This is similar (but also different) to what's going on at CFTO. For the second weekend in a row, their 6 & 11 PM newscasts had ad libbed anchor weather. This never seems to work because it's obvious the reader has no idea what they're talking about and it appears they haven't seen the graphics before, so they're totally lost and it sounds like it. 

My guess is 680's sportscast person either didn't show on Sunday or there isn't one, once all the action wraps up for the night. So they repeat the same one over and over, hoping no one will notice. How they could possibly air something that dated, though, would perhaps indicate someone plugged in the wrong number for the version of the taped report in the computer and it was aired accidentally. 

Plus, the few people on duty on a weekend evening are busy with other things, no one listens internally and so the mistake keeps getting made over and over. I've heard this before with stations that take The Canadian Press syndicated news report at the top of the hour. AM 640 once played a newscast that was several days (not even hours!) old, with stories that happened two days ago, including a sports item that the Jays were playing a team that had already left town. No one noticed - although I did. 

I even phoned the station to try to tell them, but this was on a Sunday morning and there was no there to take the report. So it just kept happening.

I can't say that's what took place at 680, but that's my guess.

  If you're like me, you learned a long time ago that sending a comment to CFTO or CFRB about terrible news or sports coverage -- especially since all the job slashing -- you would also be pleasantly surprised that City News 680 is different.  I sent in my comments about Sunday evening's sports reports and received the following reply from the news director, Amber Leblanc:   

    Thanks for letting me know about the sports last night. I went back and listened.  For some reason that I'm in the process of determining, the same hourly report was continually played yesterday evening and then updated for the overnights (when we do go to tape).  But that is 100% not our standard - our sports from 5a-12:30a are live all day and like I said, I'm trying to figure out what happened last night and why the sports 1) weren't live and 2) not updated properly with the golf scores.  My sincerest apologies for this - 680 prides itself on being live 24-7 and being a source of current and accurate information and this did not hold up to our standards!!   Take care and thanks again for flagging this!! 

Last edited by dieter (August 28, 2023 6:32 pm)

Wow!!!  I am impressed that such a senior person at Rogers got back to you.
I have left numerous messages at CityNews in Ottawa three years ago and am still waiting for a reply.
 

Not really, I was kind of being facetious. But what if there's some breaking sports news overnight - a death of a famous athlete, an injury update about a Blue Jay or something unexpected? Even a late night west coast ball game that goes into extra innings and has an effect on Toronto's playoff hopes? (The Seattle Mariners, for example.) That can certainly happen, but the sports guy can't update it, if there's no live sports guy to do it. 

My point is it's not totally live 24-7 if it's not totally live 24-7. But no, it wouldn't make any economic sense to have a live sports, business or weather person at 3 AM in most cases. 

I was taking them literally - it's not live unless the news readers are live. But to be fair, I wasn't taking the fact seriously. As someone who's worked for two coast-to-coast news services over the years, I fully understand why voiceovers and reporter wraps are on tape. They mostly have to be, especially the ones from American sources. 

But I don't fundamentally disagree with you in the long run, and yes, it is nice to have someone live all night long. CFRB used to do that (John Elston - where have you gone? Actually, he now drives a school bus for a living) but those days are long, long over. Not even their programming is live overnight anymore. 

I remember the great Fred Cripps was at CKEY, and would come in and do overnight news just as I was leaving after my shift. Now, the only Cripps we have in the city is perhaps a street gang. 

680 is the only GTA station that has anyone live overnight. I wish more stations did.    

That said, I certainly hope the Florida TV and radio stations that are bracing for the hurricane have all hands on deck 24 hours in a row. They're going to be needed over the next few days.

RadioActive wrote:

That said, I certainly hope the Florida TV and radio stations that are bracing for the hurricane have all hands on deck 24 hours in a row. They're going to be needed over the next few days.

They always do.  You should listen sometime.