Radio News - Will This Affect Radio Ad Sales

Ken Dardis

NewsOut

DateLine: Saturday, July 19, 2000 - Cleveland, Ohio

	Time: 12:30pm	Jumped in the car. I was dropping my wife off at the hairdressers. (Anybody else still have to do this?) We scan the radio dial thinking it's just another day.
	1:15...	Arrive at hairdresser. Living in the country gives me a lot of opportunity to listen to radio. Long drives in, scan... listen... drive... scan, listen. Still just another day.
	1:45...	Having escorted the Mrs. to her appointment... I drift toward a book shop in the mall, passing a quaint little restaurant with small waiting bar. The bar's TV is on and three folks are intently watching video of helicopters searching- acting on reports John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane was overdue from a flight to Martha's Vineyard.
		Jeeezzzs.... it's not ‘just another day'. In fact it's one of the biggest breaking news stories in the first year of the century... And I didn't hear one word about it on any of the radio stations scanned in a forty-five minute drive to the hairdresser. ...for my wife*, of course.

*(My wife is a 23 year radio veteran. She worked as Traffic Director at WMMS, Cleveland, during its' 17 most famous years.)

Curiosity got the best of us from that
moment on. When we got back in the
car at 2:45 pm, our intent was to see how
long we would go before hearing anything
on this cross-generational story.
Our search ended with a 3 o'clock
newscast on the local NPR station.
It was the only station in town that we
could find having news at the top of the hour.
The NewsTalk station, "The Big One",
was carrying an Indians baseball game.
And no other station - to the best of
my knowledge - carried a top of hour
newscast, or had a jock break into
their precious music rotation.
Now wait a minute folks- am I missing
something? Or have I just witnessed the
demise of radio news?
Like a city losing electricity, Cleveland,
Ohio suffered a Radio NewsOut.

While television was beating this story
with the biggest cannons ever fired
(enough to cause a negative reaction
to their over-reporting), radio was treating
it as a non-entity.
Not that I really expect anyone to answer, but,
I'd like to know why?

	Why was "The Beat" still jammin?
	Why was "The Buzzard" banging out more of the same music and offensive liners, without rest?
	Why was "Cleveland's # 1 Source for Sports" doing what they do - and nothing more?
	Why was "The Mix" so enthralled with giving us music from the 80's, 90's and 70's there was not so much as a mention from the talent that a "Kennedy" was missing.

This - in my mind - was another emotionally
charged tragedy within America's family,
‘The Kennedys', and radio was ignoring it.

A couple of months ago, we posted a story from radio consultant Donna Halper on this web site. She was concerned not hearing anything about a major traffic jam on local radio while visiting an Alaskan town. Upon trying to call in the report, she found no station in town had Saturday news. No station carried the story. No resident of this town heard anything about a topic which (possibly) would affect them. I wonder how many Programmers called in their news departments last Saturday? How many News Directors headed for the station when they first saw TV's coverage? How many songs (or God forbid commercials) didn't get played because of time spent reporting the son of one of our country's most beloved presidents was missing, with his wife and sister-in-law ...in a plane crash.

We've abandoned the one area radio - and no other media -
once dominated: breaking news stories.
Two months ago, when I read Donna Halpers' column
titled "How Radio Lost Its Identity", what registered
was that we aren't paying weekend news folks anymore.
...it's a sign of the times.
A different thought was driven home last Saturday.
Radio is no longer in the hunt.