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

[OhioMediaWatch]

It seems to me with the music beds that AN106.7 is de-emphasising news and wants us to pay attention to the urgent weather, the urgent traffic, the urgent sports, the urgent business, and the urgent headlines.  The news is not so urgent.  It just feels wrong when listening.

But it is the same thing I was talking about.  ALL the "all news" (weather, sports, etc.) elements...the mix is not designed for long TSL. It's Quick Hit Cume, and that's why most all news radio stations are in large markets...you collect cume by large numbers of listeners tuning in for short time periods.

[onetake]

Not disagreeing necessarily with Ohio about N/T format and TSL, but I'm seeing really nice TSL's for WINS, WCBS, and WBBM on first glance. There is a lot of potential benefit  with Atlanta having a longer drive time, but whether we like it or not, time buyers still look at AQH numbers before cume and TSL does become part of a goal.  I'm not sure where allnews106 goes but the credibility seems challenged some hours by having urgent set ups (staged production opens) and the content that follows matching up.  No need to juice up the story writing necessary, but maybe this overstated staging is part of a start up. Established stations in larger markets aren't so gimmicked.

[BarryATL]

Some notes on the Sunday night 11PM hour traffic guy:

--US 78 west bound about 2 miles outside of I-285 can be either the Stone Mountain Freeway or Veterans Memorial Drive depending on which side of Atlanta it is located.  US 78 goes across the entire state of Georgia.

--Georgia 154 in Atlanta??  The name of the road would be helpful.

--The I-85 off ramp at Lenox Road does not exist.  My assumption is he was talking about the construction of the new ramp from I-85 south to GA 400 North and the work was being done at I-85 and Cheshire Bridge Rd.  Lenox Rd does not cross I-85.

Some of the traffic people do not really know roads and do not seem to be doing their homework before going on the air.  The above is just an example of a bigger problem.  If the traffic is not consistently correct and understandable, people are not going to bother to tune to All News 106.7 to get their traffic.

[Mike_Rafone]

Barry,

Do you have a death wish for All News 106.7?  Are you so focused on the mistakes (and, yes, they are errors) of the traffic reporting that you miss the major achievement the station has accomplished in less than 30 days on the air?  And at 11:00 PM on a Sunday night?  Give me a break!  Have you ever compiled a similar critique of Capt. Herb's machine gun reports?  They may be accurate but can you understand them? 

Lighten up!

[MRFLASHPORT]

Sorry but Barry is on the money.
For 106.7 to be successfull as an all news station, with an ATLANTA focus and feel, than it needs to be done RIGHT. If the product your selling is sound and content, which radio is nothing more, that it has to be appealing and offer what is touted.

It's clear that the traffic reporters don't know Atlanta. Anyone can read Google maps. It's another thing to actually KNOW the roads. I dont care for WSB with their annoying stingers and right wing mouthpieces, but when it comes to covering LOCAL stories, the talent SOUNDS like they KNOW the area and speak with authority.

If 106.7 wants to unseat them in this department, they need to step up the game. And the engineering department needs to be taken off furlough and fix the audio. It sounds like crap. when WSB showed up on 95.5, they had the audio down within a week or so. 106.7 sounds like a pirate with a Chinese transmitter or Ramsey kit hooked up to a Radio Shack mixer.

I know we're all radio people, but if we notice, you can bet the general public does- and they just tune out and go back to what they KNOW which is WSB or WGST.

[BarryATL]

I want All News 106.7 to succeed.  I am probably one of their biggest fans.  They are doing a lot of things right, however there are a lot of things that need work and some of it needs immediate attention.  The traffic is big because that is their branding... the place to get traffic 24/7.  When you hear one traffic person during drive time say "there is a backup on I-285 west bound between Holcomb Bridge Rd and Peachtree Rd" (that really did happen), that could cause some "regular Joe" listeners to dismiss the whole station and tune back over to whatever place they got their traffic before.

Sunday, I was at brunch with friends after church.  I mentioned to the group of non-radio people there is a new all news station.  One of the 10 people immediately perked up and said, "Oh yeah, I have heard them.  I thought it was great that traffic was on all day long until I listened for a couple of days.  Sometimes they seem like they have never driven around Atlanta."  Another person in the group said something similar.  Believe it or not, five of the 10 people had listened to the station.  Three had positive or neutral things to say, but two focused on the traffic.  I found the whole conversation interesting in that 50% of this group had sampled the station and two of them had sampled long enough to have comments on traffic.  In case anyone at AN106.7 is reading, I am sorry to say that none of those folks are in your target demographic.  We are all over 50, so our money does not count anymore.  

My best hope is AN106.7 will make it past two years.  I am guessing that is the time frame Cumulus will have the most tolerance for.  With that in mind, they have to fix the glaring wholes quickly.  Weather and traffic are the absolute signature pieces for this station.  They have fixed weather.  The anchor is now reading the weather report sometimes and they are now consistent in giving conditions and temperature (although time will tell how they cover bad weather).  Traffic has been a problem from day one and so far there has not been much improvement.  There is no wiggle room on traffic.  If the traffic reporter appears to not know the roads, the potential new listener is totally turned off.

I have been giving positives here and there.  Maybe I have not been giving enough gold stars out.   If so, I will be glad to start mixing more of those in with my posts.

[jabba17]

--US 78 west bound about 2 miles outside of I-285 can be either the Stone Mountain Freeway or Veterans Memorial Drive depending on which side of Atlanta it is located.  US 78 goes across the entire state of Georgia.

--The I-85 off ramp at Lenox Road does not exist.  My assumption is he was talking about the construction of the new ramp from I-85 south to GA 400 North and the work was being done at I-85 and Cheshire Bridge Rd.  Lenox Rd does not cross I-85.

Good point.  I always thought that using the pre-Interstate system freeway names (Northeast Freeway, Northwest Freeway, South Freeway, Airport Connector, Downtown Connector, East Freeway, West Freeway) was an annoying anachronism since they aren't used in general conversation anymore, but when words are tight they do offer a good degree of precision vs., say, I-85. 

I think most people still consider US 78 west of town to be Bankhead Highway.  Whenever they refer to it as Hollowell Parkway or Veterans Memorial, I always have to think about it.  Ditto with Metropolitan Parkway (Stewart Ave.)

IIRC the Cheshire Bridge Road exit is also signed as the Lenox Road exit, as the road changes names about 500 feet away as it crosses Buford Highway. 

[BarryATL]

IIRC the Cheshire Bridge Road exit is also signed as the Lenox Road exit, as the road changes names about 500 feet away as it crosses Buford Highway. 

I thought about that after I posted it.  The sign does have Cheshire Bridge Rd and Lenox Rd on it, but most people call it the Cheshire Bridge Rd exit. Cheshire Bridge is the land mark traffic reporters normally use when reporting on that area of I-85.  So, half a point to AN106.7 instead of no points.   

Don't get me started on road names being changed.  That is a hot button for me.  With your Bankhead Hy example:  US 78 used to be Bankhead Hwy from Georgia Tech all the way out to the Alabama line.  Now it has four different names along the same stretch of Hwy.

[littlejohn]

Well, I would like for them to fix the audio (Fat chance!)  When the stored clips have the same sound as the live mic, they're on the way.  When they both sound good, without the overclip, aliasing distortion, and general crud it would be at l;east listenable.  Making monoral voice sound listenable just ain't that hard.

[Mike_Rafone]

Making monoral voice sound listenable just ain't that hard.

But aren't they broadcasting in stereo?  Seems to me the musical beds sound stereo.