All-News/Talk Radio

Just this past week, Cumulus Media officially moved out of the ABC News Radio building at 125 West End Avenue in New York City.

Cumulus Media officially ended its contract to distribute ABC News Radio at the start of this year. They ended their contract in favor of a similar one with CNN. However, unlike the ABC News Radio contract, the CNN contract has no mention of the news organization in its broadcasts. That is why we call it a white-label contract. Cumulus and its subsidiary WestwoodOne will be utilizing CNN’s vast news resources and content under the generic name of WestwoodOne News. The contract also calls for stations to use the content from CNN under their own branding. For example, a country station with the branding of Nash FM could call their newscasts 'Nash News'. Essentially, this contract gives a lot of leeway to affiliates, while still providing great and reliable news content from a reliable source. I have included a sample top of the hour newscast from WestwoodOne News at the top of this post. 

Now, lets talk about how this new arrangement will benefit ABC News Radio. They now have more freedom to sell directly to affiliates as opposed to being constricted by a middle-man, or third-party, such as Cumulus/WestwoodOne. That being said, they will need some help from an outside party to get the ball rolling. This is where their new contract with Skyview Networks, a radio sales, marketing, distribution, and satellite company out of Arizona comes in. Although specifics were not released, I can tell you that this contract calls for Skyview to provide simple operational support to ABC in regards to reaching out to affiliates and using their own satellite network to assist ABC with the technical operations now that the much larger WestwoodOne is no longer in the picture. Disney, ABC's parent company, apparently has renewed passion for the news radio business, since they have agreed to fund the expansion of ABC News Radio in order for them to distribute the content themselves (with very little help from Skyview). The assistance from Skyview is not nearly as extensive as the former agreement with Cumulus/WestwoodOne. 

This all being said, Cumulus has officially left the building (literally and figuratively). They have moved all technical operations out of the ABC News Radio building on West End Avenue in Manhattan and into an office park in Purchase, Westchester County, NY. Their new Network and Technical Operations Center is state of the art with a glass wall separating the rack room (equipment room) and the technical operators' workspace. It should be noted that this new space will not be used to distribute the CBS content based at the CBS Broadcast Center, at least not any time soon. That content will originate and be distributed from a control room within the Broadcast Center.

In an earlier post, I spoke about radio networks and how they work. So, today I thought I'd focus on one particular network that has been making headlines lately. WestwoodOne, the largest independent radio network in the country has recently been acquired by Cumulus Media, an Atlanta-based company known for having bought the former ABC Radio Network and its owned and operated stations from the bankrupt Citadel Broadcasting several years ago. 

How does this relate to news radio? It relates because this acquisition brings two large news radio networks under the same umbrella. WestwoodOne, formerly known as Dial Global, owned the distribution rights to the CBS Radio Network, which syndicates the CBS World News Roundup, heard at the top of the hour nationally on hundreds of affiliates and locally on WCBS 880, one of the largest WestwoodOne affiliates, according to WCBS News and Programming Director Tim Scheld, whom I had the opportunity to speak with last week, the CBS Evening News audio simulcast, CNBC Business News reports, among other well-known features and shows. WestwoodOne's sister company Cumulus Media Networks (which will soon be a part of WestwoodOne or vice versa) owns the distribution rights to CBS Radio Network's  primary competitor, ABC Radio News, known for its top of the hour news reports on 77 WABC Radio, among many other affiliates nationally. It also syndicates many other features and provides news stories to affiliates. 

How will this pan out in the long run? I guess we'll see. In my opinion, it might cause somewhat of an issue in relation to competition, but it should not have much of an effect because WestwoodOne and Cumulus are only responsible for distribution of the respective networks. They have little to do with content. Content is still produced by CBS News and ABC News respectively. Although this acquisition has been completed, the integration of WestwoodOne in to the Cumulus fold will take until possibly late 2014, according to Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey.

                                                                                     Blog Recap:

I have learned a lot while writing this blog each week. Let's recap. First, I spoke about news radio stations that remain independently owned and still committed to journalistic integrity and not so much profit. Then, I spoke about how this innovative format came to be and the history of one of the most successful and famous radio news operations in the country. I then moved on to compare two of the most well-known news radio stations in the country, WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS and the irony and issue they present as part of the same media company, CBS. 

I then thought it remiss if I didn't compare the two top-rated talk radio stations in New York and, possibly, the country, WABC Radio and WOR Radio. The next week, I spoke about convergence and the increased popularity of the practice of consolidating news radio/tv operations in to a single facility. I then moved on to talk about the changing demographics of news radio operations. I accomplished this by profiling a single news station in the DC-area, which was in the process of changing its on-air presentation to reflect its studio and transmitter location in the Baltimore/Annapolis area. 

The next week, I profiled another DC-Area news station, WTOP, a station that is making strides to be truly live and local in their coverage, by utilizing their own reporters and maintaining their own traffic centre, where they monitor the roads and do their own traffic reports, rather than contracting them out to outside firms. The following week, I profiled a station that I had the opportunity to visit and shared with you what I learned when I visited. 

I then started noticing a trend...more news radio stations are including more long-form segments in their coverage. I did this by profiling and including the audio of news station KYW Philadelphia's Reporter's Roundup, a news discussion program they put together every Friday. I then went on to profile the longest-running national news radio program, the CBS World News Roundup, heard at the top of the hour on most CBS all-news stations. 

My next post was somber. The world of radio traffic reporting lost an important man, Atlanta traffic reporter Captain Herb Emory of WSB Radio, who passed away recently. I profiled his life and what made him so important to Atlanta residents such as myself. I then went on to profile Emory's former employer, WSB Radio in Atlanta. The following post was a post that carried on from the previous one. I spoke about another news radio station in Atlanta, which was, up until late 2013 when it started adding some talk shows, an all-news station. I spoke about it and how its owner, Cumulus Media, has a reputation for cost-cutting. I also speculated why a firm with such a cost-cutting reputation would want to get in to the all-news radio format, one of the most expensive formats to run. And, finally, in the last post, I expanded on an earlier post, where I speculated about discussion-based and long-form programming on commercial radio stations. To do this, I profiled WBZ News Radio in Boston and its monthly NewsWatch program, which is similar to my earlier mention of KYW's Reporter's Roundup. 

I am noticing a trend. As I speculated in an earlier post on KYW's Reporter's Roundup, this might become a trend. Now, I can say for sure that this is a trend. Another CBS-owned station, WBZ in Boston airs the same sort of discussion program, calling it NewsWatch. In NewsWatch, which is aired once a month on WBZ, anchor Joe Mathieu interviews New England newsmakers and discusses the news. It is structured much like KYW's Reporter's Roundup. The only difference, as mentioned earlier, is that NewsWatch only airs once a month as opposed to once a week. Host Joe Mathieu also discusses news on sister station WBZ TV, on his Behind the Mic segment on one of WBZ TV's newscasts. Here, he discusses what's making news locally and nationally and what he will be talking about on the radio. 

Another show WBZ airs is a show called "New England Business". This show takes an in depth look at business stories from a New England point of view. It lasts about an hour and is hosted by business reporter Anthony Silva. I am seeing some other long-form business shows pop up on mainly CBS stations across the country. One such show is the KNX Business Hour which occurs every day during the mid-day anchor shift. It goes in depth talking about business news in the Los Angeles area and nationally as well. 

WSB is the oldest news radio station in Atlanta, but, as of April 2012, it is certainly not the only one.

All-News 106.7 is the new game in town when it comes to all-news radio. Up until 2012, Atlanta never had an all-news station. 

But, as of this past week, All-News 106.7 is starting to lean more towards talk radio like its competitor, WSB, 

Atlanta is one of the only cities without a full-fledged all-news radio station. 

When All News 106.7 first went on the air back in 2012, I wrote an article about it for the hyper-local site, Examiner.com. Click here  to read my article. Needless to say, this is how it was originally envisioned. But, as you will see in the rest of my post today, all good things must come to an end.

All-News 106.7 is a station owned by a company that is trying really hard to make a footprint in the all-news world. That company is Cumulus Media, an Atlanta-based company that is notorious for cutting costs every which way, even when it means infringing on programming their audiences love. This is what surprised me about the desire on their part to get in to all-news. All-News radio is perhaps the most expensive format to run continuously. It involves hiring local reporters and anchors and paying them. All-News radio is not a format that can be thrown in to automation and get forgotten about. There is only one station I'm familiar with that ran an automated all-news format courtesy of CNN Radio, but that station, KQNA out of Arizona, is now a political talk station. It just goes to show how unsuccessful automated all news stations are. This might be one of the reasons CNN Radio ended distribution last year.

This is probably the reason Cumulus is moving its station to a talk format complete with some syndicated hosts and some local hosts. Its cheaper to run a talk station than an all-news station, because, after all, it doesn't call for a live and local feel like all-news does. All it requires is a subscription to a radio network that will provide the station with out of state syndicated hosts to fill the time. Who knows? The radio network the station chooses to subscribe to may also provide top of the hour news, saving the station itself money in the process by saving them from having to hire and pay local reporters and anchors. 

It will be harder for Cumulus to switch WYAY to talk radio because WSB Radio already has the rights to air many of the popular talk show hosts during their weekday lineup.

I guess we'll see how it goes.

I'd like to piggy-back off of my last post about the late traffic reporter Captain Herb Emory by profiling his long-time employer.

WSB Radio out of Atlanta is one of the top-rated news/talk stations in the country. WSB Radio, owned by and the flagship radio station of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, is a news/talk station consisting of news, traffic, weather, and talk shows (many of them nationally-syndicated, but flagshipped at WSB). WSB is one of the oldest radio stations, having been in consistent operation since 1922. The station's talk shows are mostly politically conservative-based shows. 

WSB airs a considerable amount of news along with its talk shows. It is an affiliate of the CBS Radio News Network, but it rarely airs any of their top of the hour news updates. Many of its reporters, however, are also Atlanta-based correspondents for the CBS Radio News Network. I have heard these familiar voices reporting Atlanta-based stories on stations like WCBS 880 here in New York.

As for WSB as a whole, it airs two news programs, "Atlanta's Morning News with Scott Slade" and "Atlanta's Evening News with Erick Erickson", which are formatted in a similar fashion as an all-news station. The way I see it is that the morning show is based more on a 1010 WINS-like format, while the evening show is based more on a WCBS 880-like format. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, WCBS 880 makes room for discussion, while 1010 WINS is straight news with little to no room for discussion of the news. What I find very unique about WSB is that it uses more of its own reporters and less contracted services. For example, it uses its own weather team, rather than contracting out to services such as "Accuweather" and "The Weather Channel". The latter would be very convenient, since it is also based in Atlanta. Also, it has its own traffic team. Granted, WSB does use some of the resources from Total Traffic (Clear Channel) to do its reports, but its reporters are all either in-house or, if they are contracted, their traffic reports go to WSB first and foremost before any other station gets them.

It also makes great use of its own resources as part of the Cox Media Group Atlanta cluster, which happen to be in the same building as WSB. Channel 2, WSB TV, is in the same building, which makes it easy for WSB Radio to utilize reporters from the TV side and vice versa. Many of WSB Radio's reporters also provide reports for its sister music stations in Atlanta and even for the Cox Media Group-owned Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, in the case of WSB-TV and Radio weather anchor Glenn Burns. 

Below, you will find the program schedule for WSB Radio.

Having been to the studios of WSB Radio, I can truly say that it feels like a family. It is one of the least-corporate radio stations in the country. Even though it is owned by a huge conglomerate (Cox Enterprises), it feels like a small family hometown station. Part of this feeling probably stems from the fact the Cox Enterprises is a family-owned company. 

This is not the only news station in Atlanta. Another station popped up about a year ago called All-News 106.7. Keep your eye out for my next post profiling All-News 106.7!

Among the most important elements of a news radio broadcast is the traffic report. Studies show that this is one of the main reasons people tune in to a news station. It is also one of the reasons why people tune in to news radio in short bursts rather than listen for a long period of time all at once.

I bring this up because the world of traffic reporting lost one of its own last Saturday afternoon. Longtime radio/television airborne traffic reporter Captain Herb Emory was 61 years old and was in his 23rd year with WSB Radio/TV (Cox Radio) in Atlanta and his 43rd year as a traffic reporter when he died suddenly after suffering a massive heart attack doing what he loved, offering assistance to people in need (in this case, it was at a car wreck near his home). 

Captain Herb was born in North Carolina and moved to Atlanta in 1971. He attended the Atlanta School of Broadcasting and then proceeded with his career reporting traffic in 1978. By the time he arrived at News/Talk 750 WSB Radio and WSB-TV (Channel 2) in 1991, he had been employed at 7 different stations as a traffic reporter.

Traffic was his passion. He loved doing what he did and it showed! He even had a traffic scanner in his home and his car (which is how he found out about the aforementioned wreck). 

Traffic was not the only thing this one-of-a-kind man had a passion for. He loved NASCAR!. He and his wife, Karen, even hosted a weekend radio show all about racing and NASCAR. When there was a race in town, he would host his show from the Atlanta Motor Speedway!

I know this is not exactly related to my previous posts, but I felt the need and desire to write a post such as this one because I feel a connection to this man. I have lived in Atlanta for about 11 years now and News/Talk 750 WSB has been the station my family and I tune in to for news, traffic, and weather during our time in Atlanta. Whenever I would tune my dial to 750 and I heard Captain Herb's voice reporting the traffic, I knew I was tuned to the right station.

I have included Captain Herb's final traffic report on the top of this post. 

If you’ve listened to any CBS-affiliated all-news station, chances are you’ve heard a program at the top of the hour twice a day by the name of “The CBS World News Roundup”. 

The CBS World News Roundup is the oldest national radio news program still on the air today. It has been on the air since 1938. 

Originally, as the name suggests, the program was meant to focus on world news. However, over the years, this has changed quite a bit. It now merely mimics the regular top of the hour news updates heard every hour . However, the weekend edition of the roundup is an hour-long program (with commercials, it is only 40 minutes) focusing on reporting and discussing the previous week's news. 

Many affiliates only air a small part of the roundup due to time constraints and emphasis on local programming on the part of the affiliate. 

In order to cover more national news, many stations also air an audio simulcast of many CBS News television programs, such as the CBS Evening News on week nights (although many affiliates choose to just air the first 10 minutes. WCBS 880 in New York is one of them that do this.) and CBS Face the Nation on Sunday mornings. 

Ironically, the CBS World News Roundup is syndicated by Westwood One, owned and operated by competitor media company Cumulus Media. 

Upon listening to many CBS News Radio affiliates, I like what I hear, although I do wish they would focus on more world news as the name "CBS World News Roundup" suggests. Radio today is too focused on time and not focused enough on the public service that is news. 

I have included a sample World News Roundup in this blog post. I have also included the first broadcast of the World News Roundup as a video file.