As an insomniac, I often catch the news at all hours.  I was surprised to find that last night's 3 am report was provided by the Edmonton station (CHED) and was of such poor quality, it sounded like a phone line.  Other than the mention of the temperatute there was zero Calgary content, not a mention of the two local murders.

I know QR reruns Dr. Laura, Adler and Rutherford, is this their next insult to listeners, not getting a local newscast?

Quoted from Imnotsirius

As an insomniac, I often catch the news at all hours.  I was surprised to find that last night's 3 am report was provided by the Edmonton station (CHED) and was of such poor quality, it sounded like a phone line.  Other than the mention of the temperatute there was zero Calgary content, not a mention of the two local murders.

I know QR reruns Dr. Laura, Adler and Rutherford, is this their next insult to listeners, not getting a local newscast?

I hope they're not going back to the idea of having the overnight bulletins coming out of Edmonton for the entire province (remember back many years ago, CHED did the news for both cities overnight).

Abusing, patronising and otherwise insulting listeners can have dire consequences - not that anybody cares.

I don't think that newscasts coming out of Edmonton counts as "abuse", so I assume that you are referring to the poor quality of overnight newsreaders that CHED employs.  

I once took a tour of the CBC facilities here in Edmonton, and they would allow elementary students to read a prepared script on the news set and then present them with a video as a souvenir.  

Trust me, there were 10 year olds that could read better than CHED's overnight and weekend news crews.

Well, for me as a listener, I can tolerate poor overnight readers...they have to start somewhere don't they?

As far as poor newsreaders from Edmonton...at 3 am it just don't matter much.

Could it be that there were technical difficulties in Calgary and they had to pipe in the broadcast via phone from Edmonton?  

Because it was such bad quality, I wondered that as well.  Maybe technical or construction in Calgary.  However, the same thing happened last night at the same time.

To clarify, yes, the reader wasn't the greatest, but what really rankled was the very poor quality of the transmission.

Quoted from paddyboyy

Well, for me as a listener, I can tolerate poor overnight readers...they have to start somewhere don't they?

As far as poor newsreaders from Edmonton...at 3 am it just don't matter much.

I agree...I started my career as an overnight news anchor.

It's a timeslot that stations can mold young newsreaders into the anchors they want for their station.

I dont agree though, with having edmonton do the news for Calgary. you might as well feed in Toronto news or news from Vancouver.

No problem with a young news reader getting an opportunity, but unless there's an unbelievable amount of talent they should start in a smaller market.

If there were seasoned vets (without serious attitude problems) willing to do overnight news at CHED you can bet they'd be hired over the inexperienced ones.

What would the budget be for a 'seasoned vet' at CHED? Calculate what Ronnie's or Burger King pay their cashiers first. Would the hourly rate for overnight news at CHED or QR77 be comparable? (...the 'seasoned vet' asked, tongue-in-cheek of course, and without attitude).

Be nice if 660 would put the untrained noobies on nights instead of prime time.

I can answer that question with a couple of rhetorical questions:  

What kind of revenue does the overnight hours at CHED bring into the station?
Would it not be bad business to spend where there's no chance of recuperation?

Quoted from smart_alec

I can answer that question with a couple of rhetorical questions:  

What kind of revenue does the overnight hours at CHED bring into the station?
Would it not be bad business to spend where there's no chance of recuperation?

Bean counter mentality is rubbing off onto you.

If there was higher quality programming, maybe revenues would rise.

No, I just like to live in the real world.  It makes life much easier.  With corporations owning stations and in turn expecting maximized profits there's not much that can be done.  That box was opened awhile ago and there's no turning back.  You can be Don Quixote if you want.  It's pretty unrealistic to expect "better programming" (higher priced) the overnight hours will encourage more people to go without sleep and therefore attract new advertising.