"You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

[Hunter]

AllAccess.com is reporting that KFWB is selling weekend mornings block programming. Sat & Sun 6A - 8A one hour blocks at $6,000 an hour....Duffy, what are you doing?

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

I'm really dissapointed in KNX and KFWB when compared to KCBS. At least KNX has more structure now and the Dodgers maybe moving back to KABC.

I found it amazing on the weekends that there were blocks of time when neither station was running a traffic report becuase either KNX was in some real estate or computer show and KFWB was in the middle of some long Dodger game. Yikes...and the traffic down here stinks.

 

[K6JHU]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

KFWB - Beginning of the end.

Do they really need the money that badly that they need to toss away the image?

But doesn't KLAC also do this on the weekends?

 

[Hunter]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

KFWB - Beginning of the end.
Do they really need the money that badly that they need to toss away the image?
But doesn't KLAC also do this on the weekends?

Infomercials are like Heroin. A quick easy fix that will generate excellent cash flow with no staffing costs, for what is otherwise a revenue wasteland....the only real cost is what it does to the station's credibility as a serious news outlet. Plus once you get on this train, the easy money is addictive...and very hard to stop.

It will certainly hurt KFWB's news reputation more than KLAC's sports reputation.

With the Dodgers gone, it will help B's revenue outlook though.

 

[aludlum]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

Don't believe everything you read online. All Access posted a forwarded email written by an over-zealous AE.

We are NOT airing any block programming infomercials. There are no plans now and none in the future. When we pulled our Dodgers' offer mid-September we recommitted to what we've done for 35 of the last 40 years, which is ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME.

Mr. Kramer's post about weekend traffic is something we are very aware of. It is very important to me that KFWB be absolutely dependable -- that you know what you are going to get 24/7. As a news guy -- I'm happy to have an opportunity to showcase our product without inconsistencies.

I've been with the station 10 years -- and while I'm biased -- I don't think we've sounded brighter and sharper than we do now. And so contrary to the All Access post -- I've added 3-4 minutes of news to every hour. You'll now hear more minutes of news on KFWB than any other commercial news station.

Hopefully this is just the "beginning" of something better.

Andy Ludlum
Program Director
KFWB NEWS 980

 

[nmoore6676]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

[

I found it amazing on the weekends that there were blocks of time when neither station was running a traffic report[/color]

Other stations, like KFI, run traffic on the weekends.

Infomercials are like Heroin. A quick easy fix that will generate excellent cash flow with no staffing costs, for what is otherwise a revenue wastela[nd....the only real cost is what it does to the station's credibility as a serious news outlet. Plus once you get on this train, the easy money is addictive...and very hard to stop.

I remember when I was a kid that a lot of stations were brokered after midnight. Usually the 50KW flamethrowers in the South and Midwest where they sold baby chicks and patent medicines to farmers accompanied by country or gospel music. It's not a new concept, just reworked. And look at the number of TV stations and cable channels that do it at night. No more all night movies and Cal Worthington with his dog Spot.

Infomercials are a bit much for the all news stations, but not a surprise on KLAC and KRLA. Maybe CBS should concentrate on having one all news station and put the features and the brokered programs on the other. With no more Dodgers on KFWB that should be more feasible.

 

[Hunter]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

Don't believe everything you read online. All Access posted a forwarded email written by an over-zealous AE.

We are NOT airing any block programming infomercials. There are no plans now and none in the future. When we pulled our Dodgers' offer mid-September we recommitted to what we've done for 35 of the last 40 years, which is ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME.

Mr. Kramer's post about weekend traffic is something we are very aware of. It is very important to me that KFWB be absolutely dependable -- that you know what you are going to get 24/7. As a news guy -- I'm happy to have an opportunity to showcase our product without inconsistencies.

I've been with the station 10 years -- and while I'm biased -- I don't think we've sounded brighter and sharper than we do now. And so contrary to the All Access post -- I've added 3-4 minutes of news to every hour. You'll now hear more minutes of news on KFWB than any other commercial news station.

Hopefully this is just the "beginning" of something better.

Andy Ludlum
Program Director
KFWB NEWS 980

Mr. Ludlum,
I write this assuming that it is legitimately you who responded to my post and not someone posing as you - as I see that your response is the only post you've ever made on this board. Thank you for taking a moment to set the record straight. We in the industry respect the reputation and the long tradition that KFWB has earned in serving the market and I, at least, am happy to hear that the statiion isn't shamlessly throwing credible caution to the wind for the sake of attempting to hit budget.

I am sorry that I contributed to the spread of an unfounded rumour.

 

[aludlum]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

Mr. Ludlum,
I write this assuming that it is legitimately you who responded to my post and not someone posing as you - as I see that your response is the only post you've ever made on this board. Thank you for taking a moment to set the record straight. We in the industry respect the reputation and the long tradition that KFWB has earned in serving the market and I, at least, am happy to hear that the statiion isn't shamlessly throwing credible caution to the wind for the sake of attempting to hit budget.

I am sorry that I contributed to the spread of an unfounded rumour.

For lots of reasons it's a problem for me to do too much posting on boards. I'd probably pass this gem along too...which is why I wanted to respond. One thing that's been reinforced over the last 5 years is that LA is very different from other markets - there is a clear expectation that all news stations really be all news. I suppose that doesn't make us very sexy --we're more like the light company -- you expect to flip to switch and have the lights come one. When they don't, you're unhappy. My job is to keep you from reaching for the candles!

 

[grudgelfeltz]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

For lots of reasons it's a problem for me to do too much posting on boards. I'd probably pass this gem along too...which is why I wanted to respond. One thing that's been reinforced over the last 5 years is that LA is very different from other markets - there is a clear expectation that all news stations really be all news. I suppose that doesn't make us very sexy --we're more like the light company -- you expect to flip to switch and have the lights come one. When they don't, you're unhappy. My job is to keep you from reaching for the candles!

Most other markets outside the Top 5 have never had an all-news station, except for teapot CNN Headline News repeaters just trying to keep the needle moving at minimum expense. All-news is just too expensive to be profitable except in the largest population centers. But it's been popular in most markets for news-talkers with strong local news operations to brand themselves as "NewsRadio" which capitalizes on (or maybe feeds) the public's tendency to think that talk hosts who agree with them are journalists.

In markets which have historically had all-news, such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, I suspect listeners do indeedexpect all-news to be all-news. Congrats to KFWB on restoring the concept. I'm one of the many frustrated listeners. Your analogy to the electric company is most appropriate. Hearing baseball on KFWB was like turning on the light switch and getting running water. Hearing infomercials would be like turning on the lights and getting inundated with sewage.

 

[Hunter]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

--we're more like the light company -- you expect to flip to switch and have the lights come one. When they don't, you're unhappy. My job is to keep you from reaching for the candles!

Your analogy to the electric company is most appropriate. Hearing baseball on KFWB was like turning on the light switch and getting running water.Hearing infomercials would be like turning on the lights and getting inundated with sewage.

Your analogy is most appropriate as well.

 

[oaktree]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

Wonder what happens to the "over zealous AE" who leaked the, uh, "breaking news" in the first place...

 

[Shoot From Hip]

Re: "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You....A Ronco Pocket Fisherman Hour"

From Tom Taylor's Friday column:
Yes, KFWB did take a flyer on selling Saturday/Sunday morning long-form programming.
T-R-I printed that story Wednesday morning and things got interesting fast. (I had a copy of the AE’s original email, by the way.) Give KFWB credit for not trying to dissemble on this one: GM Pat Duffy now tells me that after he let the Dodgers contract go “I thought, let’s see what’s out there.” And he let a senior account executive do an email solicitation with KFWB offering long-form sales opportunities, for the first time in 40 years. The result? Nothing that persuaded Duffy to break his “all news, all the time” format. In fact I’d suggest that it’s a good thing the Dodgers are taking those 162 regular season games plus pre-season contests over to KABC. Baseball’s a better fit for a talker like KABC (790) than for all-news KFWB (980). And if you’ve got a health-care-product infomercial to place in L.A. – don’t call KFWB.