1 of 1- RadioActive
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How Will Post-Storm Power Problems Affect Ottawa Radio?
I heard Evan Solomon say on his show Tuesday that his home was one of the thousands still without power after Saturday's derecho, a wind storm that levelled parts of the province. Worse yet, he may not be back on the grid for a week or more.
In a sense, there was some luck that this happened on the weekend, when most broadcasters were off. Many are still doing their shows from home on remote. But without power, they may have no choice but to come into the actual studio, some for the first time in years.
John Moore has told the audience that NT1010's new protocol is to bring in an employee for a day, and then get them to work from their home the next, while the person who follows them on their shift alternates, so they never come into contact with each other.
If that's what they're doing at, say, CFRA, it's certainly going to throw that plan out the window.
The storm has affected everyday life in the nation's capital. I wonder how much it's affected its radio, too.
- Ale Ont
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Re: How Will Post-Storm Power Problems Affect Ottawa Radio?
The late C-F-R-A general manager Don Holtby told me that no matter what station people listen to in Ottawa, when there is a breaking news story they tuen to C-F-R-A. How true. It happened during the earthquake 20 or so tears ago, the Ice Storm of 1998, the tornados of 2018 and the storm this past weekend.
Bill Carroll was on the air from six to 11 Saturday night. Live coverage continued the next two days. CityNews did some coverage, but not as intense as C-F-R-A. Once again they were late off the mark They didn't carry the Jays Sunday afternoon, providing storm coverage instead I did not have any power so I couldn't watch the game. I listened to SXM.. C-B-C radio did some local coverage.
But C-F-R-A provided the best coverage, by far.
- RadioActive
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Re: How Will Post-Storm Power Problems Affect Ottawa Radio?
And you know what? That extra expense for overtime and bringing people in was well worth it. You will remember it the next time something happens and you need some place to go for info. I've always found the impression local radio can make during an emergency is something that stays with you and you go back there when something big is going on.
So good for CFRA, bringing in the big guns on a weekend - a holiday weekend, no less. It was well worth the time and the overtime.
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Thread Starter- Tomas Barlow
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Re: How Will Post-Storm Power Problems Affect Ottawa Radio?
During the overnight 1310 was dreadful. It was nation-wide news read by someone who truthfully couldn't get through a single sentence without a stumble. The lineup was weird too. The tee up for the half hour, into a talk show promo where traffic and weather would be if you were listening in Toronto, and the promo wasn't clearly introduced so I was expecting local coverage and got an out of context clip for two minutes, which faded out mid stentence, followed by a rejoin to the network about a second late so there was no music identifying that you were back into news, then there was a quick synopsis of the Ottawa situation, followed by a story about the Australian election where the anchor clearly guessed at a pronunciation. It might have been correct, but his inflection sounded like "Screw it. Here goes." Followed by a Toronto story, followed by a Ukraine Story from Reuters or AP that had a huge orchestral intro that came out of nowhere and didn't fit.
The whole presentation was clunky and disjointed with an anchor who shouldn't have been doing highschool announcements, never mind anchoring a "national" newscast. Rogers used to have people on overnights who sounded young, but had talent or at least potential and that's okay with me. People need to start somewhere. I didn't hear either of those things in that anchor on Sunday night. Rogers doesn't care about radio news anymore and it really shows. Just like the Jays radio product lately, it's just an excuse to expose the TV branding to listeners and hope they'll quit listening and start watching instead. Just throw on ESPN or some syndicated conspiracy nonsense and promote the crap out of your TV products during the commercial islands. It least that might appeal appeal to someone. People needed local news and what Rogers gave them was unlistenable.
Last edited by Tomas Barlow (May 25, 2022 12:17 am)
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Re: How Will Post-Storm Power Problems Affect Ottawa Radio?
Completely agree. The overnight non-local news (I think it's out of B.C.) has the two worst anchors I may have ever heard on radio. The man boots almost every sentence repeatedly. The woman, who has this odd accent, cannot pronounce names and places and sometimes is so far off the mark, I have no idea what she's really saying.
But one anchor for many stations = big $$ savings, and in the end, that's the only headline Rogers is really looking for. Plus the join back to the network after local traffic and weather is almost always either choppy or late.
I realize the overnight audience is very small. But if you're going to do it, do it right, and hire people who can at least read the English language. Or else don't bother.
It's not only an embarrassment, but it's an embarrassment across the entire country!
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