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July 23, 2018 12:54 am  #1


Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

I will be the first to admit that, while there's never a good time for the kind of tragedy that took place on The Danforth this weekend, late on a summer Sunday night is just about the worst. And so it was that the major info stations were caught understandably flat footed when the violence rang out around 10 PM.

By the time the scope of the incident filtered down, it was closer to 11, as both TV and radio stations - already short-staffed or not staffed at that late hour - scrambled to get something on the air.

CFMJ was in reroll mode and appeared to have no interest in getting out of it. So anyone listening to 640 alone had no idea of the huge breaking story going on in their city.

For its part, CFRB at least had David Eddie live, forced into a role he rarely has to fill. They managed to get Mike Bendixen and Siobahn Morris on scene for some colour, but they weren't able to add much. To me, the greater sin was that they signed off their live coverage at midnight, for a completely inappropriate rerun of The Best Of Humble & Fred, with the two giggling their way through a dated show, while injured people lay in hospital,as the police chief and the mayor, along with hundreds of officers, rushed to the scene.

Even RB's midnight news was from the Canadian Press, since the regular guy had already left.

Look, I know it was a Sunday night when listeners are few and wouldn't necessarily be tuned in. But I would have ordered someone in to do a special few hours of continuing coverage, because this is a major event in the city and it was still developing. Instead, there might as well have been dead air.

Very sad, but it speaks volumes about the state of radio today.

Only 680 News remained live with updates, and ironically AM 740, which happened to be in the middle of its weekly Conspiracy Show and was able to provide copy updates.

It's easy to say it wasn't worth the overtime and people who were still up were getting their info online. But this kind of story is where Newstalk stations make their bones and earn their reps as being there when it counts. And on a late Sunday night and early Monday morning, all but the all news place were AWOL.

Last edited by RadioActive (July 23, 2018 12:56 am)

 

July 23, 2018 6:48 am  #2


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

People that want news go to 680 news in 2018
1984 it is not.

 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 23, 2018 9:12 am  #3


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

I was pretty sure that would be the reaction here. But that's kind of missing the point. If you're going to advertise yourself as a place that specializes in Breaking News and covers it thoroughly as it happens, you have to be there when it happens. That's CFRB's complete brand, what they constantly boast about. 

Yet here's one of the the biggest stories of the year, perhaps in years, a tale that's making headlines across the world, and yet they sign off at midnight and go to a comedy show? That's not the brand. 

And while I fully understand the economics involved, it almost doesn't matter if anyone "tunes to the radio" anymore. 

If I go into a shoe store, I expect to find shoes in it. 

If I venture into a grocery store, it should have bananas in it. 

That's what I advertise and specialize in. And for a 24-hour-a-day business, that's what should be there. You have to deliver. Especially on a story that affects so many.

And for the record, no, I'm not in the least surprised that they didn't call anyone in. The audience isn't high for midnights on an early Monday morning. But then don't tell me you're there in a crisis - as long as the timing is right. 

     Thread Starter
 

July 23, 2018 9:17 am  #4


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

Is there a difference in ratings whether NT 1010 airs H&F or if they simply switch to CP24 radio overnight just to cover this event? How much would THAT cost to run?


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 23, 2018 9:32 am  #5


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

My point is they should have done something when 14 people are gunned down in one the most popular areas of the city. And it doesn't matter when it happens. 

Can you imagine CNN sticking with "The History of Comedy" instead of, say, covering an assassination attempt on Trump because it was too late in the day and we didn't have enough people? They and all the networks would be on regardless of whether it's 3 PM or 3 AM. That's what the audience expects and that's what they've lead them to expect. They deliver. 

It's the same reason the mayor showed up on the scene shortly after the shooting. He can't do anything. He could have been briefed over the phone. But he has to be seen to be there, because that's what voters expect. Same with a newstalk station. They need to show up while it's happening. 

Think of the possibilites - taking the chief's updates live, the mayor's presser, witnesses could phone in and tell what they saw, reaction from listeners on their immediate feelings, etc. etc. It would have been riveting radio. 

And the ratings almost don't matter in this case. Yes, it happened during a non-rating period. But to repeat, if they've made their entire rep on covering breaking news, they'd better be there when it's breaking. As someone who once worked on air during an overnight shift, I've discovered there's ALWAYS someone listening. Small as it may have been, they let those listeners down. If they wanted to be true to the reputation they've worked years to build, they should have been there when it mattered. Not airing comedy. 

     Thread Starter
 

July 23, 2018 9:48 am  #6


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

RadioActive wrote:

My point is they should have done something

Yup. CP24 is something. 
For credibility sake, that is the absolute least CFRB could have done.

 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 23, 2018 11:31 am  #7


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

When would you have RB sign-off then? What exact time? At that stage of the investigation, it was far too early for hard facts. They'd be airing speculation after speculation.

RB has trained its listeners that after midnight, they go to sleep and air conspiracy crap. 640 has trained their listener that they shut off on the weekends in favour of...

And, if you really want to know, there's the City Panic station with actual video.
There's nothing new to learn about the state of today's radio here; they reap what they sewed.

 

July 23, 2018 12:24 pm  #8


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

The TPS presser on NOW (Monday @ 12:20pm) still has NO new details. This is now more than 12 hours later. So, had RB stayed on the air longer last night, what would be gained?

 

July 23, 2018 8:23 pm  #9


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

Aytononline wrote:

Global Radio was talking this morning about how they were covering the shooting even thow there live show was coming from Vancouver. They also made a big deal of the fact that they had a reporter living in the area.

I was not up then but I get the impression that Global was live past midnight.

It was not live at midnight. Maybe at 1 am. 
 

 

July 23, 2018 11:23 pm  #10


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

So my client, Drex sent me an email this evening about his coverage of the Danforth shooting starting at 1am when his network show starts on AM640. 

"We were on the Toronto story LIVE all night as soon as we got on, I had live journalists there all night, 2 from global, they were feeding us new info every 15 minutes .... I was wall to wall on this, more than 1010 was."

​I didn't hear any Toronto radio coverage of the shooting (that's what happens  when binge watching shows on PVR - you have no idea what's happening in your own city.). So all I know is what I learned from reading posts here.  From what I gather, 640 was in taped programming at midnight so its listeners were informed as much as I was while watching my PVR. CFRB, according to posts here, did live coverage until midnight and then returned to regular taped or syndicated programming.

So while Drex covered the shooting on his network show starting at 1am ... the audience had moved elsewhere - probably TV - so no one on this board even knew Drex was the only radio host talking about and updating listeners every 15 minutes with Global Toronto TV reporters,

This is not the first time Drex did wall to wall overage of breaking news from Toronto overnight .... When Patrick Brown resigned, Drex carried his press conference live in the middle of the night.

So here is what I think. I know how Drex loves breaking news and how he covers it on his show. So next time the shit hits the fan in Toronto and you're up at 1am, give his show a listen on 640 overnight. If you had done that Monday morning at 1am, I'm sure you would have been impressed and posted about his wall to wall coverage.

If you want to know more about Drex ... here is a link to a blog I wrote on kowchmedia.com when he launched his network radio show:  
http://kowchmedia.com/meet-drex-host-of-canadas-new-national-late-night-talk-radio-show/
OK ... going back to my PVR ....




 

 

July 24, 2018 12:14 am  #11


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

kowchmedia wrote:

So while Drex covered the shooting on his network show starting at 1am ... the audience had moved elsewhere - probably TV - so no one on this board even knew Drex was the only radio host 

This is not the first time Drex did wall to wall overage of breaking news from Toronto overnight .... When Patrick Brown resigned, Drex carried his press conference live in the middle of the night.

 If you had done that Monday morning at 1am, I'm sure you would have been impressed and posted about his wall to wall coverage.
 

So what's the logic here, really? Interested people wanting information about the shooting ALREADY found their source before the 2 hours later that "Drex" started his "show". Let's see... people already are consuming the info and what, exactly, they'll search and find a station that has NEVER established themselves as a WEEKEND news/info outlet? I guess all those years of C2C that 640 carried cemented that.

And, really, it's a network show. Do you honestly think the rest of Canada cares (respectfully sorry) about a shooting in Toronto? Click goes their radio.

If this was so damn important to 640, why didn't they have him cut-in at 11pm (8pm PST) and go live with coverage then? Instead, they continued with their usual weekend rerolls of Alex Pierson taking herself far too seriously from a week ago.

Sorry: it's been said here before. Either 640 shits or gets off the pot. EITHER _be_ a go-to station 24/7/365 OR don't. But for DAMN SURE, you can't expect your audience to guess or go hunting for your programming. Radio doesn't work that way. People flip on 680. Why? Because they ARE news 24/7/365.
 

 

July 24, 2018 1:59 am  #12


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

kowchmedia wrote:

So here is what I think. I know how Drex loves breaking news and how he covers it on his show. So next time the shit hits the fan in Toronto and you're up at 1am, give his show a listen on 640 overnight. 

Nope. Sorry.
News does not take vacations. News does not press pause for anyone either.
When news happens...AM 640 will tell you several hours later.  Cute.

Thank god we have 680 news here in Toronto. 
Seriously, AM 640 should go all disco. They're not professional enough to understand what a real reliable news talk station is. 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 24, 2018 6:39 am  #13


Re: Live Danforth Shooting Coverage A Late Night Letdown

Radiowiz wrote:

kowchmedia wrote:

So here is what I think. I know how Drex loves breaking news and how he covers it on his show. So next time the shit hits the fan in Toronto and you're up at 1am, give his show a listen on 640 overnight. 

Nope. Sorry.
News does not take vacations. News does not press pause for anyone either.
When news happens...AM 640 will tell you several hours later.  Cute.

Thank god we have 680 news here in Toronto. 
Seriously, AM 640 should go all disco. They're not professional enough to understand what a real reliable news talk station is. 

 
"next time the shit hits the fan"..charming. Nice plug.

Radiowiz is right, it's 680 news when something goes down (or Twitter) and of all the radio stations only 680 news is reliable, and built for covering news as it happens, Newstalk 1010 isn't no matter what they say, cough basketball trade cough, and 640 even less so. Although I always tune in to hear what Stafford has to say on a topic.

With all the layoffs here in Toronto, and Canada, and now the New York Daily News firing half its editorial staff, people are having to take their news where they can find it.

Last edited by betaylored (July 24, 2018 12:13 pm)