Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Role of News at News/Talk Stations Examined

Talkers Magazine Explores The Era of Information

In the current print edition of Talkers magazine, special features correspondent Mike Kinosian writes about the state of the news in news/talk radio.

Stations have differing opinions on whether a serious effort to be a news outlet is important to a news/talk station that mostly talks about the news. 77WABC, New York program director Laurie Cantillo says that although opinion is the life blood of talk radio, stations should be there for listeners when news breaks and that news should be a part of the fabric of the station. “We ‘connect the dots. Shows that lean more heavily toward breaking news are actually our top performers among younger listeners and I think that’s significant.” Getting new listeners to consider you a source of news and information is still an important step.

At 580 WDBO, Orlando, program director Steve Holbrook says his station dedicates time and resources to making its website a news destination to give more emphasis to WDBO as a news brand. The station’s news relationship with Cox-owned WFTV-TV also helps. Holbrook says it’s important that his company supports him with marketing dollars. “Cox Radio has allowed us to do marketing a number of times each year. We just finished a television campaign to keep the WDBO brand alive in the Central Florida area. We have the big three –– news, weather and traffic –– and Cox allows us to market that, especially in news alone.”

Read more here.

No comments:

Post a Comment