Nate wrote:

I was quite concerned to hear Newstalk 1010 use their "newscast" to promote partisan corporate activities by parent company Bell Canada.  On both the 5:30pm and 6:00pm newscasts earlier today (January 18th), stories about Bell Canada's "investment in infrastructure" were promoted as if they were legitimate news stories

I heard this tonight as well and had exactly the same reaction, calling them a lying sack of - well, you know. If I were a Bell subscriber, I'd seriously be looking elsewhere. Especially when there are alternatives like this:

TekSavvy passes along CRTC’s savings to Internet customers 

It's a lot like that phrase in that old movie "War Games." The only way to win is not to play. 

Nothing wrong with 'RB reporting the story per se. It's just that their excuse holds no water and smacks of pandering to ownership. It makes them less credible, the one thing that's the kiss of death for a Newstalk station.

OK ... I really can't take this anymore. Never having worked for Bell when I ran CFRB I feel that I'm in a position to comment on this as a former Program Director/News Director and not sucking up to anyone to keep my pension from Astral.

It is a legitimate business news story. I didn't hear it but if it was in the business report from Bell owned BNN I wouldn't even blink twice. If it was in the body of the newscast same thing. 

If it was the LEAD story then there may be grounds for these comments. But I doubt very much corporate told their radio stations to lead with the story. What usually happens is that the anchor decided it was either worth a lead or they were currying favour with the boss.

My experience with Astral and with Standard when there was a story about the company that owned the radio station, I was never told it had to be the LEAD STORY. It was just a heads up from the General Manager to me and the news director to find a place in the newscast to mention the item.

I never felt the owners were wrong in wanting some publicity. I remember during our radiothon days for Toronto Sick Kids Hospital, it was an event the news room ignored one year. Didn't send a reporter to the hospital and never mentioned it in the newscast.

I thought this was wrong and held a meeting with the news director and the assignment editor to give them MY philosophy about these kind of events on our radio station. When our listeners donate a million or two million dollars, there was obvious interest on the part of those listening tio CFRB that suggested it might be a good idea to let them know in the newscasts how the radiothon was doing.

I was also a believer that all parts of the radio station had to share in owning the event on air. So this resulted in designating a reporter to cover the event for the durartion of the radiothon, To make it easy, I asked the engineers to set up a broadcast booth for the reporter where they could tap into the audio feed for clips and wraps. We used our mobile Studio 1010 for the live broadcast of the radiothon and for the reporter to file their report live or taped.

But there was one rule in all of this. It made sense to lead with the radiothon story. But it was never mandated that it had to be the lead - especially if there was important breaking news elsewhere. 

In the next week, you will hear a lot about Bell's Lets Talk to raise awareness and funds for mental health programs. This is a big event for Bell and it should be something dealt with in programming and newscasts on Bell Media owned radio and TV stations. There is nothing more important than doing something in the community you serve and when media does, they should be all in promoting it and using their resources to report on it. It is the right thing to do. People in media understand this. But for some reason, there are some followers on this board who just don't get it and will be posting negative things about TV and radio newscasts on Bell Media stations providing air time about the annual Lets Talk campaign.

Is there a difference between covering the station's radiothon or a Lets Talk kind of event and airing a story in the newscast about some initiative the owners would like mentioned. I don't think so. If Bell stations don't talk about whatever the story was that generated this posting, who will? Corus? CBC? I don't think so, Anymore than Bell talking about a Corus or CBC event.

Radio is a business. And businesses have the right to want to promote what they are doing. It is up to the newsroom to figure out how to make that happen and not feel dirty about it. We're professionals. And while there are some on this board who will criticize anything Bell does - and they have every right to do so - it is important that context be included in this discussion. This is why I'm weighing in to give another point of view.

We all have bosses - even people on the air. Just because someone disagrees doesn't mean the radio station is doing something that ruins its reputation or discredits the station's news department. 

kowchmedia wrote:

 I really can't take this anymore . . . Just because someone disagrees doesn't mean the radio station is doing something that ruins its reputation or discredits the station's news department  

The SOWNY moderator should be congratulated for allowing this matter to be debated despite his conflict of interest 
 
 

Almost to the second that this post appeared, I chucked as I got this 'breaking news' bulletin in my gmail account.    I think the world is in pretty safe (and balanced) hands all in all.  




 

Remember when that train went off the rails in Oshawa on a Friday afternoon? Leading to local evacuations? And the top story on 680 News at 5 PM that afternoon was Rudy Blair enthusiastically announcing the format change of a sister Rogers station? Yeah. Good times for Radio as a Business.

Ouch Kowch!!!  Tell the owners to buy some friggin' ads.  The whole listening universe doesn't have to suffer while the current holders of the license spew ad nauseam do we?

It sets a really BAD example and urinates all over the floor in the sales department when even ownership won't advertise their product or services in the same traditional way that EVERYONE else is required to.

Non media ownership!!!  Just a bunch of sorry assholes with the know-how of a hay-wagon sized load of road apples...and the brains to match.