• 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

WIBC the news leader?

I

indeaugie

Is anyone else upset by the poor or no radio coverage of huge news stories? Yesterday I was in my car wanting active and comprehensive radio news coverage on the Fort Hood massacure. So I tuned into WIBC. And, like so many times before, I got so frustrated while listening to mindless afternoon drive chatter, talk of the economy problems (no new news there!) and marginal traffic and weather reports. And like so many times before, I tuned to Cincinnati's WLW. Today, we were wanting comprehensive news coverage on the Orlando office building shootings and again we had to turn to WLW rather having to wait out the Rush Limbaugh broadcast. I called WIBC while I was sitting in traffic to complain; the nice guy who answered the phone simply thanked me for my input and told me to "have a nice day..."

Am I missing something or are we seriously lacking in comprehensive and credible radio news reporting in Indianapolis? I have been frustrated with this issue and WIBC for years. Again, I still can't believe WIBC is the recipient of a Marconi!!!
 
indeaugie said:
Am I missing something or are we seriously lacking in comprehensive and credible radio news reporting in Indianapolis? I have been frustrated with this issue and WIBC for years. Again, I still can't believe WIBC is the recipient of a Marconi!!!
Click to expand...

How much did the owner of Emmis have to pay for the Marconi?
 
indeaugie said:
Today, we were wanting comprehensive news coverage on the Orlando office building shootings and again we had to turn to WLW rather having to wait out the Rush Limbaugh broadcast.
Click to expand...

You say "we" in this sentence when you say "I" everywhere else.

Who is "we" here? Are you going for the collective "we" to mean all Indy listeners? I think you would be mistaken to do so. Not everyone wanted wall-to-wall coverage on a situation that, albeit tragic, was neither local nor of immediate danger to those in Indianapolis.

Too many people overvalue their own wants and opinions. They assume that what they want is what every listeners wants [or should want] and, thus, what every station should provide. There is a large difference between " I want..." and "Listeners want..."

Of course, it's entirely possible that you meant something else.
 
WIBC is a "News/Talk" station. If they were an all news station, I would have, like you, expected wall to wall coverage as well. But they actually carry more talk than news. Until Indy has a full time news station (Chicago, LA & New York have them, but they are rare below the top tier of markets), WIBC can safely claim the title of News Leader IMHO.
 
I can't comment about WIBC's coverage since I don't live in Indy... but as an NPR-member station news director, I was pleased with NPR's coverage. In the old days, NPR did not do the best job responding to breaking news. That is now changing, thank goodness.

Next time there's a big national story, NPR may be worth a try.
Just my 2 cents!
 
WCBKscott said:
The Big One, and the Nations Station aren't just liners at 700 WLW.
Click to expand...

Even with the economy and cuts WLW is true to it's heritage. News coverage every time a gas station gets robbed in Delhi township.

Randy was a neat guy but always made a clear and decisive point NEVER to make references to "over in Hamilton" for example. "We are always "here" to everyone listening. This means in their car, in their house, or even in their bed if they have big chesty.." Well, you get the point.

Despite the fact that he is gone this tradition lives on. WLW is always "here" "now" and it only took a year of doing this until it took. Despite being a good operation and large the mindset and control of what is on the air has no Randy or someone like him at WIBC. Authoritative, Knowledgeable, Gathers a following, Likable, Determined, get the job done. He's like Jesus. It's hard to find this person despite the trying and effort. And when he does show up someone's going to try and crucify him.
 
There's no demand for a full time all news station in Indy. Nobody will do it anyway because it would cost too much. We do have news/talk 1430. There syndicated shows cover some breaking news except when they are tape delayed.
 
okay how long is left on the Hannity Deal Cumulus Signed away from WXNT that they dealt oiff to WFDM when they killed WWFT is left. because i can see Hannity Jumping ship to a better signal again most likely back to XNT when the deal is up. im Sure Premire isnt really happy being stuck on a rimshot these days when Hannity went from AM to a Clear FM station that dumped out 8 months after getting Hannity. because they new they were doomed trying to go against IBC on FM even if they were there first.
 
WIBC does a nice job of imitating a real radio station but lets face it, they are like alot of other stations, they don't have the budget and since they have no one ready to take them on they don't have to be any better. You only have to be a little better than the other guy and they aren't even trying.
I hope nothing ever happens but if there is ever anything of the magnitude of Ft.Hood in this area there won't be any radio coverage because IBC won't have the staff or the expertise.

Radio is it's own worst enemy here. No staff to speak of, lots of sat and canned programing, why listen. The powers that be then wonder why people go to cable news and the internet.

Most stations seem to excel at imitating IPods.
 
FWIW I was driving through Indianapolis when serious fgloodinfg was occuring a couple ofg years afgo. This was on a Saturday morning and I thought WIBC's wall to wall coverage was great. I'm sure if something like Fort Hood happened in Indianapolis they would do just fine.
 
If I remember correctly, WIBC did have several people on the ground covering the explosion at 69 & 465. And there was live semi-wall to wall coverage with the awful Garrison and tolerable Amber Stearns and callers saying, "I was three cars behind the semi and I saw the fireball. It was unbelievable. Obama sucks!" As a conservative, I still chuckled and rolled my eyes. The live coverage was excellent.

And while I'm on the subject of WIBC, I think we're to the point of no return now that during the Stever's dreadful PM drive show that there are more commercials than actual show. I haven't timed it, but I think it's true. Steve is the best at covering breaking news and taking calls from witnesses, though, hands down.

I miss Dave and Big Joe.
 
gr8oldies said:
FWIW I was driving through Indianapolis when serious fgloodinfg was occuring a couple ofg years afgo. This was on a Saturday morning and I thought WIBC's wall to wall coverage was great. I'm sure if something like Fort Hood happened in Indianapolis they would do just fine.
Click to expand...
I agree. While WIBC may not have a ginormous news staff, the people they do have are willing to drop what they are doing at any hour & produce relevant, compelling radio when serious local breaking news happens (key word = local). They never miss a beat when a Tornado Warning is issue. My radio dial is a better place...no, it's a MUCH better place with WIBC on it.

Dave is a nice guy but I prefer Stever...I think of the TV news spot that channel 6 is running. It shows a fluff story about how to put perfect grill marks on a burger & says that's fine for Food Network. Same deal...inform me, talk to me, let other listeners talk to me, but keep the entertainment low on the priority list...that's not why I'm on WIBC during afternoon drive.
 
Stories like a shooting in Orlando or an attractive woman vanishing in Boston are big stories in those cities, not the entire country. Cable news jumps all over them because they have lots of time to fill and blood, sex & L.A. car chases attract the cable news addicts. The cable news networks carried the army base shooting as they should have, but there was really very little to be said early on. They carried a lot of speculation and inaccurate information. WIBC did have the tanker explosion on the air before the tv people, and they did have reporters on scene in minutes & wall to wall coverage while it was breaking. THIS was a big story in Indianapolis. A shooting in Orlando is not. Don't know how much WIBC spends on their news department but it's almost certainly more than any other radio station in the state.
 
bigtime said:
Stories like a shooting in Orlando or an attractive woman vanishing in Boston are big stories in those cities, not the entire country. Cable news jumps all over them because they have lots of time to fill and blood, sex & L.A. car chases attract the cable news addicts. The cable news networks carried the army base shooting as they should have, but there was really very little to be said early on. They carried a lot of speculation and inaccurate information. WIBC did have the tanker explosion on the air before the tv people, and they did have reporters on scene in minutes & wall to wall coverage while it was breaking. THIS was a big story in Indianapolis.
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree.

I would say the chances are good that WIBC didn't have the resources to do wall-to-wall coverage of Ft. Hood - unless they have some audio service from ABC News, there's no way. The TV nets had severe difficulty with this in the first hour or so due to the rural nature of South Texas and no reporters in the area.
 
WIBC concentrates its efforts in covering local stories. For Ft. Hood, they aired live a 60-minute special report from ABC. Without the network, how would they generate any information at all. Getting Stan Lehr to hop on a plane to Texas would be a little exhorbitant.

By the way, Stan Lehr has been in Valpo for the last week-and-a-half covering the trial of the guy accused of attempting to kill IMPD Officer Jason Fishburn. No one else is there - at least not from radio. Why criticize WIBC, when they are the only people in the game and still pony up regularly?

WIBC has a way to go, but it's getting better every week at being a station that listeners can rely upon for news and information.
 
On Sunday I was at work so I couldn't catch the Indy 500 when it was ran, but around 7 pm I got curious about who won. I did not have easy access to the Internet at that particular moment and it was time for the top of the hour news on WIBC, easy solution right? So I flipped my radio over to 93.1 expecting to hear the results and instead got a canned recording of the news with Ray Steele from Saturday. The weather forecast is always a big clue, but I had also had already heard the recording on Saturday when listening to WIBC.

I would have expected this from 95.9, but had better hopes from 93.1 considering Emmis carried the race. I know they need to save a buck where they can and I'm used to Sunday's news being per-recorded, if you are going to be the "indy's news center" though, maybe you could spare the nickel to update the coverage on one of the biggest events in town.
 
Their 8pm newscast that night had the 500 as lead story. Their news room was staffed all that day because of the race. Maybe somehow an old cast slipped by? Having said that, WIBC has been known to push news aside when there's a race, Pacer game or other play-by-play sporting event on their air.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom