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WCBS 880 to have early morning simulcast on WCBS- FM

Nathan Obral said:
That’s the UK. Even in the smallest of small markets in the US, you won’t find a 15-minute long newscast. Those stations don’t even have the personnel to support such a newscast for that length of time.

15-minute long newscasts died with Paul Harvey in 2009.
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Well, BBC Radio 1 was the one station I had in mind when I wrote post #74.

Having wrote that, I'm not sure what gave Audacy the idea to add a 15-minute newscast to WCBS-FM. I doubt that the management of Audacy has ever listened to BBC's Newsbeat.

Regarding Paul Harvey, he was on AM talk radio here in New York, and his presentation of the news was unique.
 
Marcos_C said:
Having wrote that, I'm not sure what gave Audacy the idea to add a 15-minute newscast to WCBS-FM. I doubt that the management of Audacy has ever listened to BBC's Newsbeat.
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Audacy wasn’t thinking. It’s a cheap gimmick that’ll go nowhere fast.
TheBigA said:
It's also non-commercial. Not really comparable to a commercial music format in the US.
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Non-commercial educational stations in the US don’t even do newscasts that long. NPR feeds five-minute newscasts and APM feeds seven-minute Marketplace business reports. (I’m not counting stations that simulcast the audio of PBS NewsHour, by the way.)
 
Marcos_C said:
I just listened to the news simulcast. WCBS Newsradio 880 provided the news for 15 minutes commercial-free.
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When I first saw this story a few weeks ago, the only upside I could see was airing the AM commercials on the higher-rated FM signal. The fact that this simulcast airs commercial free eliminates any possible benefit. If they want to have news before Annie gets in, they can cover all of the important stories in a minute or two without completely breaking format or taking us back to the 1960s.
 
JeremyAndrews said:
I believe the UK has rules that require a certain amount of news. Most stations have a lot of news in the UK. Commercial and Non Commercial.
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That's correct. Not the case here. Which is why this makes no sense.

Having said that, the demos for all news and classic hits are similar, although news is older and more male. Median age for news is 59, while classic hits is 53. It won't help any interest the FM station has for lowering their demos.
 
TheBigA said:
When I first saw this story a few weeks ago, the only upside I could see was airing the AM commercials on the higher-rated FM signal. The fact that this simulcast airs commercial free eliminates any possible benefit.
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However, this news simulcast is scheduled outside of the rated time period between 6:00 am and midnight.
 
gr8oldies said:
Well, not now but I remember some music stations (even CHR) stopping down for 15 minutes of Paul Harvey in the 80s. No, I don't think CBS-FM stopping down for 15 minutes is a good idea
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And it made little sense then; less so now.
Marcos_C said:
However, this news simulcast is scheduled outside of the rated time period between 6:00 am and midnight.
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That doesn't make it a good choice. Or a less bad choice.
 
It's Audacy. A lot of what they do makes little sense. Call it a 15min promotion for WCBS-AM instead of a stopset or music.
 
TheBigA said:
There IS concern about it, but there's nothing they can do. It's the only revenue stream they have, and they've determined that grouping spots together causes less tune-out that running them every few five minutes.
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Why do stations continue to run long commercial breaks even when they don't have the inventory to fill them? I've heard several up here that include one or two PSAs. So why not reduce the length of the break and give the listener a break?
 
CTListener said:
Why do stations continue to run long commercial breaks even when they don't have the inventory to fill them? I've heard several up here that include one or two PSAs. So why not reduce the length of the break and give the listener a break?
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It depends on the station. If they're running syndicated programming, the PSAs are fillers. Another possible reason is budgetary. Running a PSA could be used for tax credit as donating air time for charity purposes.
 
Nathan Obral said:
That’s the UK. Even in the smallest of small markets in the US, you won’t find a 15-minute long newscast. Those stations don’t even have the personnel to support such a newscast for that length of time.
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Sure you will. They're numerous, especially in rural and poorer areas. Just listing a few whose call signs I know off the top of my head. Country WPFL/Century, Fla. has one. Southern Gospel WLJA-FM/Ellijay, GA has one each morning.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Sure you will. They're numerous, especially in rural and poorer areas. Just listing a few whose call signs I know off the top of my head. Country WPFL/Century, Fla. has one. Southern Gospel WLJA-FM/Ellijay, GA has one each morning.
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WCSM-FM in Celina OH still has its noon news/farm/public affairs block that runs until 1pm.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I read somewhere there's still a requirement of public affairs programming which music stations satisfy by putting it on early Sunday.
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Remember back in the good old days when WCBS-FM had a talk show on Sunday morning? It was “Dial-a-log 101” hosted by Al Meredith where he discussed certain topics which was going on in the city, and some guests as well. “Dial-a-log 101” usually came on at 5AM right after Max Kinkel (aka Super Max) where he did the overnights on CBS-FM.
 
That kind of public affairs programming heard on every radio back in the 70s and 80s intrigues me. Were those shows borings? How much audience did they have? Did someone wake up at 4:30AM on a Sunday to listen "Education Roundtable" on WABC-FM?
 
Pop+EDM said:
That kind of public affairs programming heard on every radio back in the 70s and 80s intrigues me. Were those shows borings? How much audience did they have? Did someone wake up at 4:30AM on a Sunday to listen "Education Roundtable" on WABC-FM?
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"Canada Now" on CKLW, produced by the 20-20 News team was pretty good, and had enough U.S. listeners to react when a news staffer (not Byron McGregor) read "The Americans" for the first time---leading to Byron's recording and the rest being history.
 
TheBigA said:
It depends on the station. If they're running syndicated programming, the PSAs are fillers. Another possible reason is budgetary. Running a PSA could be used for tax credit as donating air time for charity purposes.
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A PSA can not be deducted beyond the normal costs of operation of a station. In commercial radio, all costs of operation are "tax deductions" as businesses pay taxes on the difference between costs and income, not on gross income.

For example, if a station incurs expenses in doing a charity fund raising event or broadcast, those expenses, just like toilet paper for the bathrooms and electricity for the transmitter are legitimate business expenses and are what lay people call "tax deductions".
 
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