When Did Each All-News Station Begin?

[Mark Roberts]

In our "how could I have forgotten this?" department: Houston's KEYH came on the air as an all-news station in November 1974, and lasted in the format at least until late 1978 and possibly early 1979, when it flipped to a Spanish-language format. (When I was in Houston in the mid-1980s, KEYH called itself "La Ranchera de la U.S.A." Never let grammar get in the way of a good slogan.) A few of the folks at KTRH during my time there had worked at KEYH during its all-news phase. KEYH was a daytimer, which may have handicapped it somewhat, though Houston is far enough south that the FCC version of sunset never arrives until at least 5:30 pm. I couldn't tell from some research whether KEYH had a network affiliation, but it did carry reports from the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor radio news services.

 

[Gregg.]

After all the suggestions and reminders of stations I missed, I came up with a new list. First is the 12 All-News stations still doing the format to this day. I also have a revised list of former All-News stations. And a list of NIS stations that continued doing the format on their own a few years more.

---Current All-News Stations---
WINS New York ... 1965
KYW Philadelphia ... 1965
WCBS New York ... 1967
KNX Los Angeles ... 1968
WBBM Chicago ... 1968
KCBS San Francisco ... 1968
WTOP Washington (originally 1500 AM, later 103.5 FM) ... 1969
WWJ Detroit ... 1971
KRLD Dallas ... 1978 (in June 2024, switched to AM and PM drive time only)
WBZ Boston ... 1991 (talk shows in evenings)
KSL Salt Lake City ... 1995? (AM and PM drive time only)
KNWN Seattle ... 2002 (with some longer-form news shows on weekends)

---Past All-News Stations---
KFAX San Francisco ... 1960 (ended in 1961)
XETRA Tijuana-Los Angeles ... 1961 (ended in 1968 when KFWB debuted)
KFWB Los Angeles ... 1968 (ended in 2009)
WEEI Boston (on 590 AM) ... 1974 (ended in 1990)
KIRO Seattle ... 1974 (ended in the 1990s, except for AM drive)
KEYH Houston ... 1974 (ended 1978)
WINZ Miami ... 1975 (ended in the 1980s)
WAVA-AM-FM Washington ... 1970s
WCAU Philadelphia ... 1977 (ended in 1980)
KTRH Houston ... 1984 (ended in 1997)
WMAQ Chicago ... 1988 (ended in 1998)
KLIV San Jose ... 1991 (ended in 2016)
KPIX-AM-FM San Francisco ... 1994 (ended in 1995)
KROI Houston ... 2011 (ended in 2014)
WEMP New York ... 2011 (ended in 2012)
WWWN Chicago ... 2011 (ended in 2012)
KGO San Francisco ... 2011 (ended in 2014 - it had previously done AM and PM drive news plus an hour at noon during talk format)
WNEW-FM Washington ... 2012 (ended in 2014)
WYAY Atlanta ... 2012 (switched to mostly talk by 2014)

---NBC's NIS Network---
Beginning in 1975, a few dozen stations aired an all-news format using NBC's News and Information Service (NIS). They included four NBC-owned stations:

97.1 WNWS-FM New York (now WQHT)
101.1 WNIS-FM Chicago (now WKQX)
99.7 KNAI-FM San Francisco (now KMVQ)
980 WRC Washington (now WTEM)

WRC stayed as All-News for a couple of years after the NIS network shut down in 1977. But the other NBC-owned stations, WNWS, WNIS and KNAI, switched to new formats.

A handful of affiliates had been successful with NIS and continued the All-News format on their own. KQV Pittsburgh lasted the longest, 1975 until 2017. But there were also WRR Dallas, WPOP Hartford, WBRE-AM-FM Wilkes-Barre, KYXI Portland OR and WCSH Portland ME, carrying on with an all-news format using local anchors for a few years, even after the demise of NIS.

 

[fybush]

A correction on WBZ: the last of its music went away in 1991, but there was still daytime talk from 10-3 (with an hour of Paul Harvey and local news in the middle at noon) until the fall of 1992 when it finally went all news from 5 AM until 7 PM.

The last midday talk host was Tom Bergeron.

 

[KeithE4]

Phoenix (Dates are approximate)
KPHX 1480 (1972-73): Became Spanish-language, with a few years of liberal talk about 15 years ago. Low power, lower listenership.
KTAR 620 (1973-1978): Aired "Action News," so-called because then-sister station KTAR-TV/12 used that title. Became "toaster-talk"/sports for many years. Now on 92.3 FM (news in AM Drive only, rest of the day local or syndicated talk).
KRUX 1360 (1976-77): Aired NBC's News and Information Service.
KNNS 1360 (1992-94): A futile try at all-news, before switching to sports as KGME.

 

[powers]

I haven't seen anyone write yet about K-News in Los Angeles - Saul Levine had it as a trimulcast on 1260 in the mid-to-late 90s. It was known as KNNS, with simulcast partners KNNZ/540 in Costa Mesa (now off the air) and another 540 in Tijuana, Mexico that I believe just picked up the format but was not owned by Levine. They mostly ran AP News Radio features for national news and the rest was live local LA news items. I kind of liked their top hour ID, which reminded me of a CNN Headline News affiliate I grew up with in Monterey, the late KMFO/1540 - they used a modified music bed of the AP (and CNN) signature music for the legal ID and then segued into the actual news sounder from the network almost seamlessly so to me it sounded very cool.

 

[Gregg.]

I haven't seen anyone write yet about K-News in Los Angeles - Saul Levine had it as a trimulcast on 1260 in the mid-to-late 90s. It was known as KNNS, with simulcast partners KNNZ/540 in Costa Mesa (now off the air) and another 540 in Tijuana.

Yes, there was that one as well. According to Wikipedia, 1260 Los Angeles had the KNNS (K-News) call letters from 1995 to 1997. Trimulcast with 540 KNNZ Costa Mesa and 540 XESURF Tijuana. I've added that to my list of Past All-News Stations.

 

[Huff]

Dallas/Fort Worth
KRLD: final overnight music blocks eliminated Jan. 1983
WRR-AM 1310: Jun 1975-Jun 1978 (NIS affiliate)
KRXV 1540 (Fort Worth): Feb. 1976-Sep. 77 (NIS affiliate)
KTNS 1600 (Plano): Jul. 1985-Jan. 1987
KEWS 94.9: Feb. 1996-Oct. 1996

 

[K.M. Richards]

I haven't seen anyone write yet about K-News in Los Angeles - Saul Levine had it as a trimulcast on 1260 in the mid-to-late 90s.

I should have remembered that. It part of that era which is referred to by many as the "wheel of formats" period.

Someone remind me ... was K-News before or after the all-Beatles format?

 

[Mark Roberts]

After all the suggestions and reminders of stations I missed, I came up with a new list. First is the 12 All-News stations still doing the format to this day. I also have a revised list of former All-News stations. And a list of NIS stations that continued doing the format on their own a few years more.
{...}
---Past All-News Stations---

I thought I had posted about the two St. Louis stations that tried the format, but I don't see that post here now. (It's not the first post of mine that has mysteriously disappeared lately.) So I'll try again in abbreviated form: WIL (now defunct altogether) in 1967 and KSD (now KTRS), which was first news/talk in 1979, then all-news in August 1980, and then going to country in February 1981.

One post that, miraculously, has not disappeared is this one about Kansas City's KUDL, an NIS affiliate that tried to carry on with the format after NIS ended: https://radiodiscussions.com/threads/when-did-each-all-news-station-begin.772346/post-6736960

KCNW only stuck with it for a few months, though.

A handful of affiliates had been successful with NIS and continued the All-News format on their own. KQV Pittsburgh lasted the longest, 1975 until 2017. But there were also WRR Dallas, WPOP Hartford, WBRE-AM-FM Wilkes-Barre, KYXI Portland OR and WCSH Portland ME, carrying on with an all-news format using local anchors for a few years, even after the demise of NIS.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A few dozen stations aired an all-news format beginning in 1975, using NBC's News and Information Service (NIS).

WSOC-AM in Charlotte NC did that, I believe. It was later than 1975, but I think that's the service they used. It was adult contemporary before that.

Once I was listening when they didn't have any news so they played beautiful music briefly.

I'm not sure what they did when they quit, but by 1981 it was what we call "adult standards" today.

 

[vchimpanzee]

CNN Headline News at one point had radio affiliates too until the network itself changed named to HLN and those stations either flipped formats or change affiliations when that happened.

I remember WIOZ in the Fayetteville NC area did that for a while. I got bored. Don't remember why I didn't just switch to music when I was in the area.

 

[K.M. Richards]

WSOC-AM in Charlotte NC did that, I believe. It was later than 1975, but I think that's the service they used.

Probably not. In June 1976, less than a year before NBC pulled the plug on NIS, Broadcasting listed every affiliate of both the NBC television and radio networks, and of NIS. No listing for any NIS affiliate anywhere in North Carolina.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Probably not. In June 1976, less than a year before NBC pulled the plug on NIS, Broadcasting listed every affiliate of both the NBC television and radio networks, and of NIS. No listing for any NIS affiliate anywhere in North Carolina.

Wikipedia says it did, but doesn't give a source.

I do know at the time WSOC-TV was an NBC affiliate and I think WSOC-AM was too.

I don't have access to the Charlotte Observer archives for that era. In the next few weeks I will go to a library that does.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Wikipedia says it did, but doesn't give a source.

Wikipedia? The encyclopedia that anyone can add to, factual or not?

Never trust Wikipedia without independent confirmation of what you read there.

Case in point: I happen to be the only person that was employed for the entire length of time that the ill-fated KKOG-TV in Ventura CA operated (a whopping nine months). Until the station founder passed away several years ago, he and I were the only two who were there on day one and were still there on day 365, continuously. I am therefore the absolute best resource as to what happened there.

A few years ago, I had to practically rewrite the entire Wikipedia article on KKOG-TV because someone had come up with a fantasy scenario and woven it into the content. They even went so far as to state as fact what the 6:00 newscasts would have been named in subsequent years if we had stayed on the air.

I still check it periodically to be sure there hasn't been a repeat performance.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Wikipedia? The encyclopedia that anyone can add to, factual or not?

Never trust Wikipedia without independent confirmation of what you read there.

That's why I go to the library with the Observer archives. I previously corrected the date when WSOC switched to all news, which I got from the Winston-Salem Journal and ... hey, I have access to their archives!

 

[K.M. Richards]

In looking at that Wikipedia article now, it appears that WSOC joined NIS right after that listing in Broadcasting that I linked to. Unfortunate timing on their part since NBC pulled the plug less than a year later (and apparently made the announcement of same a mere three months after they affiliated). I wonder how their management felt about that; I certainly would have accused them of knowing they were failing when they executed the affiliation contract and asked for my money back.

 

[vchimpanzee]

In looking at that Wikipedia article now, it appears that WSOC joined NIS right after that listing in Broadcasting that I linked to. Unfortunate timing on their part since NBC pulled the plug less than a year later (and apparently made the announcement of same a mere three months after they affiliated). I wonder how their management felt about that; I certainly would have accused them of knowing they were failing when they executed the affiliation contract and asked for my money back.

Look at it now. I just edited with the information from the Winston-Salem Journal.

There is a glitch that will prevent you from seeing the Journal article itself but that's not supposed to happen. I checked and others are having problems and complaining.

 

[K.M. Richards]

So they just kept going by adding personnel? Their payroll must have been HUGE.

 

[Gregg.]

WSOC 930 was a long-time NBC Radio affiliate. I remember NBC Radio used a WSOC reporter interviewing a newsmaker on a Charlotte street in a trade magazine ad, demonstrating how good an affiliate it was. And yes, WSOC did use NIS for a time.

I also remember it tried doing all-news on its own. So I've added WSOC to the list of NIS affiliates that continued the news format after the NIS network's cancellation.

I imagine doing it on your own wasn't THAT hard to do. Some NIS affiliates tried to do it on the cheap so they couldn't survive as an all-news station without NIS. But some had decent sized staffs. If you already had anchors in AM, midday and PM who worked around the NIS segments, you just needed them to be on the air a little more. If you had enough features from your network, maybe weather, sports and business reports, it didn't take that much to do the format without NIS.

 

[powers]

Someone remind me ... was K-News before or after the all-Beatles format?

I believe the all-Beatles format came immediately after the demise of the news format.