Changes In WBZ Radio's News Presentation

[Ron Bello]

At 11:15 AM 9/24/2005, Mark Watson wrote:
>   I've noticed over the past few days that WBZ radio has changed how they 
> start off the top and bottom of the hour, at least during the all news 
> portion of the day. For example, After the J.J. Wright ID, the anchor 
> starts off with "WBZ news time is 5 o'clock. I'm Diane Stern, here are 
> some of the stories we're following in the WBZ news room, top stories 
> teased with audio from a newsmaker along with a tease of the story from a 
> WBZ reporter. There's also a weather tease from the Accu Weather 
> meterologist and a sports tease from the sports anchor. All this takes up 
> close to, if not, 60 seconds. Traffic on the 3's and weather on the 10's 
> still in their righful places. I haven't had a chance to listen after 8 
> PM when the talk shows begin, so I don't know if they do the new top of 
> hour opening then either. Overnights they run CBS news, followed by 
> traffic and recorded local news brief, so the new top of hour opening 
> probably won't run those hours.
>
>   These changes put them more in line with co-owned WINS (1010 New York), 
> who for many years have had a similar top & bottom hour opening. Is WBZ 
> adopting these changes as a result of a mandate from Infinity or to try 
> to freshen things up to boost ratings? (They've dropped out of first 
> place in recent times).
>
>Mark Watson
>

Also noticed change - IMHO
Noise (not music) bed is too loud making it difficult to hear what news 
reader is saying.
It is annoying.