R
Radio1360
Guest
When news break out in Atlanta and elsewere, which radio station (AM or FM) is the best and worst in keeping us informed?
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BarryATL said:WSB-AM .... They are the only ones with a 24 hr news staff and they pull from the resources of CNN and WSB-TV.
The worst? Definitely WGST.
Yes we can all recall that Saturday that the shooter was mowing down Atlanta with bullets.... WSB was wall-to-wall with coverage and WGST refused to break away from the "Best of Rush"...
W
Windreader
Guest
Pretty lame question really. If you're all that keen on hearing a steady diet of apartment fires, neighborhood domestic disputes and traffic mishaps, then WSB is the place to tune your dial. I can listen to that station's news for days on end and never hear anything of benefit to me. It's a news model that's been outdated for 25 years, but it requires no creativity to chase ambulances and police cars, and as long as "Action News" is leading the department by the nose it won't change.
And since just about every other station in town has pulled the plug on any serious news gathering, WSB wins by default... not because they're actually any good. The place is stale as last week's cigar, but no one is pushing them.
And since just about every other station in town has pulled the plug on any serious news gathering, WSB wins by default... not because they're actually any good. The place is stale as last week's cigar, but no one is pushing them.
Windreader said:Pretty lame question really. If you're all that keen on hearing a steady diet of apartment fires, neighborhood domestic disputes and traffic mishaps, then WSB is the place to tune your dial. I can listen to that station's news for days on end and never hear anything of benefit to me. It's a news model that's been outdated for 25 years, but it requires no creativity to chase ambulances and police cars, and as long as "Action News" is leading the department by the nose it won't change.
And since just about every other station in town has pulled the plug on any serious news gathering, WSB wins by default... not because they're actually any good. The place is stale as last week's cigar, but no one is pushing them.
If you're not hearing anything of benefit, then you're not listening.
WSB has done feature series on such non-beneficial topics as how the state is not ready for a pandemic, the scams that police are aware of but the public has not heard about, a revisit of New Orleans and the Katrina evacuees who have settled in Atlanta, the possible link between autism and vaccines, long term unemployment (did you know that for every person out of work who only has a high school diploma, there's someone in Georgia out of work with a Masters' Degree? The ratio is 1:1. amazing, isn't it?), and long term effects of the Ford and GM closings on metro Atlanta (and how 8000 specially trained auto workers now have to find jobs outside of their narrow experience).
If you think it's only fires and murders, they're a large part of what happens in this city. The shooting, by police, of an 88 year old woman has drawn national attention. A firefighter, the father of 4 young children, dies in a Thanksgiving Day house fire. Those are news stories. If you want to benefit from them, then contribute to the fund for the firefighter's family. Or ask questions about the killing of Kathryn Johnston so that similar incidents are avoided.
And as for whether they're actually any good? Try listening when there's a story that impacts the metro Atlanta area and see if anyone, radio or TV, does a better job. WSB was tops with Brian Nichols. They were wall to wall with Mark Barton (and might have helped capture him), and they're tops with EVERY Levi's Call (including the one in Gordon County where the guy kidnapped his daughters after murdering his in-laws. The couple that spotted him and called police heard the report on WSB).
Benefit? Helping catch a killer isn't beneficial to you?
W
Windreader
Guest
Even a blind pig will root up an acorn occasionally. But on a daily basis, what passes for "local news" is a big waste of time. When's the last time Richard Sangster covered anything of substance ("I've seen a lot of apartment fires, Scott, but never anything like this")?
As I said, WSB by default. But not because they're doing anything terribly innovative. All the competition just dropped out of the game
As I said, WSB by default. But not because they're doing anything terribly innovative. All the competition just dropped out of the game
K
Knowsnews2
Guest
This morning he reported on the Smyrna police department's new cyber crimes unit making their first arrest.
A 26 year old who was sending his 14 chat partner photos of himself performing sex acts. Of course, the 14 year old was a police officer.
As a parent, I'm glad Smyrna is now doing this. As a listener, I didn't know it until I heard it this morning.
As for what Sangster has done, over the past week the news has been the Kathryn Johnston shooting. He reported on the officers records, the ballistics showing she fired only one round, and the possibility of a doctored search warrant (he was the only reporter with that info).
You are quick to criticize, but very reluctant to correct. What type of news is of benefit for you? Since that seems to be your criteria.
A 26 year old who was sending his 14 chat partner photos of himself performing sex acts. Of course, the 14 year old was a police officer.
As a parent, I'm glad Smyrna is now doing this. As a listener, I didn't know it until I heard it this morning.
As for what Sangster has done, over the past week the news has been the Kathryn Johnston shooting. He reported on the officers records, the ballistics showing she fired only one round, and the possibility of a doctored search warrant (he was the only reporter with that info).
You are quick to criticize, but very reluctant to correct. What type of news is of benefit for you? Since that seems to be your criteria.
W
Windreader
Guest
I simply answered the question that was posed, but pointed out that finishing first in a race of one is hardly anything to crow about. One of the many reasons radio news is drying up all over the country is the availability of scores of alternate news sources. I don't have to suffer in real time through some one else's idea of what's important when I can log onto the internet, filter out the junk and use the few minutes I have to update the stories that are meaningful to me... that includes personal health, legal issues, events that are going on that might have an impact on my daily schedule even if it might cause a traffic jam, things that affect my income or retirement, the quality of the air or water. My criticism is even more appropriate on a grander scale for television news, which has become almost a parody of itself. It's painful to watch, and I don't, unless someone chains me to a chair. Yep, you're right. It's all about me, but I don't apologize about that.
Let me use a couple of the examples already mentioned... Today's top story. Smyrna finally catches up with other police departments and discovers cyber crime. Peachtree City has had an active gotcha squad for quite some time. These busts have become sexy headlines, like "home invasions", despite the fact that their overall impact is next to zero. Is there some reason anybody outside of Smyrna should be interested? How about Levi's call? For every incident that turns out to be serious, how many are nothing more than a domestic custody squabble? Is anyone keeping records on this? Is (pick a name)'s law another one of those high publicity issues that politicians use to get votes or are these statute's really working?
Every news department in every city that had hurricane refugees did followups after Katrina. What's so clever about that? Pretty much a no brainer if you're a news director with a pulse. Ditto the GM and Ford closings. Pandemic? Where is that bird flu anyway? Better to ask if it isn't possible that the CDC and other health officials aren't using scare tactics to ensure their infrastructure and funding. How many thousands of people have been affected by that West Nile menace they were beating us over the head with?
I would expect WSB, with its staff and budget, to stay on top of a once-in-a-decade story like Brian Nichols. To do otherwise would have been negligent. Certainly the Kathryn Johnston story has some traction, and I'm not saying that WSB isn't trying to do a responsible job... just that they need to freshen up their product. Many mornings their "top local story" is nothing more than a traffic accident, a shooting in some trailer park, or a fire that affected at most two dozen people... in a city and state of nine million. Those stories may be significant in a small town but not here. There hasn't been an apartment fire in the history of mankind that I ever needed to know about, and even if my place burned to the ground, I wouldn't expect anyone three streets away to care, except perhaps to wonder what all the sirens were about. Individual crimes, unless there is something unusual or noteworthy about them, are just not attention grabbers anymore. Crime statistics... practical applications ARE. Is downtown or Buckhead really as dangerous as we make it out to be on the nightly news? Or are the media outlets using easy to get police scanner stories (let's face it, those items pretty much fall into their laps) to create the ILLUSION of covering the local news.
Whether the brass at WSB and other traditional news factories want to recognize it or not, local news doesn't necessarily mean an Atlanta date line. The planet has shrunk a bit over the past 25 or 30 years. If it affects people here, it's news... and sometimes that takes a little more effort than picking up the phone and calling Darren Maloney.
Didn't intend to write an op-ed piece. But since you asked.... WSB wins, nobody comes in second. Talk amongst yourselves.
Let me use a couple of the examples already mentioned... Today's top story. Smyrna finally catches up with other police departments and discovers cyber crime. Peachtree City has had an active gotcha squad for quite some time. These busts have become sexy headlines, like "home invasions", despite the fact that their overall impact is next to zero. Is there some reason anybody outside of Smyrna should be interested? How about Levi's call? For every incident that turns out to be serious, how many are nothing more than a domestic custody squabble? Is anyone keeping records on this? Is (pick a name)'s law another one of those high publicity issues that politicians use to get votes or are these statute's really working?
Every news department in every city that had hurricane refugees did followups after Katrina. What's so clever about that? Pretty much a no brainer if you're a news director with a pulse. Ditto the GM and Ford closings. Pandemic? Where is that bird flu anyway? Better to ask if it isn't possible that the CDC and other health officials aren't using scare tactics to ensure their infrastructure and funding. How many thousands of people have been affected by that West Nile menace they were beating us over the head with?
I would expect WSB, with its staff and budget, to stay on top of a once-in-a-decade story like Brian Nichols. To do otherwise would have been negligent. Certainly the Kathryn Johnston story has some traction, and I'm not saying that WSB isn't trying to do a responsible job... just that they need to freshen up their product. Many mornings their "top local story" is nothing more than a traffic accident, a shooting in some trailer park, or a fire that affected at most two dozen people... in a city and state of nine million. Those stories may be significant in a small town but not here. There hasn't been an apartment fire in the history of mankind that I ever needed to know about, and even if my place burned to the ground, I wouldn't expect anyone three streets away to care, except perhaps to wonder what all the sirens were about. Individual crimes, unless there is something unusual or noteworthy about them, are just not attention grabbers anymore. Crime statistics... practical applications ARE. Is downtown or Buckhead really as dangerous as we make it out to be on the nightly news? Or are the media outlets using easy to get police scanner stories (let's face it, those items pretty much fall into their laps) to create the ILLUSION of covering the local news.
Whether the brass at WSB and other traditional news factories want to recognize it or not, local news doesn't necessarily mean an Atlanta date line. The planet has shrunk a bit over the past 25 or 30 years. If it affects people here, it's news... and sometimes that takes a little more effort than picking up the phone and calling Darren Maloney.
Didn't intend to write an op-ed piece. But since you asked.... WSB wins, nobody comes in second. Talk amongst yourselves.
A
Art Sutton
Guest
Windreader said:Even a blind pig will root up an acorn occasionally. But on a daily basis, what passes for "local news" is a big waste of time. When's the last time Richard Sangster covered anything of substance ("I've seen a lot of apartment fires, Scott, but never anything like this")?
As I said, WSB by default. But not because they're doing anything terribly innovative. All the competition just dropped out of the game
I'm 44 years of age and been a WSB fan since I was 10-11 years old. Where I grew up in South Georgia, in order to hear WSB in the daytime, you had to get a really great AM radio and even then the signal wasn't the best.
So, I have followed them since the early 1970s...when they were still pulling huge shares with music on AM and through all the transitions that took them into talk. Granted Atlanta has changed a lot too.
I've mimicked WSB with our own stations.
I'm still a big fan but I think long time WSB Radio Manager Elmo Ellis summed it up best when he was still alive and an ice storm hit Atlanta or threatened Atlanta and many were without power including Elmo. At that time, just about anyone sober in Atlanta was thinking about ...the ice storm...and of course none of the other stations would have anything...that had become pretty much accepted but it was a sobering moment as Elmo wrote that WSB didn't provide any information to their audience except what you might have heard at the top and bottom of the hour and you best listen quickly because if it doesn't fit in the window before they have to go back to a syndicated talk show, you're out of luck. In a weather emergency, things change fast and people are tuning in all the time for the first time. Repeat the information. Then whenever a dark cloud comes up, folks automatically and without thought turn to WSB.
Some of their nighttime and weekend traffic reporters...heck I've even heard some weekend and nighttime newscasters who if you ask me, I sounded better when I was still a high school kid working afternoons on a 1KW sunrise to sunset daytimer on 1540 in Sylvester, GA...and I didn't sound close to good unless I had a bad cold! They can't talk on the air and if anything happens off script, forget it.
It's the best we have and I still am fond of WSB but when you're in the 9th largest market in the nation and there is simply no other radio station providing much of any local news coverage but your station, interrupt the syndicated talk show (usually a repeat) and tell people what they want to hear. With $50 million a year in sales, they can afford to do better.
Most of what I hear outside of Atlanta's morning news is what we used to call lazy news....police incident reports, fire alarms and network material.
Back in WSB's golden years of news, WGST could be relied upon too. I think they always operated on the premise of the best they could hope to be was the second choice but perhaps that made them hustle all the more.
My favorite WSB story was when they had a direct line to the National Weather Service office at Hartsville and several times a day during major news blocks, the forecasters there would give detailed weather information for not just Atlanta but the entire state. It was well done. The WSB announcer would intro the report direct from the weather service office. When NOAA starting building their own NOAA weather radio stations, WSB was told effective such and such date, they would no longer do the live reports. Get it off NOAA weather radio.
It wasn't long before US Senator Herman Talmadge called the cheif at NOAA Atlanta just to let him know how much he enjoyed those reports "your boys" are providing over WSB. " I listen to them every day." The reports continued. When Herman lost after ex wife Betty told about the coats full of cash, the live reports lost too.
This story was told to me by someone who worked at the weather service office.
Art sez: With $50 million a year in sales, they can afford to do better.
Uh, Art, with $50 million a year in sales, they don't need to do any better. Likey they won't, unless someone appears to compete with them.
Uh, Art, with $50 million a year in sales, they don't need to do any better. Likey they won't, unless someone appears to compete with them.
littlejohn said:Art sez: With $50 million a year in sales, they can afford to do better.
Uh, Art, with $50 million a year in sales, they don't need to do any better. Likey they won't, unless someone appears to compete with them.
Good point litlejohn. I loved Art Sutton’s term “Lazy News”. That’s a pretty accurate description of what happens when there is no competition.
The gold standard will always be Denis O’Hayer’s “Sixty at 6”.
I
itburnswhenipee
Guest
Is this REALLY news?
Obviously, WSB AM has more news resources than anybody else. However, like most news organizations, WSB also has a very bizarre definition of what constitutes news.
Richard Sankster will spend 3 minutes describing how some guy stabbed his girlfriend in Rockdale County last night.
How does that story AFFECT YOU, and WHY is that story newsworthy?
Conversely, a story about the Federal Reserve Board raising interest rates would affect you, your family, your future, if you ever get a car loan, own a house, pay a mortgage, or buy groceries (because of the impact of interest rates on inflation).
While Richard Sankster spends 3 minutes on a story that doesn't affect you in any way, WSB will not even mention the interest rate story which has a very direct and profound impact on you as a listener.
Obviously, WSB AM has more news resources than anybody else. However, like most news organizations, WSB also has a very bizarre definition of what constitutes news.
Richard Sankster will spend 3 minutes describing how some guy stabbed his girlfriend in Rockdale County last night.
How does that story AFFECT YOU, and WHY is that story newsworthy?
Conversely, a story about the Federal Reserve Board raising interest rates would affect you, your family, your future, if you ever get a car loan, own a house, pay a mortgage, or buy groceries (because of the impact of interest rates on inflation).
While Richard Sankster spends 3 minutes on a story that doesn't affect you in any way, WSB will not even mention the interest rate story which has a very direct and profound impact on you as a listener.
I listen to WSB very often. Not sure what you are talking about about the Interest rates. Everytime there's movement it seems to be a top story, especially if the Clark Howard show is airing. Actually it seems that the news is catered to the program that is airing at the time. During the Neal Boortz or Sean Hannity show a politcal story is usually the Top Story. During the Clark Howard show many times it will be a story that deals with a financial issue. also notice how Boortz and Clark Howard are never pre-empted by a newscast that goes over time. Same can not be said for Hannity or Savage. Most hours the news cast goes over time.
I think WSB could be much better during weather situations. Mellish is very good but they need more than one weather person over there. Why not make use of WSB talent when Kirk isn't and can't be live. During peak hours when weather gets really bad Mellish is best, but WSB is very poor during severe weather during the night, on weekends, and on Holidays. When WGST could be heard on 105.7 I would always go to them during the off-peak hours if Severe weather was rolling through because someone was always live from the Weather channel.
Do you think WGST would be better and much more competitive if Atlanta wasn't growing and people moving out into the suburbs and leaving the city in droves for said suburbs? I sure think so.
I think WSB could be much better during weather situations. Mellish is very good but they need more than one weather person over there. Why not make use of WSB talent when Kirk isn't and can't be live. During peak hours when weather gets really bad Mellish is best, but WSB is very poor during severe weather during the night, on weekends, and on Holidays. When WGST could be heard on 105.7 I would always go to them during the off-peak hours if Severe weather was rolling through because someone was always live from the Weather channel.
Do you think WGST would be better and much more competitive if Atlanta wasn't growing and people moving out into the suburbs and leaving the city in droves for said suburbs? I sure think so.
Perhaps the news never runs over during Howard and Boortz because those shows originate at WSB
and can be delayed a few seconds on the Atlanta end, with the affiliates never being the wiser if the music bed runs a few seconds long?
and can be delayed a few seconds on the Atlanta end, with the affiliates never being the wiser if the music bed runs a few seconds long?
I don't really like the new WGST. I find the morning show very boring. I never listened to Denny that much I didn't mind him but I guess I didn't listen enough to him for him to annoy me like he did others. I hqave only heard McConnel once not that interested. Dave Ramsey I have listened to a couple of times but I didn't like him. for me it is common sense stuff from what I heard I am sure some people find it useful but not me. To me it is not a great competitor to Clark Howard. Clark seems more entertaining and covers more broader subjects.
smedge2006 said:Perhaps the news never runs over during Howard and Boortz because those shows originate at WSB
and can be delayed a few seconds on the Atlanta end, with the affiliates never being the wiser if the music bed runs a few seconds long?
That was exactly what I was inferring.
>Good point litlejohn. I loved Art Sutton’s term “Lazy News”. That’s a pretty accurate description of what happens when there is no >competition.
Yeh. I remember a programmer on a music oriented station describing the news needed to make the format work in the mornings "Just enough to keep any listener from hearing a surprise at the water cooler when he gets to work". Now the 'news' stations don't even go to that depth.
Yeh. I remember a programmer on a music oriented station describing the news needed to make the format work in the mornings "Just enough to keep any listener from hearing a surprise at the water cooler when he gets to work". Now the 'news' stations don't even go to that depth.
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