Based on Case Studies of 15 Allnews Radio Stations
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 192 307 CS 205 821 AUTHOR Shaw, Eugene F.: Riff e, Daniel TITLE NIS and Radio's All-News Predicament.Journalism Monographs No. 69. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism. FOB DATE Aug 80 VOTE 44p. AVAILABLE FRCHAEJ Publications manager, school of Journalism, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, He55455 ($2.50) ELMS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available fromEDRS. DESCRIPTORS Failure: *Media Research: News Media: *News Reporting: *Programing (Broadcast); *Radio ABSTRACT Based on case studies of 15 allnews radiostations, this report isolates major factors contributingto the all-news format's frequent failure andassesses its potential for success. The history of the News and InformationService (HIS), which the NBC radio network operated between 1975and 1977, serves as a backdrop for the information presented in thereport. Sections of the report discuss the following topics: (1) the 15 stationsand 33 officials it the original case studies, (2)reasons the stations converted to the allLows format, (3) the effecton local staff, (4) the business community's response,(5) promoting the allnews format, (6)local programing and staff credentials, (7)stations' appraisals of HIS, (8) factors involved in stations' decisionsto drop the all-news format, (91 all-news stationson their own after the demise of HIS, (101 the commitment to localcoverage within an allnews format, (11) journalism and show business, and (12) thefuture of all-news radio stations. The report concludes with a critiqueand confirmation of the viability cf all-news formats. (91.) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied'by EDRSare the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U i 04PARTMENTOR 441AATN. I DuCarsor &MILIEU( Mattomm, IN slitters 0$ eaveivrt014 '"'.5 DOCUYENT maS efit4 REPRO. LACED EXACYLV z5 OICVver0 &Rom '-,E Ptit5:4 CR OQGA.12ATIONCMIG1N- t.-,NG tf IAQINTSOA VIEW OR OIAINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REI.RE. S? Or cciAL ...".T.0,441 10717uTE OR FOLIC& f re.4 0051TION 01 OpLICy journalism.monographs J "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Association for V MIER SIXTY -NINE Education in Journalism TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." EUGENE F. SHAW and DANIEL RIFFE NISandRadio's Ali-News Predicament AUGUST 1980 Published serially since 1966 by the . Association for Education in Jour. stalbra. An official publicadon of AEJ. I An AEJ Publication JOURNALISM MONOGRAPHSis one of four official publications of the As- sociation for Education in Journalism: Journalism quarterly (fouskied in 1924); The Journalism Educator (founded in 1946), which continues its affiliation with the American Society of Journalism School Ad ministrators; jOuniliPP1 Abstracts (founded in 1963); andJOURNALISM MONOGRAPHS(founded in 1966). JOURNALISM MONOGRAPHSwas supported for its first two years by a gift from the University of Texas, and until 1979 by the American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism. For all four publications, business correspondence should be directed to Prof. Harold Wilson. AEJ Publications Manager, School of Jour. nalism and Mass Communications. University of Minnesota, Min- neapolis, Minnesota 55455. All numbers are in print am'. may be ordered from the Publications Manager, singly or in bulk. Attention, librarians: Numbers 1 through 17 are now on microfilm and may be ordered from University Micro- films, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Monographs appealing here are regularly abstracted and indemd in Historical Abstracts, America: History and Lre and the ERIC Clear- inghouse on Reading and Communication Shills. Subscription Rates Subscription rates are $10.00 per year. $10.50 outside the U.S and Canada. Current Back Issues Single copies . $2.50 pm Bulk orders ;1.75 ;2.25 The four most recent issues. Fifteen copies or more. JOURNALISM MONOGRAPHS NUMBER SIXTY-NINE AUGUST 1980 BRUCE H. WESTLEY, EDITOR EDITORIAL BOARD Charles K. Atkin. Lee B. Becker, Wa IWO B. Illankinburg, Thomas A. Bowen, Donald R. Browue, James W. Carry, Steven H. Chaffee. David G. Clark, Richard R. Cole. Everette E. Dennis, Richard A. Ek, Ronald T.Farrar. Warren T. Francke, Donald Collator. Gordon B. Glob, Bradley S. Greenberg. James E. Crunig. William A. Hachten, Hamm Hardt, Kurt E. M. Kent. Mark R. Levy, Lawrence W. Liebty, Robert Lindsay, L. John Mardn, Marion Mar- tell, Maxwell E. McCombs, Drew 0. McDaniel, Jack M. McLeod. John T. MeNelly. Garrett J. O'Keefe. Don R. Pember, Michael J. Petrick. Galen Rarick, J. D. Rayburn. Sam G. Riley. T. Joseph Scanlon. Lawrence Schneider, Kenneth Stara. John D. Stevens, Robert L. Stevenson. Vernon A. Stone, Dwight L, Teem-. Phillip fichanor, Leonard P. Tiptoe, David H. Weaver, Mary Ann P. Yodeliansith. Members of the AEJ Publications Committee: EDWARD, J. l'RAYES (Makings), VERNE EDWARDS. GARTH JOWE'IT, MARION MAR. ZOLF, CAROL REUSS,J. EDWARD GERALD. Published serially at Lexington, Kentucky, by the Awmiation ler Serrationin Journalism with the support of the American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism. Manuscripts and other editorial correspondence should be addressedto the editor, Prof. Bruce H. Westley, Scbool of Journalism, University of Kentucky. Lexington,Kentucky. 10506. Business correspondence,including sue serlpdone. should be directed oo AEJ Publication, Manager, School of Jour. Dalian. University of Minnesota. Minneapolis. Minnesota 55455. Subscription rates: 110.00 per year. 110.50 outside the United States and Canada. Checks should be made out toJournaliont Monograph.. 4 A NOTE. TO CONTRIBUTORS SUBMISSIONSto journalism Monographs should be in an original and two copies, double spaced throughout (including extracts, references and notes). For style, consult journalism Quarterly StyleGuide alz 42, No. 2). Footnotes should be assembled at the end,not on the page. If a references style is preferred, follow the style in JMNo 46. ASA style is not used. Tables and figures should beon separate pages. not in the text. Contributors may be askedto provide camera-ready ver- sions of tables and figures. Authors are expected to be completely candid with the editor in rnatzers pertaining to the origins and previous appearances of manuscripts, including their relationship to any thesisor disserta- tion, or any other use of the material, whether in thepast or con- templated. It is our policy not to publisha long version of a study already published in a shorter version elsewhere, and thesame ap- plies to book chapters. These problemscan be worked out, but the editor expects to be fully informed, includingany use or con- templated use of the same material in tradeor general publications. Bruce H. Watley Editor Manuscript; Accepted: Jerome S. Silber, "Broadcast Regulation and the First Amendment" (5/19/79). Raymond L. Carroll, "Network Television Documentaries, 1948- 1975" (6/18/79). Marlene Cuthbert, "The Caribbean News Agency: Third World Model?" (7/13/79). M. Gilbert Dunn. Douglas W. Cooper, D. Brock Hornby and David W. Leslie, "Mass Communications Research Guide" (10/19/79). Terry Hynes. "Magazine Portrayal of Women. 1911-1930" (4/18/80) Lawrence Bowen, "Advertising and the Poor" (6/8/80) Bruce M, Swain, "The Progressive, The Bomb and the Papers" (8/11/80) EUGENE F. SHAW and DANIEL RIFFE MS and Radio's All-News Predicament (Copyright 1980 by the Anoxia tion for Education in Journaliun) EUGENE F. SHAW is an associate professor of journalism and communication at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Daniel Riffe is an assistant professor of journalism at Southern Illi nois University. 6 WhenNBC's News and Information Service (NIS) beg-ft operations, just after six a.m. on June 18, 1975, the 33 radio stations subscribing to the service represented the most ambi- tious experiment to date with all-news programming, generally considered "radio's most exhaustive and expensive program for- mat. "' In less than two years the service was discontinued, but in that interval approximately 60 stations, relying on NIS, had intro- duced their respective communities to the all-news-radio concept. NBC announced on November 8, 1976, that May 29, 1977, would be the final day for NIS, which was then offering its subscrib- ers up to 47 minutes of programming each hour of the broadcast day. That left 62 stations with a major dilemma: either to continue with this format (and face the attendant risks and consequent costs involved in obtaining sufficient copy without the aid of a major na- tional service operating all day, every day) or to adopt a different format (and weigh the many imponderables entailed in deciding among already-tried and often-failed alternatives.) This report documents the predicament of these stations not only during that crisis but also before their commitment to the all-news format, detailing how the stations characteristically fared before, during and after their experience with NIS. Using a purposive sam- ple of 15 of them, this research attempts to isolate major factors contributing to the format's frequent failure and to assess its poten- tial for ultimate success. 411-News Radio Before NIS Neither the all-news format nor the concept of an all -news net- work were new to radio when the NIS venture began. The format, in fact, had been in use since early 1960, and the first network of all-news stations developed in the late 1960s. Terming itself a "total news" station, RFAX San Francisco