Re: Boston's Newsradio Void

[Steve & Barb Sawyer <steve5@tiac.net>]

TVHD@aol.com wrote:

>
>
> Why is there no other station filling this most important
> niche - or even attempting to do so? Is it so utterly
> unprofitable?
>
> Boston Newsradio today must be declared in a "state of
> emergency". Greater Boston desperately needs a true
> purveyor of Newsradio...a 24-Hour News Service, perhaps
> along the lines of service provided by WEEI, some years ago.
>
> Newsradio in its present form is simply unacceptable. The
> current situation is deplorable and unconscionable, and the
> Radio industry in the city of Boston should be ashamed.
>
> Much more than my $.02, but heartfelt...
>
> - Henry Dane

Well, Harry, you're right, of course.  However, I don't think CBS cares $.01.
Several weeks ago during the tornado outbreak, I spent 7 hours relaying severe
weather observations to the station at  The National Weather Service in
Taunton via ham radio.  If one was tuned to either the NWS frequencies
(162.55, 162.425...), or one of the several Amateur frequencies being used to
relay spotter reports, one would have known for HOURS before the storms rolled
into Eastern New England.  Now, WBZ did report the severe weather, but in my
opinion, what passes for severe wx coverage on 'BZ today is but a pale shadow
of the teriffic job they used to do when 'BZ was a music station and used
their TV meterologists.  I'd take ANY of Bruce Schwogler's (sp) forecasts (or,
Don Kent or Barry Burbank's for that matter)  over most of the Accu-Weather
folks any day.  Not only did the forecasters do a better job, but they
mentioned central/western/northern New England situations/conditions.  Perhaps
that's not needed nowadays with the Weather Channel, but at least it sounded
good.

WBZ used to follow the lines of storms with updates from the TV WX forecasters
seemingly every 15 or 20 minutes, but instead of a recorded loop run all day,
these were mostly live updates, at least during bad weather.  (Really want to
compare the difference, remember the coverage of the Blizzard of 78!)

This was the truest comment I've seen about Boston radio in a while.  Boston
effectively does not have a "real" 24 hour news station.  It is a shame.  New
York has two.  (even though BOTH are owned by CBS).  One focuses on New York
City issues, the other is more of a National News Station.  Oh, yes, almost
forgot WBBR Bloomberg.  So its actually 3 news stations.

For WBZ to go back to regular programming in the middle of a declared
emergency was rediculous.  It does, however speak volumes about what goes
through programmer's heads.  I see it this way.  Either (1): "BZ Management
feels that they have no competition, so who really cares what's reported and
how it's delivered because nobody will tune anywhere else, OR

(2): CBS believes that the audience is so shallow and pays so little attention
to the goings on around them that they don't need to devote the attention to
news that they would if they percieved that the audience actually cared.

Two rediculous arguements, but I think that CBS has any intention of paying
attention to details, even when it comes to heritage WBZ.  Only the bottom
line counts, as in any large company nowadays.

Steve Sawyer

BTW, has anyone taken notice of how 'BZ is now pushing the weekend news?

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