I would love for there to be an All News Radio station like WINS or WCBS here. WBZ is ok too (but) I'm not a fan of how WBZ mixes Talk Shows into the all News format. Sounds kind of weird. Anyway...... I'm just wondering if you think the format of an All News Station would work in Rhode Island?
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Would All News Radio Station work here?
- Thread starter Skynet74
- Start date
Do you remember when WEAN 790 was an affiliate of the old NBC News and Information Service? Wasn't too bad, but got diluted with talk blocks. The same thing was tried later on with what was then WWRX 1110, using CNN Headline News. It, too, got awards from the AP and UPI but both stations failed due to the market not being able to support such a thing. WCNX 1180 in Hope Valley is trying now,but they're diluting with sports and other stuff. All news is a very expensive format to run, if you want to originate everything in house.Cities like NY, Boston, and here in Philly have enough of an ad and audience base to make the format worthwhile. Providence may not have enough of an ad base to support a full-time station doing news.
Nice to drream, though...
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
Nice to drream, though...
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
They had a huge staff plus a lot of Providence Journal resources being owned by the Projo. Funny but a couple of weeks ago I was clearing out some stuff for my Mom & she finally consented to throwing away my Dad's old portable radio that hasn't been turned on in 30 years since he died. It didn't work well, but the station was set to 790.
A
AKLes
Guest
When the "All News" format was invented one of the first to give it a try was (then) WPAW with a hell of a signal on 550. COL was Pawtucket; transmitter in Valley Falls, looking right down the river at Providence. Call letters were changed to "WXTR" (Radio Extra). Bob Stone was ND with a decent staff and lots of support from The ABC Radio Network (in the days before they split it into several mini-nets). This was around 1960-61. It never really took off. "Talk" radio hadn't come along and they tried to sustain solid news from 5am to about 7pm when they went over to jazz with Fred Grady. Lasted about a year. Then shifted to a packaged "Demand Radio" format (kind of an early "Music of Your Life" with a lot of hokey production elements). It worked but not well. Then it was Beautiful Music....then a host of other formats.
Things that stood out were the extreme expense of trying to do news "right" and that Rhode Island is sufficiently small that there is not enough going on to avoid endless repetition. Those factors haven't changed so I doubt anybody would make a long-term success of a shot at doing all news in Providence.
Things that stood out were the extreme expense of trying to do news "right" and that Rhode Island is sufficiently small that there is not enough going on to avoid endless repetition. Those factors haven't changed so I doubt anybody would make a long-term success of a shot at doing all news in Providence.
Perhaps if they offered Expanded area coverage than there would be plenty of Material. Don't just focus on Rhode Island, but also cover News as far North as Boston and as far south as New London. Trust me.. there is plenty going on. Rhode Island isn't that far away from life. We may be small, but we arn't in the middle of the forest.
A
AKLes
Guest
Skynet74 said:
In the original WXTR implementation there wasn't much coverage South of Cranston. Very limited stuff out of South County unless one were to blatantly copy Providence Journal stuff. Not much of that in the edition that was circulated around Providence; at the time (maybe still?) there was a South County edition that carried more but it wasn't easy to get around the capital.
There was some experimentation with news out of Fall River, New Bedford, and even state stuff out of Boston but the listener comments about it were downright negative. Today it may be different, what with about 1/3 of Providence having moved across the state line for some obscure reason!
In any case, the more geographic area you try to cover, the more expensive it becomes and very, very quickly. I don't believe the economics support an all-news operation in any but the largest of cities....and then only if supplemented with syndicated talk away from the traffic hours.
An all news station would be great-that is-one with a signal that actually covers the WHOLE state of Rhode Island, unlike WPRO and WHJJ which only cover the metro Providence area with decent signal. I get annoyed driving through Johnston and Smithfield listening to WPRO and hearing static, and that is during the day. When they swtich to low power late in the evening, you can barely hear them at all, and I have a good car radio. I would love to have a loud and clear all news station with traffic and weather every ten minutes. Since we already have a spanish FM station, why do we need two Spanish AM's? Forget 1110 because they have to sign off at night. I guess the only other hope would be 990. I think the company that owns Latina 100.3 also owns 990. Is there a point to having Spanish on 990 too?
Jay,
WPRO and WHJJ don't drop powe at night; they directionalize their signals to protect others on their frequencies from interference. Bouth outlets run figure-8 patterns at night with nulls to the NE and SW. Their power output stays at 5000 watts. You may be in an area with bad ground conductivity, hence a poor daytime signal. Another reason for bad daytime reception is electronic signs, the switching power supplies in traffic lights,and many other things.I have to agree with Les on why doing all news with a local staff would be very expensive. it's probably doable with CNN Healine News or Fox . I thought of putting all-news on 990 , but with the problems the signal may still have, it would not be that good of an idea. Last time I was back home, I
tuned 'em in and the signal was horrible. It was during the day and it sure didn't sound like 50 kW.....
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
WPRO and WHJJ don't drop powe at night; they directionalize their signals to protect others on their frequencies from interference. Bouth outlets run figure-8 patterns at night with nulls to the NE and SW. Their power output stays at 5000 watts. You may be in an area with bad ground conductivity, hence a poor daytime signal. Another reason for bad daytime reception is electronic signs, the switching power supplies in traffic lights,and many other things.I have to agree with Les on why doing all news with a local staff would be very expensive. it's probably doable with CNN Healine News or Fox . I thought of putting all-news on 990 , but with the problems the signal may still have, it would not be that good of an idea. Last time I was back home, I
tuned 'em in and the signal was horrible. It was during the day and it sure didn't sound like 50 kW.....
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
Well, if you were to launch "all the news anyone could use" type of format, wouldn't you want it on FM? A nice clean signal that covers as much of the area you want the news dept. to cover ?
It's doubtful such a format would be viable in Providence. All-news faded from the Boston airwaves with the demise of the old WEEI (5 kW at 590 kHz). Although WBZ calls itself "newsradio," it really isn't--at least not in the manner of 1010 WINS or WCBS 880. Keep in mind that maintaining a respectable local news staff is a very costly endeavor (just ask the folks at WRKO, whose owner--Entercom--saw fit to do without one altogether.). Would ad revenues in Providence be able to cover the costs?
Unless a station were to only go local in AM and PM drive and otherwise simulcast CNN Headline News or
something..would not cost as much for a staff. And they could run syndie talk/sports play by play/sports
talk at night. Would it get high ratings? Prob. not but if run on a (relative) shoestring, with just the AM
and PM drive people..even then prob not worth it (so then it also wouldn't be strictly all news, it'd be
a news/sports/talk hybrid)
something..would not cost as much for a staff. And they could run syndie talk/sports play by play/sports
talk at night. Would it get high ratings? Prob. not but if run on a (relative) shoestring, with just the AM
and PM drive people..even then prob not worth it (so then it also wouldn't be strictly all news, it'd be
a news/sports/talk hybrid)
In response to Dave Gardiner's post
Thanks for explaining about the directional signals, but in order to switch to the directional signal at night, does WPRO (AM) have to switch from one tower to another or switch the tower off then on again? I noticed that right around sunset, the signal goes off for a second, and then comes back on. That's what lead me to think they were switching to low power at night.
Thanks for explaining about the directional signals, but in order to switch to the directional signal at night, does WPRO (AM) have to switch from one tower to another or switch the tower off then on again? I noticed that right around sunset, the signal goes off for a second, and then comes back on. That's what lead me to think they were switching to low power at night.
Jay,
WPRO and WHJJ switch an extra tower into their antenna systems at sunsset to get their directional patterns. They drop carrier for a moment while switching so components in the the antenna system aren't damaged. At sunrise, they drop carrier again, switching the second tower out of the system for their nondirectional day pattern. Other stations like WRNI 1290 and the soon to be built 1370 CP in Charlestown, are directional with different patterns, and in the case of 1370, power levels day and night.. That station will be directional to the SE
with 2500 watt daytime and 5000 watts at night, different patters for day and night. It will run 2500 day to protect WALK 1370 Patchogue NY and WNRI 1380 in Woonsocket. Both of these station run less than 250 watts power at night, so Charlestown won't have tto protect them. Hence the 5 kW night power.
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
WPRO and WHJJ switch an extra tower into their antenna systems at sunsset to get their directional patterns. They drop carrier for a moment while switching so components in the the antenna system aren't damaged. At sunrise, they drop carrier again, switching the second tower out of the system for their nondirectional day pattern. Other stations like WRNI 1290 and the soon to be built 1370 CP in Charlestown, are directional with different patterns, and in the case of 1370, power levels day and night.. That station will be directional to the SE
with 2500 watt daytime and 5000 watts at night, different patters for day and night. It will run 2500 day to protect WALK 1370 Patchogue NY and WNRI 1380 in Woonsocket. Both of these station run less than 250 watts power at night, so Charlestown won't have tto protect them. Hence the 5 kW night power.
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
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