This morning during the WOR 8 am news, Alice Stockton Rossini delivered an absolutely cringe-worthy report about Mayor Bloomberg's new granddaughter complete with lots of couchy-couchy-coo faux baby talk.
In contrast, the best line of the morning was delivered by the wonderful J.J. Kennedy who calmly mused, "I wonder if the Mayor's grandbaby will be allowed to drink from a bottle bigger than 16 ounces."
The rhythm of the otherwise enjoyable morning show is also broken every 10 minutes by weather feeds from the unnecessarily perky and somewhat strident Jennifer Nittoso, replacing J.J.'s former weather reports.
Apparently management thinks these incompatible elements will somehow attract a younger demo -- a demo that, let's face it, isn't listening to WOR so won't hear them anyway.
Now, in complete contrast, those who listen on iHeart Radio are subjected to "Arthur Frommer Travel Minutes" during most breaks. WOR is heavily promoting iHeart Radio on the air, yet these "Travel Minutes" sound like they were written by a news reporter from the 1940s and are delivered in the same style. They contain such formal pronouncements as, "While I strolled to an airport cafe," and "I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions." Frommer sounds bemused by the notion of this newfangled thing called the World Wide Web and chuckles whenever he gives a web address.
So who's in charge of this mess? Does anyone in management actually listen? How about focusing on the most productive part of the audience that they already have -- there's money to be made by targeting 40-70 year olds. Keep them listening with interesting, relevant talk, and dump the baby-talk and geriatric ramblings.
I'm not knocking the names mentioned above per se, I'm sure they would be a perfect fit in another place with another audience, but not on a news/talker like WOR.
I should mention that while Joan Hamburg is often criticized for not fitting the news/talk format, she is never "silly" and is always totally professional and can be very entertaining. While personally I wouldn't go out of my way to tune in her show, she never causes me to lunge for the off switch. And she makes money for the station!
In contrast, the best line of the morning was delivered by the wonderful J.J. Kennedy who calmly mused, "I wonder if the Mayor's grandbaby will be allowed to drink from a bottle bigger than 16 ounces."
The rhythm of the otherwise enjoyable morning show is also broken every 10 minutes by weather feeds from the unnecessarily perky and somewhat strident Jennifer Nittoso, replacing J.J.'s former weather reports.
Apparently management thinks these incompatible elements will somehow attract a younger demo -- a demo that, let's face it, isn't listening to WOR so won't hear them anyway.
Now, in complete contrast, those who listen on iHeart Radio are subjected to "Arthur Frommer Travel Minutes" during most breaks. WOR is heavily promoting iHeart Radio on the air, yet these "Travel Minutes" sound like they were written by a news reporter from the 1940s and are delivered in the same style. They contain such formal pronouncements as, "While I strolled to an airport cafe," and "I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions." Frommer sounds bemused by the notion of this newfangled thing called the World Wide Web and chuckles whenever he gives a web address.
So who's in charge of this mess? Does anyone in management actually listen? How about focusing on the most productive part of the audience that they already have -- there's money to be made by targeting 40-70 year olds. Keep them listening with interesting, relevant talk, and dump the baby-talk and geriatric ramblings.
I'm not knocking the names mentioned above per se, I'm sure they would be a perfect fit in another place with another audience, but not on a news/talker like WOR.
I should mention that while Joan Hamburg is often criticized for not fitting the news/talk format, she is never "silly" and is always totally professional and can be very entertaining. While personally I wouldn't go out of my way to tune in her show, she never causes me to lunge for the off switch. And she makes money for the station!
