Network newscasts on Boston radio

[Shawn Mamros]

Garrett wrote:
><<On Fri, 03 Jun 2005 09:13:17 -0400, "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net> said:
>> I've never quite understood why the Infinity stations that are CBS
>> affiliates (such as 'BZ and WTIC) aren't required to carry the hourly
>> network newscasts.  They're "CBS-owned," after all.  Can someone explain?
>
>The local spot time is more valuable than CBS branding.

And that reason no doubt trumps any other that I was going to write. :-)
But I'll write them anyways...

- 'BZ's news format predates their CBS ownership/affiliation by quite
a few years.  The old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" could
apply here.

- From a standpoint of their being the only "all-news" headline radio
service in town (during the daypart hours anyways), going with a local
newscast makes sense.  If it's a slow day on the national scene, but
there's a truck jacknifed in the I-93 tunnels, doesn't it make more
sense to lead the hour with that, rather than being forced to run the
network newscast always?

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros -at- mit dot edu