Trent, they do the quarter-hour recap between business and sports. It probably, like 660, works out to be at either side of :15 or :45. When 660News started they had David Spence on the phone for his reports outside of morning drive until they put in the direct link from CFCN, in fact most of their reporters were phoning it in - now that doesn't happen as often. I wonder if they will ever go to a dedicated in-house business reporter or if they stick with the industry-based correspondent. One thing they could do different is trim the ad copy and just give the name of the sponsor and not their tagline. And one thing I do notice on iNews is the lack of 'breaking news', 'happening now', and 'this just in' stingers.
I would agree that the 'i' thing is a bit overdone on their website and 'I-NEWS-8-80' does sound a bit awkward when its said, but then again they want to push the 'internet-driven, you are so much involved in our format' and what else could they use that wouldn't make Rogers bark? WCBS uses 'NewsRadio 880', and they used to have the trademark on that phrase, but I believe Westinghouse let that lapse. That would have been a better name, but there's nothing in that name that focuses their push.
It is interesting to see the differences between the launch of the Corus station in Edmonton and Rogers' station in Calgary. Rogers surprised the market (most of the listeners were surprised by the change - anyone who read this board knew at least two months in advance), whereas Corus gave everyone two months warning. Rogers started with talent from their other stations, talent that went back home within two weeks while those in charge hurriedly interviewed and hired prospective talent. Corus had (has) the luxury of using staff from CHED but their other hires sound decent, something 660 struggled with for a time.
Tuned in for a while today. I have no "corperation loyalty or preference" as I have worked for both but I would have to say that 880 sounds much better than 660 news. American Pie would have been the best song choice if they had been able to pull it off. I think 660 played We built this city by Starship which was a bad choice because 660 hadn't played that song in well over a decade. Yep....I need to get a life!!!
Currently lacking excessive ads, which is what I like to hear, but this may or may not change. Let's hope it stays. (I am taking this from a listener point of view, not the station's business manager.)
Really? I felt that iNews had way more ads than it should... then again it must be the flow of the program.
Speaking of flow, some things need to be tightened up on iNews when it comes to the writing or ad-libing. For example, Claasen's weather forecasts are WAY too long... please save the mumbo-jumbo for TV and just get to the forecast.
Hopefully everyone had cases of "the nerves" today or they better start pulling airchecks right away to see if anyone can get through a cast without stumbling through their reads.
Really? I felt that iNews had way more ads than it should... then again it must be the flow of the program.
Speaking of flow, some things need to be tightened up on iNews when it comes to the writing or ad-libing. For example, Claasen's weather forecasts are WAY too long... please save the mumbo-jumbo for TV and just get to the forecast.
I also love that at this point, it is a recording off phone and the announcer tries to make a handoff as if it were live. I listened to the station for 6 hours straight today and they managed to cut off the recording before it was done about 2 times, and it was updated at 6PM. "Mother nature, it's like sheeeeeeeeeeee did..." I agree that it should be a bit more to the point, but not as boring as Weatheradio.
Other points to note: It's not as 'exactly every half hour as per our master clock' as the Rogers stations are. I have no clue why they're using a gmail address when they own their own domain. I just find that unprofessional. At least use Google Apps...
Also, some people tend to repeat their name more than the time. I personally find the latter more useful, and some announcers throughout the day did do just that, but most didn't. Ex. "You're listening to iNews880. I'm Kimberly Hopkins." OK, excellent, what time is it!?
Currently all the iNews iComment iSubmit things are all iModerated. iMean.. yeah. But it could be mostly inefficient if many people decide to comment on something for whatever reason, because most people are used to normal commenting systems which instantly insert the text into the site DB. I guess the idea is more like a feedback into the station, without being able to see such feedback, even though it was advertised otherwise. Feature coming soon?
Please, dial-up modem noises are not representative of how your station is all about using the latest modern technologies for listener-station interaction. Weather on the website: no one uses millibars in Canada.
People need to pay a bit more attention, because they're getting a lot of dead air when attempting to introduce people who are either not ready, not responding, or forget to bring up the mic. I don't remember the CFFR launch being this awkward...maybe I need to check the old tapes again or something. They're also trying to get used to the new namig - I do remember at launch, the temporary people on 660 would accidentally try to ID as 680. Same here ("Six-thirt....iNews880 reporter...") But I know these things will get figured out with time. They also need to switch between announcers between stories or something, because it's just weird and sounds like there is only one announcer.
I guess I'm ranting about pointless and minor things into a forum which may or may not lead to changes on the actual station/website.
But the Rogers station in Calgary uses the same format for their anchors. When 660News first started, the morning drive anchors tag-teamed, both for the first 5, then one anchor for the remainder of the half-hour. Now both anchors will deliver the news for the majority of the half hour (possibly the same in PMD). The rest of the clock, both anchors deliver the first 5 minutes, then one delivers the rest of the half hour while the other supposedly edits, re-writes, or checks on developing stories, and typically the order is male in the first half and female in the second half when you have a male-female pairing.
'Exactly every half-hour as per our master clock' -- okay, the thing with this is that in Toronto and Vancouver they use a real time signal attached to the clock. You can tell because if the anchors are not on time with their speil (which rarely happens), the beeps will sound over their voices. In Calgary, the time beep is a recording. The anchors are supposed to run the recording at exactly the half hour but half the time it's either a bit late or a bit early. I am surprised iNews doesn't have a time signal though -- it's another 'utility' (as Doug Rutherford called his station).
I think it would be good to put Classen in the studio for AMD. And as for the dial-up modem sounds, as 'mid-90s' as that may sound, what else could you use?
As for the weather, all the Corus stations are pulling in their weather info from the same place; a site that will allow you to show weather info for a fee. The info is probably provided by an American company, and they typically use millibars instead of kilopascals. There probably are very few, if any Canadian type sites that would allow them to show the data on their own site and not divert them off their site to places like The Weather Network, for example. If they want something better they would have to hire a developer to build that, and my guess is there's no room in the budget.
I realize that you need to hire a lot of personnel for this type of format but I find that some of the announcers sound really green. If you want to be a major market station you have to bite the bullet.
I realize that you need to hire a lot of personnel for this type of format but I find that some of the announcers sound really green. If you want to be a major market station you have to bite the bullet.
Like SONIC does for middays? Or any station for evenings?
C'mon, cut the CORUS slagging and realize every major market station is cutting back on talent and replacing it with inexperience and therefore money. How many new people did that station bring in? 12? 15? More? It's practically a training ground for new people in the broadcast journalism field now. And why not, look at who they've got there to train them. From mornings all the way through the p.m. drive there are solid people there.
And the station doesn't sound bad, heard worse, heard better. I'd imagine a few things will be tweaked and they'll be fine, as long as the corporation is supportive.
Sounds OK... but aren't they just going to build their audience by stealing audience away from CHED? Where's the sense in that? Unless CHED is planning on becoming less NEWS and more TALK?
Also, having so much cross promotion of CHED and it's talent on the station only hurts the new station's image as being a possible 'younger and fresher' sounding alternative.
This may work, but I see it hurting CHED in the long run.
This won't hurt CHED all that much in the ratings, if at all. This is like Headline News on the radio, unless you like hearing the same thing over and over again you're really only tuning in for 30-35 minute stretches max. Most people will tune in for top stories, or a traffic or weather update, sports score, or a breaking news update and then return to what they were listening to. It's been said before, it's all about the cume with all-news. I don't expect ratings will be stellar out of the gate for iNews; they weren't for 660 in Calgary. But CHED does excellent in the ratings and that will help iNews when they cross-promote each other.
I haven't been able to listen all that much, but when I did, I heard only one tinny sounding traffic person, obviously phoning the report in from somewhere. The Rogers brand of these stations has been built on their traffic, a ground person and then someone up in the air, providing the best traffic reports. I wonder how the iNews traffic can be as good, if they arenn't in the studio answering those traffic calls that flood in.
ALL NEWS, ALL THE TIME by Graham Hicks Edmonton Sun May 22
Looks like Corus Entertainment has made a serious commitment to news radio.
With the conversion Tuesday of Cool 880 to iNews880, the CHED/iNews880 news team has doubled, from 15 to 30 full-time (or equivalent) staffers.
CHED's veteran reporters Scott Johnston and Simon Ostler, after somehow getting to every big story in the city for years and years on their own, now have been joined by four to five more street reporters.
I had thought the CHED news broadcasts would simply be simulcast on iNews880, but such is not the case. iNews880 has its own news anchors and news shows, running in quarter-hour cycles of news, sports, weather.
Plus there's http://www.iNews880.com, but that's direct competition to the Edmonton Sun, so we won't give it too much of a plug! Suffice it to say the more news coverage there is locally, the better it is for everybody.
And of course Corus Entertainment's emphasis on news has nothing to do with cutting Rogers Broadcasting's proposal for an all-news FM radio station off at the pass. Only cynics would think that way.
THE AGE OF GOLDEN OLDIES
The conversion of iNews880 to an all-news format didn't mean the death of nostalgia radio. Far from it!
The moment Corus Entertainment (CHED, Joe, CISN and now iNews880) flipped Cool880's blasts from the past to all news iNews880, Newcap Radio switched 96.3 FM from country Big Earl to nostalgia pop Capital FM.
So at this point, five of the nine major commercial radio stations on the FM dial - Joe, Capital, K-Rock, Magic and EZ Rock - feature nostalgia or quasi-nostalgia music formats.
Like SONIC does for middays? Or any station for evenings?
C'mon, cut the CORUS slagging and realize every major market station is cutting back on talent and replacing it with inexperience and therefore money. How many new people did that station bring in? 12? 15? More? It's practically a training ground for new people in the broadcast journalism field now. And why not, look at who they've got there to train them. From mornings all the way through the p.m. drive there are solid people there.
And the station doesn't sound bad, heard worse, heard better. I'd imagine a few things will be tweaked and they'll be fine, as long as the corporation is supportive.
Give me a break I'm hearing mid-day talent booting words and names left and right.
Home
Calendar
Search
Register
Login
Logged
