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News every hour - Why?
wirewolf
Posts: 805 Forum Member
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Something that's always puzzled me is why virtually every commercial station has the news at the top of the hour all day long. I know a lot of it goes back to licencing, and the desire to please Ofcom, the RA or the IBA with 'localness' and the need to provide a news and information service, but in this day and age of semi-national networks, is having a news bulletin every hour of the day that important?
A 2 or 3 minute news bulletin packaged with a 3 minute ad break is quite a big break on a music based station. Surely there would be some sort of commercial advantage for stations not to do this? Or is it simply that Ofcom would frown on stations removing the news output.
A 2 or 3 minute news bulletin packaged with a 3 minute ad break is quite a big break on a music based station. Surely there would be some sort of commercial advantage for stations not to do this? Or is it simply that Ofcom would frown on stations removing the news output.
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News is a great audience driver.
People turn up the volume on the radio to hear the news - just like they turn up the volume when they hear their favourite song.
In many ways the news bulletin is what makes a local station just that: local.
I've seen lots of lots of research about news. I could bore you for days!
For a huge section of the audience - something like 80% or so - it is one of the main reasons they listen to radio.
Only music scores higher.
Why is the news at the top of the hour?
Because that's what the audience are used to and expect.
Some stations have tried it elsewhere in the clock.
The original Galaxy Radio in Bristol used to put its news bulletins at :55 in the clock - and bragged on air that "we give you the news before everyone else".
It didn't work and it was moved back to :00 fairly quickly.
Radio 1 is on the half hour - has been for decades. Listeners know that and so it works.
Commercial stations such as Clyde 1, Northsound 1 and others tried this too when they first launched.
The FM news would be at :30, the AM news at :00. Both read live.
But again it didn't work them as their FM audiences got confused.
They were used to having the news at :00 as it had always been before the AM/FM split in the 90s.
Yes, that too.
The stories I could tell...
If people want a news update, in this technological age they can access it online, on their handheld portable devices etc etc. If they want proper news, they'll go to Radio 4 or LBC or something. If they *really* want a top of the hour bulletin they can go to Radio 2 or a local CHR station. But on music stations, particularly the youth brands, like Kiss and Xfm, what's the point? It interrupts the music, which is what they listen for - by your very own evidence, Joey, music rates higher as an audience puller. That 2 minute bulletin could be a 2 minute song.
Travel's even worse. Absolute seem to think it's a good idea to have travel updates on the digital stations. Fortunately these are free of other obstacles to the music (e.g. low on ads, promos etc) but they still interrupt the music, and people are listening for the music.
If you listen to Absolute main station on the Top of the Hour, you'll often hear a link ending the previous hour, 3 minutes of ads, a minute of travel, 2 - 3 minutes of news/sport, a promo, that stupid voiceover trying to be funny, and a presenter top of hour. That's sometimes 8 to 9 minutes of crap before a song's played! On a music station!
I'd say on these sorts of stations, news outside of breakfast and drive is pointless. And when it's on, I'd argue news at :55 can work. It sounds like Galaxy Bristol's problem was that it made a big deal of it. It's not a selling point on this sort of station. And also, back then people didn't have Blackberrys and iPhones and it was more widely expected to have news at the top of hour - I think we've all moved on from that.
Do they really need to have news between 10am and 4pm unless there's an Ofcom requirement?
It's debatable. I'd say probably not.
Many CHR stations in America, Canada and Australia only do news at breakfast and drive. Nothing else.
As I remember, Atlantic 252 only did news at breakfast.
Xfm should have some form of news, even if it's skewed towards the music played on the station.
Still beats the depressing fare of Sky News Radio, mind.
The thing about the news on a show like Chris Moyles is that if your a listener you dont dip in and dip out for 10minutes you will listen to 1hour,2 hour of even the whole show so you will hear hte news up to 7times
If you listen to Chris Moyles around 8am, you dont get news until about 8:15 - 8:20 so i stopped listening. And listended to my ipod and tune into Radio 4 for the news bullatin
On a similar point, again in the 60s, Caroline broadcast a 5 minute God Spot (paid for) at 5 minutes to 8 in the morning. Their listeners retuned to Big L, so that was quickly hit on the head!:cool:
The reason that "The World Tomorrow" didn't affect audiences in the evening was that ALL 'pirates' broadcast it from 7.30 - 8.00 pm s0 there was no alternative! And it was a big earner!
Laser558 started with news, but later dropped it. They use to do a top of hour id-presenter talk over an iron engine sound bed etc etc... When dj's changed over shifts, it was simply near the top of the hour-near the last song or mid song near the toth?
Don't like the news.
Besides, if you do it properly, it's no more detrimental to your listeners attention spans than the millions of minutes of airtime given over to adverts.
Cork FM in Ireland have an interesting arrangement - they have one five minute block of news, sport and travel at xx:50 followed by adverts, with more ads at xx:25. I'd rather that than ads at :15, :30, :45 and more at :58.
Why not? As illustrated by Cork and Passion, it doesn't have to be at :00.
In his book, the history of commercial radio, which I think was written by Tony Stoller, he highlights why commercial stations have local or national news on the hour.
Commercial radio licences were handed out to winners who entered what was called at the time a 'beauty parade'. Since 1973, The Government and successive ones since have sought to ensure that listeners heard a different news agenda than that offered by the BBC. Therefore, anyone who was awarded a licence had to commit to certain public service obligations, often outlined in their application and then placed within the promise of performance. A lot of the POP papers as they were called, were watered down over time but the regulator and the Government still insists that there is a requirement for local news in peak hours and in most cases at least hourly. If you want a licence you have to promise to give something back in terms of public service. News is the centre of all that. There is no determination as to where in the hour the news is placed.
When national licences were awarded, these were offered to the highest bidder and that cash was placed in the government coffers. A different criteria is in place but in saying that, the national services would be stupid not to inform their listeners of the key talking points of the day.
The BBC have an obligation under their own rules and news, which must be impartial, is set out within the BBC guidelines. Inform, Educate and Entertain as they say.
If I want news I'll tune in to Radio 4, BBC News 24 or look on the tinternet. It's one of the reasons I love BBC Radio 7.
Does it share Radio 2's duty newsreader ?
That's certainly why historically Radio 1 always had news on the half hour
I also read somewhere the reason the news was positioned at 30past on the pirates was so it could be copied from the BBC on the hour
Nothing new there, Dublin Super pirate Q102 in 1985, use to do the same, nearly, but at :55, I think. This was followed by commercials to the top of the hour, for which then, a Top Of Hour Id was played
Newsbeat didn't appear until the late 70s, and it seemed to me more of a copy of Capital's 'The Way It Is', though I'm not sure now which came first, perhaps it was the other way round ?
Radio 1 news in the early days 67- 75ish was delivered in a straightforward manner, not really any different to Radios 2, 3 or 4, just shorter bulletins.
But I suppose an ad break in front of, or after, the news is more lucrative than the others?
I was always told to get back to the music as fast as possible so have always tried to do a quick weather/travel update where the format allows and then play a least three songs in a row before the next link and first ad break.
In my last job we weren't really allowed to do anything other than crunch and roll in the first 20 minutes of the hour.