• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

NBC News and Information Service

I have recently discovered that someone who has been giving me some first-hand information on a failed UHFer for an article I'm working on (guess where) was briefly with NIS. When I found that out, I shared my opinion with him.

Without plagiarizing him too much by posting huge chunks verbatim, here is what his view was from the inside at the time:

1. NBC expected that a lot of their main network affiliates would pick up NIS, and when they didn't, other stations in those markets were able to pick it up. That created a situation where reporters identifying as "NBC News" were heard on competing stations, from the perspective of the NBC affiliate. (Yeah, I know ... they really had themselves to blame for passing on NIS in the first place.)

2. In markets where the NBC station was not also the NIS station (and there were far too many of those) the editors, writers and producers at NIS couldn't call the NBC affiliate for help on a story breaking in their area. They had to call "their" affiliate. In a case where the NIS affiliate had a weaker news department, this led to weakened coverage.

3. Because of the absurdity of having two "NBC" stations in a lot of markets, the network sales team had trouble selling it.

All of which was too bad, because I really liked the way NIS sounded.
 
Some interesting names popped up on NIS:
Charles McCord - became sidekick to the I-man
Cameron Swayze - son of NBC's first TV newscaster (and Timex watch pitchman); later with Newsradio 880
Bob Young - one of ABC's (many) TV newscasters in the 60s.

My first impression when I heard NIS was that it sounded like Monitor (but without music and with more hard news emphasis). In a way, NIS replaced Monitor.

Some of the issues recounted here that doomed NIS can be attributed to NBC management arrogance. They seem to assume the world would beat a path to their door. They ignored what local stations wanted or needed (as they did with Monitor). But mostly, as later attempts showed, despite the success of all news on a few larger market blow torches, the idea was doomed. Even if they could have fed on multiple channels and had automation (as now).

Funny, that NBC on more than one station was seen as a problem. That's how it was in the beginning when NBC operated two networks and was heard on two stations in most markets (no, without any reference to color except at the end). And often how it is now when "brands" routinely feed TOH news to more than one station in a market, or make voicers available to more than one station for insertion into local broadcasts.

If NBC had expected radio network affiliates to pick up NIS, that would have meant NIS plus News on the Hour and Emphasis - and the end of local programming? Plus no place in any hour to put local news.
 
I'm sure their thinking was that having two stations with "NBC News" in the same market shouldn't have been an albatross given how ABC had already established the prospects of as many as four stations in a market carrying ABC Newscasts in the Information-Contemporary-Entertainment-FM format. I will admit though it seemed strange in New York to rebrand WNBC-FM as WNNS-FM when NIS was launched which presumably would have had the effect of obscuring the whole NBC News identification in New York.

The one thing I've never been clear on is what would have happened on an NIS station during a truly breaking story of importance on the order of the JFK Assassination which NIS never had to deal with during their brief time? It would have been impossible I'm sure to break the structured format of NIS but if you had continuous NBC Radio coverage of that event being fed to the other affiliates who were non-NIS would an NIS station have been able to carry *that* feed? (in contrast to News on the Hour broadcasts which of course they could not do)
 
Oscar Madison said:
If NBC had expected radio network affiliates to pick up NIS, that would have meant NIS plus News on the Hour and Emphasis - and the end of local programming? Plus no place in any hour to put local news.
Click to expand...


This page includes the NIS clock. Note that only the areas in white were affiliate must-carry periods.

The black areas were mandatory local covers, where NBC ran the main network's newscast and features. The grey areas were covered by NIS but had no network commercial time and could be pre-empted for local content at a station's discretion.

So to answer your question I will refer to that clock and what my former NIS affiliate station did:

:00 to :05 -- ABC/Information
:05 to :11 -- local news and commercials
:11 to :29:55 -- NIS
:29:55 to :36:30 -- local news
:36:30 to :58:55 -- NIS
:58:55 to :00 -- local commercial and legal ID

Late nights and overnights, I recall them also carrying the :06:30-:11 NIS segment. Maybe some of the weekend hours too.

Your presumption was erroneous only because you likely didn't know (or if you are old enough to have been around when NIS existed, didn't remember) that only about 23 to 24 minutes an hour was mandatory NIS carriage.
 
K.M. Richards said:

This page includes the NIS clock. Note that only the areas in white were affiliate must-carry periods.

The black areas were mandatory local covers, where NBC ran the main network's newscast and features. The grey areas were covered by NIS but had no network commercial time and could be pre-empted for local content at a station's discretion.

So to answer your question I will refer to that clock and what my former NIS affiliate station did:

:00 to :05 -- ABC/Information
:05 to :11 -- local news and commercials
:11 to :29:55 -- NIS
:29:55 to :36:30 -- local news
:36:30 to :58:55 -- NIS
:58:55 to :00 -- local commercial and legal ID

Late nights and overnights, I recall them also carrying the :06:30-:11 NIS segment. Maybe some of the weekend hours too.

Your presumption was erroneous only because you likely didn't know (or if you are old enough to have been around when NIS existed, didn't remember) that only about 23 to 24 minutes an hour was mandatory NIS carriage.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information. I never worked for an NIS affiliate (although I did work for a station that had been one). I did listen to NIS on stations in three markets (two major, one medium). And except for the top and bottom of the hour, each ran NIS straight through. I am not aware of any affiliates that took NBC and NIS (minimum hourly requirement). Although, I have run into a few small market affiliates that took everything the network fed, including the music fill. I even recall one that took everything from both ABC and Mutual (it was like being able to monitor the network feeds).

So what did NIS run in the "compulsory" segments? And the optional segments?
 
Just going by the first hour of NIS's first day that was made available here, the NIS sports segment appears to have been timed always to the optional areas at 11 and 41 past.
 
Last edited:
Oscar Madison said:
So what did NIS run in the "compulsory" segments? And the optional segments?
Click to expand...

Well, now you're overtaxing my memory. As I came to the station post-NIS, I only remember what I heard on the air when it was running NIS.

Perhaps listening to the airchecks that have been linked from posts #15 and #17, it could be puzzled out. If you haven't the time I will try to do that in the next few days.

I do remember that all four of the mandatory and optional segments began with the basic NIS sounder and the "All news, all day, every day, this is your News and Information Service ... I'm (anchor) and here are the stories we're following" verbiage.
 
epaddon said:
The one thing I've never been clear on is what would have happened on an NIS station during a truly breaking story of importance on the order of the JFK Assassination which NIS never had to deal with during their brief time? It would have been impossible I'm sure to break the structured format of NIS but if you had continuous NBC Radio coverage of that event being fed to the other affiliates who were non-NIS would an NIS station have been able to carry *that* feed? (in contrast to News on the Hour broadcasts which of course they could not do)
Click to expand...

There was only one feed. The regular NBC News, Sports, Features ran during the dead time on NIS at the top & bottom of the hour. I think there may have been an exception on ABC where the same special coverage of a space launch, etc was allowed to run on multiple affiliates in the same market. NBC probably had a similar policy.

One problem NIS had was so much mandatory network programming. A lot of larger market stations might have been successful with it if they could have run a local morning (and maybe afternoon) news block, picking up NIS for a few updates during the hour. I could also see some affiliates wanting to run a talk block in the evening or on weekends, and even a hour or two of talk during the daytime, but I don't think that was allowed, either.
 
So if you had a market where NBC news on the hour aired on one station and NIS on another, then both stations would theoretically be able to carry the same NBC feed during a story like a JFK assassination.
 
That's the kind of thing that would be spelled out in the affiliation agreement. NBC had a plan for what they called "sustaining coverage," which is long form event coverage of a major story. Actually all the nets had such a plan. Most likely that an NIS affiliate would want it rather than a NOTH affil.
 
JRH said:
One problem NIS had was so much mandatory network programming. A lot of larger market stations might have been successful with it if they could have run a local morning (and maybe afternoon) news block, picking up NIS for a few updates during the hour. I could also see some affiliates wanting to run a talk block in the evening or on weekends, and even a hour or two of talk during the daytime, but I don't think that was allowed, either.
Click to expand...

I could see wanting to run less NIS in drive-time, perhaps, but you could still do a split of each half-hour by only carrying the second quarter-hour (the mandatory part). I don't know that talk would have been that big a factor in the mid-1970s, although I could see that being a problem if NIS had survived into the 1980s.

I wonder if NBC would have allowed a station to not carry that last three minutes of the mandatory quarter-hours, exiting to local programming after the second commercial minute. Or if they might have allowed stations to only clear the four commercial minutes during specified hours for local programming.

I'm trying to remember now what NIS did during the half-hours on Sundays when the main network ran "Meet The Press" and other public affairs programs.
 
K.M. Richards said:
I wonder if NBC would have allowed a station to not carry that last three minutes of the mandatory quarter-hours, exiting to local programming after the second commercial minute. Or if they might have allowed stations to only clear the four commercial minutes during specified hours for local programming.
Click to expand...

Consider that they need to access the drive time numbers for their spots too. So I doubt they'd allow a station to pre-empt net spots during drive time.

Another reason why it didn't last, and why NPR was able to walk in and do the same thing non-commercially in drive time.
 
TheBigA said:
Consider that they need to access the drive time numbers for their spots too. So I doubt they'd allow a station to pre-empt net spots during drive time.
Click to expand...

Never suggested that. Go back and read what I wrote, A. I pondered whether NBC would have allowed affiliates to only clear the spots during some hours.

I'm all-too-familiar with required clearances ... one AM station I converted from A/C to Talk in the late 1980s had about a year to go on their Satellite Music Network contract and we dutifully recorded the hourly two-minute network spot cluster and played it back later in the hour.
 
Oscar Madison said:
And do you really think All Things Considered is the same as commercial all news radio? I guess you never listened.
Click to expand...

There's a fascinating series of interviews at the Huffington Post with Bill Siemering, the man who created All Things Considered. Bill was partly influenced by Monitor. But he wanted to make it unique and more sound intensive. More focused on people. My point is that the only radio company offering anything similar to NIS is NPR. Seems to me you said that once too.
 
TheBigA said:
There's a fascinating series of interviews at the Huffington Post with Bill Siemering, the man who created All Things Considered. Bill was partly influenced by Monitor. But he wanted to make it unique and more sound intensive. More focused on people. My point is that the only radio company offering anything similar to NIS is NPR. Seems to me you said that once too.
Click to expand...

If you contend ATC is similar to all news radio, then when NIS launched in 1975 CBS was offering all news in five markets and Group W in three. Add to that WTOP (Washington Post) and all news stations in a few other cities.

All Things Considered was a 90 minute news magazine program based on short-form documentary style reports. All news radio was a series of half hour newscasts, with the news portion generally lasting 10 to 15 minutes tops. All news is a repeating news clock; you can tune in anytime and catch the complete cycle. ATC was and is a stand-alone program. ATC stories typically run three to seven minutes. All news radio sticks to forty second stories (give or take).

The program most entitled to be considered a predecessor to ATC is Evening Edition with Taylor Grant on WCAU.

Monitor was not a news broadcast, although it did include news. It was more like a weekend version of the Today Show, with even more emphasis on entertainment segments.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom