The future of radio broadcasting?
 

With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

On 30 Mar 2004 15:06:18 GMT, umarc ("umarc") writes:
umarc Here in Boston there is very little news of value on
umarc the radio any more except on WBUR.

Could you elaborate on that? Why do you say there is very
little news, and could you talk about when there was more?

"Shannon" wrote in message
...
With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Where I live news on the radio is already a thing of the past. Radio "news"
consists of reading the newspaper. Thank you Cumulus.

Paul Jensen
Florida's Emerald Coast

On 30 Mar 2004 05:18:58 GMT, (Shannon) wrote:

With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Listening to anything on radio is becoming increasingly difficult.
It's a tossup between the talking head saying "News-Talk 730 - WSC" 25
times every 10 minutes, trying to jack up the ratings by saturating
the listeners with RCA marine communication's shortwave callsign (730
is WSCC) and the saturation advertising playing the same spots 8 times
an hour in a string of like spots played 8 times an hour for 6 minutes
STRAIGHT with no programming whatsoever.

Is it any wonder noone is listening?



Larry W4CSC
POWER is our friend!

On 31 Mar 2004 01:18:54 GMT, umarc wrote:

Well, we've got WBZ, which is mostly short and sensational
stories; and then there are a bunch of stations that use Metro
News, which means they all share the same source, and that
source does a pretty poor job, sometimes not even getting basic
facts right.

If you want anything deeper than headlines, WBUR is pretty much
your only choice.


I'm always suspicious of the news on a radio station that is actually
a PC on a desk and a satellite dish on the roof. How can a radio
station have instant local news when there's really NOONE EMPLOYED?

There's 5 stations in one office, here, and only one of them actually
has a talking head live on the air. He's also an automaton because
the computer warns him he has 10 seconds before its his turn to talk
and starts warning him he has 5 seconds to stop before the next row of
12 spots we've all heard a hundred times in the last 8 hours plays
over again.

They don't even have an engineer, any more.....and it shows.



Larry W4CSC
POWER is our friend!

On 31 Mar 2004 01:18:54 GMT, umarc wrote:

Well, we've got WBZ, which is mostly short and sensational
stories; and then there are a bunch of stations that use Metro
News, which means they all share the same source, and that
source does a pretty poor job, sometimes not even getting basic
facts right.

If you want anything deeper than headlines, WBUR is pretty much
your only choice.

It seems to me that what you're really lamenting is the state of radio
broadcast journalism. However, it's not just radio Journalism, it's
all Journalism.

Maybe it was always this way and we just didn't know any better. The
Internet has suddenly exposed a cacophony of opinions and sources of
information that the public simply had no exposure to before. And as
the influence of the Internet spreads, it becomes possible to check up
on what was difficult to research before. So it comes as no surprise
to me that when the public lifts up this rock one can find all sorts
of weird critters lurking under there.

Now, as to format: Attention spans are shortening among broadcasters.
Many are looking for the quick attention grabbing headline and then
forgetting to back it up with a real meaty story. Why bother? It's
expensive to do good research. Only NPR puts stuff like that on the
air, and most have no desire to compete against government funding.
It's cheaper to produce another headline with a thin story behind it.

What these radio broadcasters don't recognize is the value of a long
term investment. They flit from headline to headline until most of
their listenership can barely lift their knuckles off of the floor.
And by then, most of the advertising for smart people has long gone
along with anyone who uses their opposable digits. This explains the
inanity of most advertising you hear on the air.

Radio is hardly the only business which can't seem to focus on the
long term. In my personal opinion, I think the future will see the
audience slowly melt away toward other media. There is an article in
the NYT recently
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/technology/29guy.html) about how
18-35 year old men are watching less and less TV. As broadband access
improves, audio programs are getting easier to download. I expect
more people will tend to download the programs they want to listen to
rather than see what's on the radio.

Of course, this is just my speculation. It's worth only what you paid
for it.


Jake Brodsky

"Never mind the Turing Test, what about the Turing Graduates?"

On 31 Mar 2004 01:18:54 GMT, umarc ("umarc") writes:
umarc Here in Boston there is very little news of value on
umarc the radio any more except on WBUR.

umarc umar

By the way, how come you sign with this name?
Aren't you Rob Landry from WCRB radio?
(I assume you're not trying to hide, since that's what your
web site is registered as, and you seem to have lots of
other things on the net with your name all over them.)

umarc "...limerick writers everywhere will rejoice at an application for the
umarc first AM [radio station] on Nantucket, with 250 watts on 1550."
umarc --_The M Street Journal_, 24 March 2004

I am hoping that they put a limerick on their application.
Can you post it or give a link? (Or was it just a funny wish?)

On 31 Mar 2004 01:18:54 GMT, umarc ("umarc") writes:

umarc (Christopher C. Stacy) writes:
On 30 Mar 2004 15:06:18 GMT, umarc ("umarc") writes:
umarc Here in Boston there is very little news of value on
umarc the radio any more except on WBUR.

Could you elaborate on that? Why do you say there is very
little news, and could you talk about when there was more?

umarc Well, we've got WBZ, which is mostly short and sensational
umarc stories; and then there are a bunch of stations that use Metro
umarc News, which means they all share the same source, and that
umarc source does a pretty poor job, sometimes not even getting
umarc basic facts right.

umarc If you want anything deeper than headlines,
umarc WBUR is pretty much your only choice.

Are you saying that WRKO and WTTK get all their news from
the same single place, and that it's often not right?

Could you give some examples of WBZ not getting their
basic facts right? Perhaps something they reported
wrong in the last two weeks would be funny.

But that WBUR does better? Cuz it seems to me like WBUR just
has the single source NPR feed (same as WGBH), runs the BBC
headline show, has far less local coverage than the others,
and mostly just runs NPR entertainment.

The part I was most curious about your claim that things
had changed in the market -- I am curious as to when it
used to be any different. Which stations had more news,
and how was their coverage different?

I've only been listening in this market for about 24 years,
and in that time it sounds all about the same to me, except
for the addition of WBUR's change a while back to run NPR
syndicated entertainment shows instead of I don't remember what.
I like news, and would like to hear about how it used to be
better, and how it might be driven that way again.

Where I live news on the radio is already a thing of the past. Radio "news"
consists of reading the newspaper. Thank you Cumulus.

I'm aware there's at least one station in the US who uses a news feed
from our BBC.

Is there any interest in our slant on news?
--
Philip de Cadenet G4ZOW
Transmitters 'R' Us
http://www.transmittersrus.com

"Paul Jensen" wrote in message ...
"Shannon" wrote in message
...
With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Where I live news on the radio is already a thing of the past. Radio "news"
consists of reading the newspaper. Thank you Cumulus.

Paul Jensen
Florida's Emerald Coast

In LA KNX and KFWB (both Infinity stations) are pre-empting news with
sports, that is complete games. And oh yes, the new 'Liberal' network
called Air America starts today, evidently with time leased on KBLA
1580==Ted Shireman

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
On 30 Mar 2004 05:18:58 GMT, (Shannon) wrote:

With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Listening to anything on radio is becoming increasingly difficult.
It's a tossup between the talking head saying "News-Talk 730 - WSC" 25
times every 10 minutes, trying to jack up the ratings by saturating
the listeners with RCA marine communication's shortwave callsign (730
is WSCC) and the saturation advertising playing the same spots 8 times
an hour in a string of like spots played 8 times an hour for 6 minutes
STRAIGHT with no programming whatsoever.

Is it any wonder noone is listening?


It's certainly a wonder that the spot load on "News Talk 730" is as heavy as
you claim it to be if, as you say, no one is listening. Know what? I'll
bet that lots and lots of people are listening. I wonder why these
advertisers (and so many of them, too) are paying to have their spots not
listened to by anybody. Odd. What's really odd is that the station seems,
by your count, to be airing 48 minutes of spots an hour. Isn't that a tad
unusual? I really don't know the answer.

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

There's 5 stations in one office, here, and only one of them actually
has a talking head live on the air. He's also an automaton because
the computer warns him he has 10 seconds before its his turn to talk
and starts warning him he has 5 seconds to stop before the next row of
12 spots we've all heard a hundred times in the last 8 hours plays
over again.

There are 10 AMs in the metro; WSCC is in a virtual 3-way tie for second. It
has about a 2.6 share, and bills proportionally to the ratings share.

However, were it not part of a successful cluster, the station would
probably not be viable as a stand-alone.

"Ted Shireman" wrote in message
...
"Paul Jensen" wrote in message
...
"Shannon" wrote in message
...
With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Where I live news on the radio is already a thing of the past. Radio
"news"
consists of reading the newspaper. Thank you Cumulus.

Paul Jensen
Florida's Emerald Coast

In LA KNX and KFWB (both Infinity stations) are pre-empting news with
sports, that is complete games. And oh yes, the new 'Liberal' network
called Air America starts today, evidently with time leased on KBLA
1580==Ted Shireman

What games are on KNX?

Ted Shireman wrote:
"Paul Jensen" wrote in message ...

"Shannon" wrote in message
...

With news updates on cell phones and watches, and immediate Internet
news coverage, will listening to news on the radio become something of
the past?

Where I live news on the radio is already a thing of the past. Radio "news"
consists of reading the newspaper. Thank you Cumulus.

Paul Jensen
Florida's Emerald Coast


In LA KNX and KFWB (both Infinity stations) are pre-empting news with
sports, that is complete games.

KFWB has the sports. KNX has the cooking and computer shows that they
got by luring people from KFI....

And oh yes, the new 'Liberal' network
called Air America starts today, evidently with time leased on KBLA
1580==Ted Shireman

Didn't have a radio near me at work....how did that go?

On 31 Mar 2004 23:06:40 GMT, "Don Forsling" wrote:


It's certainly a wonder that the spot load on "News Talk 730" is as heavy as
you claim it to be if, as you say, no one is listening. Know what? I'll
bet that lots and lots of people are listening. I wonder why these
advertisers (and so many of them, too) are paying to have their spots not
listened to by anybody. Odd. What's really odd is that the station seems,
by your count, to be airing 48 minutes of spots an hour. Isn't that a tad
unusual? I really don't know the answer.

Well (blush), I may have exaggerated a bit, but you know EXACTLY what
I'm talking about.......I hope.



Larry W4CSC
POWER is our friend!

On 3 Apr 2004 15:32:09 GMT, "David Eduardo"
wrote:


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

There's 5 stations in one office, here, and only one of them actually
has a talking head live on the air. He's also an automaton because
the computer warns him he has 10 seconds before its his turn to talk
and starts warning him he has 5 seconds to stop before the next row of
12 spots we've all heard a hundred times in the last 8 hours plays
over again.

There are 10 AMs in the metro; WSCC is in a virtual 3-way tie for second. It
has about a 2.6 share, and bills proportionally to the ratings share.

However, were it not part of a successful cluster, the station would
probably not be viable as a stand-alone.


Number one is Citadel's WTMA on 1250?

Just a guess....(c;

TMA's sister station is WTMZ 910. It's a bit of a shock for the
visitors to Charleston to hear "good music" on AM, but that's what's
on there. It failed, miserably, as news-talk, sports, sports-talk,
and some other formats. Not sure it shows up in the rating book,
though. The locals all listen to it over 40 years old. Reminds them
of Harry Weaver's old WOKE on 1340 I used to work for part-time when I
was a Navy sailor. That station actually had a STUDIO, complete with
a Steinway grand! There was a big sign up over the board we all had
to stare at all day. "If in doubt, DON'T do it, DON'T say it and, for
God's sake, DON'T PLAY IT!" Harry, the station's owner and VERY
conservative, WAS listening to what you did. I think he had the first
speed dial phone in the world...(c; It never made the ratings book,
either, but I spent many happy hours sitting at our little home-made
console with two old transcription players and 2 cart machines in the
middle of Diana's Dress Shop window on King Street actually feeding
the station audio into a telephone loop from a permanently-installed
jack in the wall direct to the station. For a young kid, ratings or
not, this was RADIO in 1968.

Hand me that Harry James album, would you? Lemme cue it up on 2.
It's next on the air after John, our silver-tongue, dashingly dressed
radio personality those two ladys are blushing over across the room on
the other end of the mic cord interviews a customer on why she's
buying that particular dress from Diana's. Thanks.

Wireless mic on the end of a Marti in the van my ass.....That ain't
radio!



Larry W4CSC
POWER is our friend!