All News 106.7 is Here…Finally [last song, audio, first impressions]

[RoddyFreeman]

What happened to wpb1999?  We have not heard from him since Thursday or Friday.  Did he go on vacation?

Did you notice how as soon as wpb1999 left Rooddy appeared? A conspiracy theorist would see it as more than a coincidence??? Roddy are you keeping something from us.

The only one to display such enthusiasm and leave abruptly would be oh I don't know Good Times and Great Oldies???

Gee, how did you ever guess?

[BarryATL]

AN106.7 continues to make changes and tweak the on air product.  It keeps getting better.

--Markets are updated after the business news.
--Sometimes the sports is updated or read by the anchor in the late evening with scores.
--When there is only one anchor they are using pre-recorded reporter voices in the headlines.
--The news sounders are being changed for the better. (will discuss in more detail in next post)
--Traffic is doing much better in listing streets.
--The anchors are giving current conditions after each weather forecast.
--Anchors are telling us what is on weather radar.

Here are the areas that I think still need improvement.

--Some of the VO need to go away.  Especially the one before traffic.  *IF* traffic is live, then the anchor should use a sounder and talk to the traffic person.  Right now the ONLY thing that sounds live is the anchor.  Everything else on AN106.7 sounds pre-recorded.
--When giving the temp it is helpful to list temps for more than just Atlanta.  I have heard only one anchor list temps from different parts of the metro.  Make the connection to the towns where people live.  The temp is the easy way to make that connection.  Joe Doe who drives from Cartersville to the airport each day thinks the station is a little more local when once in awhile he hears the temp for Cartersville.  This is a missed opportunity to connect to the listener.
--Traffic reports have gotten shorter.  Your signature is the traffic reports.  Let them take as long as they need.
--Advertise traffic and weather together on the sixes.
--Become the weather authority for Atlanta.  Give details... always talk about the radar.  Advertise that AN106.7 is the place to turn if there is every a problem.  Make sure NWS weather alerts can be seen IMMEDIATELY by the anchor and the anchor knows that a weather alert is considered breaking news.  Make sure the anchors can break format for weather when needed.  WSB has a huge lead in the weather area.  AN106.7 should be wall to wall live if there is every a weather problem and format be damned.
--Music beds...... discussed in next post.

That is how I see it so far.

[BarryATL]

Okay... music beds.  During the time period :14 through :22 every single spoken word (besides the 120 seconds of commercial) has a music bed under it.  Music bed after music bed after music bed after music bed.  Please stop the madness!

Here is an approximation of the AN106.7 clock (without the commercial breaks listed and there are lots of those):

:59  Headlines w/music bed
:00  ABC News
:02  News
:06  Traffic w/music bed
:07  Weather w/music bed
:10  News
:14  Headlines w/music bed
:15  Sports w/music bed
:16  Traffic  w/music bed
:17  Weather  w/music bed
:20  Business  w/music bed
:23  News
:26  Traffic w/music bed
:27  Weather  w/music bed
:29  Headlines  w/music bed
:30  ABC Headlines

Almost everything has a music bed.  Why?  Sometimes they are too loud... sometimes they are too musical (the business one was distracting until it was changed today).  This is the ONLY news station I have ever listened to that has all of these music beds.  Is there something going on in the imaging of this station that I have missed?  Run a loop with newsroom noise if the sound is too quiet... or a teletype or anything other than all of the music.

On a positive note, the new news sounder package is great.  The anchors need to know how to use it better.  Coming out of the TOH ABC news, the anchors are hesitating too much and the fast paced rhythm is lost.  Also, the start of the news sounder going out of the TOH ABC News is generally sloppy.  Sometimes we hear a bit of the network commercial and mostly we hear a second or so of dead air then the sounder.  When the sounder starts the anchor should start talking immediately after the three notes of the sounder so the rhythm continues.

[jabba17]

I agree.  Break the clock if there is significant severe weather, just as you would for a huge news story.  And take all the time you need for traffic especially if there are big problems.

One thing I like is that they don't do a lot of promos, instead relying on the lead-in VOs to do their promo.  Maybe once they get established they could back off on some of the length of the VOs--like say "From the 680 The Fan Sports Desk" instead of "sports blah, blah, blah...powered by 680 The Fan, Home of the Atlanta Braves..."

One thing I don't like is the number of PSAs in the off hours.  Are the off hours just not selling (yet)?  PSAs make the station sound weak.

With all the talk the music beds don't need to be so loud.  With the good segues they are doing you don't need them as dead-air insurance, either.  

Rattle off the temps at all the local airports--Hartsfield, Mableton [Charlie Brown], Chamblee [PDK], Kennesaw [McCollum], Lawrenceville [Briscoe], etc. and other weather stations (Ptree City).  If you don't have time for all of them, just do ATL and one or two other per break.  

[BarryATL]

One thing I don't like is the number of PSAs in the off hours.  Are the off hours just not selling (yet)?  PSAs make the station sound weak.

The station breaks are part of the format clock.  If they eliminate the breaks that don't sell, that means they must come up with more content on the fly.  Also, I think they want the listener used to hearing so many spots during a half hour so when the spot load is high, the listener does not feel there are too many commercials.

My suggestion is to stop all of the PSAs as we have heard the same ones over and over.  I am so damn tired of hearing the baby cry about the damn junk in his damn trunk (can you tell I have strong feelings on this?).  Why not give free spots to good advertisers. I know you cannot do to many freebies or those advertisers will not buy if they are getting free... but, run some bonus spots.  Give the advertisers on the other Cumulus stations a free taste of AN106.7.  Fill the spot load.  Make the station sound like it is already a success.

CBS had the spot load full on WNEW on day one with lots of local small business commercials.  They even had a mattress store sponsoring the traffic for the first week.  I forget the name, but as an example:  ... and now we go to the The Original Mattress Store traffic desk.  CBS has WNEW full and client exposure all over the place.  I do not know how much of that is free or almost free, but it really makes a difference in the sound of the station.  WNEW sounds successful.  It sounds like I would like to advertise there with all of the other advertisers.

[trusty]

Give the advertisers on the other Cumulus stations a free taste of AN106.7.  Fill the spot load.  Make the station sound like it is already a success.

2 more ideas about filling time:
1. Promote the other ATL Cumulus stations.
2. Sell classifieds (think newspaper want ads). For a few bucks, advertise job openings & seekers, buy/sell items, announcements, etc. ("For details, go to AN1067 website.") This can be done in one-minute blocks run of schedule, have the "personal touch" with people and bring a little more money to the station.)

[jabba17]

Give the advertisers on the other Cumulus stations a free taste of AN106.7.  Fill the spot load.  Make the station sound like it is already a success.

2 more ideas about filling time:
1. Promote the other ATL Cumulus stations.
2. Sell classifieds (think newspaper want ads). For a few bucks, advertise job openings & seekers, buy/sell items, announcements, etc. ("For details, go to AN1067 website.") This can be done in one-minute blocks run of schedule, have the "personal touch" with people and bring a little more money to the station.)

I heard my first SweetJack ad this morning.

[BarryATL]

Traffic at 3:57 had a total of 48 seconds.  As I have said, the signature product is traffic but there is no way to cover the metro in 48 seconds.  The first few days the reports were longer and the announcers talked a little slower.  That was the big difference between WSB and WYAY. 

Overall, the format clock is controlling content too tightly.  This is an all news station.  Let it take as long as it takes.  The main reason for many to listen is just for the traffic.  If you are only going to cover certain parts of the metro every 20 or 30 minutes, well, the traffic is worthless.  That kind of traffic is available on News/Talk AM 750 and 95.5 FM WSB.

[BarryATL]

During the 3:00 PM hour today the music beds were played low and were tolerable.

During the 4:00 PM hour they must have changed the person running the board.  The beds were LOUD.  I had to listen carefully to hear the traffic details and weather over the loud music bed.  At the bottom of the hour the headlines were just totally lost.

Please fix this.  This is drive time.  I try to call the station on the news line to alert them.  I dialed 14 times getting a busy signal before I got through.  Remember, some people under 30 do not know what a busy signal is.  That is a chunk of the target audience.  Luckily I have a auto redial function.

[RadioFreak69]

I'm a self-proclaimed news freak but I'm afraid if I listen to All News 106.7 more than 5 minutes I'll slip into a deep coma!!!