WBUR lashes out at WGBH

Scott Fybush scott@fybush.com
Thu Apr 21 19:33:21 EDT 2011


Mark Laurence wrote:

>>> There are only 4 hours of "simulcasting," albeit the most
>>> important hours of the day.

>> On which day?  I only listen on weekends, and I remember when WBUR 
>> added an extra early airing of "Wait, Wait" to counterprogram WGBH.
>> 
> 
> I was talking about Monday through Friday schedules when they both
> air "Morning Edition" between 7 and 9, and "All Things Considered"
> between 4 and 6 PM.  

And speaking as someone who does the local hosting of ME and ATC from 
time to time, may I say that even "simulcasting" isn't always really 
simulcasting?

Morning Edition's clock, in particular, is designed to allow stations to 
replace large chunks of network content with local content, and I'm 
pretty sure WBUR does so to a huge extent. I wouldn't be at all 
surprised if a minute-by-minute analysis of ME on WBUR and WGBH found 
only 35 minutes or so (possibly even less) of each hour to be identical 
from station to station.

ATC has a little less flexibility at the local level, but even there I'd 
be surprised if more than 45 minutes out of each hour is actually 
simulcast.

The weekend shows are another story - "Wait, Wait" is the same 56 
minutes of radio no matter where it's airing.

s


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