Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 1/1: Standards Die, Standards Live, ...

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

Among the obits for 1998:
"MUTUAL RADIO NEWS, once-great news network, 60-ish (8/31, survived as a
ghost of its former self produced by CBS)." (NERW 1/1/99)

How about the 70-ish NBC Radio news?  Perhaps its expiration happened
earlier than 1998 but it, too, survives as a ghost of its former self
produced by CBS.  In fact, the hourly newscasts on NBC and Mutual are
the same.  Separate sounders--the same ones as used in the recent
past--mark the top of the hour but the body of the newscast is the same,
with CBS Radio talent and voicers which are mostly untagged but
occasionally have a generic tag ("Bob Fuss at the White House" as
opposed to "reporting live from the White House, I'm Bob Fuss, CBS
News").

The network's name gets mentioned around :05, after the last spot
rolls.  "This is NBC Radio news" can be heard on the WGIR Action News
Network most hours except morning drive, when the network is dumped at
:02, after the first spot.  Listeners to WZAN frequently hear "This is
N"--I presume the next event is started by the clock rather than a
network end-cue.  I haven't heard "This is Mutual Radio news" because
WNTK dumps from the net at :04.

I haven't been able to do a statistically valid sample but I think the
:01 spot break on NBC runs at :04 on Mutual and vice versa.  Ghost
though it may be, one memorable element of Mutual lives on: those
boo-doop cue tones which I always found so silly.

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