• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Why are local morning news shows so bad?

And a news-heavy program wouldn't have the appeal that the fluff heavy show has.

So true. Many a person doesn't care to wake up first thing to heavy news. Yes, the crimes, fires and such will be prominently featured, but more balanced with "fluff" because--not shockingly--some people want to at least try to start their days off on a somewhat more positive note.
 
I might be the odd man but I would prefer the morning news concentrate on what is important to me (as much as possible). That means, for those still in the workforce, traffic and weather and business news (including significant impact to the average person's 401(k)'s etc.). Important political news (not the constant BS we continue to get which is not verifiable or op-ed pieces) and significant foreign news (as it affects the average American).

This will naturally exclude anything out of Hollyweird, movie reviews and ambulance-chasing attorney stories. Automobile collisions but only if they impact the commute.

Save the red carpet pieces for afternoon fluff shows and, above all, DO NOT tease me with incomplete stories "to be continued" at 5, 6 and 10.
 
If it were programmed for me, I'd choose much the same. I could do without ever--morning, noon or night--having "celebrity" news and "what's trending" type pieces. But no one is programming just for me or what I would estimate to be a (relatively) small number of people like me--because I'm also not in the most-desired audience for the real people who pay the bills.

So it goes. I can get a god chunk of what I need out of what exists, and the pieces that I don't care for, I let roll off my back and move on, and I pull in other pieces of information from other sources when I want it.
 
Never been a network morning show watcher but as a Noo Yawk resident back in the late 60's and early 70's I do remember who started the so-called "Happy News" in the evenings - WABC-TV
 
Local morning shows are bad because they don't have resources to put together a news-heavy program. Most stations assign one or two field reporters to the morning shift. Because there often isn't a lot going on before 7am, those reporters get stuck on the crime beat. When you're standing up in front of a gas station that was robbed at 2am, what new is there to say on your eighth "live report" at 6:30am?

Well in Los Angeles most of the crime scenes that air on the morning news comes from stringer services like "OnScene" also in other parts of the country the crime scenes that make the news comes from people posting alleged shootings on Youtube after law enforcement verify the location and suspects are of the incident.
 
Never been a network morning show watcher but as a Noo Yawk resident back in the late 60's and early 70's I do remember who started the so-called "Happy News" in the evenings - WABC-TV

I had read in the past that it was WABC who first did the "happy news" thing however if one goes to Western New York no trouble finding folks who will say it was actually Irv Weinstein & Rick Azar on Buffalo's WKBW-TV back in the mid 60s who first did happy talk..OR down in Philly why it was Tom Snyder on KYW. Many years ago on another website I had got into it with some family member of Jerry Turner's who made the "claim" that it was Jerry Turner and Al Sanders who "developed" the happy news talk format on Baltimore's WJZ and was soon copied by TV stations nationwide. Guess it must be a "community pride" thing or whatever since here in Denver I still hear stories about "Fred and Faye". While it was true that they were in the first TV image from Colorado back in 1952 when KFEL ( now KWGN ) first hit the airwaves but I doubt that Faye was the first pregnant woman to be shown on TV and that they too did a "happy news" morning show on KBTV ( now KUSA ) in the mid 1950s. Have proof there will always be those who won't buy it Now going back to "fluff" I did see an old newscast from Denver's KLZ-TV ( now KMGH ) some years back and part of that newscast was about Elvis Presley getting his draft notice. The newscast was from the mid to late 1950's. I guess fluff had always been around in one form or another.
 
Last edited:
The newscast was from the mid to late 1950's. I guess fluff had always been around in one form or another.

Certainly some credit has to be given to NBC's Today Show, which began in 1952. It was perfected by Frank Magid, who was involved with Good Morning America. Magid turned it into a formula that he sold to any TV station that would buy it.
 
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/news-archives/video-vault-the-morning-exchange-debuted-42-years-ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morning_Exchange

If you are wondering who started the fluff in the morning shows its WEWS in Cleveland they provided the framework that ABC O&O's used for AM Los Angeles and AM Chicago. Also Good Morning America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96q22YEwHk

and its competitors like KTLA and WGN responding to their versions of the morning News/talk shows in their respective DMA's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTLA_Morning_News

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGN_Morning_News
 
While it was true that they were in the first TV image from Colorado back in 1952 when KFEL ( now KWGN ) first hit the airwaves but I doubt that Faye was the first pregnant woman to be shown on TV and that they too did a "happy news" morning show on KBTV ( now KUSA ) in the mid 1950s.

I was referencing the beginning of "happy news" during the normally much more serious evening news.

Now going back to "fluff" I did see an old newscast from Denver's KLZ-TV ( now KMGH ) some years back and part of that newscast was about Elvis Presley getting his draft notice. The newscast was from the mid to late 1950's. I guess fluff had always been around in one form or another.

Back in the 50's the "celebrity" news was mostly in the form of newspaper columns such as Hedda Hopper and the like. I don't remember seeing much, if anything, on TV. Elvis would not have been considered "fluff" back then. He was not followed by electronic media that much (real news, not publicity features) - most articles about Elvis and peers were in print media. Elvis was drafted December 20, 1957 at the very peak of his early career. That he was being treated as equally as any other draft eligible person was big news. And comparing him with current "celebrities" who are known for nothing except being famous, I also do not remember him doing anything to self-publicize himself.
 
I also do not remember him doing anything to self-publicize himself.

He was stationed in Germany, and the media then wasn't as mobile. But Colonel Tom Parker did as much as he could to keep his meal ticket relevant and on the radio during that time. RCA managed to release about 20 singles and four Golden Hits albums while he was in the Army. He more than made up for his absence when he returned, recording some of his biggest hits, and moving to Hollywood for a movie career. BTW while in Germany, Elvis began dating a then-14 year old girl, who 7 years later became his wife. It was also when he became addicted to drugs. But the public wouldn't learn about either until many years later.
 
I had read in the past that it was WABC who first did the "happy news" thing however if one goes to Western New York no trouble finding folks who will say it was actually Irv Weinstein & Rick Azar on Buffalo's WKBW-TV back in the mid 60s who first did happy talk..OR down in Philly why it was Tom Snyder on KYW. Many years ago on another website I had got into it with some family member of Jerry Turner's who made the "claim" that it was Jerry Turner and Al Sanders who "developed" the happy news talk format on Baltimore's WJZ and was soon copied by TV stations nationwide. Guess it must be a "community pride" thing or whatever since here in Denver I still hear stories about "Fred and Faye". While it was true that they were in the first TV image from Colorado back in 1952 when KFEL ( now KWGN ) first hit the airwaves but I doubt that Faye was the first pregnant woman to be shown on TV and that they too did a "happy news" morning show on KBTV ( now KUSA ) in the mid 1950s. Have proof there will always be those who won't buy it Now going back to "fluff" I did see an old newscast from Denver's KLZ-TV ( now KMGH ) some years back and part of that newscast was about Elvis Presley getting his draft notice. The newscast was from the mid to late 1950's. I guess fluff had always been around in one form or another.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbuOOkP4v0g Even in other countries there's fluff in newscasts as in this Philippine news clip 12:57 because that generate ratings in that area after all the crime and politics stories have been cleared. The audience wants those stories to end their day too.

https://fsrn.org/2016/11/fsrn-weekly-edition-november-25-2016/
https://fsrn.org/2016/11/fsrn-weekly-edition-november-18-2016/

If you want only hard news no fluff we have this Free Speech Radio News

https://www.revealnews.org/

and we have PRX Reveal podcast for those of you wondering what that is its an audio documentary.
https://www.propublica.org/

also this propublica

https://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures also Journeyman pictures. the only question here is how many of us actually go to these places or that willing to only listen to hard news.

https://www.democracynow.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealNews

http://therealnews.com/t2/#newsletter1

https://www.youtube.com/user/wearechange
 
4:30am is basically the universal time for morning news in any market from 1-100 or so. We only have one station out of three with 4:30am news, but most markets have all their stations start at 4:30. Nashville has stations that start at 4am.
 
Do they also universally switch sub-formats as the morning hours twinkle by? The theme seems to be weather, news and traffic early slowly giving way to less weather, less traffic and local news then at 9 local switch to fluff, TMZ, "womens stories" and cooking.
 
In our market, they are mostly weather/news/traffic non-stop. I've seen four weather reports in one half hour. A couple of the stations check sports once an hour in the morning. The Fox and CBS (on Bounce TV) are on after 7. Fox gets progressively softer, but the Fox news (done by the ABC) is actually harder than the usual Fox morning newscast.
 
It's not just the morning news. Evening news sucks too. The death of Alan Thicke got Top Billing on Tribune's FOX 61 News at 10 ere in Hartford last night over a local story where one was killed in motor vehicle crash with fire truck. And all 4 s local news channels are making a big deal about how cold it's going to be on Thursday and Friday. Granted we have had some warm weather in December in the past, why wouldn't it be cold in December in Connecticut?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom