as it’s happening, then I guess I have nothing more to say!
So, it would appear that storm coverage was available on many sources for those who wanted it. You just seem annoyed that WBFO chose to give the staff the holiday weekend off. The average WBFO listener may not share your outrage. They are educated enough to know that it was Christmas weekend and they knew a very bad storm had been forecast.
It's truly unfortunate that so many people died. All of the outlets that covered the storm while it was happening didn't prevent these deaths or allow first responders to overcome the impossible conditions. Other posters here have said "Snowstorms are no big deal" in Buffalo. Maybe being so cavalier about a Blizzard forecast days BEFORE it hits isn't very smart...
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I agree with all of your points, except that the station tried to add the daily show without adding any staff or funding. That's what they said in the article I posted earlier in this thread. So it's a function of resources. WXXI is heritage station that has been doing the same thing for a long time, and they've figured out funding and staffing. WBFO is still trying to work that out. A daily 1-hour local show eats up resources. They have to decide if continuing it is worth it, or if they should go back to what they did before May. They will do it in consultation with their board and their listeners.
Here's what the station said:
It occurred to me that I too have reduced Time Spent Listening to WBFO. After doing a one person focus group self-evaluation, I found the primary cause to be information-overload. ("The Trump effect," which psychologists and historians have posited is exactly what politicians hope will happen; the electorate will be so worn out that they throw up their hands and not pay attention.) I have read that on a national level, countless others feel that listening to (or watching) the constant drumbeat of bad news and conflict has worn them out, although the feeling wanes come election season and they're re-energized.Mark1981 said:
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