What Happened To "The News Station"?

[News1360]

Back in 1994, when I lived in Savannah Georgia, I tuned to one of my radio stations to discover it changed its format from Country to All-News (My favorite). This would be the 4th (and perhaps the last) time in my ex-hometown that one of these stations would have this format, which in Savannah only has a life span of nearly two years. The all-news service for WCHY-AM 1290 (now WTKS) was AP Radio also know as "The News Station". WCHY dropped it in 1996 in favor of going back to Counrty, then Pre-Teen (1998-2002), and now to this day, News-Talk. But I did hear this format on other stations at night and on the internet before Yahoo.Com dropped radio webcasting.
When I moved here to Dacula (41 miles northeast of Alanta) in 2004, I got a chance to hear again on WDUN-AM 550 in nearby Gainesville. Only I had to hear
from 4:00-5:00 a.m. But four months into the new year of 2005, the station began airing encores of "The Dave Ramsey Show" (later replaced with "Duke & The Dr.") from SRN. Since then, I haven't heard from "The News Station". Did it went "belly up"?

 

[fred flintstone]

The AP discontinued their all news feed last year.
It is still possible for stations to cobble together an all news format using AP newscasts and features. And some stations have used the audio from CNN Headlines News, although Headline News is no longer an all news channel.
The all news format is dying - even in large markets which can afford to produce it and have a large enough potential cume to overcome short TSL. Even here, stations have "dumbed down" the all news format and gone to talk, play by play sports or other programming in off-hours.

 

[ixnay]

The AP discontinued their all news feed last year.
It is still possible for stations to cobble together an all news format using AP newscasts and features. And some stations have used the audio from CNN Headlines News, although Headline News is no longer an all news channel.
The all news format is dying - even in large markets which can afford to produce it and have a large enough potential cume to overcome short TSL. Even here, stations have "dumbed down" the all news format and gone to talk, play by play sports or other programming in off-hours.

IIRC AP's feed was carried by 1590 (I forget the calls) Ocean City, MD in the summer of 2003. By the summer of 2004 1590 had flipped.

Fred (or anyone), 2 questions: 1) Why did AP kill its all news feed? and 2) Just what is killing the all-news format? Is what you are using right this moment (the internet) a factor?

ixnay

 

[radionut925]

The AP discontinued their all news feed last year.
It is still possible for stations to cobble together an all news format using AP newscasts and features. And some stations have used the audio from CNN Headlines News, although Headline News is no longer an all news channel.
The all news format is dying - even in large markets which can afford to produce it and have a large enough potential cume to overcome short TSL. Even here, stations have "dumbed down" the all news format and gone to talk, play by play sports or other programming in off-hours.

IIRC AP's feed was carried by 1590 (I forget the calls) Ocean City, MD in the summer of 2003. By the summer of 2004 1590 had flipped.

Fred (or anyone), 2 questions: 1) Why did AP kill its all news feed? and 2) Just what is killing the all-news format? Is what you are using right this moment (the internet) a factor?

ixnay

It's not just the all-news format that's in decline. True radio journalism in general is now a rarity, mostly thanks to consolidation. Most people struggle just to find any radio station or group anywhere with anything close to resembling a true news department. Yet, many of those companies care more about keeping their finances in the black, and pleasing every analyst on Wall Street than about giving the listeners what they want.

For more perspective on this issue, check out the following links listed below:

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/narrative_daymedia_radio.asp?cat=9&media=2

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/printable_radio_chapter.asp?media=1&cat=1

 

[gr8oldies]

If the audience truly wanted a lot of local news, it would be there. It wasn't 1996 that dismantled the idea of every station having a full news department..those rules were changed in the late 70s.

 

[fred flintstone]

AP did not have enough clients for the all news feed.

Why is all news in decline? There never were that many all news stations to begin with. The only stations to pull it off have been the CBS Radio (including former Group W) stations plus WTOP in Washington (which follows the CBS format and is affiliated with but not owned by CBS). Two attempts have been made to offer a syndicated all news format to bring costs down for smaller markets: NBC News and Information Service and AP All News Radio. Both still required stations to maintain local news operations. Both failed to address the basic problem: You need a huge cume (number of listeners) to make up for the short TSL (time spent listening) to show decent numbers. And you can only get a huge cume with a large population. Talk can get better numbers because people listen longer.

A successful all news operation has not launched in more than 30 years. The heritage all news operations keep going on intertia but their share numbers and market positions are not what they were. Many of the news stations are no longer all news since they have introduced other programming in the off-hours (and sometimes not in the off-hours; WCBS Newsradio 88 could not cover the crash of the Staten Island Ferry in PM drive because they were contractually obligated to carry a Yankee game). Some stations which label themselves as "news stations" do run news in morning and some even in afternoon drive but are mostly talk; since talk radio is often about news, they still claim to be a "news" station (apparently talking about news is the same as news).

And, yes, local radio news has become terrible:
Sound bites are more important than good writing.
Appearing to cover news is more important than actually covering news.
Local news consists of:
- Wire copy/press release plus telephone interview sound bite.
- Wire copy/press release live shots when nothing is happening.
- Man on the street interviews (talk radio by sound bite)
- "Community affairs" puff pieces; PSAs passed off as news stories.
- And stories lifted right out of the newspaper (talking newspaper for the blind)

All news rado, like radio news in general, has made itself irrelevant where it used to be essential.

 

[CanadaRadioDude]

The key to the modern all-news format is not the news but rather the elements in the hour that drive tuning... namely traffic & weather.

The success of 680 News in Toronto is driven mainly by traffic and weather together every ten minutes. That's the meat and potatoes of the format really -- the news is important too, but it needs to stand out from the stodgy sound of other stations in the market. Listen to the writing on 680 -- much different from the parochial tone of CFRB and CBC.

The news needs to pop -- and needs to be local. Syndicated services like the old AP service, IMHO, are the antithesis of the format. You can't buy your way in to all-news like you can with satellite AC or Oldies. You need to be willing to put the cash up front for a decent sized news room, a strong street presence, and an on-air team that can deliver the product with some snap.

I don't think it's a huge shame if more stations aren't in the format if they're not able to do the format well.

 

[radionut925]

If the audience truly wanted a lot of local news, it would be there. It wasn't 1996 that dismantled the idea of every station having a full news department..those rules were changed in the late 70s.

You have to give the "audience" a reason to not only want to listen to local radio news, but also to justify the expense of even having a live, local morning talk show, much less a full-fledged news department. There has to be a better way of covering local news on the radio than partnering with a TV station or newspaper. Plus, deregulation and consolidation reduced that so-called audience to the point where that reason has been eliminated for the most part. Like it or not, the radio stations that hang around in the years to come will have that local commitment, and not rely almost entirely on a computer and/or satellite dish to get by on an average broadcast day.