Live, Local, Late-Breaking

Something happened around here the other day. Perhaps you heard about it.

Of course you heard about it. Tiger Woods' car crash was international news, and it happened right here in my town, literally just over the hill, the prominence of the driver escalating it from a local story to a massive event. I did not hear about it on the radio -- it first came through, without identifying the driver, as a simple road closure alert in a text message from the local alert system Tuesday morning, and then, shortly thereafter, it swept social media and you know the rest.

It was at that point that I turned to radio to see if the local stations had, as local TV had already done, gone to wall-to-wall coverage, and, yes, they did. KNX and KFI, the stations you'd expect to be on the case, were indeed doing what they do, and doing a fine job of it. It was a big story in their backyard. They were all over it, reporters rushing down here to be on the scene, every sheriff's department statement and press gathering covered live. Granted, it took a major celebrity's accident to get them down here -- we in this corner of the Los Angeles market are a little sensitive to the fact that we rarely get any news coverage from the L.A. media -- but they were here, reporting live from the side of the road on Hawthorne Boulevard.

The coverage was an example of what radio news can do best, and it occurred to me that if this had happened in a smaller market than L.A., the coverage might not have been quite as thorough. Oh, it would have been covered, all right; An ultra-famous person seriously injured in a car crash would be news everywhere no matter where it happened. But would there have been experienced reporters on the scene so quickly if it had happened in a market where radio news has been reduced to someone in another market reading rewritten reports from the local papers, which have themselves reduced their staffs to the point where our "local" paper has reporters from its other papers scraping together our local stories from newsrooms at least an hour's drive away? Would the coverage have been as good, and as fast, if the boots on the ground had to come from someplace else?

The value of having an extensive local news staff goes beyond what corporate accountants can directly attribute to news content. It's the certainty among the audience that if something happens, you can rely on that station to have the facts, live and accurate. It's about reporters knowing the local landscape, from pronunciations (note: locals pronounce the name of this town as if they've never encountered Spanish before: RAN-cho PAL-ohs VER-deez or VER-diss, not VAYR-dees. Right next to San PEE-dro) to knowing that the particular stretch of that road is notoriously treacherous for drivers unfamiliar with the steep drop and curves (I saw reporters on social media asserting that the road did not appear particularly unsafe; yeah, it is, check the accident reports, and you'd know it if you drove it).

I'm lucky to live in a market big and lucrative enough for broadcasters to maintain local newsrooms, even though they've been cut back because there's no escape from that. If I lived in a smaller market where news is served up by anchors in studios far away, would I feel the same way? Would radio in a market that isn't supporting sizable local newsrooms be able to offer the benefit of the kind of institutional knowledge that long-established newsrooms can claim, from knowing the local landscape (figuratively and literally) to knowing which sources to call and who's who among them? Are people outside the biggest markets being shortchanged unless they're lucky enough to have a locally-owned station willing to bear the costs of local news coverage because it's important to the community? What are we missing if we live in a market where there's nobody to cover local government, nobody to report on a breaking live event?

Yes, I know the answers. But local radio news cuts were shortsighted. They were also done under what I think is a false assumption, that people don't turn to radio for news anymore. People do get news from Facebook and Twitter, sure, but when something's happening and they want live, immediate coverage, they also still turn to radio. The shares for January, in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol insurrection, bear that out. (Okay, the cumes didn't shoot up, but the shares did. Take that as you wish.) February's weather will probably boost shares in some markets, too; you can get the weather report on your phone, but when things go south (sorry, Texas), you want more than that. There is still a vast audience for radio news, and a vast audience for live, local radio news and commentary.

I harbor no illusion that a radio company CEO will read this and decide, you know, he's right, let's increase the news budget and double down on radio news as a growth strategy. It will not happen. But if someone DOES want to examine things that COULD help radio -- broadcast or streaming -- have a brighter future, maybe the rush to cut back on news should slow down a bit.

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What's that you're saying? You do a talk show? You need stuff to talk about when there's no massive story to talk about? Here's help: All Access' show prep column Talk Topics. It has lots of stories and ideas for radio and podcast hosts. Click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And then read "10 Questions With..." WKNR (850 ESPN Cleveland) Director of Content Matt Fishman, who's not only growing a heritage sports station into something stronger in a competitive sports market but developing a unique subscription model as well. Read it and get insight and the benefit of his wisdom and experience.

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How embarrassed am I that my panel at the 2021 virtual All Access Audio Summit was the lead story on Net News first thing Friday morning? It was, and I am. But, yes, my panel about the pros and cons of going into podcasting from radio will feature Atlanta's Jeff and Callie Dauler, who have made that leap and have lived to tell the tale, and ol' pal Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media, who is about as expert on the subject as they come, and it will be on April 21st and you should register, so do that and I'll see you there. Virtually. OK, I won't see you, but you'll see me.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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