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AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
I had to laugh when listening to John Oakley's show on Wednesday - but not because he said anything funny. He came on at 3 PM, talking endlessly about how fascinated he was by the looming verdict in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard case, noting he planned to immediately bring listeners the verdict the moment it was released.
He then went to a series of spots, during which - in a classic moment of bad timing - the jury came back and the verdict was read out loud in the courtroom. CFRB was also in a commercial break, but picked up the reading of the decision in progress. Only CKTB took it live, from the start.
And on 640? They came back from the break and immediately launched into an interview about the B.C. decision on allowing some drug usage without penalty. Not a word about Heard.
It's a bit weird they would have done this, since he made it clear that would be one of the big stories of the day, only to be one of the last to report it.
An odd choice for a show that promised it would be first with the verdict.
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Re: AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
He finally did report it - after yet another commercial break - but by then, all the other competitors up and down the dial had already revealed the decision. And at least in the early part of the show, he never played any of the courtroom audio, which is another strange decision.
None of this would be a big deal, if he hadn't spent so much airtime off the top talking about it and promoting the verdict.
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Thread Starter- Chrisphen
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Re: AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
This shithead vs shithead trial is a non-event that the media should be ashamed of themselves for pimping.
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Re: AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
I agree, but if you promise breaking coverage, you'd better deliver.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
So it was on two or three minutes later, who cares? Those that were actually interested in this over hyped media story would likely get the news alert on their phone. I doubt if 640 or 1010 listeners cared that they heard the verdict three minutes or one minute later because most wouldn't know anyway. Don't imagine any of them would be aware that CKTB had it live and again why would they care? As far as Oakley's listeners were concerned the story broke when John passed along the information.
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Re: AM 640's John Oakley Show Misses A Breaking Story He Promised To Cover
I would agree with you if he hadn't made such a big deal about it off the top of the show, vowing to deliver the decision the instant it came in. He promised his listeners they would hear it right away. Instead, they not only missed it due an extended spot break, he didn't deal with it until a good 15-20 minutes later - including another spot break! All the while, his competitors had it live.
It's only breaking news for so long. It doesn't matter what the actual story is. And in the end, I suppose it's not really that big a deal. Yesterday's news by morning, although I'm sure it will be widely discussed on the early drivetime shows non-stop.
But if you promise it, you have to deliver.
He didn't.
That's the point.
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