As CBS News Radio prepares to sunset later this month, news/talk radio stations across the country faced a familiar but urgent question: who do you trust when the biggest stories break?
For program directors, the decision isn’t abstract — it’s operational, daily, and deeply tied to what their audiences expect. Two veteran PDs shared what they value most, and what they can live without.
For Ken Charles, Director of News and Programming at 95.5 WSB in Atlanta, the answer starts with a clear-eyed understanding of what a network actually provides. The decision isn’t complicated, but it is foundational.
That clarity extends to what doesn’t move the needle. Features, long-form holiday content, and supplemental programming are nice-to-haves — not essentials.
Insurance, Not Decoration
“A network partner is insurance,” said Charles. “We’ve got local covered. But when big national or international stories happen, the network is our connection to them through the resources that they have nationwide and worldwide. Everything that we utilize the network for is the biggest stories outside of our metro. When there’s war, the king coming to the United States, or what happened at the Correspondents’ Dinner in D.C., they have people at all of those things. WSB or any local station, unless it happens in their market, does not.”
There’s also a performance element Charles doesn’t shy away from naming directly. The showbiz factor is real, and it serves the audience.
“One word that I didn’t use in all of this is showbiz. Would I take a CBS special report or an ABC special report? It’s not only because they have more on-the-scene information, but it elevates the story, because it’s a story that I can provide my audience from the scene of that big story by my network partner. So there is some showbiz involved in using the network as well,” Charles shared.
Michael Spaulding, Director of Content at 620 WTMJ in Milwaukee, takes a relationship-first approach — and he’s got the results to back it up. For WTMJ, the network isn’t a vendor; it’s a collaborator.
Building Relationships, Not Just Relying on Them
“I think there are a couple things. One big thing that we’ve found a lot of success with here at WTMJ is utilizing our network partners as actual partners,” admitted Spaulding. “For example, Olivia Rinaldi from CBS appears weekly on Wisconsin’s Morning News. It grew out of a relationship with CBS, and we had traditional two-ways and things like that.
“I always go back to the axiom that radio is such an intimate medium — you’re talking to one person,” continued Spaulding. “If we can make that connection feel less like we’re calling someone the audience doesn’t know who sounds like a hired gun from a network, they’re less likely to tune it out. So how do we grow these relationships with these reporters into something more? For us, that was regular appearances. We’re able to create imaging around them, and in some instances, sell around the appearances,” said Spaulding.
That model expanded well beyond one reporter. Major Garrett and Scott MacFarlane became part of WTMJ’s fabric through the same philosophy.
“When he stepped away from radio to focus more on television, we became one of a few stations where he still does these weekly hits with our afternoon show. In the middays, we talked with Scott MacFarlane, another CBS guy, someone who, when his relationship with CBS ended, said he still wanted to do stuff with us because we’d developed that relationship,” shared Spaulding. “The interviews are a little more fun and personable. We still get to the news, but there’s a relationship there. They’re not just calling into a random Milwaukee station without knowing the hosts or what kind of questions they’ll get.”
The operational side matters just as much. Speed, sound quality, and seamless integration into local newscasts are where the value compounds.
“The other thing for us is having a network partner offer something that enhances what we do,” said Spaulding. “One thing that ABC and CBS have been awesome at is offering those news calls, whether it’s dedicated radio reporters or pulling audio from TV that gets automatically sent into our newsroom. It makes us sound bigger. We don’t take network newscasts in their entirety like a WBBM does, but we incorporate our national network partners into our local newscasts. Getting that sound from the ground — or Karen Travers from ABC at President Trump’s press conference or on Air Force One — has been extremely helpful for us.”
What They Don’t Need
Prepackaged features aren’t high on the priority list for either PD. Spaulding is direct about that trade-off, and his reasoning is rooted in what radio does best.
“Features are something we don’t use a ton of,” said Spaulding. “An extended Hollywood report or a three-minute piece, for example, we tend to favor talking directly to the reporter instead. For instance, Mike Dubusky from ABC News is an amazing on-air guy. We’d rather talk to him than air a prepackaged piece of audio. That way, we can be more focused on the news of the day. The one thing we don’t use a lot is those features they offer.”
Weekend and holiday programming, though, is a different story. Those blocks serve a real purpose — keeping the station on-brand without burning money or goodwill.
“Listen, there are always lots of things,” Charles said. “They provide features. They provide long-form shows for holidays and other things. Those things, if they went away tomorrow, wouldn’t have a negative impact on the radio station. What will is long-form coverage of big international news events, access to all of those things, and daily coverage of those big stories. They provide us the reporters, the sound, and the special reports,” the 95.5 WSB leader shared.
“Weekend programming is fantastic,” the 620 WTMJ leader countered. “A lot of stations, ours included, look at weekends as an opportunity to make money, but you can’t always have paid programming back to back. ABC offering shows like Perspective or This Week has been super helpful. It helps us stay on brand and provides really good content for our audience. It doesn’t sound different from what WTMJ does because it’s along the same vein, just with different voices.
“Another thing we find really helpful is holiday programming,” continued Spaulding. “ABC offers several hours around Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Christmas, including year-end reviews. They’re really well put together, and I like using them because they enhance what we do on WTMJ.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
