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CBS' White House Corresp. Peter Maer To Retire

K

KMan

Posted to CBS Radio News' Facebook page today, Peter Maer will retire by the end of the year.

Long time Capitol Hill Correspondent Bob Fuss left earlier this year and still has not been replaced on the beat. I wonder what CBS has in mind for their DC based radio correspondent assignments. I wonder if Mark Knoller has enough voice left to start filing radio reports again from the White House...
 
After a month of both Dan Raviv and Pam Coulter intermittently covering the White House (which, btw, must mean Mark Knoller's voice is totally destroyed...) after Peter Maer's retirement, Pam Coulter was named White House Correspondent, effective Mar 2nd (per CBS Radio News Facebook). She's a rock solid report, and should do great on the beat.

Still no Capitol Hill correspondent to replace Bob Fuss at CBS.

Not sure if ABC ever replaced Vic Ratner on Capitol Hill or Anne Compton at the White House when they retired. With ABC's increasing focus on "news you can use" that has leaked over from the TV branding, I rarely listen to their hourlies these days.
 
They've just announced that they've hired ABC Radio Correspondent Steven Portnoy has new Capitol Hill Correspondent, replacing Bob Fuss.

Unlike Pam Coulter, I'm not a huge fan of Portnoy. His voice kinda stinks...
 
I think he's all right. ABC Radio News has lost a lot of clearance after the loss of the Cumulus outlets. He may see some writing on the wall......
 
It's an interesting question...perhaps for another thread...if a national news brand can make it without O&O radio stations. NBC News had to deal with that too.
 
One interesting side note: During the month or so since Peter Maer retired, there have been a few times that neither Pam Coulter or Dan Raviv were available to cover the White House in the early morning, but there was news from the White House that had to be covered. Thus, Bill Plante (senior W.H. Correspondent for the television side) actually recorded a couple of radio reports. These weren't TV reports edited and repurposed for radio, but actually produced and recorded for radio. And Plante, as an old school broadcaster, sounded really great on those hourlies.
 
KMan said:
I'm not a huge fan of Portnoy. His voice kinda stinks...
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How do you feel about his reporting? Because that's what he does. He reports news. He's not a movie-trailer voice-over guy.

Steve's writing is superb and his delivery is clear and crisp. I'm more interested in what he's reporting, and not his ability (or lack thereof) to portray Darth Vader.
 
NewsStud said:
How do you feel about his reporting? Because that's what he does. He reports news. He's not a movie-trailer voice-over guy.

Steve's writing is superb and his delivery is clear and crisp. I'm more interested in what he's reporting, and not his ability (or lack thereof) to portray Darth Vader.
Click to expand...

A couple of things:

I've listened to his work for years on ABC. His reporting is fine. It doesn't stand out as outstanding, and it isn't terrible, either. I don't really feel anything when I hear his stories.

I've felt for years that radio news requires a journalist to be good at three things ... They need to have a good delivery (not necessarily great pipes), they need to understand how to use sound effectively, and they have to be able to write efficiently and effectively.

The radio journalists, whether on a commercial station, at a network, or on NPR, that are the most effective are the ones that can do all three.

For example, the guy Portnoy is replacing at CBS, Bob Fuss, didn't have great pipes. He didn't have a voice of god. On the other hand, he delivered his reports with a smooth and quick cadence, and it kept the listener engaged. His delivery overcame any vocal limitation, and combined with tight writing and great use of sound, made his reports a "must listen" for years. Can Portnoy achieve that status? To be determined.
 
One thing I'll throw in here is that national radio reporters, especially those in DC, don't work alone. They get input from a desk producer in NYC who usually is listening to a lot of the press conferences and events that the reporter is covering. So they'll get ideas from the desk, and also get input on presentation. So his reporting may get better once he goes to CBS.
 
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