WBZ Traffic on the :03s

[Silas Hubbard]

..and they wonder why listenership is down... I was driving east on the Mass Pike yesterday evening (Saturday). I noticed many tail lights and stopped cars up ahead, so I turned on WBZ for a traffic report. The time was 6:21, and I figured I would hear the 6:23 report to know if I should get off at the exit just before the jam. When I turned on 'BZ, there was a financial program in progress.

As the financial program took a break for commercials, a bumper proclaimed: "WBZ Newsradio 1030...Weather on the 10s....Traffic on the 3s." I waited. The financial guys came back on. There never was a Traffic Report.

Why run the Bumper Promo proclaiming features one does not deliver? This only serves to further frustrate a listener who doesn't get what he has come to expect.

 

[Deleted User]

the "traffic on the :03's" only pertains to when they are doing the "news" programming.

It has never applied during sat Lovell Dyatts show, Jordan's show, LaVellies, Bruins, etc.

Only when they are doing the news wheel.

BTW dialing 511 on your cell phone gets you traffic reports, and you can hit *4 to report things.

 

[Silas Hubbard]

I know and you know that "traffic on the :03s" is preempted during other programming BUT... promoting it out of news programming seems misleading. Don't you think that this inconsistency irks the regular listener?

 

[raccoonradio]

Indeed it only applies during the news hours. You can tune in at midnight and hear canned Lapierre
saying, "WBZ News time, 12:03. We check traffic EVERY ten minutes on the Subaru..."

Maybe they check it every ten minutes but only report on it at the top and poss. bottom of the
hour during shows like this?

On the magic radio (XM-S) there's a Boston & Philly (shared) traffic and weather channel.

--
On the subject of false advertising, WRKO has Dana Hersey say that every game of the Red
Sox is only on WRKO. Yes, except for Wed. nights, weekday afternoons, etc.! So much for
EVERY game. (They're on WEEI instead) "Every pitch...every catch...and every hit of the Red Sox
are ONLY on WRKO..."

The first three games of this season were all on "WRKO AM 850" (kidding!) I guess

There are weird situations where you have WEEI, the flagship station of the Celtics, doing the Red Sox,
and WRKO, the flagship station of the Sox, with the Celtics. That's consistent!

 

[BoscoGoldBear]

I had thought that after the 2nd period of the B's Easter Sunday game vs. the Islanders (the day of the Pike meltdown) that 'BZ would at least cut in with a traffic report. But NO! Just all this unnecessary talk about how the B's would fare against the Canadiens. For the record, I was driving home on Route 3 North from Pembroke in a long 30 mile traffic jam which, looking back, appears to be directly related to the Pike fiasco. No, I wasn't even thinking about 511 as an option (my bad). When you have WRKO and WTKK as basically infomercial stations on Sundays plus WEEI's sports chatter, you have to wonder if there's anyone home in any of those radio combos. We'd at least like some traffic info, please, especially given Boston's well-earned reputation as the worst area for traffic!

 

[WFNERBSHX]

Prior to his "hiatus", LeVeile would throw it to traffic at :33 during his shift. That did not come back with him when he regained the overnight shift in February. Instead, 'BZ goes to the CBS News Update at :31.

 

[raccoonradio]

Tonight WBZ did have a bit of a "bulletin" a couple times during the Bruins game about the arrest of the suspect in the "Craigslist Murder"; not a full newscast of course but at least they got the info out, etc. WRKO (via Fox)
and WTKK also had the breaking news.