Winter Book

[Faraway]

Me thinks you heard wrong or a technical FUBA. The "unbranded" network newscast is Fox on WIOD and CNN on WINZ. They could be automated using Prophet and that might have caused a glitch, but there still are live news/traffic people in that newsroom 24/7.

 

[Don62]

Uh, Don, it's probably not a good idea align yourself with George Sheldon's posts.

Not sure you are accurate about Larry King. I think he left the show to devote full time to his CNN gig. That was a couple of owners ago...in fact the same people, Cox, who put together that great all live and local line up you speak wistfully about, replaced Kings slot with replays Don and Mike. I think it was CC who brought in Coast To Coast, a program that's done very well in South Florida.

I don't think the traffic is outsourced, in fact it is produced in WIOD newsroom. Also, like the newsroom, it's 24/7. And heaven help them if they are automated, that would mean they'd be using that awful Prophet system.

That being said, Don, when you get down to it, we really are in agreement in a lot of areas. The difference is this: my impression is you think a local show is in and of itself superior to a syndicated show, and that a station clearly serves its community better by having a local show. I just can't 100% agree with you on that. 850 WFTL came on with a huge signal, big news department and all local programming, and fairly extensive marketing campaign...a little more than a year later it blew the local news and programming out. No one was listened. There weren't even little signs of life. How can a station be serving its community when no one is listening? I am not being flippant, I ask you this in all honesty and seriousness.

Good points.

About Larry King, I remember him saying on his national radio show "I don't know what's going on there in Miami," when a caller to his daytime afternoon show said the station wasn't carrying him anymore.
King worked his CNN show for years while he was still on radio.

About WIOD, I just think something's wrong when 20-21 hours of the day are filled with satellite programs, especially for a city-grade signal.

And I like syndicated shows, or at least used to before management filled up their stations with nearly entirely piped-in programming.

I think multiple changes of ownership, station "clusters," and goals to improve the corporate (i.e. thousands of miles away ) bottom line vs. serving listeners, training new talent, etc., went into the decision to do things on the cheap.

The end result makes the station sound like an automated station.

 

[smedge2006]

James Crystal is not a mega-corporate owner. It's about as local as you can get. But they've really stiffed the pooch with WFTL. On a news talker, news is the special sauce -- without it you're serving generic burger -- but good talk is the meat. You also have to have a plan to win other than "let's hire a staff and put on a show! (and throw up some boards, a little tv at 4 a.m. on cable)..." Suggest one look up the old Jacor stations of the late 80's for the template on how to make a big splash quickly with a talker.

 

[Don62]

James Crystal is not a mega-corporate owner. It's about as local as you can get. But they've really stiffed the pooch with WFTL. On a news talker, news is the special sauce -- without it you're serving generic burger -- but good talk is the meat. You also have to have a plan to win other than "let's hire a staff and put on a show! (and throw up some boards, a little tv at 4 a.m. on cable)..." Suggest one look up the old Jacor stations of the late 80's for the template on how to make a big splash quickly with a talker.

I'm not talking about some run of the mill talk station that just went on the air or changed to talk within the past decade or so.

We're talking about a supposed institution, one of the most trend-setting talk stations in the country ( or used to be ).

WIOD gave up those "heritage" rights when it dumped all its staff and automated its programming.

Must be some big Christmas or office parties, with all the on-air staff there.

"Who's he? He's our morning host. Wow. I didn't know we had local shows."

BTW, I read Clear Channel owns the station, hence the white-bread sounding programming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIOD

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Uh, Don, it's probably not a good idea align yourself with George Sheldon's posts.

Not sure you are accurate about Larry King. I think he left the show to devote full time to his CNN gig. That was a couple of owners ago...in fact the same people, Cox, who put together that great all live and local line up you speak wistfully about, replaced Kings slot with replays Don and Mike. I think it was CC who brought in Coast To Coast, a program that's done very well in South Florida.

I don't think the traffic is outsourced, in fact it is produced in WIOD newsroom. Also, like the newsroom, it's 24/7. And heaven help them if they are automated, that would mean they'd be using that awful Prophet system.

That being said, Don, when you get down to it, we really are in agreement in a lot of areas. The difference is this: my impression is you think a local show is in and of itself superior to a syndicated show, and that a station clearly serves its community better by having a local show. I just can't 100% agree with you on that. 850 WFTL came on with a huge signal, big news department and all local programming, and fairly extensive marketing campaign...a little more than a year later it blew the local news and programming out. No one was listened. There weren't even little signs of life. How can a station be serving its community when no one is listening? I am not being flippant, I ask you this in all honesty and seriousness.

Good points.

About Larry King, I remember him saying on his national radio show "I don't know what's going on there in Miami," when a caller to his daytime afternoon show said the station wasn't carrying him anymore.
King worked his CNN show for years while he was still on radio.

About WIOD, I just think something's wrong when 20-21 hours of the day are filled with satellite programs, especially for a city-grade signal.

And I like syndicated shows, or at least used to before management filled up their stations with nearly entirely piped-in programming.

I think multiple changes of ownership, station "clusters," and goals to improve the corporate (i.e. thousands of miles away ) bottom line vs. serving listeners, training new talent, etc., went into the decision to do things on the cheap.

The end result makes the station sound like an automated station.

The strange thing is WIOD and WFLA are nearly identical in programming. The one exception is the morning show, which is localized in both cities. Besides that, the lineup follows as Beck-Limbaugh-Schnitt-Hannity-Levin-Coast. But somehow, WFLA makes it into the upper 5 and 6 shares while WIOD struggles for a 3.

 

[davideduardo]

The strange thing is WIOD and WFLA are nearly identical in programming. The one exception is the morning show, which is localized in both cities. Besides that, the lineup follows as Beck-Limbaugh-Schnitt-Hannity-Levin-Coast. But somehow, WFLA makes it into the upper 5 and 6 shares while WIOD struggles for a 3.

When you loolk at the share of "Other" (which is Arbitron's way of saying "non-ethnic") the two stations perform identically.

The #1 talk station in Miami is WAQI.

 

[smedge2006]

Perhaps WIOD's disappointing performance could be improved if they had as local talk show hosts one or two conservative, assimilated second-generation Cuban American Republicans who could relate to Miami and who agreed with the overall philosophy on WIOD. It surprises me that no one from the Marco Rubio generation has shown up doing conservatalk radio in Miami or anyplace else. After all, talkers often reflect the ethnicity of their cities, even if the politics remains the same from town to town.

 

[davideduardo]

Perhaps WIOD's disappointing performance could be improved if they had as local talk show hosts one or two conservative, assimilated second-generation Cuban American Republicans who could relate to Miami and who agreed with the overall philosophy on WIOD. It surprises me that no one from the Marco Rubio generation has shown up doing conservatalk radio in Miami or anyplace else. After all, talkers often reflect the ethnicity of their cities, even if the politics remains the same from town to town.

You already have Cuban-centric talk 24-7 on WAQI, WQBA, WWFE, etc. and Colombian talk on WSUA. The amount of interest in such talk in English is probably a lot less than the non-Hispanic audience they would lose by putting it on WIOD.

 

[Don62]

Interestingly, WIOD is afraid to announce that it's owned by Clear Channel.
Its history page doesn't even go into the 1970s!
http://610wiod.com/pages/history.html

What a bunch of corporate BS.

 

[smedge2006]

You already have Cuban-centric talk 24-7 on WAQI, WQBA, WWFE, etc. and Colombian talk on WSUA. The amount of interest in such talk in English is probably a lot less than the non-Hispanic audience they would lose by putting it on WIOD.

I'm not talking about Cuban-centric. I'm talking about conservative talk put on by somebody who's from Miami, who is part of the majority demographic among conservatives in Miami (Cuban-American), who can relate to his audience and what they're experiencing in Miami. That would probably include some talk about Cuba and a lot about Venezuela under Chavez. When Schnitt does a Miami topic, listen to the number of Hispanic callers he gets -- usually second generation in their 20s and 30s.

 

[Faraway]

Interestingly, WIOD is afraid to announce that it's owned by Clear Channel.
Its history page doesn't even go into the 1970s!
http://610wiod.com/pages/history.html

What a bunch of corporate BS.

Doesn't make any specific reference to previous Cox or Paxson owners either. But there are references to Clear Channel all over the site...don't see how anyone could say they are "afraid" to note the CC connection.

 

[Don62]

Wonder what the PD at WIOD does with all his free time.

Check the satellite's modulation?

Put his feet on the desk?

Make reservations for all the on-air talent at company dinners?

Make sure it beats its competition, another mostly syndicated talker that is way down in the ratings..

Write form letters to potential hosts who applied for jobs saying the station doesn't care about anything local anymore. "If you get a syndicated job that attracts an audience, or even if it doesn't at first (like Mark Levin), then we'll consider you."

Must be an easy job putting the station practically on automation. (except for breaking news, of course).

Kind of like some other heritage news talkers - KTOK and KRMG - Okal. City and Tulsa - which are now screwed up by Clear Channel, which thinks it can run radio without employees.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,24715.0.html


What a waste of city grade signal. No local shows except a morning news program.

 

[AM_Rocks]

well, there's the Footie show. :

 

[Don62]

well, there's the Footie show. :

That's on Saturdays. It's not a M-F show.
For weekday local, creative programming -- call it "radio" or "broadcasting" - the formerly great WIOD is AWOL.

But then again, it isn't much different from other Clear Channel stations where local hosts outside of a morning news program are nowhere to be found.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

well, there's the Footie show. :

That's on Saturdays. It's not a M-F show.
For weekday local, creative programming -- call it "radio" or "broadcasting" - the formerly great WIOD is AWOL.

But then again, it isn't much different from other Clear Channel stations where local hosts outside of a morning news program are nowhere to be found.

Except for stations like WLW and KOA. I'm amazed they're still hanging on to the local talent they have. WGST in Atlanta used to have local morning, mid-morning, afternoon and evening hosts, but one day they were all swept out the door and replaced with syndicated shows. They've since brought back a local morning show.

 

[Don62]

I used to be a big fan of syndicated programming, back in the day when Bruce Williams' Talknet, Sally Jesse Bland and Tom Snyder ruled the network radio.
And I wanted more syndicated shows on the air.

However, after listening to a PD on another board, I came to the agreement that running syndicated filler on a city-grade signal is a waste.

That attitude, however, appears to be a minority.

I'm not in radio (though I used to work in radio news for a year before moving to TV news then to other things), but I sure would like to hear more local hosts - outside of the morning news report - on major market stations such as WIOD and WFLA.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

While we're talking about local hosts, when I lived in Miami there was a one-hour local news show on IOD at 6 PM. I always listened to it and Paul Harvey as I drove to BCC in Davie. What happened to that show?

 

[Faraway]

Kind of like some other heritage news talkers - KTOK and KRMG - Okal. City and Tulsa - which are now screwed up by Clear Channel, which thinks it can run radio without employees.

KRMG, I believe is Cox. I find it interesting you are so focused on WIOD and Clear Channel. I don't get the singular obssession? Cox, Entercom, Cumulus and CBS aren't any different. I think it's a market situation rather than a corporate decision. It's been well noted that CC has stations with lots of local programming. You have a point about the amount of syndication, so why the obsession with one station? There are many stations with bigger and better sticks and some in larger markets than IOD that run less local programming - and less news commitment. So why are you so focused on on them?

Which brings up another question....a hypothetical...two stations in a large market, with fairly equal dial position and signals...one has a big news staff and lots of local programming. The other dosn't have much local news at all, and a wall of syndication - but absolutely kills the "local" station in the ratings. Alll things are equal except the syndicated station has the listeners. Which station is serving the public interest better?

 

[Don62]

Kind of like some other heritage news talkers - KTOK and KRMG - Okal. City and Tulsa - which are now screwed up by Clear Channel, which thinks it can run radio without employees.

KRMG, I believe is Cox. I find it interesting you are so focused on WIOD and Clear Channel. I don't get the singular obssession? Cox, Entercom, Cumulus and CBS aren't any different. I think it's a market situation rather than a corporate decision. It's been well noted that CC has stations with lots of local programming. You have a point about the amount of syndication, so why the obsession with one station? There are many stations with bigger and better sticks and some in larger markets than IOD that run less local programming - and less news commitment. So why are you so focused on on them?

Point taken. I got KRMG mixed up with KTOK, which is CC owned and is a big nearly wall to wall syndicated automated station.

Which brings up another question....a hypothetical...two stations in a large market, with fairly equal dial position and signals...one has a big news staff and lots of local programming. The other dosn't have much local news at all, and a wall of syndication - but absolutely kills the "local" station in the ratings. Alll things are equal except the syndicated station has the listeners. Which station is serving the public interest better?

Can you name some stations that are nearly all syndication that beats a nearly all live and local?
I seem to recall most stations that are tops have a good mix of local and syndicated, such as KMBZ-Kansas City, which just kills the other NT staiton that is nearly all syndicated.

You can't possibly think ratings equates to better public service?

AB-TV used to have a Monday Night Movie or something. Maybe it was Sunday night. Doesn't matter.
That always got ratings. However, as some noted, it wasn't TV. Didn't take any effort. Just put a film on and that will get ratings.

Stations that rely on syndicated fare IMHO are equally lazy.