I am driving a plow tonight and took some time to listen to my former co worker Steve Perez on the overnight traffic shift. I figured even with some snow fall that it must be the most dull thing on the radio but Steve is hilarious. He's found a way to sneak jokes into his reports, some of the jokes are real subtle. I have been cracking up for the past two hours. It's funny how I have never heard anyone talk about his overnight reports. How has no one else noticed? It's not like it's the best radio show of all time or anything but I found myself staying on BZ to see what he might say next. OK back to work. The roads are fine.
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WBZ overnight traffic
- Thread starter ex radio pimp
- Start date
I believe Steve is the only live overnight voice left on WBZ. The rest of the station may sound live overnight, but all those overnight news stories, weather reports, etc… were pre-recorded the previous evening or daytime.
That’s why Steve includes the current temperature and weather condition at the end of his traffic report, because the pre-recorded weather forecast isn’t live to give current information.
Yes, and Jack Hart does some overnight traffic on BZ and he also tries to spice it up a bit.
I'm surprised they bother with the live traffic since they are thoroughly convinced no one is listening overnight, they can't sell the time, etc. That was the reason they ditched the overnight live hosted talk.
They at least had a chance to pull in some new and maybe younger audience with the local overnight talk - especially during covid when people were disrupted and home all the time looking for stuff to do.
That was what got me hooked on radio as a teen and into my college years - I used to keep that radio on low in my room all night.
I'm surprised they bother with the live traffic since they are thoroughly convinced no one is listening overnight, they can't sell the time, etc. That was the reason they ditched the overnight live hosted talk.
They at least had a chance to pull in some new and maybe younger audience with the local overnight talk - especially during covid when people were disrupted and home all the time looking for stuff to do.
That was what got me hooked on radio as a teen and into my college years - I used to keep that radio on low in my room all night.
My sense is if they really wanted to do news in that slot, they would be doing it now.
"News 24/7" means "reading news on the air"?
Dan Rae's show IS news....just not in the format (reading) that you are referring to.
(WBUR is "Boston's NPR News Station"....and they don't simply read news all the time.)
I'm reminded of a station that began their talk dayparts with the liner:
"WXXX, All News! When were not reporting it, we're talking about it!"
Also, stations that did the 'reading news' format 24/7 had their worst numbers in the evening hours. There is basically no need for reading newscasts in the 10-11, 12, etc. hour when people are mostly home with a television set.
And the short TSL and repetitive nature of the "reading news" dayparts during the day are not conducive to evening listening, where you have fewer people listening and need them to listen longer...Voila! "Talking about the news"!
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CKAC 730 Montreal all traffic, Radio Circulation. The reason WJTO has to go to flea power at night. Loud and clear on North Shore even when there's still a bit of sunlight.
WHJJ 920 Prov had called itself NewsRadio even though it was/is mostly (curreny event) talk shows
WHJJ 920 Prov had called itself NewsRadio even though it was/is mostly (curreny event) talk shows
I’d like to see longer form news in that evening time slots with interviews which I know Dan does but I could do with the telephone talk.
WBUR? WGBH? Don't they both do that?
Please explain the unbroken (since 1965) success with "All news, all the time" WINS, NY has had.
I do agree that neither WBZ nor WBUR should give the impression they deliver news 24/7. When 'BZ is broadcasting an infomercial or "Billy and Jenny" on weekends, that, to me, is not news. Ditto for 'BUR when they're not running Morning Edition or All Things Considered.
This past Sunday eve while cleaning up after dinner I so wanted a LIVE up-to-date weather forecast, but it was after 6:00 and I was outta luck. And, thank you, but the apps on my smartphone were pretty useless.
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Get a weather app.
Partly because NYC is a much bigger market, where they get a lot of people listening for very short periods of time. The rest is, today, cost and satisfaction with what they are achieving with the blend of talk and news at WBZ.
Scott Fybush is a WBZ veteran and I'd be interested in his opinion on why WBZ has the mixed news and talk format.
David, you are obviously correct on the size of the NYC market as being able to support not only a 24/7 all-news station, but also a sister station, WCBS-AM that delivers news during much (not all) of its 24-hour day.
Back when CBS owned two news outlets, KNX and KFWB, in LA - no. 2 market in US - KFWB was doing poorly enough that CBS spun them off before the acquisition by Entercom.
Broadcasters know that there is listening in overnights. But, after many decades of trying by many thousands of 24 hour stations, there have only been a few instances of anyone ever being able to sell advertising in overnights.
Yes, there used to be some sponsored overnight trucker shows, but mostly on signals that covered vast parts of the Interstate system... and the truckers all have satellite now. And way back, we had things in the early 60's like the Holiday Inn show.
Heck, even most of the spots stations give to carry Noory's show have to be run in the daytime!
Actually, the news format was ended on KFWB when the sale of the station group required a spinoff. It was put in a trust that lasted for years, but which the group buyer wanted to have a less competitive format.
Are you volunteering to do it for free? Because the budget for that kind of thing at that time of night would be pretty small.
The radio audience from 7PM on is very hard to sell. Things are so bad that it would be hard to do a national news/talk show at 7PM, much less local. I bet they're losing money with Dan.