What is going on with wsb morning news ?

[Cave Man 77]

I am a big fan of Scott Slade and company on WSB Radio. HOWEVER, has anyone noticed that they are
RUSHING through stories, so that they can cram in a "quota" or a given number of stories in any given
15 minute segment ? It is becoming very annoying to hear them run through these stories, devoting only about 20 seconds to each item. What's the rush, WSB ? There are times when the anchor is running so fast that the stories are totally unclear. Is someone "consulting" with WSB telling them to cram in all this stuff....
traffic team included. I travel a lot, and have heard stations like KSL in Salt Lake City, WINS New York,
WTOP Washington....etc etc...and NO one is rushing through the material like WSB. Leave off two stories in a given segment, and SLOW DOWN folks....! No need to have a contest to see how many items you can cram
into the program.

 

[max100]

I agree, they rush through everything and is quite exhausting to even listen to, especially traffic and weather...

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

When I moved to the Atlanta area 16 years ago, I knew of WSB and had listened to them via night time sky-wave off and on for years so it was like arriving in "The Promised Land" to have them a s MY LOCAL STATION. Within two years I ran out of breath trying to keep up with their head-banging pace. I haven't been listening lately to the morning, but I assume it has become even more compressed, fast-paced and intense than ever.

So, for a few years WDUN in Gainesville became my morning habit. Maybe I have just grown too old and my brain doesn't run as fast as it once did, but eventually listening the them became a little bit like that small town past-time for teens: take a log chain and hook up a barn door or a piece of metal roofing and drag it through the streets behind pick-up with passengers hanging on for dear life.

Then WDUN became rather overtly political as well as speeding up their pace.

That's when I discovered WABE and NPR.

 

[BarryATL]

I, too, have found WABE. Their morning show and evening drive shows are much more at a pace I feel comfortable with. The stories are more than three sentences. I found the local (state wide) show on GPB Radio at 9:00 AM is good too.

Basically, I just want a little more debth.

 

[jabba17]

If you're in the northeastern metro ATL, the Brenau college station WBCX 89.1 carries news from the Beeb.

(that's the BBC, not Justin).

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Speaking of WABE, a show I really enjoy is the evening version of Marketplace at 6:30. Informative and easy to listen to. Kai Ryssdal is a perfect host for that show.

 

[CaveMan77]

Also regarding WSB: I know how difficult it is to hire weekend part time news anchors, but this guy TIM BRYANT...has gotta go. He will not stop between stories, he sounds like he is trying to see if he can squeeze in just one more....He is their anchor on Saturdays, and WSB would be better keeping him off the air... It is so difficult to understand where one story begins and the other ends. He is probably the worst anchor on WSB (or in Atlanta, for that matter). Can't WSB do better than this guy ? Mary Ellen Hopkins, who they hired recently (a former CNN Radio person) is really good. She is anchoring their Sunday morning news, and you can UNDERSTAND HER. Come on, WSB, You can do better than Tim Bryant......!

 

[AMFMRadFan]

Also regarding WSB: I know how difficult it is to hire weekend part time news anchors, but this guy TIM BRYANT...has gotta go. He will not stop between stories, he sounds like he is trying to see if he can squeeze in just one more....He is their anchor on Saturdays, and WSB would be better keeping him off the air... It is so difficult to understand where one story begins and the other ends. He is probably the worst anchor on WSB (or in Atlanta, for that matter). Can't WSB do better than this guy ? Mary Ellen Hopkins, who they hired recently (a former CNN Radio person) is really good. She is anchoring their Sunday morning news, and you can UNDERSTAND HER. Come on, WSB, You can do better than Tim Bryant......!

Tim Bryant isn't going anywhere. In addition to anchoring Saturday mornings on WSB-AM/WSBB-FM, he is a co-host to the GNN (GA News Network) morning news show Georgia's Morning News, and he co-hosts the show during the week with Katie Andrew on the show's flagship 98.7 FM/AM 1340 FOX News Radio WGAU-AM/W254CJ-FM, another Cox Media Group station in Athens. During Georgia's Morning News, Tim also does the newscasts during Moby in the Morning on North Georgia Country 106.1 FM WNGC. Tim even goes the extra mile to host a newsmakers show called Newsmakers with Tim Bryant. He hosts this show solo during the week, and this show is only on FOX News Radio WGAU-AM/W254CJ-FM weekday mornings 9AM-10AM right after Georgia's Morning News which is on 6AM-9AM.

After listening to Georgia's Morning News a couple of times, I find myself liking Katie Andrew more than I do Tim Bryant. Tim is okay, but there are times when he is out of line. There was a time when he missed up on a severe weather alert which I mentioned this in a previous thread. Please see quote below.

On a Saturday morning, I was listening to The Lawn & Garden Show with Walter Reeves. Tim Bryant was anchoring the newscasts like he usually does every Saturday morning & early afternoon, and WSB-TV Channel 2 meteorologist Brad Nitz was covering for Kirk Mellish. A tornado warning was issued, and Tim Bryant misread it & said it was for all of Cherokee County. Tim didn't even bother reading the alert statement. My parents were home (It was either both my mother & dad or it was just my dad who was home that Saturday morning. I don't remember.) I didn't go to the basement right away because we're not on the full county-by-county alert system anymore. We're on the portions of counties system when it comes to regular severe weather alerts. Cherokee County, I think, is approximately 20 miles wide, and last time I checked, tornadoes cannot get that big. They can only get as big as 2 miles wide. When the tornado warning was issued, WSB-AM/WSBB-FM switched to a temporary audio simulcast of Channel 2 Action News Saturday AM which is standard procedure when Kirk Mellish isn't available. Brad Nitz was of no help. He didn't even mention what portion of the county Cherokee was included in the tornado warning. Eventually, WSB-AM/WSBB-FM was able to track down Kirk. He made it into the radio studio, and then clarified that the tornado warning only applied to the Northern end of Cherokee County. On another note, the only severe weather alerts that are still on a full county-by-county system are severe winter weather alerts.

Tim Bryant would either have to really mess up big time and/or consider retiring in order for him to leave. Anyway, that is all.

 

[trusty]

(I was gonna start a thread about reporters and announcers not sounding ... real, but I'll just throw this in here.)

Anybody ever wonder just where WSB reporter, Jon Lewis, got his delivery? I mean, does he talk that way normally? I can imagine him trying to have dinner conversation or even making love (no, I can't imagine THAT). I'm sure he's a nice guy, but his delivery sounds so fake and doesn't mesh well with the rest of the newscast.

Don't get rid of him, though; he's too entertaining. I never know what he's reporting about - can't get past the delivery.

 

[Unregistered]

What are ya'll smoking?

You must be kidding. Tim Bryant is great. I've been in Atlanta radio since the 70's and Tim is what WSB needs more of. WSB has a couple of other newscasters who sound like they came from Swainsboro, but Tim sounds awake, confident, and he is very good at editing his copy. Not a single word wasted. Now, if you can't follow his inflection to know when the story changed, then I don't know what to say. Why don't you complain about the obvious weak talent that exists there, like the one who says the "forecast is for cloudy", rather than "cloudy skies" or "cloudy conditions" or something that makes sense in English. It used to be that you had to sound as good as Sabrina and Veronica to get on the air at White Columns but that has sadly gone for good.

 

[fbroce]

I wonder if they are speeding it up a little digitally? I know you can adjust a spot a little without it changing the sound too much.
Probably not..just a thought.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

That's done with music, but are stations allowed to do that with a commercial? I thought when you put a 60-second spot in the log, the FCC required that it be 60 seconds. You would also be cheating advertisers who paid for a :60. I realize the pace is fast on that show, but I have a hard time believing they speed up commercials. Maybe I'm naive.

 

[TheBigA]

I thought when you put a 60-second spot in the log, the FCC required that it be 60 seconds. You would also be cheating advertisers who paid for a :60. I realize the pace is fast on that show, but I have a hard time believing they speed up commercials. Maybe I'm naive.

You think the current FCC would check things like that?

But yes, an advertiser is buying time. So if they pay for a :60, that's what they expect.

It's not unusual to speed up content in a :60, but it's usually to cram :65 of copy into a :60 spot.

 

[trusty]

"Boy, that guy must be really accurate. He said it's gonna rain in 5 minutes."

"No, he said he was gonna tell when it's gonna rain in 5 minutes."

"Yeah. That's what I said. It's gonna rain in 5 minutes. I'm getting my umbrella."

"NoNoNo. It's not gonna rain in 5 minutes. He's gonna TELL us when it's gonna rain ... in 5 minutes."

"Yeah - what I said. He said ---"

"It wasn't a forecast; it was a promo."

"A promo? ...to sound like a forecast?"

"Yep."

"What kind of newscast is that?"

"It's WSB. They're the big guys. They can say and do whatever they want ... and they speed up the pace so they can get more of those type of promos in. They're 'hidden' in there."

"Oh, but it sounds so much like ... I mean I can tell when Rush or Hannity slip into a Lifelock commercial - almost sounds like they're continuing to talk about the subject, but you can tell; their delivery changes - just slightly. But these guys at WSB news have got it so fine tuned..."

"You mean like the 'three things I need to know today', and then you don't know when they told you one of them?"

"Yeah... hard to follow."

"It's WSB. They own the news, and they know it."

"What about 106.7?"

"Who?"

"All I know is it's been 5 minuets and not a drop yet."

 

[Unregistered]

Don't say...

They know Who's On First, but don't let them say Susquehanna Hat Company...

 

[kf4rca]

Soft Ad Market

I don't think they're getting what they want for their spots. Have you heard the spot for EMA Inc? Thats got to be a trade-out. There is no mass market for VFD's.
And, no doubt, the market demos are changing.
They also run promos for their news WITHIN their news. Like they couldn't sell the time so they grabbed the closest thing.
As for WSB and the FCC, I've heard (from my former ABC engineer friend) that big stations can do what they want.
When WLS wanted to do something, the FCC said "OK". Sort of the tail wagging the dog thing.
I imagine, with WSB its no different.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Trusty, WABE-FM does the exact same thing. "Marco Rubio will announce his candidacy for president today." Details in 13 minutes on Morning Edition here on WABE. It's a way of increasing TSL.

 

[trusty]

Trusty, WABE-FM does the exact same thing. "Marco Rubio will announce his candidacy for president today." Details in 13 minutes on Morning Edition here on WABE. It's a way of increasing TSL.

Yes, but not the same way. If WSB would say something like "Today's forecast is for rain; details in 5 minutes." That would be clear and understandable. But WSB makes it confusing - especially at such a fast pace.

For instance, the sentence: "I'll let you know when it will rain in 5 minutes," would mean something different if you turned on your radio right after the words "I'll let you know when..." (It's just the proofreader in me that catches certain things.)

Another example: The passenger asks the driver, "What's that in the road ahead?"
OR
"What's that in the road? A head?"

 

[Mike_Rafone]

Trusty,
I like your stuff. I like your point of view.
Just wonder if we could get WIZBEE to answer the question, "When did you guys stoop beating your wives?"

 

[trusty]

Trusty,
I like your stuff. I like your point of view.
Just wonder if we could get WIZBEE to answer the question, "When did you guys stoop beating your wives?"

Well, if they had not married such short women, they would not have had to stoop to beat them.


(Comeon, guys. You're not gonna start feeding me material, are you? Remember, we're all here because we're not all there.)