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Future of weekday daytime TV: all news?


GoldenShine9

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Since many stations have added many more newscasts, especially on weekdays, in recent years, do you all see that happening? It seems daytime soaps, talk and syndication is becoming less popular as well. That would be what, 18 hours of news a day on weekdays? Have any stations considered that route?

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From FTVLive:

The Reason Stations are Adding Newscasts

 

July 30, 2014/ Scott Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems that not a week goes by without FTVLive reporting that some station, in some market is adding more news to their schedule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, do you know why all these stations are adding more news?

 

I'm sure you'll be shocked to know that it is all about money.

 

I know, you were thinking it was about community service and keeping viewers informed....right?

 

Nope, it's just a cash grab.

 

You see, from now until the elections in 2016, more political advertising money will be spent on TV than ever before. It's a big pie and TV stations are trying like hell to get the biggest piece.

 

When politicians and political parties buy ad time on a TV station, the first place they look is news. They figure that the people that are watching a newscast are more likely to vote that say someone watching 'Keeping up with the Kardashians."

 

In battleground markets newscasts will be able to fill their entire ad inventory with political spots. They will sell every spot available and still campaigns will be looking for more time in newscasts that they can buy.

 

So, TV stations are adding newscasts wherever they can, because they know they will be able to fill the available commercial time with political.

 

From now to the 2016 elections, many stations will bring in record profit, because of political advertising.

 

Of course, since you guys are the ones doing all the work as new newscasts are being added, I'm sure your station will share all that money with each and every one of you, by giving you all huge raises.

 

Maybe not.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What about Sinclair's combo of WSYX/WTTE? If WSYX adds a 4pm newscast and WTTE adds a 6:30-7:30 and extend GDC to 4-11am (4-7am on 6, 7-11am on 28) Granted, Columbus is a mid-market and this is Sinclair but if CHCH in Hamilton can pull it off then 6 and 28 can do it.

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The only thing that would preclude someone attempting a 24/7 operation are those pesky E/I requirements that require three hours a week of that type of programming.

 

It seems possible, since cable has pretty much eaten or taken away many of the staples of broadcast television including sitcoms, dramas, movies, kids shows and sports. Local news is about the only thing that cable hasn't really taken away from broadcast, aside from cable news channels in larger markets.

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If a radio station can do it; and if a cable station can do it; then why can't a broadcast station go with true 24-hour news? I wouldn't be surprised if an established TV station tried that within the next 10 years.

 

Simple: It's not cost effective, even for radio and cable. I doubt the cost of producing and airing local news, especially at weekends and overnights when nobody's watching, is less than what they're making off of it. News is a moneymaker but it can't be that much of a moneymaker at the odd ball times like 3AM on a Sunday night.

 

CBS is the only major company that even bothers with all-news radio. Cumulus has tried it to an extent but I think have brokered programming on the weekends and of course Clear Channel will never do all-news radio because of the cost.

 

Time Warner and Cable Vision are the only major players with all-news local cable channels. With Time Warner, there's quite a bit of hubbing you wouldn't see on the local broadcast level. Syracuse does all the weather for the entire state of New York, including New York 1. In San Antonio, where TWC just launched a 24 hour local news channel, Austin handles all the production. Much cheaper than hiring another crew just for San Antonio. Also saves on having to find another broadcast-ready facility in town.

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For a station to go around-the-clock on a regular basis, they would almost have to adopt a jukebox type of approach, much like the old Headline News used to use. Live shows could be in the normal times, and during the off-times, record segments that can be re-hashed throughout the day.

 

What a waste of airspace, to regurgitate the same segments from several hours ago...
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Look at CHCH in Hamilton. They are nothing but all-news for the entire day. 75 1/2 hours of news per week, the most in all of North America.

 

By comparison, WJW has 65 1/2 hours per week, the most of any station in the US. WXIN will equal that level of output come September.

 

Oddly enough, CHCH doesn't have much news on the weekends besides the 6p and 11p newscasts.

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Merlin Media tried all-news radio (arguably in the loosest sense of the word) in both Chicago and New York. Both stations were so poorly received - with imperceptible ratings - that Merlin literally went out of business.

 

Success in all news radio depends heavily on the market. WTOP, owned by Hubbard (but with a format nearly identical to a standard CBS all-newser) is the top-billing station in the US, and often trades spots with WAMU for the highest rated station in DC.

 

But that's exactly the point. Washington D.C. is a market heavily conducive to all-news, and it's not hard to find out why. (I hope it isn't.) Their long-time marketing of 'traffic and weather together every ten minutes on the eights' should speak for itself.

 

New York is still able to support two all-newsers, and WCBS and WINS have programming formats corresponding to their signals. WCBS, with a class 1A non directional, aims at the suburbs with an even-paced news wheel. WINS is a directional signal aimed right at the five boroughs, thus, a hard-hitting, fast paced news wheel.

 

WMAQ only died because Viacom's purchase of CBS put them one station over the ownership cap, and they wanted to retain the all-sports format of WSCR (whose existing signal had to be divested). But for several years prior, WMAQ and WBBM complemented each other side by side, and that could have lasted up to the present day. But we will never know.

 

KFWB died because CBS was forced to put it in a trust after buying KCAL, and thus cannot make it be competitive. It also had a poor signal that the market simply outgrew with suburban sprawl. And the demographics of Los Angeles... let alone all of California... have changed wholesale. Even KNX is struggling significantly.

 

Cumulus' efforts in all news have mostly been nothing more than on the cheap. And none of them have fared well at all:

* KGO/810, who blew out an entire lineup of well-regarded but expensive talkers, has failed and flailed against the KCBS/KFRC 800 lb. gorilla. Rumors swirl that they could revert to a talk lineup.

* KLIF/570 Dallas tried all news in the daytime (exploiting WBAP's news department) but failed to make any dent against CBS's news-all-day, talk-all-night KRLD/1080. KLIF has since constrained all-news to morning drive and reinstuted a talk format.

* And Cumulus threw up the white flag at WYAY/106.7 Atlanta, putting in a talk format outside of drive times. (And WYAY was a legitimate entry into all-news for them, but Atlanta just never has embraced the format.)

 

Radio One has been losing money... a LOT of money... with their all-newser in Houston, KROI/92.1.

 

And the little engine that could, KQV/1410 in Pittsburgh, still has all-news throughout the day. Evenings and most of the weekends are a mixture of Duquesne University play-by-play, brokered programming, ABC Radio long form magazines, syndicated talk shows, and old-time radio.

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Look at CHCH in Hamilton. They are nothing but all-news for the entire day. 75 1/2 hours of news per week, the most in all of North America.

 

By comparison, WJW has 65 1/2 hours per week, the most of any station in the US. WXXI will equal that level of output come September.

 

Oddly enough, CHCH doesn't have much news on the weekends besides the 6p and 11p newscasts.

You mean WXIX Cincinnati? Or WXII Greensboro?
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There's isn't even enough interesting things happening in most markets to justify the news time they have to fill now. All day news? In Lima, Ohio? In Pittsburgh?

 

If that's where this is going, just hand back your licenses to the FCC and turn off the lights.

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Look at CHCH in Hamilton. They are nothing but all-news for the entire day. 75 1/2 hours of news per week, the most in all of North America.

 

Oddly enough, CHCH doesn't have much news on the weekends besides the 6p and 11p newscasts.

 

Well weekday overnights, if I'm not mistaken, they air movies or US imports.

 

And there isn't enough news on weekends to justify the all-news all-day format. Besides, the people at home during the day time likely don't want to watch news. The all-news all-day format works on weekdays likely because workplaces and waiting rooms can put the channel on and keep whoever's watching informed. Not to mention the ad revenue.

 

Also, Channel Zero isn't a huge conglomerate and can afford to do the amount of news they do and afford all the people they employ on the payroll. BellMedia is now just doing HD on some of their stations, in contrast.

 

 

 

Merlin Media tried all-news radio (arguably in the loosest sense of the word) in both Chicago and New York. Both stations were so poorly received - with imperceptible ratings - that Merlin literally went out of business.

 

Merlin's attempt was crap. Also they went up against CBS owned all-news stations. End of story. More ironically, 101.9 FM in NYC is now owned by CBS...

 

 

 

Success in all news radio depends heavily on the market. WTOP, owned by Hubbard (but with a format nearly identical to a standard CBS all-newser) is the top-billing station in the US, and often trades spots with WAMU for the highest rated station in DC.

 

WTOP does so well apparently, that CBS itself attempted to do their all-newser and it failed. WNEW 99.1 is now targeting Baltimore and DC-BAL commuters and they have fared much better against WBAL 1090 than with WTOP. It must be odd that CBS Radio has two affiliates in the same market but I don't think CBS wanted to lose the dominant WTOP so they must have to make concessions there. I think CBS wanted to buy back WTOP but all of the owners have rejected them. It's got to be a cash cow, so who can blame them?

 

 

New York is still able to support two all-newsers, and WCBS and WINS have programming formats corresponding to their signals. WCBS, with a class 1A non directional, aims at the suburbs with an even-paced news wheel. WINS is a directional signal aimed right at the five boroughs, thus, a hard-hitting, fast paced news wheel.

 

I'm not so sure it's signal contours as much as it is format. WCBS is more loose and conversational, WINS is hard, straight-on with a tight format and cheap sound effects playing in the background

 

(BTW, the distracting typewriter sound effects are the one reason why I can't listen to WINS but I love everything else about them).

 

Because of that, CBS has maintained the two formats even though they duplicate each other for the most part. It's a waste of money, no doubt, but I can see why they've kept it. They still are competitive, and good for them.

 

But all-news is expensive because you have to have someone there 24/7 and all the people you have to pay to work at nights in this day and age of voicetracking and automation. In Boston, Dallas, and Minneapolis WBZ, KRLD and WCCO respectively now do all-news during the day and talk at nights and weekends, even though WBZ proclaims that they're the station where "New England's Newswatch Never Stops". Even though all the stations still have "NewsRadio" in their brand. And the talk isn't the typical right-wing stuff, it's more "intelligent" (lack of a better word) than that. The hosts definitely conduct themselves more professionally on those shows than some of the conservative stuff I listen to.

 

 

Radio One has been losing money... a LOT of money... with their all-newser in Houston, KROI/92.1.

 

And the little engine that could, KQV/1410 in Pittsburgh, still has all-news throughout the day. Evenings and most of the weekends are a mixture of Duquesne University play-by-play, brokered programming, ABC Radio long form magazines, syndicated talk shows, and old-time radio.

 

It may not be a money maker but no doubt there's an audience for it. I remember when KROI was launched, many were happy for a new option, especially after Clear Channel dropped JP Pritchard and Lana Hughes from KTRH and replaced it with talk. Many were angry that the only straight news program on "NEWSRadio 740" (emphasis mine) was replaced with talk. But, talk is cheap. Cheaper than all-news. KTRH used to be a news/talk hybrid much like KRLD/WBZ/WCCO are now with news during the work day and talk at nights. When Clear Channel took over the hours of news were gradually reduced with talk. And around 2007 or 8, KPRC's stronger talk programs like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck migrated over to KTRH's much stronger signal. And KPRC took lower profile talk programs.

 

In short, Clear Channel HATES all-news. None of their stations do it now. None of them ever will in the future. Even WOAI's "First News with Charlie Parker" seems to get political at times. There's straight news content but it's definitely not a tight all-news format. It resembles a radio talk show, just with more hits for news, weather, traffic, and a couple sports and business updates. But there's conservative politics in there for sure.

 

I hope KROI is not dying a long death. They do a decent job for Houston.

 

As for KQV, they are not chain-owned so they don't have to worry about the costs as much as CBS does. Actually I'm amazed they've continued the format as long as they have and they a terrific job with their limited resources.

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Weekends are harder to justify but sports often fill those schedules. Weekend morning newscasts tend to get the lowest ratings?

 

I've never understood the point of weekend morning news TBH. It's just regurgitating the same news from the previous night. You could say ad revenue but with hardly any viewers, they can't just run infomercials? That basically pays for itself.

 

Even worse, KSAT tries to follow the same format with their weekend morning news as the weekday morning, including a segment around 6:58 called "Before You Go" which is a recap of top stories (I don't think we need to know a man got shot or some drunk dude wrecked into another vehicle before we go to work but I digress). Anyway, it doesn't work on a weekend morning cast because nobody's really leaving on a Saturday morning. There may be soccer practices or other weekend activities but most aren't commuting to work. The audience for a weekend morning newscast is different than that of a weekday morning and you can't treat the two as one in the same.

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Traditionally weekend (mainly Saturday) mornings were cartoons but those have basically died off (and yes, time to eliminate E/I rules). There are definitely more people working on weekends than in the past, but generally not enough to really make such weekday-type news worthwhile except in the largest markets. However, otherwise there is nothing really to fill in the schedules on Saturday and Sunday mornings, unless you want to get into early morning sports.

 

Sunday morning is big on political shows and maybe something locally focused would be useful to lead in as well, but Saturday morning is tough to gauge what would be most useful there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

As for KQV, they are not chain-owned so they don't have to worry about the costs as much as CBS does. Actually I'm amazed they've continued the format as long as they have and they a terrific job with their limited resources.

 

KQV also had the backing of a very rich figure in the late Richard Scaife for several years.

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What about Sinclair's combo of WSYX/WTTE? If WSYX adds a 4pm newscast and WTTE adds a 6:30-7:30 and extend GDC to 4-11am (4-7am on 6, 7-11am on 28) Granted, Columbus is a mid-market and this is Sinclair but if CHCH in Hamilton can pull it off then 6 and 28 can do it.

 

The trouble with Columbus isn't so much that it's a mid-market as much as it's a boring market. No problem with that because I don't really want to live in an "interesting" city like Detroit or Baltimore, but from a news perspective there isn't a lot that's interesting to cover. It is predominately white and pink collar market with lots of government employees. Our parts of the "hood" look like working class areas in other cities. I want to shoot myself thinking about 24 hour news in Columbus.

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KQV also had the backing of a very rich figure in the late Richard Scaife for several years.

 

Big chains have inflated expense structures (lots of middle management to pay), lots of debt to service and Wall Street to keep happy at the same time. If you don't have a lot of debt and you don't have some robber baron trying to strip your company, it sure makes things a lot easier on employees.

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