Cumulus Announces an All-News Station on 106.7: To Debut Mid-May

[wpb1999]

I listened for two days to Cumulus' KGO All News (except weekends) in San Fran to get some idea as to what type of job Cumulus does with news.  I will say it was not bad.  Here are a few observations:

--I was not happy that mid-day they had all women voices... the two anchors... the field reporters... even the weather.  There was not one male voice for a few hours.  I do not think that was by design... one of the female anchors kept saying every 30 minutes that she was filling in for someone who had a male name.

--They missed one big story local story that KCBS was carrying in the evening about May Day protesters bashing in windows.  KGO eventually picked it up and did a great job, but they were a couple of hours late.

--The imaging does not have any pizzazz.  It actually sounded cheap.  The one news sounder they play four times an hour is very underwhelming.  One thing that CBS has shown is an all news station should have good imaging.  Very distinctive sounds for different sections of the news cast.  If you are zoning in the car, you wake up when you hear the sounder for traffic.  Even KGO's traffic sounder was boring.  WINS has always been known for it's imaging... CBS' new WNEW in Washington, DC took what WINS had and pumped it up.  Listen to the top or bottom of the hour with WNEW and it is real clear what they are going to cover, it is dramatic, and it draws you in.  The traffic sounder is loud and high pitched which gets your attention to pay attention.  Granted, WNEW has a few of their own issues like saying "repeating the current temperature of 80 degrees".  That is a no-no in radio.  Never say repeating.

--There is a big push for the 11:00 PM news on KGO.  It has the feel they are tying to compete with the TV broadcasts at that hour.

Overall, I would be happy with a KGO type product if they could work on their imaging.  Make it sound like a news station.... make sure the sounders don't sound cheap and all of the announcers know where to start talking.  Make sure the sounders are bright in sound.  The KGO sounders are not bright and actually sound like they are being played on a cart machine with a dirty tape head.

Well, this is enough to begin a conversation on what we would like to see in the station.

I actually like this- it is the old KGO theme from TM productions (I like cut #4/traffic.) http://tmstudios.com/jingles.asp?category=NewsTalkSports

[Rick Rose 2.0]

KGO,KRLD  and WBZ still air talk shows 9 hours a day weekdays

[wpb1999]

KGO,KRLD  and WBZ still air talk shows 9 hours a day weekdays

But it looks like WYAY will be 24/7.

[trusty]

Quote from: trusty on Today at 03:55:52 AM

Are there any plans to change call letters? It may be a challenge to stomach "Yay-News!"

WYAY -- Yay News 1 0 6 7 - The Happy News station in Atlanta. We couldn't find the right mix of "feel good oldies" so we're trying feel-good news, 24/7/365.

OoooooooKaaayy... I googled "yay news" and got a a couple of gay websites (I'm sure Cumulus planned THAT. ) and then "Amanda", who gets my vote for morning news anchor!


Let the comments begin!

[richllewis]

did any of you take a look at KLIF and the way Cumulus is trying to change that station from talk to some news and talk?

[EJM]

It's about time for a city Atlanta's size. Yes, another oldies station has been sacrificed, but WSB won't go all-news. Not with Clark Howard in the way. Let's see how Cumulus does it.

Is there a smaller market than Atlanta with an all news station?  The only ones I know of are in bigger markets.

1  New York         WCBS (CBS), WINS (CBS) & WEMP (Merlin)
2  Los Angeles      KNX (CBS)
3  Chicago          WBBM (CBS) & WIQI (Merlin)
4  San Francisco    KCBS (CBS) & KGO (Cumulus)
5  Dallas-Ft Worth  KRLD (CBS)
6  Houston          KROI (Radio One)
7  Washington       WTOP (Hubbard) & WNEW (CBS)
8  Philadelphia     KYW (CBS)
9  Atlanta          WYAY (Cumulus) --coming soon
10 Boston           WBZ (CBS)
11 Detroit          WWJ (CBS)

You can add 14. in Seattle, KOMO Newsradio a FisherABC Station.

You might also include the recently reformatted WPTF in Raleigh/Durham.  (There are also several stations that run ARNN throughout most of the day, but I tend not to count them.)

[Zach]

You might also include the recently reformatted WPTF in Raleigh/Durham.  (There are also several stations that run ARNN throughout most of the day, but I tend not to count them.)

Thanks to everyone for pointing out all the all-news stations in smaller markets.  I didn't even think to check places like Boston and Seattle.

I also wouldn't count satellite-fed news stations.  I'm looking more towards locally staffed in house news than anything else.

[FLjack2]

You might also include the recently reformatted WPTF in Raleigh/Durham.  (There are also several stations that run ARNN throughout most of the day, but I tend not to count them.)

Thanks to everyone for pointing out all the all-news stations in smaller markets.  I didn't even think to check places like Boston and Seattle.

I also wouldn't count satellite-fed news stations.  I'm looking more towards locally staffed in house news than anything else.

But is WPTF ALL NEWS?  I dont think so.

[EJM]

You might also include the recently reformatted WPTF in Raleigh/Durham.  (There are also several stations that run ARNN throughout most of the day, but I tend not to count them.)

Thanks to everyone for pointing out all the all-news stations in smaller markets.  I didn't even think to check places like Boston and Seattle.

I also wouldn't count satellite-fed news stations.  I'm looking more towards locally staffed in house news than anything else.

But is WPTF ALL NEWS?  I dont think so.

As of a few months ago, it's almost as "All News" as KRLD, KOMO, and WBZ on weekdays: news blocks from 5:00 to 10:00 a.m. and from noon to 7:00 p.m.  (Two hours of Dave Ramsey are between the blocks, which is less Talk than what KOMO does now during middays [John Carlson and Ken Schram, with three hours each].)

Along those lines, Baltimore's WBAL could arguably also count now.

[wpb1999]

As of a few months ago, it's almost as "All News" as KRLD, KOMO, and WBZ on weekdays: news blocks from 5:00 to 10:00 a.m. and from noon to 7:00 p.m.  (Two hours of Dave Ramsey are between the blocks, which is less Talk than what KOMO does now during middays [John Carlson and Ken Schram, with three hours each].)

Along those lines, Baltimore's WBAL could arguably also count now.

Ken Schram and John Carlson- both of them are personal friends- are IMO considered information talk, not political talk... I think the info-talk belongs on an all-news station.  But, you have to admire KOMO, they became a Seattle all-news empire from talk in about two years.