Radio never warned me (regarding Spfld tornado)

[Doug Drown]

Maine has two (count 'em --- two) commercial radio stations that I know of 
that do any significant news coverage at all.  One is Saga's WGAN in 
Portland (ABC); the other is Stephen King's WZON in Bangor (CNN).  I guess I 
could also add WZAN, Saga's other news-and-talk AM in Portland (CBS), but it 
basically just replicates WGAN's newscasts.   All three stations do network 
news on the hour, followed by live local newscasts.

The two Blueberry talkers, WVOM (Bangor) and WVQM (Augusta), do local news 
in the morning, but it's read by one of the two morning hosts.   The rest of 
the day it's Fox News on the hour --- one minute of it followed by four 
minutes of commercials.  T'ain't like the old days when WVOM was locally 
owned and won awards for its magnificent, day-in, day-out 24/7 coverage of 
the 1998 ice storm.

I can't speak for Aroostook County radio; I know little of what goes on up 
there in the field of broadcasting.

-Doug






----- Original Message ----- 
From: <TK41C@aol.com>
To: <scott@fybush.com>; <wollman@bimajority.org>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: Radio never warned me (regarding Spfld tornado)


> It's not just the Mom and Pops that have cut back on local radio news.
>
> A few months ago, there was a chemical plant explosion about a mile down
> the road, so naturally I tuned in to WBZ. It was a Sunday evening about 8 
> PM,
> and the talent had prerecorded the news for that evening at the end of her
> shift, which I estimated at 6 PM. Nothing at all about the story on WBZ
> through out the evening.
>
> Four Boston TV stations showed up, and the story ran on the CBS Radio net
> news at midnight.  WBZ  covered the story the next morning. So much for 
> the
> immediacy of radio news.
>
> When working at 1170 Soldiers Field Rd on the TV side in the early 70s,
> there was a
> live newscast at 11 PM , 7 days a week.  Streeter Stuart often held down
> that shift.
>
> With all the ads that WBZ airs, you would think that they could spring for
> evening coverage on the weekends. I know, I know, they take their orders
> from NY; ad revenue is not what it used to be, etc.
>
> But think of all the major stories that have happened on weekends.
> Watergate comes to mind, on a Saturday evening.  I heard about it on NBC 
> "Monitor",
> it was much later that CBS Radio had the story on the air.
>
> Tornadoes, chemical plant explosions, inquiring minds want to know- this 
> is
> serious business.
>
> J Ballard
> W1JHB
>
>
>
>
>