WRKO News Bleep-up

[tony r]

Heard Mary Blake do the morning news on 96.9 speaking of good staff.

 

[SidelineSid]

LucyLu wrote:

Did Howie really call the METRO news METCO news? Oh my! 

Gee, Howie Carr was upset at an outsourced, marketplace "newsroom" GETTING IT WRONG?   

He's upset that now "news" is done IN ANOTHER BUILDING?

Hmmmm...Didn't he help lead the fight at Entercom, along with Gerry Callahan, to eliminate AFTRA and the award winning WRKO news team?

I guess it only matters when those outsourced "news" folks get it wrong and it reflects on Howie personally!

Things are different these days in Somerville....uhhh...Lincoln.

 

[PennBlue]

Here's the challenge: back-up up your allegations with anything whatsoever. To remind you, here's what you've alleged:

"These METRO readers never worked in a real news environment...never studied journalism and only do what they are told to do"

Have at it.

31 hours later, not a peep. Just as I expected.

Since I have a life...and don't spend 24/7 looking at this board...Unlike you ! I did not respond to your calling out until now...but since you asked...and I hate to name names...but here are a few examples of your challenge.

Joe S. does the WRKO News in the morning now, right ? What news qualifications does he have..where has he ever worked in news outside of Metro. Joe is a great traffic reporter..but a newscaster ???? in Boston ?????

The Pike guy in the afternoons...where was he before Metro...frankly I don't even know...but I do know that he should have known the difference between Dennis Johnson and Dennis Rodman...okay, make one mistake..it can be forgiven, but to re-read the same mistake over several times during the afternoon ?? inexcusable. not only for him..but whoever is running Metro News.

Finally..I don;t know her name...but there is a girl reading the news on weekends on WRKO...who cannot write for broadcast...cannot READ and cannot pronouce words. I don;t know her background either.

If I offended anyone...sorry. You cannot make Chicken Salad out of Chicken S---....but that is what RKO and METRO NEWS are trying to do everyday.
Management should admit its mistake and try to hire a legit news department. I doubt the ones who were all fired are all available now.

 

[UncleArnie]

Joe S. ...What news qualifications does he have..where has he ever worked in news outside of Metro.

The Pike guy in the afternoons...where was he before Metro...frankly I don't even know.

Finally..I don;t know her name...but there is a girl reading the news on weekends on WRKO...I don;t know her background either.

You're very well informed indeed. I don't know why I ever doubted the level of your inside knowledge of Metro.

 

[PennBlue]

SInce you seem so "gung-ho" on Metro doing news...and how qualified everyone there is...perhaps you can print for us all their resume's and news backgrounds. I think my observations are legit.... now it is your turn to.... HAVE AT IT ... as you say. Convince us that these are qualified news people who could be hired at a "real" station that does news...and not just readers...and stumblers...or radio wanna-be's Your turn, Mr Metro !

 

[UncleArnie]

SInce you seem so "gung-ho" on Metro doing news...and how qualified everyone there is...perhaps you can print for us all their resume's and news backgrounds. I think my observations are legit.... now it is your turn to.... HAVE AT IT ... as you say. Convince us that these are qualified news people who could be hired at a "real" station that does news...and not just readers...and stumblers...or radio wanna-be's Your turn, Mr Metro !

No problem, but first let me point out that I was precisely correct on your ignorance. You made a blanket statement about the qualifications of the Metro news staff without any actual knowledge of said staff. Say you don't like their work, say you don't like what WRKO is doing, but don't make these insulting generalizations about radio professionals without knowing what you're talking about. It is childish and and irresponsible.

Who do you want to know about first? Scott Pike, the target of your ridicule?

Scott Pike is a 1995 graduate of Holy Cross with a degree in political science. He previously worked as a news anchor at WRHI in North Carolina as well as news director at WSUN in Tampa, with a couple other stops as well.

Joe Stapleton? Just a traffic reporter?

Joe has been at Metro for the past 22 years. During that time, he has been actively gathering and reporting both traffic and news for many major radio outlets in Boston, including WRKO, as well as WBZ, WPLM, WBZ-TV, and a host of others. Traffic, of course, develops faster and has a much more immediate impact than most news stories do. Despite the derisive nature of most comments about traffic reporting, it is not an easy job.

These unnamed weekend folks?

The group of four that make up the regular weekend staff consists of two women and two men. They have between them 14 previous radio news jobs, three on-camera television jobs, three local AP awards, one Marconi, two ACE's, and a local Emmy.

Everyone who works on WRKO also contributes to Metro's wire service Metro Source. This same wire service is in use by all the stations in the CBS group, Entercom, and Greater Media. Much of the news WRKO's former staff reported came from Metro Source. It was written by this same group of people who are now being maligned.

The local management at Metro has in it three former news directors and over 50 years of combined experience in radio news. The news director, Bob McNeill, has been anchoring WCRB news for 8 years and has nearly three decades of news experience. He is a full professor of journalism at Curry College. Their GM and AGM are a Syracuse and Boston College graduate respectively, both having run news departments in the past.

The news staff also has at least four other experienced anchors on any number of stations you don't even realize are being anchored by Metro. Their operation is a 24/7/365 one, which is more than any other radio outlet other than WBZ can say. Metro does not hire unexperienced personnel and, since no one has in-house traffic reporters, virtually every Metro anchor has a background in news.

But, I guess, you're right. Nobody would hire these people. Just like WRKO wouldn't hire Rod Fritz (former Metro news director), Ben Parker (former Metro news anchor), Sharon Smith (former Metro news anchor), or Deb Daigle (former Metro news anchor). You can't have it both ways: do talented people leave Metro or were there never any talented people there to begin with? WRKO built their late news staff from Metro personnel and they didn't do it all that long ago. Metro was doing the news for WRKO 7 days a week as recently as seven years ago.

I think everyone's ire should be aimed somewhere else at someone else. After all, Metro's only doing about 2 minutes of news an hour for WRKO, half of which is traffic. I think most of this criticism is about the lack of news on the station, more than the quality of it.

But, I guess you're right. Dennis Johnson is not Dennis Rodman. Let's just have Scott Pike shot then everything will be right with the world. We can all go back to being perfectly above reproach. Certainly, if PennBlue ever had to be accountable for the 13 typos I counted in his past two posts, he would be out of a job too.

 

[SidelineSid]

UncleArnie, I am curious about something you posted.

The group of four that make up the regular weekend staff consists of two women and two men. They have between them 14 previous radio news jobs, three on-camera television jobs, three local AP awards, one Marconi, two ACE's, and a local Emmy.

According to the NAB site the Marconi is pretty much a STATION award, not an individual award, the exception would be for "personality of the year".
http://www.nab.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News_room&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=6811
So are you saying a talk show host is doing news/traffic on metro, or that someone who worked at a station that won a Marconi is now working for Metro?

One other point to question, you posted:

Their operation is a 24/7/365 one, which is more than any other radio outlet other than WBZ can say.

Just want to point out that the "forgotten giant" of Boston radio also staffs its operation 24/7/365.

8)

 

[PennBlue]

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa !!!

Uncle Arnie .... I appreciate the sales pitch...and thank you for shareing the information. You obviously have a fetish for Metro. I respect all the awards and the job history of all the people you mentioned. It is impressive.
My final question is. Then why do they sound so bad ???
Maybe it is just a subjective thing on my part...but I think a good radio newsperson should also sound authoritative and ....well...just good ! They don't ( in my opinion and being very respectful of their previous job history, thanks to your enlightenment)

PS...I apologize for all my previous typos...I may have even made some here. or spelled a word or two wrong.