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KYW getting cheap?

M

MikeM2011

Is it me or has KYW gone really cheap with things in recent years? They went from a 24-hour news network to airing reprises of shows, such as Reporters Roundup, CBS Evening News, The CW News, and from 11pm-5am it's all prerecorded now. It seems they slimmed back their anchors, only having two shifts of two anchors and a one anchor shift covering the evening/overnights. Daytime used to have a great team - Steve Nikazy's still there but it all seems to be centered on Michele Durham who I CANNOT stand whatsoever...one minute she's so lively and the next she's so quiet you can barely hear her when background music's playing, plus she has a habit of cutting her mic off too early when tossing over to someone else.

Traffic reports have gone downhill too. Outside of the legendary Sam Clover, the rest of the anchors are terrible at covering Philly roads. Stevie Reese and Justin Drabick ramble on about a single accident, constantly mumbling all the time - I can tell they're not meant for afternoon drive. Bring back the talented traffic reporters from Total Traffic Network!

And every month they sell their naming rights to someone. The TruMark Financial Traffic Center. The Mealey's Furniture Jam Cams. The Beneficial Bank KYW Index. The Penn Medicine Studios. Give me a break. It's almost distracting from trying to get my news.
 
MikeM2011 said:
Is it me or has KYW gone really cheap with things in recent years? They went from a 24-hour news network to airing reprises of shows, such as Reporters Roundup, CBS Evening News, The CW News, and from 11pm-5am it's all prerecorded now.
Click to expand...

The pre-recorded overnights isn't new. Not uncommon either, since the cable news channels are all repeats in overnight. I recall however, during one major snowstorm, they brought in live reporters to cover the emergency. So that option appears to be available when it's warranted.

As far as traffic reports, CBS Radio made a major corporate change in its traffic reporting several years ago, changing from Total Traffic to Radiate Media. That was a corporate decision, not KYW.

The naming rights are very common in all walks of life. Just drive past the Wells Fargo Arena, Citizens Bank Park, or Lincoln Financial Field. Would you prefer they double the number of :30 spots?
 
TheBigA said:
The pre-recorded overnights isn't new. Not uncommon either, since the cable news channels are all repeats in overnight. I recall however, during one major snowstorm, they brought in live reporters to cover the emergency. So that option appears to be available when it's warranted.

As far as traffic reports, CBS Radio made a major corporate change in its traffic reporting several years ago, changing from Total Traffic to Radiate Media. That was a corporate decision, not KYW.

The naming rights are very common in all walks of life. Just drive past the Wells Fargo Arena, Citizens Bank Park, or Lincoln Financial Field. Would you prefer they double the number of :30 spots?
Click to expand...

Accessible via AT&T Station.

As for TruMark, I'm still getting used to their new slogan.

ixnay
 
KYW has definitely trimmed the ranks of their anchors in the last couple of years ... most all of that was done before CBS sold them. A few thoughts:

Compare what has gone on at KYW to what people are writing about iHeart's acquisition of WBZ in Boston (staff cuts). I think those of us in Philly can be thankful that Entercom ended up with KYW and not iHeart. iHeart really doesn't do all news (or in WBZ's case, nearly all-news). My pessimistic prediction is that, in the not-too-distant future, WBZ will be gutted compared to what it was before its most recent sale. At least on KYW I get the sense they've retained their reporting ranks which, after all, is what is most important.

I have to say, the thinning of the heard at KYW actually got rid of a couple of anchors I didn't enjoy listening to. When this thread made me think about it, for the most part, I like their anchor line-up better now than I did a couple of years ago.

There has been one new-to-KYW-radio anchor entry recently ... experienced, but unfortunately, at least in their early shifts (which were weekday daytime!!) following format and hitting the top and bottom of the hour were problematic. Haven't heard this person recently ... could be maybe they're just there for fill-ins, but -- ugh -- having worked in radio news, inability to execute formatics during weekday midday and afternoon made me cringe. I'm surprised this made it to live air. If nothing else, let them start on evenings or weekend afternoons.

I wonder what will eventually happen to KYW-AM's relationship with CBS3. It seems the largest things they're dependent on CBS3 now are the meteorologists and the 10 pm TV news. Speaking of the CBS3 meteorologists ... that to me is a really mixed bag. A couple who are excellent, IMHO, in their radio presentation. A couple -- again -- ugh. Just give the news anchor the weather to read. And when there's a big storm, the A-team has sometimes been missing from the radio. So, if weather is really still important on news radio (and it seems to be given KYW's March Nielsen numbers), if I were the ND at KYW-AM, I wouldn't be too happy about my A-team weather people being hijacked for TV and being given the B-team instead during a major storm. On the other hand ... I guess it didn't hurt their ratings! Then again ... Accu-Weather is a huge brand in Philly. I wonder if KYW-AM would ever have them back.
 
radiophiler said:
Compare what has gone on at KYW to what people are writing about iHeart's acquisition of WBZ in Boston (staff cuts).
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that since the sale, the ratings have actually gone up for WBZ. Some of that might be attributable to bad weather. But in a city that has other news choices, WBZ is doing fine.
 
atthestars said:
Looks like KYW will lose another hour of local programming per a decision from above:
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My interpretation is he's anchoring the 5PM Hourly on CBS News Radio. Since KYW doesn't carry the TOH newscasts, this won't air in Philly.

CBS News Radio is still owned by CBS and syndicated by SkyView.
 
TheBigA said:
My interpretation is he's anchoring the 5PM Hourly on CBS News Radio. Since KYW doesn't carry the TOH newscasts, this won't air in Philly.

CBS News Radio is still owned by CBS and syndicated by SkyView.
Click to expand...

Ah true. Didn't even think of it that way. I probably stand corrected!
 
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