They didn't used to have a Sunday morning newscast. So the weekend talent would work Saturday AM, Saturday night, and then Sunday night. Before the army of freelancers, if one of the weekday talent was off, the weekend talent would do mornings all week (which meant the morning met would slide to the chief's slot) and then Saturday AM and PM. Then whoever was working weekday evenings would cover Sunday night.
Now with a Sunday morning newscast, they need to do the short turn around. Theron Zahn worked that schedule at KOMO for about five years.
I saw her post from about two years ago where she outlines the weekend schedule. Yes, its rough, especially that Saturday night to Sunday turnaround.
But ... I've said this before on this before on radiodiscussions... jobs come in all shapes and sizes. These days, I sit behind a desk and work a pretty basic 0800-1745 schedule. This is a change for me. My first decade after I graduated from college I worked in an industry (transportation) with crazy hours, all over the clock. I was always comforted when I headed into work at 2:30AM that there were other cars on the road, filled with nurses, construction workers, garbagemen, longshoremen, and others who also worked odd hours.
When I was working in transportation, our schedules shifted constantly. We didn't know day to do what we were going to do or when we were going to work, or how long the day would be.
The type of hours she was working at KIRO are not unique to her job, or her industry. It can be tough, but there can also be a lot of upside. She had a lot more time off than others working similar grueling shifts.
Ultimately, if KIRO feels these hours are a detriment to getting a long term person in place on weekends, they should do what a lot of stations have done. Find a good, talented, young reporter, that knows / has dabbled in weather at some small market station as they were climbing the ladder. Hire them to cover the Sunday morning weather shift, with general assignment reporting during the week. Then the weekend talent can cover all day Saturday, plus Sunday night, and weekday fill in, which ought to be enough for full time. Or they can just use a rotation of freelancers for Sunday morning ... there certainly are enough of them on the beach in this market to cover that shift.
With no comment from CBS News Radio, Skyview Networks or Hubbard Radio regarding the defection of top-rated all-News WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C. from CBS to ABC News Radio after more than 75 years of affiliation, Black Rock solidified its existing relationships with three key radio broadcasting companies.