I'm done with KSL

[henry]

Dec 18, 2009 12:48:28 GMT -5 BonnevilleMariner said:

What does KSL still do well? Sports broadcasts and Nightside.

More than that. The new arbs show Grant and Amanda decimating everybody. Both in TSLs and cume. I credit the fact that it's the only show left in SLC radio that has a staff of eight.

Still, what specifically would you change? You've said "they need to have a great news product." That's cool. But what? You call the format "fluff news." I've worked in news. There's not that much news! (I suppose they could set arson fires and report on the fires they set, but that has some negative ethical and financial side-effects).

Should they be more like newspapers or NPR? Because there are two problems with that.

1. NPR is boring. There's a reason NPR is listener supported. Because that format is attracts a niche audience. The more syllables a person uses, the fewer listeners they cume. When selling ads, cume is your livelihood. Yes, that means: "dumbing down." But KSL wants to reach as many people as possible. Not make a stubborn, elitist statement. Let NPR do that.

2. Paying for it. KSL is a local radio station. They can't afford the staff of a newspaper. They can't afford the resources of a national organization. That means a lot of lifting SL Tribune stories, quick interviews, etc. It's a brief summation of "what's going on right now." Not an in-depth analysis. KSL would love to do it. They simply can't afford it.

The only specific thing you've mentioned is the whip teases. All I can say is, "yes, it's annoying," but those teases do work, improve TSL, and in-turn give KSL the money to maintain what resources they already have.

I'm still open for a list of specifics....

[Amanuensis]

All right Henry, here are my lists of SPECIFIC things that KSL could do. Things that would make ME listen more -- don't know if anyone else would also listen more, but then I am one of those "elites" that listens to NPR, so if my changes to KSL benefit me, who cares if anyone else likes them?

First, have just one anchor in the morning and in the afternoon. It could be Grant or Amanda. I don't care. Just get rid of the chit-chat and tell me the news. Reading news headlines does not take two people to do it.

Second, with the money you save hire two more morning reporters and one more afternoon reporter. Assign them to do LONG FORM reporting.

Third, air the long form stories during the noon hour and from 7 to 8 pm. Call the noon hour report The West Today and the evening report The West Tonight. As these heritage names from KSL's past implies, these news casts include stories from the entire intermountain region, not just the Wasatch Front. To the extent possible, broker/trade for stories from other radio stations to fill in the time slots.

Fourth, can Hannity and hire another local talk show host for the afternoon. Possibly Enid Green. Or Amanda, if Grant does the mornings solo. Program the "woman's talk" shows that you tried on 820 AM. Try a magazine format, with stories about genealogy, religious life, family raising, smart shopping, home repair, neighborhood politics, etc.

Fifth, during overnight hours, run news programming from Bonneville's Washington DC news stations WTOP and Federal News Radio.

Sixth, on Saturdays and Sundays, keep the mornings like they are. When there are no BYU or General Conference broadcasts, run AP Radio Network the rest of the day.

[henry]

^^^^

Okay, those are pretty specific.

1. Take Grant, Amanda, Scott, and Maria and can two of 'em: The only problem is that G&A are dominating their time slot. Some of us actually enjoy the chit chat, and by some of us, I'd say a good part of the metro area. Fire Amanda, and you unleash the wrath of 250,000 middle-aged women who will tell their friends to stop listening to KSL. A dangerous prospect. Yet, if you fire Grant, you leave KSL morning news reading in the hands of just Amanda. An equally dangerous prospect.

2. There is some room for long-format reporting. I know Paul Nelson (night news reader) does a longer-format technology story in the morning. All the reporters do series pieces from time to time as well. The trouble I've found, as I've worked in news in the past, is that the amount of preparation time for any news story in exponential to the amount of its air time. For example, a 35 second story can be thrown together in less than an hour. Yet, a 3 minute story could take all day. A staff person working on a long-format piece that may only be interesting to a small part of the audience means losing out on 5-6 short wraps, which cumulatively are more likely to "connect" with the audience at large. It's not to say long-format doesn't have it's place at KSL.

3. Sorry, but those names sound SOooooo 70's.... They are working hard to improve the 18-34s, and I worry a name like that could scare people off. Sure, it'd do well among the 55+ crowd ;D . Swapping stories would be excellent, but my question is where would they get it from? The nearest news-talk station in Fresno, CA. One in San Francisco. Denver runs news on KOA, but on a much, much, much more limited basis than KSL. Of course, Los Angeles. Phoenix. That's about it. Nothing reminds me of how excellent KSL is than trying to listen to other supposed "news" stations. Frankly, most of them operate more like KNRS now with a reader using AP copy at the top and bottom of the hour. Few do actual reporting, like KSL.

4. Agreed. And yes, Enid would be a natural choice.

5. Interesting idea. I'd never considered that, but it would be great to showcase some of Bonneville's other stations' original programming. Maybe pick up one of KTAR or KIRO's talk shows and re-air it.

I do know Kevin LaRue, KSL's program director seems to be pushing the local product more than any past PD, which is good. Very good! That's why I hear Doug Wright re-runs on weekends, more news and traffic, etc. I can't say much, but all I can say is 2010 will be good for KSL's weekend news programming, if you catch my drift ;D .

But seriously, if you wanna see how excellent KSL is for a market of it's size, check out KOA, KEX, or KXL. They are all very disappointing.

[BonnevilleMariner]

So let me sum up what seems to be KSL's (and Henry's) rationale: It's profitable and people are listening, ergo, the product is excellent.

Is a McDonalds burger great? Best burger out there, baby, because McDonalds is making money and they're kicking everybody else's tail! Have you tried that crap they're serving up at the Burger King?

Fact is, profit very often has little to do with excellence. McDonalds makes a serviceable burger at a cheap price. KSL (and radio in general) is using the same formula. It's serviceable (G&A's chatting, actual reporting, etc.) and free (if you can stomach the commercials). It's a lowest-common-denominator business model.

Now for your specifics, Henry. I like most of Amanuensis's suggestions. Again, these changes would appeal to me personally. And keep in mind that I'm simply a fan, largely unfamiliar with the industry.

1. Change the DNA of KSL's morning news: Back before Lonsberry, KNRS had one of the best morning news shows out there. Tim Hughes (now at KSL) and Bob Hendricks (Laid off recently) Hosted it. There was no fluff and teasers were kept to an absolute minimum. When there wasn't enough news to fill the time, they tapped into other subjects, pulled Jay Leno's monologue, Letterman's Top Ten. They even incorporated a best-of clip from the prior day's Tom Barberi show on KALL! Point being: you got your news, sans fluff, along with a boatload of other useful content. And they didn't chit-chat, they talked. No fake smile, cliche-ridden pomp-- just Tim saying what he thought and Bob playing the foil. Don't can G&A, just evolve the format and cut the cheese.

2. Love the idea of increasing long form reporting and form stories.

3. Ditch noon news and give Doug Wright an extra hour. Give that hour a more varied, news-focused format (no monologue, no callers, more topics, incorporate a news reader, bring in a guest panel of people you're already paying (a la FNC's Special Report)).

4. Can Hannity. I'm ok with them going syndicated with this slot. There are a lot of good talk shows out there. Barring that, I'm ok with Enid. She's another one I tend to make an effort to listen to.

5. Run one of the specialized trucker-friendly syndicated shows during overnights. A lot of us drive at night, and a lot of truckers are out there looking for something to listen to. Local weather updates (even canned) would be nice, but the night listener is usually driving, and the night driver just wants a friend to listen to. Don't dismiss overnights. The radio set to KSL in the wee hours will likely still be set to KSL when the sun comes up.

Henry, just because the rest of the stations suck doesn't mean KSL is excellent. It's this very attitude that is killing radio. The minute you start equating "serviceable" with "excellent," you're done. KSL can hire an army of reporters and push local until the cows come home, but until it shakes itself of this attitude, it will never truly be excellent.

[radiolovr]

I agree I have seen a decline in KSL lately. namely, all the ads, and I don't think they are as good at reporting breaking news as they claim they are. If something is happening out there, I want to be able to turn on my radio, and hear what's going on, regardless of whether it's Monday morning, or Sunday afternoon. Also, I enjoy listening to Doug Wright, but he never seems to be there anymore! For most of November, either Ethan Millard or Enid Green were doing his show the majority of the week, but he was there each and every Friday for his movie show. Now, the last two weeks of December, he hasn't been there at all, and all they have been doing is "Best Of's". Yesterday, when they had the fatality on I-80, if you weren't listening closely, you didn't hear much about it. I am not a fan of Nightside. I haven't been for quite some time. I think KSL could be doing a much better job. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

[BonnevilleMariner]

I've noticed in the last few weeks that KSL.com has been fleshing out their news blurbs a bit better and separating stories into sections with bold headers:



Good move. Now what would make the website even more useful would be making updates stand out liveblog style, like this (screencap from KSL, edited by yours truly):



Next update goes on top, old updates remain but in black.

See, you have thousands of people who have read the initial report but are waiting on the edge of their seats for updates. The front page shows when the article was last updated, but readers must hunt thru the whole story to sift out the updates. Make them obvious and you'll keep people coming back.

[BonnevilleMariner]

Call this a coincidence, but it seems like whoever's running KSL's website is reading these boards. Read my comment above (which I posted yesterday), and check out what KSL's got on the same story this morning:



Now, they may have done something to this effect before, but it's the first time I've seen it. Good job.

[BonnevilleMariner]

Just when I had a glimmer of hope that KSL was finally getting their crap together...

Big rollover today on I-80, this time a mile or so inside SL County. It brought traffic coming out of Tooele County to a halt (I rode 1st gear from the point of the mountain to the wreck site. Traffic was eventually backed up clear to Lake Point.

I was listening to KSL, realizing that on a snowy morning there would be other wrecks to report. 2 different traffic reporters (I think Andy Farnsworth and a woman who's name I don't remember) reported a couple crashes around SL and Davis Counties. No mention of this wreck and major backup. They finally mentioned it by the time I made it into SLC.

I think it's clear that despite Tooele County's exponential growth, commuters to and from there are clearly not a priority for KSL.

[henry]

A big part of that might be:

www.utahcommuterlink.com/

There are no cameras out there. Just one at Lake Point. If they send Andy out west to check on a Tooele wreck, he might miss three along I-15.

It's not excuse KSL's western blind spot, but in the end they cume a lot higher along I-15 than they do along I-80 at the Great Salt Lake.

[radiolovr]

The same can be said for those traveling Highway 6, through Spanish Fork Canyon. We were listening to KSL on one of the snowy mornings last week, and Highway 6 was snow packed, and very scary driving. There was absolutely nothing said about this. I understand the reason, but it would have been nice to get that information before we found out the hard way...

[rsay777]

I listen to KSL during my commutes mostly for the traffic reports.

I can't tell you how many times I have found a jam and heard nothing about it. Or conversely heard a about a jam only to find free flowing traffic.

[kenglish]

I wish we still had AM820.
If it was up to me, I'd put two on-air "Assignment Desk" guys on, and have them constantly update every darn thing that comes across the scanners. No promos, no recipes or scrapbooking, minimal, short commercials....nothing else.
Call it "AM820, TheDESK".

[Sailor]

Sorry to revive a thread that seems to have died a natural death. BUT, the power of KSL traffic is public involvement. You can e-mail, phone or even text (575-00) your traffic observation. If others would do that, the traffic person would know about problems and could make some calls to law enforcement, or UDOT and get more information. As it is now all they have is what they can see through the cameras. If there are no cameras, then no coverage. Highway 6; I-15 at Willard Bay; and I-80 at Lake Point are traditional problem areas with no camera coverage.