Would like to see more STATIONS OFFERING ALL NEWS

[Fornax]

All-news radio is too expensive....but a constantly-updated all news podcast is not.

Our friends in local cable news, like the local Time Warner TV operations, record new segments and drop them in in place of older segments.

Gonna go with Dave here.

In fact, I think this is what Bonneville's "Federal News Radio" does in the DC Market. Anybody from DC care to elaborate? Does it work? Granted, WFED is not the market's big cahuna news leader (that would be sister WTOP), but it was designed to serve an important part of that market's population (Employees of the Federal Government).

It's all about local. WFED serves a specific local audience. It is not designed to be mass appeal. All news stations will only be able to survive if they spread the cost of gathering the news out to multiple, revenue-generating platforms. One way to do that is to create a number of local "niche" services.

 

[SteveScott]

To me, WBBM/WCBS sound like over chewed turkey on Thanksgiving. DRY!

Really? We sound like dry, over-chewed turkey? Yikes. That's a new one.

 

[Prais]

Steve, Thanks.

Yes, WGN is "brighter, livelier" more "up." They sound MORE "with it." Sorry, but somehow, I trust them, more. Just me.

I grew up on the NW side of Chicago, and I've listened to 780 since the 50's when I was a kid. I heard the final broadcast of "The Amos and Andy Music Hall" there, the "Over 30 Dance show, Mal Bellairs, the morning show with the live orchestra (was it Ralph Marterie?) sponsored by McGlothlan's Manor House Coffee, John Harrington, Godfrey, Linkletter, Crosby and Clooney, and Paul Gibson and Lee Phillip. Jay Andres, and lots more. Great History.

I remember many great moments there, but for a few years now at WBBM, to me, it needs some LIFE in the presentation.

I know its news, but to me, it's very "stale" sounding. I much prefer KMOX's news presentation. I was a big fan of WNUS, 1390.

Also, maybe it's a psychological thing. When I got to high school and visited radio stations, I got in EVERYWHERE else, but WBBM (a place I really wanted to visit) and the people at the door were always MEAN. Great history, bad public relations.

WIND, WMAQ, WAIT, WAAF, LS and CFL, 'JJD, WOPA, WSBC and the other shared operations, WNMP, WDHF, WFMT, WEFM, WFMF, where the engineer let me take home old Broadcasting Magazines, WXFM (gave me my first radio job), WFMQ, and a few others.

I was a very POLITE kid. At the McClurg St. door, they said, "YOU again! Get out of here kid." By that time I had discovered Wally Phillips and WGN (who were always friendly) and put up with my 1000 questions. I cannot count the number of times I visted THERE.

I eventually got to own 4 stations and retired a few years ago, but this has always bugged me.

Sorry. Now back to "The Morning News Roundup."

Steve, Best Wishes.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I heard the final broadcast of "The Amos and Andy Music Hall" there, the "Over 30 Dance show, Mal Bellairs, the morning show with the live orchestra (was it Ralph Marterie?) sponsored by McGlothlan's Manor House Coffee,

Oh, we are kindred spirits! You got to chew the good stuff.... I had to settle for some dry turkey in the rural southwest! There was KARK in Little Rock.... KVOO and KRMG in Tulsa... but even in smaller towns there were some bright spots on the dial. And to this day I still wonder what gave some stations that extra bounce and skip in their step.

And there is a name I had not thought about for years: Ralph Marterie! I have got to find a copy of his "Caravan"!

Inside Radio yesterday had a story about NAB testimony at a seminar on Public Service and how broadcasters "don't need no stinkin' rules" because public service is a part of the soul and being of broadcasters. And then mixed in there somewhere was a story about fewer and fewer stations doing news. After all. They no longer HAVE to. It's not required so why should we do it?

Let me see if I have this right. "You can trust us to be good community citizens, you can trust us to be public servants and provide time and promotion to worthy causes.... but we are not going to do news because we don't have to, so we don't."

I once worked as a newsman at a station in the shadow of the great journalism school at the University of Missouri. My training at the time consisted of "on the job" experience. For a number of years I asked myself if I made a mistake by not finding some way to get myself into the J-school and build a real future. Today I look back and say: "And if I had gone back to school and pursued a broadcasting career focused only on news, where would I be today?"

Well... there is "Would you like fries with that?"

or there is "Welcome to Walmart".

 

[gr8oldies]

There would be "Thank you for calling outsourced customer service" as well

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

There would be "Thank you for calling outsourced customer service" as well

Ah, yes! I did that for a couple of years. Inside sales in support of the outside sales people so someone would answer the phone while sales was out playing golf with their clients.

I would answer the phone with the same voice I would have used in the studio for a commercial. And when I had gone through the spiel about Thank you for calling Overgrown Industry, This GRC, How may I help you?.... there would often be this significant pause and then the person would realize it was their turn and they would say: Oh, you sounded like you were a recording. I was waiting for the Beep!

That job was in the running for "Toughest Job I Ever Had!"

 

[landtuna]

I had to settle for some dry turkey in the rural southwest! There was KARK in Little Rock.... KVOO and KRMG in Tulsa...

Only a guy from "Uppa New Yawk" would call Arkansas and Oklahoma "southwest". ;D

<he said from rainy Arizona>

 

[gr8oldies]

I had the same thing at my last phone job. Or "you should be on the radio"...at least the ones that weren't yelling at me.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I had to settle for some dry turkey in the rural southwest! There was KARK in Little Rock.... KVOO and KRMG in Tulsa...

Only a guy from "Uppa New Yawk" would call Arkansas and Oklahoma "southwest". ;D

<he said from rainy Arizona>

It's all relative my friend. I was born and grew up SOUTH of the big Kleberg King Ranch in south Texas. Eight miles further south and I would have been born with Mexican citizenship.

The Deep South refuses to let the folks from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and south Missouri be part of them and call ourselves Southerners.

We always figured anyone West of El Paso was JUST WEST.... no South to it.

And where is the Midwest? Is it Indiana and Ohio.... or is it Nebraska?

In the period after WWII and Korea as rural folks went looking for something that paid better than herding goats, picking wild persimmons and grubbing rocks out of the pasture, people west of Russellville, Arkansas would drive or hitch-hike to California looking for the land of milk and honey while people east of Russellville tended to head to Detroit to make cars. So I conclude that culturally the Southwest begins somewhere around the old pickle factory at Atkins, Arkansas.

(Chuckle, Chuckle. I left home just before Dad planted the cucumber plantation. Ask my brother out in Tulsa what he thinks about cucumbers and pickles! Do stand back just beyond swinging range when you ask.)

 

[One Who Knows]

Sadly there are only about a dozen all-news stations in the U.S. and only two in Canada. They are:

WCBS and WINS...NYC
KNX...LA
WBBM...Chicago
KCBS...San Francisco
WTOP...Washington
KYW...Philadelphia
WBZ...Boston (talk at night)
WWJ...Detroit
KOMO...Seattle
KQV...Pittsburgh (talk nights and weekends)
CFTR...Toronto
CKWX...Vancouver

In the last couple of months we lost KFWB LA, one of the first stations in the format, and CINF Montreal which was all-news in French. Mexico City has a couple of all-news stations and Cuba has Radio Reloj, heard on several frequencies in the U.S. at night.

For some reason, all-news stations are not successful in any Sunbelt market other than KNX, no matter how large. CBS has tried TWICE to make 1080 KRLD Dallas into an all-news station. There's no all-news station in such large markets as Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, Tampa or Orlando. Some of those markets had all-news at one time. The audience didn't support them.

But in large, non-Sunbelt markets, all-news is very successful. WCBS and WINS are the top two AM stations in NYC. In morning drive, WINS is #1 and WCBS is #2. WTOP is usually #1 in Washington. CFTR is the top AM station in Toronto. KYW is usually #2 in Philadelphia.

I also wonder if more stations should sound like WINS? They run a 20 minute news cycle, not 30 as the others. That gives you three times per hour to hear the top stories. And these days, with virtually no music on AM, I think the tele-type machine sound effects in the background quickly tell the casual listener they've tuned to the all-news station, not unlike most TV outlets keeping a small logo in the corner of the screen so you automatically know what channel you're watching.

I really can't imagine living in a large market and not having a radio station giving me traffic and weather every ten minutes. What if a tanker truck overturns on a major highway outside of drivetime? Most talk stations, even the largest, run syndicated shows after morning drive where every local minute is given to commercials except for a brief newscast at the top of the hour. If they first find out that a mjaor interstate is shut down at ten minutes after the hour, will they cut into Rush or Savage or Hannity to tell us this? Or will we have to wait 50 minutes for them to include it in their next newscast? How many motorists tuned to news-talk stations drive right into traffic jams because they don't get frequent traffic updates outside the morning show?

What is it about Sunbelt markets that they don't care about news enough to support an all-news station? In many Sunbelt markets, even the one news-talk station struggles in the ratings sometimes. They get in the car and don't care about anything but their country music or their Top 40 hits? And if they do listen to news-talk, they're content with having Rush or Hannity tell them everything they need to know?



Gregg
[email protected]

Actually, Gregg:

At WHIO AM/FM in Dayton, Ohio...we do interrupt the talk shows to do traffic and news updates. We'll even dump the talk shows temporarily is some big news story is going on. (Though it has to be a pretty big story for that!)

And yes, we put up with plenty of griping from the dittoheads, and hannitites over it. Funny...our ratings stay at or near the top almost everytime.

We do it because we'd rather interrupt and keep a listener out of a traffic jam...than to "wait for the break" and let them get stuck in traffic.

It's called..."local radio service". Some stations still get it.