All-news radio

"News radio" redirects here. For the television series, see NewsRadio.

All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news.

All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the gamut from simulcasting an all-news television station like CNN, to a "rip and read" headline service, to stations that include live coverage of news events and long-form public affairs programming.

Many stations brand themselves Newsradio but only run continuous news during the morning and afternoon drive times. These stations are properly labeled as "news/talk" talk radio stations. Also, some National Public Radio stations identify themselves as News and Information stations, which means that in addition to running the NPR news magazines like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, they run other information and public affairs programs.

History

According to a Wikipedia site for 1100 KFAX radio in San Francisco, Calif., what had been KJBS radio changed to KFAX in late 1959 when the station changed formats from music, news, and sports, to become the nation's first all-news radio station. However, this experiment proved unsuccessful.

Broadcasting pioneer Arthur W. Arundel is credited with creating the first 24-hour All News station, radio or television, in the United States in January 1961 on his owned and operated WAVA-FM in Washington. The station’s success was largely driven by a Nation’s Capital audience then riveted to news of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Arundel helped other stations in New York and Chicago also to convert to his All News All the Time format and then met direct competition from Washington Post-owned WTOP in 1969.

Radio programmer Gordon McLendon, who has been credited with pioneering top 40, all-sports, background music and telephone talk formats, is also an acknowledged pioneer in the all-news format. XTRA News went on the air May 5, 1961 from XETRA, a station licensed to Tijuana, Mexico, that could be heard as far away as Los Angeles, followed shortly afterwards by W-NUS in Chicago.

Its format, which can be heard to this day on many all-news stations, was to start each half hour with world and national news, preferably from a network, then switch to locally anchored area news, filling out the half hour with sports, business news and features. XETRA had no outside reporters and got all of its local news from the AP and UPI wire services. Both stations operated using a 15-minute news cycle (newscasts repeated every 15 minutes)

Another early prototypical all-news format was in use by WABC-FM in New York during the 114-day 1962 New York City newspaper strike which lasted from December 8, 1962 to March 31, 1963.[1] The format only lasted as long as the strike, though, and reverted to its regular format of Broadway show tunes and simulcasting of its AM sister station after the strike ended. The following year, ABC's Detroit FM station, WXYZ-FM made a similar effort during a newspaper strike. Both stations, which previously had simulcast their AM sister stations, carried ABC Radio Network news programs (including those not usually by the AM Top 40 stations), AM local newscasts plus wire service stories read to fill the balance of the time.

Group W, the broadcast division of Westinghouse, adopted an all-news format 30-minute cycle (despite the later slogan "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world.") that eschewed network newscasts so that local and non-local news could be freely mixed, according to what was more interesting or important on any given day. Westinghouse also used field reporters at its all-news stations, which included 1010 WINS New York, KYW Newsradio 1060 and KFWB News 98 Los Angeles. WINS began broadcasting its all-news format in April 1965. A second New York all-news station, WCBS began all-news programming on August 28, 1967, although its first broadcasts were on its sister FM station after a plane crashed into its tower, knocking the AM station off the air. CBS converted some of its other AM outlets to this WCBS "Newsradio" format over the next several months and years, including WBBM-AM, KCBS-AM, KNX and WEEI (which CBS sold in the 1980s).

In 1975, the NBC Radio Network shut down its profitable weekend music and information service NBC Monitor to launch the News & Information Service (NIS), the first all-news radio network. It was closed two years later in a cost-cutting move though it had strong ratings in some key markets.

In 1994, an effort similar to NIS was launched by the Associated Press. It was officially known as AP All-News Radio and had many affiliates from coast to coast. However, it was informally better known by its promotional title of "The News Station." The Associated Press discontinued the all-news format in July 2005. However, the Associated Press continue to create top-of-the-hour updates, which are streamed 24/7 online.

The last national all-news radio service in the United States, the audio feed of CNN Headline News, began a long phaseout in 2007. Headline News's audio feed was popular among all-news stations, particularly after the AP disbanded their format in 2005, until the TV station decided in 2006 to abandon its all-news format and add talk show programming in prime time, when many smaller stations do not have air staff and rely on a network feed. Most of the Headline News affiliates became talk radio stations, with a handful of daytime-only stations keeping the feed. CNN also for a time offered a second all news-channel with the hour filled with CNN Radio newscasts on the hour and half-hour and business, sports and feature segments from CNN Radio and Headline News at specific points each hour, plus time segments for local news to be inserted. Many smaller affiliates, however, preferred Headline News audio which was more suited to turn-key (or unattended, automated) operation. CNN Radio ceased operations April 1, 2012[2] although CNN continues to stream an ad-supported audio simulcast of CNN on TuneIn Radio.

While not a full-time NIS, the CBS Radio Network provides significant content for many, if not most, all-news radio stations in the United States, especially local stations in smaller markets. WestwoodOne offers a late-evening newsmagazine hosted by John Batchelor seven nights a week and two hourlong morning news magazines (NBC's First Light and Jim Bohannon's America in the Morning) six days a week. The network's mobile app also contains a 24/7 stream featuring rolling news and features on a set schedule, along with breaking news coverage.

All-news has for years been a top-rated radio format in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities, but as big city traffic worsens and people work longer hours that increase the urgency of planning their day ahead, the focus of such stations has increasingly been on traffic and weather, often updated every 10 minutes. Attempts at long-form commercial all-news stations, such as Washington Post Radio, have been largely unsuccessful.

A newcomer to all-news in the early 2010s was Randy Michaels, who (through his Merlin Media company) acquired FM stations in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia in preparation for all-news formats in those cities (although the Philadelphia station also included talk programs). Michaels gave up on the format after approximately one year and changed formats on both the New York and Chicago stations to music formats, later selling the stations off to other parties.

Talk Radio Network launched America's Radio News Network, a 15-hour weekday block of news, in January 2011; the company had been launching three-hour news blocks in specific dayparts since January 2009. The network was syndicated mostly to smaller stations in need of turnkey news operations during the day; the network never produced programming for overnights or weekends. The service shut down in September 2013.

As of 2012, Cumulus is planning to implement all-news in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Nashville after the start of all-news on KGO in San Francisco and KLIF in Dallas. The stations will be branded as the News and Information stations. Cumulus also offers a nightly newsmagazine hosted by John Batchelor for all-news and news/talk stations.

In September 2012, Clear Channel included a web only All-News radio channel on iHeartRadio called "24/7 News." "24/7 News" has since been customized for local cities in the top twenty radio markets.

Stations

For a near-complete list of News/Talk radio stations, see Category:News and talk radio stations

Many all-news stations only operate as such during the daytime, or may preempt news with live sports coverage. To be included in this list, a station must broadcast all-news programming during a majority of a normal broadcast day.

All-news stations in the United States

All-news stations in Australia

All-news stations in Canada

Between 1977 and 1989 Canada All News Limited operated Canada's first attempt at all news radio with a network of nine FM stations in major Canadian cities, all using the call letters CKO (or CK News). The effort was similar in some ways to NBC Radio's News and Information Service, mostly national news programming with cut-ins for individual stations to broadcast local news. The network was also the first to offer live broadcasts of Question Time in the Canadian parliament. The network was plagued by low ratings and poor advertising sales (similar to problems faced by all-news radio networks operated by NBC, CNN and AP in the US). Ironically, the stations listed below operate in cities which CK News had served previously.

Note: All are owned by Rogers Broadcasting unless noted

News-talk radio stations 570 News in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, News 95.7 in Halifax (also Rogers Broadcasting-owned stations) use an all-news wheel for their morning and afternoon shows, simulating their sister station, 680News in Toronto.

In February 2001, Corus Entertainment launched an all-news sister station to Vancouver news-talk station CKNW. All news NW2 (CJNW AM730, formerly CKLG) was branded as "24 hour news radio, powered by CKNW." NW2 shared newsroom resources with CKNW, including several anchors and reporters. However, NW2 did not achieve broad appeal, and was shut down in May 2002. The station currently airs an all-traffic format under the call sign CHMJ.

That same year, Corus acquired two all-news stations in Montreal, CINW ("940 News") at 940 AM in English and CINF ("Info 690") at 690 AM in French, which had launched in late 1999. These frequencies were previously operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's English and French radio services respectively before the public broadcaster switched to the FM dial. But as AM radio listenership in Montreal declined sharply in recent years – only longtime talk-radio stations CJAD in English and CKAC in French (now an all-sports station) remained popular – neither CINW nor CINF were able to make a profit (even after several format changes on CINW), and Corus finally shut down both stations on January 29, 2010.

All-news stations in the United Kingdom

All-news stations in Germany

All the all-news stations in Germany are operated by the local public broadcasters in the different states.

All-news stations in Italy

All-news stations in Ireland

All-news stations in France

All-news stations in the Netherlands

All-News Radio Stations in Norway

NRK Alltid nyheter- NRK's All-News Station.

All-news stations in Malaysia

All-news stations in the Philippines

AM Band

Almost all AM stations in the Philippines are all-news stations. The stations listed are flagship stations based in Manila.

FM Band
Since 2009, key stations in the country in the FM band had begun a trend on an all-news radio on FM. This has a major advantage from AM because of high-quality broadcasting and penetrates all locations, unlike AM transmissions that are blocked by interference.

Two major companies have their distinction of this format on the FM band.

All-news stations in Spain

All-news stations in China

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hinckley, David. "WRKS SHOWS WHY NO RACE HAD 'SOUL' POSSESSION", Daily News (New York), November 29, 1997. Accessed January 18, 2009.
  2. ↑ NBC News to beef up radio news as CNN withdraws. Associated Press. Retrieved March 2, 2012.

External links

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