Sunday's LTAR: music stations and breaking news

[Bob Nelson <raccoonradio@yahoo.com>]

On this past Sunday's Let's Talk About Radio, Donna
Halper mentioned that many FM music-oriented stations
were on automation on Feb. 1 and thus did no mentions
or coverage of the space shuttle disaster. She said
there are probably no contingency plans for such
stations should a big news story erupt on the weekend.

It was said that the big corporations that own such
stations a) cut down their news to, at most,
morning and afternoon drive only, and b) maybe they're
afraid their audience would flee to an all-news
station should they broadcast the "breaking news".

Well, I just heard a promo on WQLL-FM (96.5),
Bedford/Manchester, NH. It said, "Here at Cool
96.5, we know you listen to us to hear great oldies.
But we also know you want to stay informed. So as we
approach war with Iraq, we'll give you breaking news
as it happens." (Not the exact wording, but words to
that effect.)

So some stations are saying they'll provide some
"breaking news" when it happens (and I would
assume that would include weekends or nights).

By the way, on the subject of war coverage, I also
just heard a promo on WRKO saying that they would
keep listeners informed "with the resources of
ABC News and Fox". I assume this means they may pick
up some feeds from cable's Fox News Channel when
there's breaking news on the war...I know Fox has a
_sports_ radio network but as far as I know there
is no Fox Radio _News_.

During 9/11 and also during the Afghanistan conflict,
WTKK ran the audio portion of CNN. Maybe 'RKO plans to
do the same with Fox News Channel (a new arrangement
for them?) when there's urgent war
news, etc.