• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WSB Radio 24 hour news center at 3 AM Sunday morning

B

BarryATL

With all the hype WSB makes about their 24 hour news coverage I could not help but see the irony. Here is what I heard driving home at 3AM Sunday morning:

2:59:55 Local ID and WSB News Sounder
2:59:59 CBS Radio Piano Note
3:00:00 CBS Radio News
3:02:00 Commercial and promos for 3 minutes
3:05:00 Traffic
3:05:35 Recorded Kirk Mellish's weather with NO local temps or conditions
3:05:55 Sean Hannity promo
3:06:00 Back to syndicated programming

There was nothing local in the entire set except for the traffic. Whomever is minding the board did not even put in the local temp behind Kirk's recorded weather.

Has it always been like this or is WSB making cuts during the off hours?
 
WGST once ran a promo of a call they recorded to the WSB News Room at 2:45 AM. The phone rang for 50 seconds with no answer.
 
I noticed the same thing. Happened yesterday morning really early, too. I was wondering, guessing maybe the overnight news guy had gotten sick or something. He had been on the air earlier during the overnight period.
 
Chance Mike_Rafone would be the second to weigh in on this subject: 100%. Are we down to taking detailed notes at 3:00 AM on the weekend? 106.7 ain't coming back from the dead, you two.
 
The point, TheBigA, is they talk a good game about how active their news operation is, but there are holes. They may not be ab le to deliver. I don't know for certain but I am sure there are shootings, robberies, all kinds of crime stuff they could report. Seems like they check out after a certain time and may not be prepared should something dramatic break in the overnights. That's not what a "news leader" is all about. Not that AN1067 is much better, but at least they have live local people doing the TOH and BOH headlines. And it seems there are onmly a few of us who are willing to call their hand at it.
 
Mike_Rafone said:
The point, TheBigA, is they talk a good game about how active their news operation is, but there are holes. They may not be ab le to deliver.
Click to expand...

Maybe you need to see the bigger picture. They tried to do all-news in Houston and gave up. There's another station or two in town trying to beat them and they can't. You don't get graded on what you do at 3AM Sunday morning. That's when most stations are doing transmitter maintenance. You get graded when people are awake and they go to you in prime time. You either deliver or you don't. I can tell you that in Philadelphia, KYW often runs pre-recorded local news coverage at that hour, unless something major is happening, like a winter storm. Call your doctor at 3AM Sunday morning, and tell me who you get. I bet its an answering service. I called the gas company about a leak on Sunday morning, and got a recording. You don't have to be there Sunday at 3AM to be a news leader. Especially in Atlanta. They're the news leader because they're #1 and no one can touch them. That's what counts.
 
We haven't heard from the Greek chorus for awhile; it is still singing the same tiresome tune. Are we really down to taking detailed notes at 3:00 in the morning on the weekend and then expounding upon them without any inkling whether something may have happened behind the scenes?
 
Last edited:
Have you noticed they've got that Lexicon time compression box cranked up to the max on their overnight programming?
Who could listen to that?
 
TheBigA said:
Maybe you need to see the bigger picture.
Click to expand...

Yes, I see clearly the bigger picture. I'm through grieving and longing for AN1067 to triumph. My point is what Wizbee claims to produce and what they actually do produce is not the same. Yes, there could have been circumstances beyond normal that Sunday Barry was listening, but they tout they are "active" all the time. If they aren't they shouldn't get away with claiming it. I heard Mark Alewine this morning do the 2 AM local news, but didn't stay awake to check out the 3 AM cast. I don't see anything wrong with taping unchanging local news. If KYW did it, I'm certain others have, too. But do the others blow their own horn that they are "on alert" 24/7?

Yes, I have a bias against Wizbee because they have for years intimidated competition in tihs market. It appeared for a time AN1067 was going to stand up to them, but they've wimped out … just like WCNN, WYZE, and WGST. It's a shame.
 
I sometimes can't sleep in the middle of the night and turn on the radio. WSB has always been live and local with Mark Alewine in the overnight hours. 3 o'clock on Sunday morning? Cut them a little slack. I'm sure if something big happened, they would go live even in the middle of the night on Sunday.
 
Illness

A little birdie from over there says the anchor got really sick.
 
Kind of reminds me of the old, old (bad) joke about the guy who wanted to see Los Angeles from the freeway. And ends up having a Sunday morning wreck because he had been told NO ONE ELSE would be out that time of day. His mentor forgot about the Seventh Day Adventist guy who WOULD BE THERE on a Sunday morning, on his way to work.
 
Mike_Rafone said:
Yes, I see clearly the bigger picture. I'm through grieving and longing for AN1067 to triumph. My point is what Wizbee claims to produce and what they actually do produce is not the same. Yes, there could have been circumstances beyond normal that Sunday Barry was listening, but they tout they are "active" all the time. If they aren't they shouldn't get away with claiming it. I heard Mark Alewine this morning do the 2 AM local news, but didn't stay awake to check out the 3 AM cast. I don't see anything wrong with taping unchanging local news. If KYW did it, I'm certain others have, too. But do the others blow their own horn that they are "on alert" 24/7?

Yes, I have a bias against Wizbee because they have for years intimidated competition in tihs market. It appeared for a time AN1067 was going to stand up to them, but they've wimped out … just like WCNN, WYZE, and WGST. It's a shame.
Click to expand...

WSB radio is in the same building as channel 2. I will bet that channel 2 has folks in the building preparing for the "early AM news" and doing reports for the early morning news casts. Unless it is a major story / disaster once the updates are recorded why would you worry about "news gathering" when you have the #1 local news team (Channel 2) and the AJC (another Cox property) gathering news 24 / 7.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom