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. 

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. 

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.

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. 
 

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.
 

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)