New clock for Michael Graham's show

[magpie]

It used to be 7 minutes of news, weather, and ads. Now the news is much shorter and Graham comes on much earlier. I miss that news. And I don’t like the “Boston’s Big News” line.

There’s more talking between Mauzy and Graham than there was with Hank and Graham, which is fine.

There are more and shorter breaks, including the times when he talks about Jeff Carbone and all the other things he pitches as part of the conversation of the show. Also, he’ll pop in between spots for a few seconds of teaser.

It changes the whole rhythym of his show and I liked the old rhythym better.  (Grace, if you're reading this, that's my vote.)  Jim and Margery and Jay have the regular clock, pretty much, and you always know what time it is by the kind of break that comes on.

I know they're not up in their ratings, and except for J & M, I don't agree with most of what gets said, but they all say it so well (except Michelle, sorry.)  Because of the kind of work I do, I get to listen all day and usually part of the night, and I LOVE the production for WTKK (and all the GM stations.)  In my dreams, though, they put someone local in for Imus (Sal DiMasi?  heh, heh), replace Michelle with Curtis (I know, Curtis can't because he's syndicated, but this is a dream, right?), and put someone local in the 10 to 1 slot.

BTW, I am NOT Margery, though I think the Magpie nickname is wickedly funny (I mean, compare her to the bird….some would say it fits her.) Magpie is my cat’s name, that’s all.

[WLYNgm]

More frequent, shorter breaks -- an attempt to prevent people from
tuning out. Audiences are more likely to tune out if they know that, say,
a 4 or 5 minute break is coming up. If the breaks are shorter, more
people will stay listening through them...

[raccoonradio]

McPhee was starting her show at only 3 or 4 minutes past the hour.

Unlike WEEI which "runs late" and then catches up on commercials, sports flashes, etc. on The Big Show...
in which case each hour begins about :20 past (but of course all the ads mean they got listeners and $$!)

[WMC2006]

I noticed these changes this morning with the 9am news (always nice to hear Mauzy) but I've been out of town for three weeks and wasn't sure if it was new-new or three weeks old-new.

I assumed Mauzy was just filling in for Hank as she has several times.  Is Mauzy permanent?

[Cap-n Spackle]

McPhee was starting her show at only 3 or 4 minutes past the hour.

Unlike WEEI ... in which case each hour begins about :20 past  

I usually catch D+C on the way to work, but learned never bother to tune in from 8:59ish to 9:17ish if I'm still on the road.  Who keeps EEI on through all that crap?  I never sit through ads.

[Laker]

I applaud WTKK for shortening the news, weather, sports, and traffic filler at the top of the hour. I always thought it interesting that TKK thinks all of us "best and brightest" need those vacuous headlines when most of us have news sources just a click away. We tune in to TKK for TALK, not the news, weather, sports, business, beach and boating reports, crop & farm reports (OK, kidding about that one) and everything else that keep us from hearing TALK.

The other morning I was glad to hear Michael at a few minutes after 9. I noticed that at 9:18 he went to a break and didn't return until 9:32. I usually switch to WEEI within a millisecond of TKK's looooong breaks beginning but I happened to keep listening totally astounded by the 14 minutes of endless commercials and fillers. Who sits through that? I imagine that radios are tuning out all over NE.

Remember when O'Reilly's show used to start with "The Factor begins in 60 seconds." Now he says "The Factor begins RIGHT NOW". I read that they were losing viewers in droves during that 60 seconds. WTKK take note.

[1510goodguy]

I respectfully disagree with the last post.  Yes, it's a "Talk" station and sure, we can go to cnn.com or foxnews.com and read the news but only if we are home or in the office, but you can't if you're in the car.  The news is an integral part of the talk format IMO, just as important as traffic, weather, and even the occasional crop report if for no other reason than to present a foundation of facts against which the opinion and talk can be react.

Oh, and it's great to hear Mauzy doing news with Michael.  She was doing traffic for Dale on WODS, right?

[Laker]

That's OK 1510goodguy, no disrespect was taken. I just think that when combined with endless commercial breaks I am getting much less "talk" than I tuned in for. As one of the "best & brightest", when I get in the car in the morning I have already reviewed my favorite news sites and I know the headlines, I know who won the Sox game and I know what the weather will be. It only takes a few minutes to get up-to-date. Same goes for the afternoon commute. By the time I get in my car to drive home I'm already up on the day's events and I tune in TKK to hear what Jay thinks about it. If you need news headlines switch to WBZ.

With the slashing of the top of the hour headlines it appears that TKK may agree with me. When I get in my car at 5 I should hear Jay, not a list of canned headlines off the wire. When I hear news headlines or commercials I switch over to EEI and often never make it back to the FM side.

[WMC2006]

Oh, and it's great to hear Mauzy doing news with Michael.  She was doing traffic for Dale on WODS, right?

Yes she was and, briefly after losing that job, WODS kept her on as a fillin weekend jock.  Now, she has a weekend shift on WROR although I don't listen to WROR on weekends....well, hardly ever at all, actually, but WROR.com says she is there so I assume she is there. 

Someone mentioned a couple weeks ago they heard her on WKLB as well.

[DToTheJ]

Remember when O'Reilly's show used to start with "The Factor begins in 60 seconds." Now he says "The Factor begins RIGHT NOW". I read that they were losing viewers in droves during that 60 seconds. WTKK take note.

If only "The Radio Factor" started with such a disclaimer...