Tag: newsroom

Industry News

Red Apple’s News Network Announces Journalist Hires; Announces Launch Date of May 23

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Red Apple Audio Networks will launch its 24-hour national radio news service – Worldwide News Network – on Saturday, May 23. The company says the previously announced venture led by VP of news Lee Harris will deliver to stations “professionally produced top and bottom of the hour newscasts every hour, seven days a week, while simultaneously igniting one of the most aggressive newsroom staffing initiatives in radio imgsyndication.” Red Apple says is has brought aboard former CBS Radio broadcast journalists Michael Wallace, Cooper Lawrence, Bill Rehkopf, and Matt Pieper as “the first major hires in what will be a rapid buildout of the network’s team of elite news anchors, correspondents, writers, and producers.” Harris says, “We are assembling top-tier journalists and building a modern radio news operation rooted in speed, authority, and facts – one that stations can rely on and listeners can trust.” Red Apple Media owner and CEO John Catsimatidis adds, “Our mission is to be the most trusted news gathering organization in media. We are creating a powerful, around-the-clock newsroom designed to compete at the highest level of broadcast audio news. Facts are what will drive the Worldwide News Network. We’re looking forward to our expansion in the European markets.”

Industry News

Chicago News Legend Faces Life without CBS News

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

The Chicago Tribune’s Robert Channick writes a piece about Audacy’s all-news WBBM-AM/WCFS-FM, Chicago dealing with the task of replacing the top-of-the-hour CBS News that will cease in May. In the piece, brand manager and news director Craig Schwalb isn’t tipping his hand on what the station will do once CBS News is gone for good. He says “all options are on the table.” TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison is quoted in the piece noting that WBBM faces a “high bar” replacing aimg newscast that some 700 stations respected enough to put on their air. Schwalb tells the Tribune, “Conversations have been going on since the announcement, and I think we get closer and closer to a decision every day. But we have to be very careful and be very diligent about making sure the product that we select is going to make sense from a listener perspective and a revenue perspective as well… CBS has been a great top-of-the-hour news piece for a long time, but it’s a very small percentage of what we do in a given hour between business, traffic and weather together on the eights, local news – the strongest local newsroom in Chicago radio.”  Read the Tribune story here.

Industry Views

Monday Memo: “What Matters Next” for Radio?

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgIf you work in radio, you’ve heard every flavor of AI anxiety. Some fear it will wipe out jobs. Others treat it like a super shortcut – cranking-out spots, promos, and proposals faster and cheaper. Kate O’Neill’s What Matters Next lands squarely in the middle of this tension, and its message is one radio people need to hear: AI isn’t the disruptor. Human behavior is. AI just accelerates the consequences.

The book’s central argument is blunt: The organizations that thrive in an AI-driven world are the ones that stay relentlessly human. Not sentimental – human. Curious. Adaptive. Willing to rethink habits that calcified long before the first smart speaker ever said, “Now playing.” That’s a mirror radio hasn’t always wanted to look into.

For decades, the industry has survived by optimizing the familiar: tighter clocks, leaner staffs, syndicated shows, templated production, and “good enough” digital. AI tempts some operators to double down on that instinct – to automate more, localize less, and hope listeners won’t notice. This book argues the opposite: AI punishes sameness and rewards originality. When every business has access to the same tools, the differentiator becomes the people who use them with imagination, empathy, and purpose. That should sound familiar. It’s what radio used to brag about.

O’Neill also warns against the other extreme, the fear-driven paralysis that keeps talented people from experimenting. AI isn’t a job eater; it’s a task eater. It clears the underbrush so humans can do the work only humans can do: judgment, storytelling, connection, and community presence. In radio terms: the stuff listeners actually remember.

Imagine a morning show that uses AI not to replace prep, but to deepen it, surfacing hyperlocal stories, analyzing listener sentiment, or generating alternate angles on a topic the hosts want to explore. Or a sales team that uses AI to tailor proposals to each client’s issues instead of reshuffling the same deck. How about a newsroom (remember them?) that uses AI to sift data so stations can spend more time delivering what’s special to listeners (and sponsors): helpful local news they can’t get anywhere else. None of that eliminates jobs. It elevates them.

This book’s most important warning is this: AI widens the gap between organizations that learn and organizations that cling. Radio has lived through this before – streaming, podcasting, social media, smart speakers. The winners weren’t the ones who panicked or the ones who ignored the shift. They were the ones who adapted early, experimented often, and stayed close to their audience.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry News

WUSF, Tampa names Laney General Manager

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Tampa Bay region public media newsroom and music broadcaster WUSF promotes Leslie Laney general manager, effective January 2. She’s been serving as station manager and takes over for JoAnne Urofsky, who is retiring. Urofsky says, “Leslie truly represents the next generation of innovators in public broadcasting, and she has already led so many teams and projects within our WUSF family that she is the natural choice to lead this station into the years ahead. I am thrilled that WUSF is so fortunate to have such a skilled leader within our own ranks.”

Industry Views

Monday Memo: AI Collaboration

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

imgNews people I coach reckon that my epitaph will read: “Consequence, not Process.”

Too often, news copy – while factually correct – is arcane minutes-of-the-meeting stuff, rather than emphasizing impact on the listener’s routine.

Process: “The Transit board revised its fare structure.”

Consequence: “Riding the bus will cost 50 cents more starting Monday.”

Process: “The district reallocated Title I funds.”

Consequence: “Some after-school programs could be cut.”

Process: “The committee advanced a bill on short-term rentals.”

Consequence: “Airbnb hosts may soon face new rules – and fees.”

Process: “The planning board approved a variance…”

Consequence: “Construction can now begin on that apartment complex near the campus.”

Unwrap the package. To illustrate, here’s a video I am playing in client stations’ conference rooms – and it’s a dang clinic in impactful local news reporting.

The back-story: If I say “Hasbro,” you might think Monopoly, Scrabble, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Eventually it added Star Wars and Marvel action figures to its repertoire. Hasbro became a major player in video games, TV, and movies. This 100-plus-year-old company has outgrown its Rhode Island roots and announced it is moving to Boston. In any-size state – let alone the smallest – losing 700-plus jobs hurts.

Here’s the video: https://getonthenet.com/Hasbro.MP4

After playing that, I sometimes hear “But TV has more manpower than a radio station.” Yes and no.

Management confirmed to me that this reporter was in MMJ mode that day, meaning “Multi-Media Journalist.” Translation: She worked alone, no videographer, no producer. Praising her work when I requested the video, I was told that “she did a great job executing what we brainstormed in the morning meeting.”

And THAT’S the advantage TV has over most radio news operations: There is more than one person in the newsroom to have that meeting. We’re radio people. We think aloud. But with whom, when you alone, ARE the news department?

Have that collaborative conversation with ChatGPT or MS Copilot. Brainstorm story angles and interview prospects and questions. At client stations, we have asked – and AI apps delivered – actual coverage timelines. Try it. The interaction feels surprisingly human – like having a sharp, tireless producer who’s always ready to riff, reframe, and help you make it matter.

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn

Industry News

Joe Thomas to Launch New Virginia Talk Station This Weekend

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Former longtime WCHV, Charlottesville program director and morning host Joe Thomas recently announced his acquisition of the Staunton, Virginia signal WTON-AM and his plan to re-launch it as aim news/talk outlet. Now, he says, “After going off the air as part of an asset sale in October of last year, WTON radio is re-born this Memorial Day weekend! We want to hear your voice. We’ll bring you coverage of the local stories from this wide area we’ll be imcovering as we develop the best local shows alongside an all-star lineup of shows all day!” Thomas will host the morning drive show and teases that the daily lineup will also include “The Dan Bongino Show” “The Dana Show” (Dana Loesh), “The Lars Larson Show” from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, plus Bill O’Reilly and Lee Habeeb’s “American Stories.” Thomas adds, “We’re building a newsroom that will tell you what is going to be happening, not just what did happen. Local businesses will be able to connect with the local listeners around the clock so they can stand out and stay prosperous!” Programming will also be simulcast on two FM translators at 101.1 FM and 98.9 FM.

Industry News

Bekah Berger Rises to WPRO-FM Morning Show Role

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Broadcaster Bekah Berger, who began her radio career as an intern in the WPRO-AM, Providence newsroom, isim named co-host of the “The Giovanni in the Morning” show on Cumulus Media’s CHR WPRO-FM. After her internship, Berger joined WPRO-AM as call screener for “The Buddy Cianci Show.” In 2008, she was named promotions director for WPRO-AM and hosted a weekend show called, “This Week in Entertainment With Bekah Berger.” She also served as producer for WPRO-AM’s morning drive “Gene Valicenti Show.”

Industry News

News Anchor Marcy Williams to Retire from 95.5 WSB

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Longtime WSB-AM/WSBB-FM, Atlanta news anchor Marcy Williams is retiring from the Cox Media Group station after a 31-year career there. Williams began her WSB Radio career as an overnight anchor, and quickly rose through the ranks to become the anchor of the “Atlanta’s Morning News” program. She says, “I’ve spentim 30 years as the first female co-anchor of ‘Atlanta’s Morning News.’ With a little back-of-the-envelope math, I calculate I’ve written more than 300,000 stories over those three decades. Now it’s time for me to write a new chapter.” Station news director Amanda Moyer comments, “Marcy has been a leader and an example in our newsroom for more than three decades. Her recent Gracie award win is the perfect cap to her long tenure at WSB as the first, and to this day, the only female lead news anchor on ‘Atlanta’s Morning News.’ She will be deeply missed, but our loss is her granddaughter’s gain.”

Industry News

Boston Globe and NESN Partner for “Boston Globe Today” Show

By TALKERS | by TALKERS

Boston Globe Media and cable sports channel New England Sports Network (NESN) are partnering for a jointly produced, in-depth news and sports program debuting across multiple platforms in Spring 2023. The half-hour show will air Monday through Friday at 5:00 pm on NESN and will stream on the NESN 360 app, the Globe’s app, and on Globe.com. The two sides say, “‘Boston Globe Today’ will provide an in-depth perspective on stories from the Globe’s newsroom, offering a deeper dive of major news, politics, business, and entertainment stories and how they impact New Englanders.” Boston Globe Media CEO Linda Henry adds, “We are continuously improving the ways that we deliver vital news and information to our community and are excited to build a television show that will bring the Globe’s award-winning journalism to a broader audience. ‘Boston Globe Today’ reflects our commitment to serve our community, invest in local journalism, and for Boston Globe Media to be an innovative news leader.” The program will be hosted by national media personality Segun Oduolowu and will air from a new, state-of-the-art broadcast studio in The Boston Globe’s downtown newsroom. It will focus on news Monday through Thursday and devote Friday to sports. On Friday, Globe sports columnist Christopher Gasper will anchor.  Oduolowu comments, “I’m thrilled to join the ‘Boston Globe Today’ team, working on this exciting collaboration between the Globe and NESN. I look forward to diving into the stories affecting this historic city and New England at large, drawing on the considerable talents of the Globe newsroom.”