WPHT newscasts

[Jul]

Does anyone think that WPHT will ever start their own 24/7 news operation, instead of relying on metro networks for their news updates?

 

[musichead1029]

Why would they waste money duplicating the efforts of sister stations KYW(AM) and TV? WPHT is a (failing) talk station, not a news station. Headlines will do, and if it's cheaper to have Metro supply them than even its sister operations, that's the wise investment. CBS was too cheap to maintain their calling card programs (syndicated talkers) and Premiere called their bluff. They're certainly not going to spend money on unnecessary items like an in-house news team when their overall format revenue is drying up. It wouldn't add any value to a shrinking bottom line.

The sun is setting on 1210 as we know it. Maybe the coming brokered programmers will do some newscasts for fun, but they'll probably highlight the virtues of pills and annuities. That's more relevant to their bottom line. And with AM listening dwindling, station owners on the 107-year old band have to take what they can get. CBS might try to buy an area FM translator or two to put WPHT on the band with the listeners. WPHT 96.9 and 107.3 FM. That's not going to hit most of the talk audience in the suburbs, but they'd gain exposure to more (and potentially younger) ears in-city.

 

[Jul]

Why would they waste money duplicating the efforts of sister stations KYW(AM) and TV? WPHT is a (failing) talk station, not a news station. Headlines will do, and if it's cheaper to have Metro supply them than even its sister operations, that's the wise investment. CBS was too cheap to maintain their calling card programs (syndicated talkers) and Premiere called their bluff. They're certainly not going to spend money on unnecessary items like an in-house news team when their overall format revenue is drying up. It wouldn't add any value to a shrinking bottom line.

The sun is setting on 1210 as we know it. Maybe the coming brokered programmers will do some newscasts for fun, but they'll probably highlight the virtues of pills and annuities. That's more relevant to their bottom line. And with AM listening dwindling, station owners on the 107-year old band have to take what they can get. CBS might try to buy an area FM translator or two to put WPHT on the band with the listeners. WPHT 96.9 and 107.3 FM. That's not going to hit most of the talk audience in the suburbs, but they'd gain exposure to more (and potentially younger) ears in-city.

I agree with everything you said. I don't want to believe that 1210 AM WPHT is dying but I guess its the truth.

 

[FredLeonard]

WPHT is dying and whatever they do now probably won't matter. But, yes, cross-promotion would have made sense. KYW takes sports updates from WIP. It would have made sense for KYW to do news updates for WPHT, and maybe for WPHT hosts to do commentaries for KYW.

What's really curious is that none of the CBS-owned stations carries network newscasts from CBS Radio. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the network's news product.

 

[Jul]

WPHT is dying and whatever they do now probably won't matter. But, yes, cross-promotion would have made sense. KYW takes sports updates from WIP. It would have made sense for KYW to do news updates for WPHT, and maybe for WPHT hosts to do commentaries for KYW.

.

I agree with you.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

What's really curious is that none of the CBS-owned stations carries network newscasts from CBS Radio. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the network's news product.

It seems that major market stations don't seem to like airing network radio programming. I can remember back in the day when talker WCAU 1210 was still airing Arthur Godfrey and the host of the talk show leading into the Godfrey show's voice had a sound of total detain that they were airing this crap [he never said that, but the tone of his voice said it all. Something like we're breaking for Godfrey, back after that.....The tone of his voice said it all. I realize that back then CBS Radio required their affiliates to carry all network programs and Arthur Godfrey's Program didn't fit the format and probably the audience demo that was listening to WCAU for talk. I'm sure Godfrey skewed older than their talk audience. Godfrey was old time radio along with radio dramas that didn't fit the WCAU format at that time. I wasn't a big fan of Arthur Godfrey's show. Wouldn't have minded a younger version of the show with a younger host, younger guests and music.

I personally liked WCAU carrying the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre that Hyman Brown produced for CBS in the 1970's. But realize that it didn't fit the rest of WCAU's format.

I remember also when NBC Radio's "Monitor" was airing [WDEL in Wilmington aired it, but WRCV and / or KYW didn't as I remember it]. It seemed stations in major markets would not carry much if any of the show. I was a fan and when in different cities would try to find the NBC station in that city so I could hear Monitor. Big cities didn't seem to want the show. The medium and small markets were the one's carrying the show, from what my experience was. I don't believe even the flag ship station WNBC was airing it at least in the late 1960's early 70's when I discovered Monitor. I'm sure some radio historians can straighten me out if I'm in error.

Later when NBC Radio did that News and Information Service [NIS], I believe then they too had that issue of major market stations not carrying the feed. So it doesn't surprise me that major market stations like KYW or WPHT aren't carrying their network affiliate's hourly newscasts. I don't believe conservative talker WWIQ which airs the big 3 conservatives talkers airs Fox News Radio hourly news either, whereas Wilmington's WILM does [major market vs medium and small markets]. The major market stations take the various network feeds and produce their own newscast from it for national/international news.

 

[FredLeonard]

WRCV did carry Monitor. When Westinghouse reclaimed the station, KYW immediately dropped NBC (including Monitor). NBC did get another affiliate in Philly. They were on classical WFLN at one point but the new affiliate did not carry Monitor.

My the late 60s and early 70s, Monitor was on few stations and had severely truncated hours. See http://www.monitorbeacon.net/

Until his retirement, Godfrey was a big money-maker for CBS - whatever local hosts may have thought of the show. Under FCC rules, CBS could not force stations to take any specific show but they did not have a problem getting cleared. Godfrey wasn't out of place on full service WCAU, certainly not in the same way The Breakfast Club didn't fit ABC's Top 40 stations. The younger version is called The Howard Stern Show.

WCAU was a full service station, not a talk station. Full service was a more diverse format. In fact, WCAU at various times had their own old time radio show with re-runs of actual old time radio shows. Even some of CBS' all news stations, such as KNX, did OTR in the evening.

NIS was a separate network from NBC Radio and ran on a different station than NBC. NBC and NIS were fed on one ATT phone line (like ABC's four networks) and NIS broke for local news at the top and bottom of the hour, while NBC did News on the Hour and Emphasis. Like other attempts to bring all news radio to smaller markets (AP and CNN also tried and currently TRN) it did not last.

WPHT and WWIQ and other stations apparently prefer to get their news from a regional provider like 24/7 Source (now owned by Clear Channel) instead of a national network.

 

[1310]

The Monitor moved to WCAM Camden after KYW dropped it.

 

[deepstblu]

WRCV did carry Monitor. When Westinghouse reclaimed the station, KYW immediately dropped NBC (including Monitor). NBC did get another affiliate in Philly. They were on classical WFLN at one point but the new affiliate did not carry Monitor.

NBC had short runs on WCAM and WPEN in the mid to late '60s before they had to resort to WFLN to get cleared. I know that Monitor ran on WCAM (it came out of Mom's kitchen radio) and it seems likely that it ran on WPEN (one of the recorded segments at Monitor Beacon features longtime WPEN news director Jules Rind interviewing Wilt Chamberlain).

 

[musichead1029]

(NBC's News and Information Service) NIS was a separate network from NBC Radio and ran on a different station than NBC. NBC and NIS were fed on one ATT phone line (like ABC's four networks) and NIS broke for local news at the top and bottom of the hour, while NBC did News on the Hour and Emphasis. Like other attempts to bring all news radio to smaller markets (AP and CNN also tried and currently TRN) it did not last.

Did NIS have a Philly affiliate? In NYC and Baltimore, it was on FM (97.1 WNWS [formerly and futurely WNBC-FM] in NYC and 97.9 WBAL-FM in Baltimore). In Wilmington, WILM picked it up, then stuck with the format after NIS ended in May, 1977. The service was unable to attract enough affiliates to assure profitability during its almost-2 year run.

WPHT is dying and whatever they do now probably won't matter. But, yes, cross-promotion would have made sense. KYW takes sports updates from WIP. It would have made sense for KYW to do news updates for WPHT, and maybe for WPHT hosts to do commentaries for KYW.

I'm pretty sure they did just that early on in WPHT's tenure, taking a minute summary from a KYW personality before going into the first minute of CBS News on the hour, and Smerconish did commentaries on KYW about the time he was moving from PM drive to AM on 1210. (Of course nothing can top the KYW guys doing talk show tryouts on WPHT when it had just flipped from "The Gimp." The Don Lancer Show was a classic. Especially when he had to carry it with few to no callers. Kind of like today.

 

[FredLeonard]

1260AM (I forget what the calls were at the time) in Trenton also took NIS.

IMHO: NIS' problem was - like NBC and Monitor - it sounded stodgy and pretentious, filled with news readers who sounded bored. That and the problem all attempts at smaller market all news radio faced: Not enough cume to make up for short TSL = poor AQH shares.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Thank you all for the updated info on that CBS, NBC, Monitor, and NIS.

I had been under the impression back then the networks required their programming to be carried to be an affiliate, but apparently not, based on what's been said here [they had the make good of network spots like they do now I guess?].

Godfrey's show was "G" rated, what I meant was a similar format, but with a younger host/hostess with modern music and guests, but still in a "G", maybe "PG" rated style show [to appeal to the younger house wives who were home during the day vs the older housewives which I assume Godfrey appealed as they were younger when he was popular on both CBS TV and Radio in the early 1950's]. Stern's would be too raunchy and definitely NOT "G" or "PG" rated and I'd assume wouldn't appeal to the housewife listening while she's doing her housework [there still were many women at home then].

When I was listening to WCAU they had talk on it AND Godfrey. I want to say Joel A. Spivack was the talk host that led up to the Godfrey feed, but its been so long ago that may not be correct which is why I didn't use his name earlier. CBS radio was still airing Dear Abby then too. For my younger ear, at that time, Arthur Godfrey sounded old, his guests sounded old, and it seemed like an interruption to whatever talk show was on. But if CBS was making money airing him, then I guess why not.

 

[FredLeonard]

I had been under the impression back then the networks required their programming to be carried to be an affiliate, but apparently not, based on what's been said here [they had the make good of network spots like they do now I guess?].

Godfrey's show was "G" rated, what I meant was a similar format, but with a younger host/hostess with modern music and guests, but still in a "G", maybe "PG" rated style show [to appeal to the younger house wives who were home during the day vs the older housewives which I assume Godfrey appealed as they were younger when he was popular on both CBS TV and Radio in the early 1950's]. Stern's would be too raunchy and definitely NOT "G" or "PG" rated and I'd assume wouldn't appeal to the housewife listening while she's doing her housework [there still were many women at home then].

When I was listening to WCAU they had talk on it AND Godfrey. I want to say Joel A. Spivack was the talk host that led up to the Godfrey feed, but its been so long ago that may not be correct which is why I didn't use his name earlier. CBS radio was still airing Dear Abby then too. For my younger ear, at that time, Arthur Godfrey sounded old, his guests sounded old, and it seemed like an interruption to whatever talk show was on. But if CBS was making money airing him, then I guess why not.

If you're still here and were listening 40 to 50 years ago, you would have been quite young then. At that time, Godfrey would have been in radio for some 40 years, so to anyone your age, he was old. Although, he was probably younger then than you are now.

At this point in time, the FCC did not allow networks to force affiliates to carry any particular program. Of course, CBS owned WCAU, so that was a different matter. Maybe you recall all the NBC shows KYW-TV did not accept and all the ABC shows WFIL-TV did not take, which ended up on one of the UHF channels or were not carried locally at all. If stations did not want Godfrey, they probably did not want CBS either, and CBS always had the option of finding another station in a market if one would clear its programs.

By standards of the time, Godfrey was "naughty" or a "bad boy." Those standards were pretty restrictive compared to today, but Godfrey did push the envelope. Ever since, all the top radio hosts have been "bad boys."