When it comes to immediate breaking news and information, there's no other source that I turn to than the all-news outlet; I may glance at the TV or Internet but I rely on KCBS for its first-rate reporting, on-scene interviews and the latest information; especially in the case of a natural disaster, a crime story, the traditional "breaking news" force, nobody comes close to KCBS and I've said so numerous times here.
That's why it pains me to write about KCBS' incessant habit of habitually re-airing stories, especially on the weekend, multiple times, sometimes as much as 10-15 times. In fact, since my initial posting--in some cases, more than that. Not only does it make KCBS look bad, it scars the very essence of what the SF all-news source is: reliable, consistent and fresh content. Only that's far from the case these days.
The re-airing of stories; sometimes simply re-writes of the same account, is also a statement to listeners that essentially says, we know you have a short-attention span therefore we resort to this. KCBS will counter, I believe, that it is simply adopting to the theory that many people are getting in and out of their cars, and therefore may have missed, (and they're right), the initial story. That's all well and good and makes sense, but that's no excuse for a story repeatedly aired over and over and it's even more apparent on the weekend. I call it lazy radio and KCBS, mostly management, should know better.
Granted, manpower in the radio division at CBS has dwindled; resources are scarce and there's been significant cutback in resources across the nation although, curiously, KCBS has seen the littlest impact. Its staple of reporters; from politics to general news to tech and sports is still a hallmark of the local radio scene. It has some real good people; individuals like Doug Sovern and veteran City Hall reporter, Babara Taylor and Silicon Valley correspondent Mike Colgan. Anchors, Stan Bunger, Jeff Bell, Patty Reising, and Jeffrey Schaub are some of the best in the business. Mark Sandalow is the best radio political analysts in the Bay Area. Moreover, Phil Matier and his daily insights are must-listen content.
That's why it further confounding that KCBS couldn't run more syndicated segments instead of the irksome repeats. Why not a Dave Ross commentary? A Charles Osgood report. More in-studio interviews which has always been a station trademark. Is that asking for too much? It most certainly beats the current format of repetition radio which is not only a huge irritant for KCBS' core listener base but a stark reminder of how little, it appears, KCBS management thinks of its present-day news operation.
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That's why it further confounding that KCBS couldn't run more syndicated segments instead of the irksome repeats. Why not a Dave Ross commentary? A Charles Osgood report. More in-studio interviews which has always been a station trademark. Is that asking for too much? It most certainly beats the current format of repetition radio which is not only a huge irritant for KCBS' core listener base but a stark reminder of how little, it appears, KCBS management thinks of its present-day news operation.
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Rich, if you want in depth news stories longer than 2 minutes go to local public radio.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with KCBS. It is a convenient way to catch up on things. If I want more I have other sources, internet mainly. I used to listen to KGO talk and would switch to KCBS whenever a topic didn't interest me or if I wanted some news 'on demand' so to speak.
They have operated like this for as long as I can remember and it serves them well, always near the top of the ratings. It is the place to tune in and catch top stories, sports, weather and business reports---all in a 15-20 minute time frame.
They keep pretty much the same stories unless it gets updated or another story bumps it.
Actually my $.02- I disagree. No one listens to KCBS for more than 1-2 hours at a time. Within that time period, one can catch up on the all of the pertinent news for that time period. Imagine a Ferris wheel. people get on and they get off. As you stated, All News 74 is Johnny on the spot with breaking news when need be and will filter out a less important news story replacing it with something more pressing as needed- evn on the weekends. KGO doesn't come close, KQED is a good news source but not local (The California Report during the week is more like a daily local news magazine). So KCBS- PLEASE don't change the format. You're doing just fine
ReplyDeleteYES, KCBS continually provides news, weather, traffic, sports for listeners who just tuned in. It doesn't keep changing. People don't tune in to listen all day. They tune in to get the current news, weather, traffic, sports.
DeleteRich's complaint is silly and peevish.
The rule in the industry--whether true or not I don't know--is that most people listen for about 20 minutes.
DeleteKGO is quite close but it's unnecessary. I think if you took a consultant who never heard either he/she may just think KGO was providing a better product, albeit a different one.
ReplyDeleteAll news radio's best friends are a copying machine and a stapler. News gets repeated because people listen at different times and on a given weekend or evening, there's not a lot going on. No such thing (except in a promo producer's dreams) as breaking news every minute of the day.
ReplyDeleteGranted, I can live without the 15th repeat of another installment of Doug Sovern's weekly lecture series, which has the requisite 60s oldie track underneath. I have a long commute covering a couple of different freeways, so I'm listening for traffic and if there's some interesting news. The repeated stories let me know in a somewhat subtle way, that there's nothing going, that my world is safe, and that's not a bad thing.
Hi Rich,
ReplyDeleteI'm almost never in my car for more than an hour at a time (SF to Santa Rosa; SF to San Jose; SF to the Marin coastline) - which is about the right span of time to listen to KCBS without repeats.
When I'm home, the only reason I listen to KCBS is if there is a particular bit of news I need to keep up to the minute about: transit strikes, power outages, bad weather warnings, things like that. Otherwise I listen to KCSM or KDFC (or KNBR, KSAN, or KTCT for ballgames), or I just put on a CD.
Talk radio has become just too polarized and hot-headed - just like our government has. There's no civilized discussion any more, just ranting. From both the left and the right, I might add.
Who needs that shart?
CNN tries the "news without rant" and they're dying in the ratings. People want everything today to be sensational. Do you pay attention to TV and movie promos? Everything is SHOCKING! SENSATIONAL! STUNNING! We seem to want to be electrocuted every minute of our lives anymore, and it's no different than a drug addiction. It should be investigated as such.
DeleteOff topic but Larry Lujack passed away. Anyone that lived anywhere near Chicago will remember Larry or "Super Jock" as he was known from the 70's when he ruled the airwaves on WLS and WCFL. I lived in Ontario, Canada and both stations were loud and clear at night. Larry was one of the best! I am pretty sure that Gil Gross worked with Larry.
ReplyDeleteI remember Gil being in the WLS newsroom when Lujack and friends were on WLS (back when stations had to do news).
DeleteLarry Lujack was one of the best. And a young Gil Gross made the ::55 ABC news as interesting as the legendary news intro stinger... More should and could be said, but no need to challenge the "approval" process with personal remembrances. So it goes....
DeleteThe other side of the coin is that there's nothing else to report, and you must fill the time somehow, so they repeat stuff. Even the CBS network updates are always the same, so it's not just KCBS. However, there should be different versions of each story (three versions, minimum) that they can cycle through. Reporters gather more than enough material to do that, and it would break up the monotony. It's funny, though: this scenario reminds me of Top 40 stations that play the same box of records over and over again. All radio formats are the same.
ReplyDelete> The other side of the coin is that there's nothing else to report,
Delete> and you must fill the time somehow, so they repeat stuff.
There's always more news. There isn't the personnel to report it, because that costs money. I've never worked in a newsroom that "ran out of news." What's amazing to me is I'm betting I'm younger than almost everyone here, yet I remember how more news used to be covered, just five to ten years ago. There have been seismic shifts in how well-informed people are in the last decade; huge stories are being shoved under the rug. I seriously doubt if Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, Iron-Contra or many other milestone stores would be noticed today. But everyone notices the anchor's hooters.
We get the democracy we deserve.
I used to work at KFWB, Los Angeles, and we required of our reporters to file three different versions of a news story. KFWB was the "You Give Us 22 Minutes, We'll Give You The World" station that ran three 20-minute newscasts an hour. We would air these packages every other cycle, thus with three filed variations, the same version would only air in repeats once every two hours - more than enough time for the listenership to cycle through. Moreover, depending on the news volume of the day, most packages were pulled after having cycled through 3 to 4 times total.
DeleteWasn't Larry Lujack in the Seattle (or Portland) market in the '60's? Sorry to hear of his passing if it's the guy I remember from back then.
ReplyDeleteMost of us Bay Area Tea Party members don't spend much time at KCBS if given a choice of stations. I suppose they perform a service, alterting people to local traffic jams and such. What many of us are excited about is hearing a favorite voice back on the air, even if just as a temporary fill-in. Geoff Metcalf "former" Marine and Green Beret, social conservative filled in for The Barbara this weekend. I refer, of course to Barbara Simpson; erstwhile National Treasure and roustabout. Geoff has a great radio voice, and is used to the timing that paid commercial segments demand. Geoff is a good storyteller as well. I just wish he wouldn't pepper his language with the sh-t word so frequently. You will find him often using that word in his metaphors, analogies or extrapolations. I understand that sometimes, no other word is quite as useful to show disgust or distain , I'm just not always wanting to embrace the visual imagery that Geoff's expressions invite. I hope he sticks around. Am I correct in that El Frosty is having his airtime reduced starting in January? I believe that I could survive that change. Meanwhile, Tom Sullivan still not returning my calls.
ReplyDeleteRich: Something is better than nothing. KCBS is near. To listen to REAL news, we would need to wait for night fall and tune in KNX 1070. When we get another all news station, then will be the time to compare. I have noticed that KQED also repeats stories about each two hours.
ReplyDeleteKeep doing your job Rich. KCBS is all we got.
I grew up listening to KYW 1060 and WCBS 880 back East and it's to my understanding that these all news stations are designed to the AQH (Average Quarter Hour) of 22 minutes as WINS-AM says to the present day "Give us 22 Minutes and We'll Give You The World". I like the No-Frills format that these stations provide.
ReplyDeleteWhy explain these things to people who don't listen?
DeletePat Thurston Alert!
ReplyDeletePat will be on for Ronn Owens this Thursday, day after Xmas.
Don't miss her...No one else local can hold a candle to Thurston.
Pat's sharp as a tack...with a beautiful voice!
I am "shocked" just "shocked" that most Bay Area Tea Party members don't listen to KCBS...let alone any news, as they have an aversion to reality and real time information.
ReplyDeleteTough to have a dialogue with folks who are defiant and even proud of being under informed/uninformed on the issues and actual state of things.
Nice try 1:36, Repeated studies and random surveys have shown Tea Party, or Libertarians to be the most fully and accurately informed of all political opinion groups. Libs score higher on confidence albeit artificially based.
ReplyDeleteReally? Please share the sources of the studies.
DeleteFrank, I regret I can't quote the sources off the top of my head, but I have seen articles about the kind of studies and surveys that 10:28 mentions.
DeleteRunning a Dave Ross commentary or a Charles Osgood report means you also have to run the network commercial that comes attached to it. That network spot likely brings in less $$ than a local spot. The network spot diminishes the station's overall per unit spot figure when they calculate the monthly report.
ReplyDeleteI get so fed up with Dave Ross's predictable self righteous and sarcastic lectures that I turn off KCBS as soon as he comes on. I wouldn't mind if they occasionally carried a commentary with a different point of view, but they don't. So I switch off.
DeleteI log up more hours per week on KCBS than on any other local station. It's always on in my car, any time I'm circumnavigating the freeways and it's on my home office radio during the work day. I accept the fact that I'll hear stories go around and around, since I'm an atypical listener. If there's an important news item and it's not getting touched upon each quarter hour, it's a disservice to a typical listener. IMHO.
ReplyDeleteBy and large, I think that KCBS has a totally professional, well seasoned, air staff and they "do the news" the way that it should be done.
That said, my two gripes are: (1) that they routinely cut off the morning airing of Stardate, to slip in more ad content or to catch up with the clock. Yeah, I'm one of those freaks who likes to hear about things that take an IQ of over 100 to appreciate. (2) Their Production Manager is on a one-man campaign to make all of us talk about the freeways like they do in Los Angeles. Here, we have a traffic backup on Hwy 17, we don't have a traffic backup on THE 17. Part of moving to a new area to pursue one's profession is to become acclimated to the new area. You're not in Southern California anymore; we don't talk that way here. We have 17, 101, 280, 680, etc. We don't have THE 17, THE 101, THE 280, THE 680, the junctions of THE 580 and THE 680 (as some current ad copy says), etc. This has been covered in the local print media in years past and the consensus of opinion was that the superficial article "THE" isn't used in this situation.
4:08: Amen! One of my pet peeves too.
DeleteI started tuning in to KCBS when they had live local talk shows, and they still kept up with the news. I never have forgiven them for switching to the repetitive all news, all the time format and my listening habits suffered. Instead of listening to it all night long, I turn it off after 1/2 hour. Same with the 12/11 hatchet job at KGO, once they changed their format, I stopped listening on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why radio stations are losing their audience is that with massive syndication, proliferation of hateful-sounding talk hosts, and the repetitive and boring "all news' formats, people are unable to interact and develop a connection with any particular station, so they turn to the internet.
Personally, I think that if a radio station in the SF market would turn back to 24-hour local, live programming, it would probably trounce the canned stations in the ratings.
The only time I listen to KCBS is when I'm stuck in some hellacious traffic jam ... and they confirm I'm stuck in traffic.
ReplyDelete