ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

As of Friday, ABC (the TV people, who also provide coverage to Citadel's ABC
Radio network) laid off 1/3 of its workforce.

I could never understand why ABC had to have separate bureaus from their O&O
stations. Now, I guess they won't. A 1/3 cut in staff is dramatic. Even
Brian Rooney was let go. The NY Times reports that their London bureau, which
covers much of Europe has gone from 100 people to about a dozen today.

I'm reading a story from a 1934 radio magazine when the networks began
building their news staffs. Prior to that time, the networks didn't
have much of a news presence. Newspapers hated the competition so much that
they began de-listing the networks from their daily radio program listings.
There was actualy a time when newspapers dropped radio coverage except for
their own stations if they had them. My how times have changed.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

On May 3, 2:11 pm, (David Kaye) wrote:
As of Friday, ABC (the TV people, who also provide coverage to Citadel's
ABC
Radio network) laid off 1/3 of its workforce.

I could never understand why ABC had to have separate bureaus from their
O&O
stations. Now, I guess they won't. A 1/3 cut in staff is dramatic.
Even
Brian Rooney was let go. The NY Times reports that their London bureau
, which
covers much of Europe has gone from 100 people to about a dozen today.


I'm reading a story from a 1934 radio magazine when the networks began
building their news staffs. Prior to that time, the networks didn't
have much of a news presence. Newspapers hated the competition so much
that
they began de-listing the networks from their daily radio program listing
s.
There was actualy a time when newspapers dropped radio coverage except fo
r
their own stations if they had them. My how times have changed.

I wonder if there were any changes that might explain the technical
difficulty which had KGO repeating insurance ads and promos at the
beginning of Brian Copeland's Sunday show...They tried to start the
bumper music a bunch of times, with no host voice following, and a few
times with someone mumbling of technical difficulty, then lots of
repeated spots....took 25 minutes to get the show started.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

On Mon, 3 May 2010 17:11:04 EDT, (David Kaye)
wrote:


I'm reading a story from a 1934 radio magazine when the networks began
building their news staffs. Prior to that time, the networks didn't
have much of a news presence. Newspapers hated the competition so much that
they began de-listing the networks from their daily radio program listings.
There was actualy a time when newspapers dropped radio coverage except for
their own stations if they had them. My how times have changed.

As recently as 1980, the news staff at KMJ, Fresno was forbidden from
reporting any local news that had not already appeared in the co-owned
Fresno Bee. By a year or two later, some stiff competition had put an
end to that. McClatchy Newspapers later sold off its broadcast
holdings.

Mark Howell

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

Herb Louis wrote:

Why do we need "networks" anymore when we have one giant amorphous
Inter-network to distribute just about any kind of media you want?

Funding is the only reason I can think of. Programs such as "This American
Life" couldn't be produced without the backing of the 500 Public Radio
International member stations carrying the program.

I noticed the latest market ratings for SF & Sac show some audio streams
creeping in on the bottom of the ratings. I assume that is a
relatively recent phenomenon.

Or it may be an anomaly due to one PPM user happening to listen to a stream
from time to time.

Look at Leo LaPorte. He still has his radio connections otherwise he
is pretty well self contained. Can't Art Bell (for example) or anyone
else with a following do the same thing?

But both Leo and Art are distributed by a network, Premiere, the distribution
arm of Clear Channel.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

blank wrote:

bumper music a bunch of times, with no host voice following, and a few
times with someone mumbling of technical difficulty, then lots of
repeated spots....took 25 minutes to get the show started.

I'm reminded of a time when KXL in Portland was running Talknet (this goes
back a few years obviously). Apparently they only part of an hour of the show
and no backup, so they filled over 40 minutes with PSAs and ads.

With no backup to a live program and no music in the format, what's a board op
to do? At least in a music format you can play tunes and nobody's the wiser.
But a dozen spots and people do notice.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

In article ,
blank wrote:

I wonder if there were any changes that might explain the technical
difficulty which had KGO repeating insurance ads and promos at the
beginning of Brian Copeland's Sunday show...They tried to start the
bumper music a bunch of times, with no host voice following, and a few
times with someone mumbling of technical difficulty, then lots of
repeated spots....took 25 minutes to get the show started.

That was a problem (or perhaps a cluster of problems) at KGO. It
had nothing to do with the ABC Radio network news.


Patty

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

On May 3, 2:11 pm, (David Kaye) wrote:
As of Friday, ABC (the TV people, who also provide coverage to Citadel's
ABC
Radio network) laid off 1/3 of its workforce.

I could never understand why ABC had to have separate bureaus from their
O&O
stations. Now, I guess they won't. A 1/3 cut in staff is dramatic.
Even
Brian Rooney was let go. The NY Times reports that their London bureau
, which
covers much of Europe has gone from 100 people to about a dozen today.


I'm reading a story from a 1934 radio magazine when the networks began
building their news staffs. Prior to that time, the networks didn't
have much of a news presence. Newspapers hated the competition so much
that
they began de-listing the networks from their daily radio program listing
s.
There was actualy a time when newspapers dropped radio coverage except fo
r
their own stations if they had them. My how times have changed.

If they are just talking heads, well sad but maybe not the end of the
world. If they were actually doing journalism, then it is a loss.

You look at the women on Fox News and that Sex Pistols hit comes to
mind: We're so pretty, oh so pretty, pretty vacant.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

David Kaye had written:
|
| I could never understand why ABC had to have separate bureaus from their O&O
| stations.

I never understood why the networks had to have their own bureaus
and their own correspondents when their affiliate stations, in most
areas, had perfectly capable news departments. I guess the network
felt it got a better quality product that way. Somehow, on the
radio side of things, it could be somewhat different. I remember
contributing quite a few stories to the CBS network when I was a
reporter in KTRH in Houston. Those stringer checks were a nice
little bonus.

| I'm reading a story from a 1934 radio magazine when the networks began
| building their news staffs. Prior to that time, the networks didn't
| have much of a news presence. Newspapers hated the competition so much that
| they began de-listing the networks from their daily radio program listings.
| There was actualy a time when newspapers dropped radio coverage except for
| their own stations if they had them. My how times have changed.

Now newspapers don't cover radio at all.


--
Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups
If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

Mark Roberts wrote:

I never understood why the networks had to have their own bureaus
and their own correspondents when their affiliate stations, in most
areas, had perfectly capable news departments.

During the days of NBC Monitor, there were lots of reports from affiliate
stations. Likewise with Mutual. But CBS and ABC seemed to not like dealing
with the affiliates much at all, stringers yes, but not affiliates.

I guess the network
felt it got a better quality product that way.

I remember when ABC Radio had Peter Cleaveland stationed at KGO specifically
to do network takes on Bay Area stories. We never heard him except on the
network news. I'm sure he was a nice guy and all, but I don't remember his
news coverage being any better than that of Ray Tannehill or others of the day
who did news locally at KGO.


Now newspapers don't cover radio at all.

Well, times have changed, of course. The newspapers do cover TV to an
annoying degree.

ABC Lays Off 1/3 of Staff
 

On Tue, 4 May 2010 00:16:00 EDT, (David Kaye)
wrote:

With no backup to a live program and no music in the format, what's a board op
to do? At least in a music format you can play tunes and nobody's the wiser.
But a dozen spots and people do notice.

In Virginia, I believe we had a couple or three hours of non-dated
Clark Howard shows burned to a CD. We also had a CD filled with
station promos and PSAs, but for short-term fill.